Two Columns

On Friday, August 20, at six fifteen in the morning, the newspaper hit the door of the Blue Plate, as it did every morning. Gus picked it up without looking, as he did every morning. He had slept two hours. His meeting with Mr. Pruitt was at ten.

Then he saw page eleven, and he stopped in the middle of the empty restaurant with the paper in his hands.

THE TRUCK DEBATE: ARE FOOD TRUCKS GOOD FOR WHYTE AVENUE? TWO VIEWS.

"Marco!" he shouted toward the kitchen. "Marco! Come and read this. Before the eggs."

Marco came out wiping his hands. Gerald Finch, who arrived every day at six twenty for his crossword, came in at that moment, saw the page, and smiled the smile of a man who knew exactly why it had been printed today.

"I didn't write it," he said, before anyone could ask. "I only suggested to my editor that the topic was in the air."