I snort Who else would I invite to my birthday party I spend another hour at the computer I get sucked in The screen is basically a window showing the whole world The windows of our apartment only show the buildings next door 6
Chapter Two Our apartment building is like a brown shoe box It’s squeezed between other brown shoe boxes on Third Street East The town’s name is Bording It’s a clump of low buildings stuck to the edge of the big city Like a growth Bording is named after a pretty town in England I looked it up on Google Street View Bording in England has narrow streets stone houses and cute 7
roundish cars Bording in British Columbia is not pretty Sometimes a sparrow looks cute pecking at the dirt in the sidewalk cracks and in spring cherry petals flutter in the breeze like snow But mostly Bording is dull My uncles don’t even pronounce the d How do people stay awake in Boring they ask Uncle Mato and Uncle Boris live forty minutes away in Vancouver where there are mansions and skyscrapers and the grocery stores sell twenty types of salt lilac salt bacon salt Himalayan pink salt black truffle Italian sea salt even chocolate salt Here in Bording you get one kind of salt salt I’m still at the computer when the building’s ancient elevator rumbles and its doors screech open Mom’s home I’ve been at the screen for more than the 8
two hours I’m allowed each day I put the computer in sleep mode dive onto the couch stretch out my legs and open a magazine all in one move Mom comes through the door Hi dear Hi I answer trying not to sound out of breath You’re reading about the sales Mom asks surprised The magazine is actually the flyer for the local supermarket Yep Mom shrugs Circle anything that you want for your birthday Mom is nice Dad is nice too I don’t have any brothers or sisters only a salamander named Hitokage That’s the Japanese name for Charmander from Pokémon 9
