![\"liamcobig.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stevepeer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/liamcobig.jpg?w=1000\")
\nPick out Liam and win a prize<\/p>\n
It had been a bad day for Stevo. At 12:15 he stood outside the airport, unsure where the bus from Hong Kong would drop off the arriving teacher. Verbally assaulted by touts, pointed at by the unenlightened, tired, and nearly out of cigarettes, he stood alone under a street light, much like his loner-hero Phillip Marlowe.<\/p>\n
\nPick out Liam and win a prize<\/p>\n
The new teacher\u2019s flight had been delayed for more than an hour because of a typhoon. Stevo had waited in another part of the city, hours earlier, at the ferry terminal. The newest edition arrived too late for the ferry and instead took the bus. Twenty hours of wakefulness did little to improve Stevo\u2019s mood.<\/p>\n
He lit his last cigarette, kicked a stone on the sidewalk, and paced like a 1950s father outside a hospital delivery room, cursing his job, his salary, his adopted country, and The Muppets.<\/p>\n
A voice from the dark: Ta shi wo de yingwen laoshi!<\/em> (He\u2019s my English teacher!)<\/p>\n Stevo was only vaguely in Chinese mode. He had turned off that part of his brain to silence the touts.<\/p>\n A mother and son walked into the light. The boy was dressed in shorts and a bright shirt. Stevo had not seen him in anything but his school uniform.<\/p>\n \u201cHello,\u201d called the small lad in a too big voice.<\/p>\n Stevo\u2019s surprise was evident as he couldn\u2019t recall the boy\u2019s name, even though said student had been one of his favorites. He managed only a \u201cWhy, you!\u201d and a slap on the back as the pair passed by. From the corner of his eye he saw the boy\u2019s mother smile.<\/p>\n His mood improved, marginally. Instead of thinking dark thoughts and wishing pain upon puppets, he thought of Liam, his classmates and fun November afternoons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It had been a bad day for Stevo. At 12:15 he stood outside the airport, unsure where the bus from Hong Kong would drop off the arriving teacher. Verbally assaulted by touts, pointed at by the unenlightened, tired, and nearly out of cigarettes, he stood alone under a street light, much like his loner-hero Phillip… <\/p>\n