Two Op-Eds

Gerald Finch put the newspaper on the counter of the Blue Plate at six twenty on a Saturday morning in February, open to page eleven, and tapped it twice with his finger, as if knocking on a door.

"You're famous again," he said to Gus. "Both sides of the page."

The headline across the top said: SHOULD CITIES PAY FOR FREE LANGUAGE CLASSES? TWO VIEWS.

On the left, an article by Amara Osei, director of a settlement agency on the south side. On the right, an article by Gordon Pike, the political commentator who had said on the radio in December that the ward couldn't afford four years of training.

And in the middle of each article, in a different paragraph, the same three words: the Tuesday class.

Gus read for thirty seconds, then picked up the phone and called Grace. Grace called Hannah. Hannah, who was announcing her candidacy for the ward in nine days and had been rehearsing her speech in front of her cat for a week, read both articles in her pyjamas and then called Frank.

By Tuesday, the two articles were on the old TV in the back room, side by side.

Lina arrived late, straight from the hospital, in navy scrubs and a new badge. It said REGISTERED NURSE. The result of the January exam had come two weeks earlier, at six in the morning; she had read it in the kitchen, and then she had read Theo's note again, the one she still kept in her wallet. Everyone in the back room had already seen the badge twice. They looked at it again anyway.