Tag: Arias
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White Earth (2)
Saturday, 7 January, 2017 — White Earth Reservation, Minnesota At this time of year the sun sets early. John Straight is looking forward to it because that’s the time when he has decided to wrap things up here and call it a day. Sitting in the big Wigwam Room—as Mary calls it—of the Community College…
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White Earth
Wednesday, 4 January, 2017 — Detroit Lakes and White Earth Reservation, Minnesota The bus slows down and turns carefully, stopping at a little strip-mall that’s just separated from Highway 10 by a slender strip of grass. As it squeals and sighs to a halt, John Straight gets out of his seat and only then lifts…
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John Straight
December, 2016 — Minneapolis, Minnesota The Hawthorne neighborhood in the Near North of Minneapolis is a square mile bisected from south to north by the ten lanes of I-94 and bounded on the east by the great Mississippi, already five hundred feet wide less than two hundred miles from its origins. Even before the War…
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The Star Drive
Wednesday, 5 March, 1947 — Chicago, Illinois “Oh, excuse me!” the French girl says. “Could we please stop here?” The taxi driver looks into his rearview mirror and smiles at his fare. He can’t help smiling, this is the best-looking fare he has seen in a long time. She looks very small on the Marathon’s…
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Robbie
Thursday, 14 July, 1898 — Worcester, Massachusetts “Excuse me,” a woman says behind her. Arias finishes shelving a book and turns to see a well-dressed woman in her mid-thirties, intelligent, open, and inquisitive. “If I may ask, are you making a new collection here? I do not recognize the genre.” Arias, in her guise as…
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De la Terre a la Lune
Tuesday, 16 October, 1888 — Minneapolis, Minnesota In the moment that he turns the brass knob and begins to swing open the heavy door to his room, Tennen knows that someone is waiting for him inside. He begins to compose his mind for battle—as unlikely as that seems in a house that is even now…
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Prospect Hill
Sunday, 7 July, 1839 — near Manchester, Michigan Mount Tisé rises four thousand feet above the plains of western Tibet. Three quarters of that distance above the plain, on a sheer face of black rock five hundred feet high, windows and balconies are carefully concealed in permanently shadowed fissures in the rock. Behind them the…
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Process Photographique
Thursday, 4 July, 1839 — Manchester, Michigan Manchester, Michigan is a village of one hundred and fifty souls that did not exist as recently as six years ago. Now it has thirty homes, a hundred surrounding farms, an elegant general store with luxury items imported from New York, and a mill. It is here because…
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Spirit Lake
Sunday, 5 March, 1837 — near Manchester, Michigan Arias returns to the consciousness of her body sitting in her little home’s single chair, and immediately checks the sensors that she has placed in a hundred-yard ring around the schoolhouse. They would have awoken her if they had detected any human-scale intelligence crossing them during the…
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Kokumthena
February, 1828 — near Wapaghkonnetta, Ohio Pahtecoosaw walks silently past the outermost of the women’s cultivated fields. They form a large ring around the winter camp. Now, with snow everywhere, the stubs of corn stalks are visible above even in the half light before dawn, many with the remnants of pumpkin vines still clinging to…
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On the Erie Canal
October, 1827 — Erie Canal, New York “Governor, I hardly think this is the time to be making the acquaintance of a new lady friend.” At five and a half feet tall Senator McMartin is a man of average height, but DeWitt Clinton is nearly a head taller. “Duncan,” he directs an irritated expression at…
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Nieuw Amsterdam
March, 1640 — Nieuw Amsterdam, Nieuw Netherland It is barely bright enough for them to see, but men with wide hats and great baskets are already picking their way around the garbage and potholes of Broadway, pulling doorbell chains and passing on again after a respectful wait or, if the door should open, greeting the…
The Wolverine Truck Stop and Motor Lodge 