I arrived at my final destination around nine-thirty in the evening - tired, thirsty, and hot. Over the previous twenty-four hours I had made my way from Minneapolis, to Chicago, through Beijing, and finally into the sweltering third furnace of China: Chongqing. During those three flights and two layovers I sat next to a frightened Somalian on his first flight back to medical school, a boorish young high school student who snored all the way to Beijing, saw the glistening blue and white landscape of the Arctic Ocean, the expansive tundra that is Siberia, the winding rivers through Mongolia, and the bright blue roofs of Beijing factories. The only thing I wanted more than water at the moment of my arrival was sleep. Sheila was there waiting for me at the gate with a large white
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