TROOPS

However, much to his surprise

A man said to a group of friends as they walked along a path in Prospect Park, “She was like, ‘All I can say is that it was absolutely agonizing.’”

A man says to his female companion as they're walking down the street, "You get what you want, dontcha?"

Pedro's Back From Jail

We exited wearily into the arrivals terminal at JFK and walked that weird gauntlet of disregard, the rows of other peoples’ families and limo drivers holding up names in magic marker. Almost as soon as we entered the main space, gypsy cabbies descended upon us: Need a taxi? Where you need to go? Taxi? Taxi? Where you go? I had anticipated this little ritual and had fantasized about telling them Fuck off. But I didn’t. This is what they do. Let a man make a dishonest living, after all.

Outside, we got in the long line for Yellow Cabs. On the other side of the railing the non-licensed guys ranged up and down the median, trying to rope in their marks. We watched with some amusement as a young Asian woman talked one down from sixty-five bucks to thirty for a ride to Nassau County, only to leave him twisting in the wind.

Suddenly one man’s voice cut through the rest.

“Yo Pedro’s back!” he bellowed. “Pedro’s back motherfuckers! Y’all can go home now,” he told his rivals. “Pedro’s back from jail!”

TROOPS

Eventually, after he shakily made it to his feet

TROOPS

look different? I feel different

The map they show you when you're flying, that pixelly view of the plane's progress, deepens the sense you're in another world, with place names you've never heard of—Haworth, New York; Godthab, Greenland, Timmins and Chicoutimi—and sideways views of the planet, where north is west and south is east.