“What part of ‘none of your business’ didn’t you understand?” the man said, and the light changed and Eli considered following, then considered balling the flyer back up and throwing it at the guy. Instead, he retraced his steps back to the light post and put the flyer back up, borrowing some tape from other flyers. A lost cat. An improv comedy night called Fake TED Talks.

He walked the rest of the way to the hospital and went into the coffee shop, took a seat at a small table in the back, and waited.

Sometimes, when Eli couldn’t fall asleep, he’d do this thing where he’d try to think of every business on every corner of an avenue in the neighborhood. He’d usually pick Broadway since he knew it best, starting from the train and heading up toward Steinway. He did it now to pass time.

The bakery and Colombian diner.

The newsstand and bank.

Then the weird terrarium shop attached to a newsstand and bank.

The pizza place.

An Irish bar.

Omonia Café.

A new apartment building with the ground floor still being renovated.

Dollar store.

Mexican restaurant.

Church parking lot.

Pizzeria.

The bar that hosted the Fake TED Talks night.

He thought it sounded potentially funny and thought about a few TED talks he might be able to give. How to survive the boredom of high school. How to live vicariously through Sims.

He googled TED talks to see what some real topics were.

Scrolled.

“Can We Make Things That Make Themselves?”

“How to Seek Truth in an Era of Fake News.”

“The Career Advice You Probably Didn’t Get.”

There was a lot here that Eli should be paying attention to, each one potentially more interesting and possibly helpful than the next.

Scrolling down, he saw, “This App Knows How You Feel—From the Look on Your Face.”

He clicked on that one and put earbuds in and watched, wishing he could download this revolutionary app right then, and have a better sense of how he felt.

The bell over the door chimed, and Ilanka walked in and put a bag on the table in front of Eli. She sank into a seat.

“What happened?” Eli asked.

Ilanka’s hair was all confused—no bun—and she looked pale. “She saw the device and asked about it, and I didn’t think it was a big deal to tell her because why would it be? So then she was leaving and the device called 911 and reported an accident and I screamed at Svetlana to stop walking and she did and nothing happened.”