North Dakota

Paulina Raymond, John’s wife, was also at the bar.

She’d always been impressed with Samuel’s ability to ignore her.

She sat up and looked, as usual,

to the small beanpole of a bar that had always caused them so much trouble.

But never quite enough to paint it.

Paint was too expensive.

Always this problem or that problem

North Dakota is where problems never get fixed

and unfixable people operate that way forever.

That’s the price you pay for the quiet.

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