CALEB: For a writing class where all you have to do is show up and participate, yeah. It was a wakeup. When that UW reporter asked me my main impression of your class, I told her I improved as a writer directly from your influence.
DAVID: Thanks. Hearing that is one of the rewards of teaching.
CALEB: My teenage students in Argentina gave me a parting gift and wrote, “Thanks for not only teaching us English but also for becoming our friend.”
CALEB: We’re home. This is 95th.
DAVID: Right. Is this your house? Well, that was painless.
CALEB: Tracy’s car is here, too. Come on in.
DAVID: I can’t. I’m already late. I’m supposed to be skyping with Natalie.
CALEB: Five minutes. I’ll set the timer and kick you out.
DAVID: I can’t. If not for the hot tub snafu, no problem—I’d love to—but, you know, I’m really trying to be present as a father and a husband.
CALEB: Meet Tracy. Talk a little bit with Terry. I’ll try to think of something off-color to get a conversation going. C’mon, for our book.
DAVID: It’s already past five. It’ll take me another fifteen minutes to get home.
CALEB: Oh, this is excellent. This is the flip.
DAVID: Ooh, I—
CALEB: What’s it going to be? Life or art?
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHORS
David Shields is the New York Times best-selling author of sixteen books, including Reality Hunger (named one of the best books of the year by more than thirty publications), The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead, and Black Planet (National Book Critics Circle Award finalist). He lives with his wife and daughter in Seattle, where he is the Milliman Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the University of Washington. His work has been translated into twenty languages.
Caleb Powell grew up in the Pacific Northwest, has played bass in a band, worked construction, and spent ten years teaching ESL and studying foreign languages on six continents. Now a stay-at-home father in Seattle, he has published stories and essays in descant, Post Road, and ZYZZYVA.
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