Thinking of Flint while reading Brief Encounters with the Enemy, a collection of stories by Said Sayrafiezadeh:
I came into a neighborhood that looked like it had been abandoned. The
whole place was gray and rotting and lacking any trace of life. I sat
down on the steps of a two-story brick house with an addition covered in
aluminum siding, and the moment I did, a wiry woman appeared on the
porch across the way and looked at me. She was wearing a nightgown that
she clutched around her. An old man in pajamas came and stood at her
side. I took out my lunch and ate it while I watch them confer.
"There ain't no one living in there now," the woman said.
"That's okay," I said.
They conferred again.
"Hey, mister."
"What?"
"There ain't no one in there now. "
"I heard you the first time," I said.
