Architecture in Context: Urban Design of Kuala Lumpur City

ARCHITECTURE IN CONTEXTChapter 1: Introduction 002.jpg" alt="424469" /> Figure 1a: Urban design of Kuala Lumpur metropolis Urban design shows both the functional and aesthetic facets of the City’s built environment. Urban design ( Figure 1a ) , developed harmonizing to policy model and guidelines, creates a desirable life environment every bit good as giving a metropolis an appropriate image and individuality. Like most metropoliss in the underdeveloped universe, Kuala Lumpur has grown quickly and changed a batch from 1960s until now. Kuala Lumpur becomes one of the strongest Asiatic metropoliss in universe economic system during 21Thursdaycentury. The alterations are non merely in footings of edifice building and besides the ‘growing’ of the city’s skyline. Figure 1b: Location of Kampung Baru Some of high-rise edifices appear bit by bit in the metropolis and turn vertically from the skyline of metropolis. However, in Kampung Baru country ( Figure 1b ) , it creates a most contrast phenomenon which is high rise edifices and old houses appear together in the aureate trigon of the metropolis. High-rise edifice prototype of modern, high engineering and comfortable edifice while old houses conjure images of old, conservative and disintegrating houses. High rise edifice has its commercial value and makes a part to the economic system of our state however old houses contain its historical value and stand for the beginning characteristics of metropolis development. There are some contradiction and struggle against to do think of pulverizing the old houses in the metropolis to do manner for more future development. The aim of composing this essay is to measure and analyze the skyline of KL country and the urban developed schemes from the past until presents. Besides that, to look into and understand the cultural contexts, societal and faith which influence a batch to the people who lives in that country are besides parts of the aims. Identify the demands, perceptual experiences and values of specific cultural communities make a clear apprehension of the architecture issue. Chapter 2: History BACKGROUND Chapter 2.1: History background of the alterations of KL city’s development Figure 2.1: Natural characteristic of KL in 1960Figure 2.2: The development of KL in 80s Kuala Lumpur was established in 1857 and the KL’s skyline has changed over the old ages. In around 1960, Kuala Lumpur was a simply light-green piece of land ( Figure 2.1 ) with a few of edifices. Towards 80’s ( Figure 2.2 ) , it was the period when the Malayan economic system truly raised up upon. The city’s skyline started to alter quickly until the terminal of 90’s. Harmonizing to the information, this period was Malayan economic system grew more than 8 % per twelvemonth for more than a decennary. Figure 2.3: Significant development of KL in 1991Figure 2.4: Skyline of KL in presents The 1990 was a important decennary to the state due to the economic system down bend in the twelvemonth 1997. Not merely did Malaysia manage to prolong unbelievable growing, the other state did besides travel into the Great Financial Crisis. This fiscal crisis caused most of Malaysia’s important developments ( Figure 2.3 ) were made. There are many building undertakings that are being built include the building of the KL Tower and the Petronas Towers. The development of Kuala Lumpur was easy being expanded from the get downing twelvemonth of 2000. In a short period, the skyline of Kuala Lumpur ( Figure 2.4 ) has grown a batch in order to provide the demand of population presents. This resulted in the outgrowth of big capacity of high rise edifices in the metropolis. Not merely it brings an economic system consequence to our state, and besides received a batch of investing from foreign state. It boosts up a batch of concern and employment chance around the metropolis. Chapter 2.2: History background of Kampung Baru country Figure 2.5: Kampung Baru country at the bosom of metropolis Even so, there is a portion of traditional houses country turns up meanwhile at the bosom of metropolis ( Figure2.5 ) . The being of traditional houses which called Kampung Baru creates a strong contrast between modern architecture edifices and traditional houses. Kampung Baru has been established since 1899 by the British authorities under the name of â€Å"Malay Agricultural Settlement† ( M.A.S ) as a particular country reserved specifically for the Malays in Kuala Lumpur. It has 35,000 populations and an country mensurating 153.35 kilometer2. Figure 2.6: Traditional Malay houses of Kampung Baru The Kampung Baru is characterized by comparative tranquility and neat layout of traditional Malay houses ( Figure 2.6 ) , has comparatively been retarded in its development with hapless roads and sanitation even though the remainder of metropolitan of Kuala Lumpur is basking a roar in economic growing and prosperity. Up to the 1930s, Kampung Baru was strictly a residential small town colony with houses built of wood and supported by pile, with a little gallery, large life room ( normally with no more than three sleeping rooms ) surrounded by garden harvests ( such as chili, banana, tapioca ) and widespread raising of domestic fowl. In this urban small town merely north of the metropolis centre the houses are largely one or two floors. Kampung Baru was ab initio a residential colony in Kuala Lumpur for Malay lower income group. [ 1 ] In the 1970s, there was a little group of Kampung Baru people who earned RM1000 per month and occupied higher place in the public and private sectors. The state of affairs has really much changed in the 1990s in which the socio-economic position of the dwellers of Kampung Baru had increased. There was rather a important figure of Malay in-between category, such as enterprisers, professionals and executives, who lived in the colony. This can be proven through the building of new luxury residential houses such as cottages and modern flat beside the old traditional Malay hosieries. Thus it can be said that Kampung Baru is a topographic point where tradition and modernness meet. Kampung Baru located in the Centre of metropolis and the belongings valued at around Rm2000 per square pess. This favorable geographical location attracts a batch of investors and developers intend to develop it and do a better planning. Nevertheless, the devastation of the traditional Malay houses has created contention. Chapter 2.3:Research method of survey The nature of this survey makes it suited for me to use site visit, observation, appraising and secondary analysis as my research methodological analysiss. Site visit in survey involves detecting, look intoing, comparing and analyzing. Besides that, research worker makes a questionnaire study signifier for public to acquire cognize about their sentiment of Kampung Baru. It is indispensable for research worker to understand deeply of about the chance development of Kampung Baru. In order to make so, historical informations have been assembled by library and internet research. This research to be done is to turn out my study composing in line with strong grounds. Chapter 3: Analysis Chapter 3.1: Percepts of occupant to the renovation of Kampung Baru Figure 3.1: Malay-Muslim civilization Despite being disputed, Kampung Baru is the last fastness against tower block development in the Kuala Lumpur metropolis. The occupants, born and bred in Kampung Baru from coevals to coevals, are chiefly consisted of Malay. Most of them have no purpose of go forthing Kampung Baru. The nucleus ground is for the inveterate love for the community specifically refering on the distinguishable Malay-Muslim civilization ( Figure 3.1 ) and its colorful history. For illustration, some of the senior still recalled their functions in WWII and cherished childhood memories that wanted to prize. They will convey these histories to their kids and grandchildren. Other than that, there is another state of affairs caused Kampung Baru can’t be developed. If the original Kampung Baru landholders have died, his land rubrics will be shared by tonss of relations. Therefore, it can be more than 100 people portion the rights to some secret plans of land sometimes. This status becomes a strong resistance to the sort of renovation the authorities has in head. The authorities and the developers have been legion meetings and treatment with local landholders about the development programs of Kampung Baru for more than twenty old ages, nevertheless, none of which has proved feasible. With no execution and development, the physical constructions of Kampung Baru are haphazard and degraded. The unplanned betterment caused resident bit by bit eliminated from their original small town and were replaced by transient and homesteaders. In malice of the recession of Kampung Baru, there are still have many people understood exhaustively its possible commercial value and concern market. In this aureate country with environing high rise edifice, it wholly shows an iconic individuality and image of capital metropolis of Malaysia. Suppose that Kampung Baru transformed into a modern and advanced country, it will heighten the consistent of betterment of Kuala Lumpur towards as a developed metropolis. The modern design, construction and stuff of high rise edifices give an impact of the ocular to stand for an image of the metropolis. Chapter 3.2: Advantages and disadvantages one time Kampung Baru to be redeveloped Residents of Kampung Baru have to consider of the advantages and disadvantages one time Kampung Baru to be redeveloped. One of the important effects of the alterations to Kampung Baru is maximize the value of land. In term of merely being dual floor houses, it can be developed vertically. For case, high rise commercial edifices, office, five star hotel or flat. Not merely cut down the land usage, and besides fulfil the demands of big population in the metropolis. Besides that, concern market besides have a batch of possible among this commercial country. The people who live in this country have a high degree of ingestion and quality of life. They would pass a batch for epicurean disbursals. In add-on, while working the bigger commercial market, it besides increases the employment chance every bit good. It helps to work out the job of extra unemployment which happened in our state. Ample employee can heighten the productiveness expeditiously. Furthermore, owing to this country is tourist attractive force, so that it brings economic system consequence to the metropolis. Figure 3.2: Alone character of traditional houses On the contrary, continuing Kampung Baru has its unmeasurable bing value. It is difficult to conceive of that an country with such a rich heritage and alone character ( Figure 3.2 ) if razed to the land. Many of the traditional houses of Kampung Baru are dated back to the early 1900s. The peculiar and original features can’t be replaced by any unreal engineering presents. If Kampung Baru is turned into a concrete jungle, it will lose all its attractive force as a Centre for Malay heritage. Furthermore, the cultural component in Kampung Baru has influenced, straight or indirectly, among the community. They hold profound feelings toward their civilization and relationship with vicinity. Woman love to portion their delightful dishes with their neighbors while kids chum uping around the kampung. This sort of sentiment dramas as an of import function in the development of Kampung Baru. There is no uncertainty that the people of Kampung Baru want development, but at the same clip the individuality of Kampung Baru as a Malay community must be maintained. Chapter 3.3: Comparison with the Singapore urban planning Figure 3.3: Singapore urban planning By detecting and look intoing Singapore urban planning ( Figure 3.3 ) , they wholly did a good occupation in this little state. Singapore originally is merely a little and lag behind state. After the World War II, Centre of Singapore faced really terrible urban troubles which are overcrowding, lodging deficit and insanitary life conditions. It caused a batch of unemployment job, infective disease and societal offense. In 1958s, the authorities comes out with a construct program [ 2 ] that makes full usage of land by reapportioning the countries severally. In the beginning of urban development, it appears two distinguishable countries which are greenwaies and new town country. First measure is to construct more public lodging in new town country. The decentralised policy leads the population and industry in the metropolis Centre displacement to other topographic point. It creates a balance and mean distribution of population and solved the lacking of lodging jobs. In the cardinal country, a big sum of stores, office, shopping Centre and epicurean flat occurred. Thoroughly downtown metropolis revived bit by bit, Singapore becomes an international finance, commercial centre and touristry attractive force. It speeds up the economic system growing of Singapore. The authorities of Singapore plans their scheme, from construct, counsel, urban planning to commanding, measure by measure implements it. The attitude of listening to the demands of occupant is the cardinal rule to be succeeded. Chapter 4: Decision In decision, Kuala Lumpur as a developing metropolis was improved a batch along the times. Even though Kuala Lumpur is still missing behind in footings of skyline quality compared to bigger metropoliss like Hong Kong, New York, Shanghai or Chicago, but it provides an iconic for its multi-cultural architecture found in traditional and modern edifices in the metropolis. Located within the bosom of aggressive metropolis of Kuala Lumpur, Kampung Baru has struggled to maintain up with monolithic urban development while continuing its traditional heritage. The singularity of this country could non be replaced by any types of trading. The thought of destruction the traditional Malay houses should be taken off. Old structures uncover its historical border and do a contrast with high rise edifice to show the betterment every bit good as development of engineering presents. Attempt to hold a better urban planning and direction in Malaysia, authorities should do an in-depth survey on the scheme of urban planning in Singapore. Mentions Website hypertext transfer protocol: //vincentloy.wordpress.com/tag/city/ hypertext transfer protocol: //www.thestar.com.my/story.aspx/ ? file= % 2F2012 % 2F4 % 2F16 % 2Fcentral % 2F11111102 hypertext transfer protocol: //www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php? t=167496 hypertext transfer protocol: //www.dbkl.gov.my/pskl2020/english/urban_design_and_landscape/index.htm hypertext transfer protocol: //time2transcend.wordpress.com/tag/kampung-baru/ hypertext transfer protocol: //www.theedgemalaysia.com/commentary/167862-my-say-kampung-baru-redevelopment-lets-go-for-it.html hypertext transfer protocol: //tendtotravel.com/2012/03/kuala-lumpurs-skyline-1960s/ hypertext transfer protocol: //travel.cnn.com/explorations/escape/kampung-baru-131599 hypertext transfer protocol: //infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_1564_2009-09-08.html hypertext transfer protocol: //lib.iium.edu.my/mom2/cm/content/view/view.jsp? key=mrB8mYjSDrUDQUS5Lamnms8K3SJ42lFB20100225154009406 E-journal hypertext transfer protocol: //e-journal.um.edu.my/filebank/published_article/3295/Vol % 209-4.pdf hypertext transfer protocol: //repo.uum.edu.my/3179/1/S15.pdf Books Dale, O. J. ( 1999 ) . Urban planning in Singapore: The transmutation of a metropolis. Shah Alam, Malaysia: Oxford University Press. Suleiman Mohamed and Lokman Mohd. Zen ( 2000 ) ,Sejarah Kampung Baru: Di Sini Awal Segalanya Bermula Handss, J. ( 1941 ) .The History Of The Malay Agricultural Settlement Kuala Lumpur,From January 1899 to October 1941, Kuala Lumpur. Video hypertext transfer protocol: //fatbidin.com/category/kampung-baru-alaf-baru-aka-new-age-new-village/ Bibliography Website hypertext transfer protocol: //tendtotravel.com/2012/03/kuala-lumpurs-skyline-1960s/ hypertext transfer protocol: //www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php? t=246455 hypertext transfer protocol: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_planning_in_Singapore hypertext transfer protocol: //infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_1564_2009-09-08.html hypertext transfer protocol: //timesofmylife.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/big-pore-and-small-pore-of-singapore/ Picture credits Figure 1.1: hypertext transfer protocol: //wpwide.com/petronas-twin-towers-kuala-lumpur-malaysia-city-wide-hd-wallpaper/ Figure 1.2: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.malaysiapropertynews.com/2010/08/redeveloping-kampung-baru.html Figure 2.1: hypertext transfer protocol: //tendtotravel.com/2012/03/kuala-lumpurs-skyline-1960s/ Figure 2.2: hypertext transfer protocol: //tendtotravel.com/2012/03/kuala-lumpurs-skyline-1960s/ Figure 2.3: hypertext transfer protocol: //tendtotravel.com/2012/03/kuala-lumpurs-skyline-1960s/ Figure 2.4: hypertext transfer protocol: //tendtotravel.com/2012/03/kuala-lumpurs-skyline-1960s/ Figure 2.5: hypertext transfer protocol: //time2transcend.wordpress.com/tag/kampung-baru/ Figure 2.6: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.ouche.org/DesignEcologies/659/ Figure 3.1: hypertext transfer protocol: //time2transcend.wordpress.com/tag/kampung-baru/ Figure 3.2: hypertext transfer protocol: //time2transcend.wordpress.com/tag/kampung-baru/ Figure 3.3: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.singaporetales.co.uk/2013/09/city-gallery.html 1

A Dirty Job Chapter 6

He’d worked up a furious appetite because breakfast was running late today. The Emperor had slept on a bench by the Maritime Museum, and during the night his arthritic knee had snaked out of his wool overcoat into the damp cold, making the walk to North Beach and the Italian bakery that gave them free day-old a slow and painful ordeal. The Emperor groaned and sat down on an empty milk crate. He was a great rolling bear of a man, his shoulders broad but a little broken from carrying the weight of the city. A white tangle of hair and beard wreathed his face like a storm cloud. As far as he could remember, he and the troops had patrolled the city streets forever, but upon further consideration, it might have just been since Wednesday. He wasn’t entirely sure. The Emperor decided to make a proclamation to the troops about the importance of compassion in the face of the rising tide of heinous fuckery and political weaselocity in the nearby kingdom of the United States. (He found his audience was most attentive to his proclamations when the meat-laced focaccia were still nuzzled in the larder of his overcoat pockets, and presently a pepperoni and Parmesan reposed fragrant in the woolly depths, so the royal hounds were rapt.) But just as he cleared his throat to begin, a cargo van came screeching around the corner, went up on two wheels as it plowed through a row of garbage cans, and slid to a stop not fifty feet away. The driver’s-side door flew open and a thin man in a suit leapt out, carrying a cane and a woman’s fur coat, and made a beeline for the back door of Asher’s. But before he got two steps the man fell to the concrete as if hit from behind, then rolled on his back and began flailing at the air with the cane an d the coat. The Emperor, who knew most everyone, recognized Charlie Asher. Bummer erupted into a fit of yapping, but the more levelheaded Lazarus growled once and took off toward Charlie. â€Å"Lazarus!† the Emperor shouted, but the retriever charged on, followed now by his bug-eyed brother in arms. Charlie was back on his feet and swinging the cane as if he was fencing with some phantom, using the coat like a shield. Living on the street, the Emperor had seen a lot of people battling with unseen demons, but Charlie Asher was apparently scoring some hits. The cane was making a thwacking noise against what appeared to be thin air – but no, there was something there, a shadow of some sort? The Emperor climbed to his feet and limped into the fray, but before he got two steps Lazarus had leapt and appeared to be attacking Charlie, but he soared over the shopkeeper and snapped at a spot above his head – then hung there, his jaws sunk into the substantial neck of thin air. Charlie took advantage of the distraction, stepped back, and swung the cane above the levitating golden retriever. There was a smack, and Lazarus let go, but now Bummer launched himself at the invisible foe. He missed whatever was there, and ended up performing a doggy swish shot into a garbage can. Charlie made for the steel door of Asher’s again, but found it locked, and as he reached for his keys, something caught him from behind. â€Å"Let go, fuckface,† the shade screeched. The fur coat Charlie was holding appeared to be swept out of his hand and was pulled straight up, over the four-story building and out of sight. Charlie turned and held the cane at ready, but whatever had been there seemed to be gone now. â€Å"Aren’t you just supposed to sit above the door and nevermore and be poetic and stuff?!† he shouted at the sky. Then, for good measure, added, â€Å"You evil fuck!† Lazarus barked, then whined. A sharp and metallic yapping rose from Bummer’s garbage can. â€Å"Well, you don’t see that every day,† said the Emperor as he limped up to Charlie. â€Å"You could see that?† â€Å"Well, no, not really. Merely a shadow, but I could see that something was there. There was something there, wasn’t there, Charlie?† Charlie nodded, trying to catch his breath. â€Å"It will be back. It followed me across the city.† He dug into his pocket for his keys. â€Å"You guys should duck into the store with me, Your Majesty.† Of course Charlie knew the Emperor. Every San Franciscan knew the Emperor. The Emperor smiled. â€Å"That’s very kind of you, but we will be perfectly safe. For now I need to free my charge from his galvanized prison.† The big man tipped the garbage can and Bummer emerged snorting and tossing his head as if ready to tear the ass out of any man or beast foolhardy enough to cross him (and he would have, as long as they were knee-high or shorter). Charlie was still having trouble with the key. He knew he should have had the lock replaced, but it worked, if you finessed it a little, so he’d never made it a priority. Who the hell thought you’d ever have to get in quick to escape a giant bird? Then he heard a screech and turned to see not one, but two huge ravens coming over the roof and diving into the alley. The dogs arfed a frantic barking salvo at the avian intruders and Charlie put so much body English into wiggling the key in the lock that he felt an atrophied dancing muscle tear in his hip. â€Å"They’re back. Cover me.† Charlie threw the cane to the Emperor and braced himself for the impact, but as soon as the cane touched the old man’s hand the birds were gone. You could almost hear the pop of the air replacing the space they had taken up. The dogs caught themselves in mid-ruff; Bummer whimpered. â€Å"What?† the Emperor said. â€Å"What?† â€Å"They’re gone.† The Emperor looked at the sky. â€Å"You’re sure?† â€Å"For now.† â€Å"I saw two shadows. Really saw them this time,† the Emperor said. â€Å"Yes, there were two this time.† â€Å"What are they?† â€Å"I have no idea, but when you took the cane they – well, they disappeared. You really saw them?† â€Å"I’m sure of it. Like smoke with a purpose.† Finally the key turned in the lock and the door to Asher’s back room swung open. â€Å"You should come in. Rest. I’ll order something to eat.† â€Å"No, no, the men and I must be on our rounds. I’ve decided to make a proclamation this morning and we need to see the printer. You’ll be needing this.† The Emperor presented the cane to Charlie like he was turning over a sword of the realm. Charlie started to take it, then thought better of it. â€Å"Your Majesty, I think you’d better keep that. It looks as if you might be able to use it.† Charlie nodded toward the Emperor’s creaky knee. The Emperor held the cane steady. â€Å"I am not a worshiper of the material, you know?† â€Å"I understand that.† â€Å"I am a firm believer that desire is the source of most of human suffering, you’re aware, and no culprit is more heinous than desire for material gain.† â€Å"I run my business based on those very principles. Still, I insist you keep the cane – as a favor to me, if you would?† Charlie found himself affecting the Emperor’s formal speech patterns, as if somehow he had been transported to a royal court where a nobleman was distinguished by bread crumbs in his beard and the royal guard were not above licking their balls. â€Å"Well, as a favor, I will accept. It is a fine piece of craftsmanship.† â€Å"But more importantly, it will permit you to make your rounds in good time.† The Emperor now betrayed the desire in his heart as he let fly a wide grin and hugged the cane to his chest. â€Å"It is fine, indeed. Charlie, I must confess something to you, but I ask you to grant me the credulity due a man who has just shared witness, with a friend, of two giant, raven-shaped shades.† â€Å"Of course.† Charlie smiled, when even a moment before he would have thought his smile lost somewhere in the months past. â€Å"I hope you won’t think me base, but the second I touched this, I felt as if I had been waiting for it my whole life.† Then, for no reason that he could think of, Charlie said, â€Å"I know.† A few minutes before, inside the store, Lily had been brooding. It wasn’t her general brood, the reaction to a world where everyone was stupid and life was meaningless and the mere act of living was futile, especially if your mother forgot to get coffee at the store. This one was a more specific brood, that had started out when she arrived at work and Ray had pointed out that it was her turn to wear the vacuuming tiara, and insisted that if she wore the tiara, she actually vacuum the store. (In fact, she liked wearing the rhinestone tiara that Charlie, in a move of blatant bourgeois sneakiness, had designated be worn by whoever did the vacuuming and sweeping each day, and no other time. It was the vacuuming and sweeping she objected to. She felt manipulated, used, and generally taken advantage of, and not in the fun way.) But today, after she’d put the tiara and the vacuum away and had finally gotten a couple of cups of coffee in her system, the brooding had gone on, bu ilding to full-scale angst, when it began to dawn on her that she was going to have to figure out this college-career thing, because despite what The Great Big Book of Death said, she had not been chosen as a dark minion of destruction. Fuck! She stood in the back room looking at all the items that Charlie had piled there the day before: shoes, lamps, umbrellas, porcelain figures, toys, a couple of books, and an old black-and-white television and a painting of a clown on black velvet. â€Å"He said this stuff was glowing?† she asked Ray, who stood in the doorway to the store. â€Å"Yes. He made me check it all with my Geiger counter.† â€Å"Ray, why the fuck do you have a Geiger counter?† â€Å"Lily, why do you have a nose stud shaped like a bat?† Lily ignored the question and picked up the ceramic frog from the night before, which now had a note taped to it that read DO NOT SELL OR DISPLAY in Charlie’s meticulous block-letter printing. â€Å"This was one of the things? This?† â€Å"That was the first one he freaked out about,† said Ray matter-of-factly. â€Å"The truant officer tried to buy it. That started it all.† Lily was shaken. She backed over to Charlie’s desk and sat in the squeaky oak swivel chair. â€Å"Do you see anything glowing or pulsating, Ray? Have you ever?† Ray shook his head. â€Å"He’s under a lot of stress, losing Rachel and taking care of the baby. I think maybe he needs to get some help. I know after I had to leave the force – † Ray paused. There was a commotion going on out in the alley, dogs barking and people shouting, then someone was working a key in the lock of the back door. A second later, Charlie came in, a little breathless, his clothes smudged here and there with grime, one sleeve of his jacket torn and bloodstained. â€Å"Asher,† Lily said. â€Å"You’re hurt.† She quickly vacated his chair while Ray took Charlie by the shoulders and sat him down. â€Å"I’m fine,† Charlie said. â€Å"No big deal.† â€Å"I’ll get the first-aid kit,† Ray said. â€Å"Get that jacket off of him, Lily.† â€Å"I’m fine,† Charlie said. â€Å"Quit talking about me like I’m not here.† â€Å"He’s delirious,† Lily said, trying to pry Charlie out of his jacket. â€Å"Do you have any painkillers, Ray?† â€Å"I don’t need painkillers,† Charlie said. â€Å"Shut up, Asher, they’re not for you,† Lily said, automatically, then she considered the book, Ray’s story, the notes on all the items in the back room, and she shuddered. It appeared that Charlie Asher might not be the hapless geek she always thought him to be. â€Å"Sorry, boss. Let us help you.† Ray came back from the front with a small plastic first-aid kit. He peeled back Charlie’s sleeve and began to clean the wounds with gauze and peroxide. â€Å"What happened?† â€Å"Nothing,† Charlie said. â€Å"I slipped and fell in some gravel.† â€Å"The wound’s pretty clean – no gravel in it. That must have been some fall.† â€Å"Long story.† Charlie sighed. â€Å"Ouch!† â€Å"What was all the noise in the alley?† Lily asked, needing badly to go smoke, but unable to pull herself away. She just couldn’t imagine that Charlie Asher was the one. How could it be him? He was so, so, unworthy. He didn’t understand the dark underbelly of life the way she did. Yet he was the one seeing the glowing objects. He was it. She was crestfallen. â€Å"Just the Emperor’s dogs after a seagull in the Dumpster. No big deal. I fell off a porch in Pacific Heights.† â€Å"The estate,† Ray said. â€Å"How’d that go?† â€Å"Not well. The husband was grief-stricken and had a heart attack while I was there.† â€Å"You’re kidding.† â€Å"No, he just sort of became overwhelmed thinking about his wife and collapsed. I gave him CPR until the EMTs came and took him off to the hospital.† â€Å"So,† Lily said, â€Å"did you get the – uh – did you get anything special?† â€Å"What?† Charlie’s eyes went wide. â€Å"What do you mean, special? There was nothing special.† â€Å"Chill, boss, I just meant will we get the grandma’s clothes?† He’s it, Lily thought. The fucker. Charlie shook his head. â€Å"I don’t know, it’s so strange. The whole thing is so strange.† He shuddered when he said it. â€Å"Strange how?† Lily said. â€Å"Strange in a cool and dark way, or strange because you’re Asher and you’re out of it most of the time?† â€Å"Lily!† Ray snapped. â€Å"Go out front. Dust something.† â€Å"You’re not the boss of me, Ray. I’m just showing my concern.† â€Å"It’s okay, Ray.† Charlie looked like he was considering how, exactly, to define strange, and not coming up with anything that was working. Finally he said, â€Å"Well, for one thing, this woman’s estate is way out of our league. The husband said he called me because we were the first secondhand store in the phone book, but he doesn’t seem like the kind of man to do something like that.† â€Å"That’s not that strange,† Lily said. Just confess, she thought. â€Å"You said that he was grief-stricken,† Ray said, dabbing antibiotic ointment on Charlie’s cuts. â€Å"Maybe he’s doing things differently.† â€Å"Yes, and he was angry at his wife, too, for the way she died.† â€Å"How?† Lily asked. â€Å"She ate silica gel,† Charlie said. Lily looked at Ray for an explanation, because silica gel sounded techno-geeky, which was Ray’s particular field of geekdom. Ray said, â€Å"It’s the antidesiccant that they pack with electronics and other things that are sensitive to humidity.† â€Å"The ‘Do Not Eat’ stuff?!† Lily said. â€Å"Oh my God, that’s so stupid. Everyone knows you don’t eat the ‘Do Not Eat’ stuff.† Charlie said, â€Å"Mr. Mainheart was pretty broken up.† â€Å"Well, I guess so,† Lily said. â€Å"He married a complete fucktard.† Charlie cringed. â€Å"Lily, that’s not appropriate.† Lily shrugged and rolled her eyes. She hated it when Charlie dropped into Dad mode. â€Å"Okay, okay. I’m going outside to smoke.† â€Å"No!† Charlie jumped out of the chair and put himself between Lily and the back door. â€Å"Out front. From now on if you have to smoke you go out front.† â€Å"But you said that I look like a child hooker when I smoke out front.† â€Å"I’ve reassessed. You’ve matured.† Lily closed one eye to see if she could better glimpse into his soul and thus figure out his true agenda. She smoothed over her black vinyl skirt, which made a tortured, squeaking noise at the touch. â€Å"You’re trying to say I have a big butt, aren’t you?† â€Å"I absolutely am saying no such thing,† Charlie insisted. â€Å"I am simply saying that your presence in front of the store is an asset and will probably attract business from the tourists on the cable car.† â€Å"Oh. Okay.† Lily snatched her box of cloves off the desk and headed out past the counter and outside to brood, grieve really, because as much as she had hoped, she was not Death. The book was Charlie’s. That evening Charlie was watching the store, wondering why he had lied to his employees, when he saw a flash of red passing by the front window. A second later, a strikingly pale redhead came through the door. She was wearing a short, black cocktail dress and black fuck-me pumps. She strode up the aisle like she was auditioning for a music video. Her hair cascaded in long curls around her shoulders and down her back like a great auburn veil. Her eyes were emerald green, and when she saw him looking, she smiled, and stopped, some ten feet away. Charlie felt an almost painful jolt that seemed to emanate from somewhere in the area of his groin, and after a second he recognized it as an autonomic lust response. He hadn’t felt anything like that since Rachel had passed, and he felt vaguely ashamed. She was examining him, looking him over like you would examine a used car. He was sure he must be blushing. â€Å"Hi,† Charlie said. â€Å"Can I help you?† The redhead smiled again, just a little, and reached into a small black bag that he hadn’t noticed she’d been carrying. â€Å"I found this,† she said, holding up a silver cigarette case. Something Charlie didn’t see very often anymore, even in the secondhand business. It was glowing, pulsating like the objects in the back room. â€Å"I was in the neighborhood and something made me think that this belonged here.† She moved to the counter opposite Charlie and set the cigarette case down in front of him. Charlie could barely move. He stared at her, not even conscious that to avoid her eyes he was staring at her cleavage, and she appeared to be looking around his head and shoulders as if following the path of insects that were buzzing around him. â€Å"Touch me,† she said. â€Å"Huh?† He looked up, saw she was serious. She held out her hand; her nails were manicured and painted the same deep red as her lipstick. He took her hand. As soon as she touched him she pulled away. â€Å"You’re warm.† â€Å"Thanks.† In that moment he realized that she wasn’t. Her fingers had been ice-cold. â€Å"Then you’re not one of us?† He tried to think of what â€Å"us† might be? Irish? Low blood pressure? Nymphomaniac? Why did he even think that? â€Å"Us? What do you mean, ‘us’?† She backed away a step. â€Å"No. You don’t just take the weak and the sick, do you? You take anyone.† â€Å"Take? What do you mean, ‘take’?† â€Å"You don’t even know, do you?† â€Å"Know what?† Charlie was getting very nervous. As a Beta Male, he found it difficult enough to function under the attention of a beautiful woman, but she was just plain spooky. â€Å"Wait. Can you see this thing glowing?† He held out the cigarette case. â€Å"No glow. It just felt like it belonged here,† she said. â€Å"What’s your name?† â€Å"Charlie Asher. This is Asher’s.† â€Å"Well, Charlie, you seem like a nice guy, and I don’t know exactly what you are, and it doesn’t seem like you know. You don’t, do you?† â€Å"I’ve been going through some changes,† Charlie said, wondering why he felt compelled to share this at all. The redhead nodded, as if confirming something to herself. â€Å"Okay. I know what it’s like to, uh, to find yourself thrown into a situation where forces beyond your control are changing you into someone, something you don’t have an owner’s manual for. I understand what it is to not know. But someone, somewhere, does know. Someone can tell you what’s going on.† â€Å"What are you talking about?† But he knew what she was talking about. What he didn’t know was how she could possibly know. â€Å"You make people die, don’t you, Charlie?† She said it like she had worked up the courage to tell him that he had some spinach in his teeth. More of a service to him than an accusation. â€Å"How do you – ?† How did she – â€Å"Because it’s what I do. Not like you, but it’s what I do. Find them, Charlie. Backtrack and find whoever was there when your world changed.† Charlie looked at her, then at the cigarette case, then at the redhead again, who was no longer smiling, but was stepping backward toward the door. Trying to stay in touch with normal, he focused on the cigarette case and said, â€Å"I suppose I can do an appraisal – â€Å" He heard the bell over the door jingle, and when he looked up she was gone. He didn’t see her moving by the windows on either side of the door; she was just gone. He ran to the front of the store and out the door onto the sidewalk. The Mason Street cable car was just topping the hill up by California Street and he could hear the bell, there was a thin fog coming up from the Bay that threw colorful halos around the neon signs of the other businesses, but there was no striking redhead on the street. He went to the corner and looked down Vallejo, but again no redhead, just the Emperor, sitting against the building with his dogs. â€Å"Good evening, Charlie.† â€Å"Your Majesty, did you see a redhead go by here just now?† â€Å"Oh yes. Spoke to her. I’m not sure you have a chance there, Charlie, I believe she’s spoken for. And she did warn me to stay away from you.† â€Å"Why? Did she say why?† â€Å"She said that you were Death.† â€Å"I am?† Charlie said. â€Å"Am I?† His breath caught in his throat as the day played back in his head. â€Å"What if I am?† â€Å"You know, son,† the Emperor said, â€Å"I am not an expert in dealing with the fairer sex, but you might want to save that bit of information until the third date or so, after they’ve gotten to know you a little.† A Dirty Job Chapter 6 He’d worked up a furious appetite because breakfast was running late today. The Emperor had slept on a bench by the Maritime Museum, and during the night his arthritic knee had snaked out of his wool overcoat into the damp cold, making the walk to North Beach and the Italian bakery that gave them free day-old a slow and painful ordeal. The Emperor groaned and sat down on an empty milk crate. He was a great rolling bear of a man, his shoulders broad but a little broken from carrying the weight of the city. A white tangle of hair and beard wreathed his face like a storm cloud. As far as he could remember, he and the troops had patrolled the city streets forever, but upon further consideration, it might have just been since Wednesday. He wasn’t entirely sure. The Emperor decided to make a proclamation to the troops about the importance of compassion in the face of the rising tide of heinous fuckery and political weaselocity in the nearby kingdom of the United States. (He found his audience was most attentive to his proclamations when the meat-laced focaccia were still nuzzled in the larder of his overcoat pockets, and presently a pepperoni and Parmesan reposed fragrant in the woolly depths, so the royal hounds were rapt.) But just as he cleared his throat to begin, a cargo van came screeching around the corner, went up on two wheels as it plowed through a row of garbage cans, and slid to a stop not fifty feet away. The driver’s-side door flew open and a thin man in a suit leapt out, carrying a cane and a woman’s fur coat, and made a beeline for the back door of Asher’s. But before he got two steps the man fell to the concrete as if hit from behind, then rolled on his back and began flailing at the air with the cane an d the coat. The Emperor, who knew most everyone, recognized Charlie Asher. Bummer erupted into a fit of yapping, but the more levelheaded Lazarus growled once and took off toward Charlie. â€Å"Lazarus!† the Emperor shouted, but the retriever charged on, followed now by his bug-eyed brother in arms. Charlie was back on his feet and swinging the cane as if he was fencing with some phantom, using the coat like a shield. Living on the street, the Emperor had seen a lot of people battling with unseen demons, but Charlie Asher was apparently scoring some hits. The cane was making a thwacking noise against what appeared to be thin air – but no, there was something there, a shadow of some sort? The Emperor climbed to his feet and limped into the fray, but before he got two steps Lazarus had leapt and appeared to be attacking Charlie, but he soared over the shopkeeper and snapped at a spot above his head – then hung there, his jaws sunk into the substantial neck of thin air. Charlie took advantage of the distraction, stepped back, and swung the cane above the levitating golden retriever. There was a smack, and Lazarus let go, but now Bummer launched himself at the invisible foe. He missed whatever was there, and ended up performing a doggy swish shot into a garbage can. Charlie made for the steel door of Asher’s again, but found it locked, and as he reached for his keys, something caught him from behind. â€Å"Let go, fuckface,† the shade screeched. The fur coat Charlie was holding appeared to be swept out of his hand and was pulled straight up, over the four-story building and out of sight. Charlie turned and held the cane at ready, but whatever had been there seemed to be gone now. â€Å"Aren’t you just supposed to sit above the door and nevermore and be poetic and stuff?!† he shouted at the sky. Then, for good measure, added, â€Å"You evil fuck!† Lazarus barked, then whined. A sharp and metallic yapping rose from Bummer’s garbage can. â€Å"Well, you don’t see that every day,† said the Emperor as he limped up to Charlie. â€Å"You could see that?† â€Å"Well, no, not really. Merely a shadow, but I could see that something was there. There was something there, wasn’t there, Charlie?† Charlie nodded, trying to catch his breath. â€Å"It will be back. It followed me across the city.† He dug into his pocket for his keys. â€Å"You guys should duck into the store with me, Your Majesty.† Of course Charlie knew the Emperor. Every San Franciscan knew the Emperor. The Emperor smiled. â€Å"That’s very kind of you, but we will be perfectly safe. For now I need to free my charge from his galvanized prison.† The big man tipped the garbage can and Bummer emerged snorting and tossing his head as if ready to tear the ass out of any man or beast foolhardy enough to cross him (and he would have, as long as they were knee-high or shorter). Charlie was still having trouble with the key. He knew he should have had the lock replaced, but it worked, if you finessed it a little, so he’d never made it a priority. Who the hell thought you’d ever have to get in quick to escape a giant bird? Then he heard a screech and turned to see not one, but two huge ravens coming over the roof and diving into the alley. The dogs arfed a frantic barking salvo at the avian intruders and Charlie put so much body English into wiggling the key in the lock that he felt an atrophied dancing muscle tear in his hip. â€Å"They’re back. Cover me.† Charlie threw the cane to the Emperor and braced himself for the impact, but as soon as the cane touched the old man’s hand the birds were gone. You could almost hear the pop of the air replacing the space they had taken up. The dogs caught themselves in mid-ruff; Bummer whimpered. â€Å"What?† the Emperor said. â€Å"What?† â€Å"They’re gone.† The Emperor looked at the sky. â€Å"You’re sure?† â€Å"For now.† â€Å"I saw two shadows. Really saw them this time,† the Emperor said. â€Å"Yes, there were two this time.† â€Å"What are they?† â€Å"I have no idea, but when you took the cane they – well, they disappeared. You really saw them?† â€Å"I’m sure of it. Like smoke with a purpose.† Finally the key turned in the lock and the door to Asher’s back room swung open. â€Å"You should come in. Rest. I’ll order something to eat.† â€Å"No, no, the men and I must be on our rounds. I’ve decided to make a proclamation this morning and we need to see the printer. You’ll be needing this.† The Emperor presented the cane to Charlie like he was turning over a sword of the realm. Charlie started to take it, then thought better of it. â€Å"Your Majesty, I think you’d better keep that. It looks as if you might be able to use it.† Charlie nodded toward the Emperor’s creaky knee. The Emperor held the cane steady. â€Å"I am not a worshiper of the material, you know?† â€Å"I understand that.† â€Å"I am a firm believer that desire is the source of most of human suffering, you’re aware, and no culprit is more heinous than desire for material gain.† â€Å"I run my business based on those very principles. Still, I insist you keep the cane – as a favor to me, if you would?† Charlie found himself affecting the Emperor’s formal speech patterns, as if somehow he had been transported to a royal court where a nobleman was distinguished by bread crumbs in his beard and the royal guard were not above licking their balls. â€Å"Well, as a favor, I will accept. It is a fine piece of craftsmanship.† â€Å"But more importantly, it will permit you to make your rounds in good time.† The Emperor now betrayed the desire in his heart as he let fly a wide grin and hugged the cane to his chest. â€Å"It is fine, indeed. Charlie, I must confess something to you, but I ask you to grant me the credulity due a man who has just shared witness, with a friend, of two giant, raven-shaped shades.† â€Å"Of course.† Charlie smiled, when even a moment before he would have thought his smile lost somewhere in the months past. â€Å"I hope you won’t think me base, but the second I touched this, I felt as if I had been waiting for it my whole life.† Then, for no reason that he could think of, Charlie said, â€Å"I know.† A few minutes before, inside the store, Lily had been brooding. It wasn’t her general brood, the reaction to a world where everyone was stupid and life was meaningless and the mere act of living was futile, especially if your mother forgot to get coffee at the store. This one was a more specific brood, that had started out when she arrived at work and Ray had pointed out that it was her turn to wear the vacuuming tiara, and insisted that if she wore the tiara, she actually vacuum the store. (In fact, she liked wearing the rhinestone tiara that Charlie, in a move of blatant bourgeois sneakiness, had designated be worn by whoever did the vacuuming and sweeping each day, and no other time. It was the vacuuming and sweeping she objected to. She felt manipulated, used, and generally taken advantage of, and not in the fun way.) But today, after she’d put the tiara and the vacuum away and had finally gotten a couple of cups of coffee in her system, the brooding had gone on, bu ilding to full-scale angst, when it began to dawn on her that she was going to have to figure out this college-career thing, because despite what The Great Big Book of Death said, she had not been chosen as a dark minion of destruction. Fuck! She stood in the back room looking at all the items that Charlie had piled there the day before: shoes, lamps, umbrellas, porcelain figures, toys, a couple of books, and an old black-and-white television and a painting of a clown on black velvet. â€Å"He said this stuff was glowing?† she asked Ray, who stood in the doorway to the store. â€Å"Yes. He made me check it all with my Geiger counter.† â€Å"Ray, why the fuck do you have a Geiger counter?† â€Å"Lily, why do you have a nose stud shaped like a bat?† Lily ignored the question and picked up the ceramic frog from the night before, which now had a note taped to it that read DO NOT SELL OR DISPLAY in Charlie’s meticulous block-letter printing. â€Å"This was one of the things? This?† â€Å"That was the first one he freaked out about,† said Ray matter-of-factly. â€Å"The truant officer tried to buy it. That started it all.† Lily was shaken. She backed over to Charlie’s desk and sat in the squeaky oak swivel chair. â€Å"Do you see anything glowing or pulsating, Ray? Have you ever?† Ray shook his head. â€Å"He’s under a lot of stress, losing Rachel and taking care of the baby. I think maybe he needs to get some help. I know after I had to leave the force – † Ray paused. There was a commotion going on out in the alley, dogs barking and people shouting, then someone was working a key in the lock of the back door. A second later, Charlie came in, a little breathless, his clothes smudged here and there with grime, one sleeve of his jacket torn and bloodstained. â€Å"Asher,† Lily said. â€Å"You’re hurt.† She quickly vacated his chair while Ray took Charlie by the shoulders and sat him down. â€Å"I’m fine,† Charlie said. â€Å"No big deal.† â€Å"I’ll get the first-aid kit,† Ray said. â€Å"Get that jacket off of him, Lily.† â€Å"I’m fine,† Charlie said. â€Å"Quit talking about me like I’m not here.† â€Å"He’s delirious,† Lily said, trying to pry Charlie out of his jacket. â€Å"Do you have any painkillers, Ray?† â€Å"I don’t need painkillers,† Charlie said. â€Å"Shut up, Asher, they’re not for you,† Lily said, automatically, then she considered the book, Ray’s story, the notes on all the items in the back room, and she shuddered. It appeared that Charlie Asher might not be the hapless geek she always thought him to be. â€Å"Sorry, boss. Let us help you.† Ray came back from the front with a small plastic first-aid kit. He peeled back Charlie’s sleeve and began to clean the wounds with gauze and peroxide. â€Å"What happened?† â€Å"Nothing,† Charlie said. â€Å"I slipped and fell in some gravel.† â€Å"The wound’s pretty clean – no gravel in it. That must have been some fall.† â€Å"Long story.† Charlie sighed. â€Å"Ouch!† â€Å"What was all the noise in the alley?† Lily asked, needing badly to go smoke, but unable to pull herself away. She just couldn’t imagine that Charlie Asher was the one. How could it be him? He was so, so, unworthy. He didn’t understand the dark underbelly of life the way she did. Yet he was the one seeing the glowing objects. He was it. She was crestfallen. â€Å"Just the Emperor’s dogs after a seagull in the Dumpster. No big deal. I fell off a porch in Pacific Heights.† â€Å"The estate,† Ray said. â€Å"How’d that go?† â€Å"Not well. The husband was grief-stricken and had a heart attack while I was there.† â€Å"You’re kidding.† â€Å"No, he just sort of became overwhelmed thinking about his wife and collapsed. I gave him CPR until the EMTs came and took him off to the hospital.† â€Å"So,† Lily said, â€Å"did you get the – uh – did you get anything special?† â€Å"What?† Charlie’s eyes went wide. â€Å"What do you mean, special? There was nothing special.† â€Å"Chill, boss, I just meant will we get the grandma’s clothes?† He’s it, Lily thought. The fucker. Charlie shook his head. â€Å"I don’t know, it’s so strange. The whole thing is so strange.† He shuddered when he said it. â€Å"Strange how?† Lily said. â€Å"Strange in a cool and dark way, or strange because you’re Asher and you’re out of it most of the time?† â€Å"Lily!† Ray snapped. â€Å"Go out front. Dust something.† â€Å"You’re not the boss of me, Ray. I’m just showing my concern.† â€Å"It’s okay, Ray.† Charlie looked like he was considering how, exactly, to define strange, and not coming up with anything that was working. Finally he said, â€Å"Well, for one thing, this woman’s estate is way out of our league. The husband said he called me because we were the first secondhand store in the phone book, but he doesn’t seem like the kind of man to do something like that.† â€Å"That’s not that strange,† Lily said. Just confess, she thought. â€Å"You said that he was grief-stricken,† Ray said, dabbing antibiotic ointment on Charlie’s cuts. â€Å"Maybe he’s doing things differently.† â€Å"Yes, and he was angry at his wife, too, for the way she died.† â€Å"How?† Lily asked. â€Å"She ate silica gel,† Charlie said. Lily looked at Ray for an explanation, because silica gel sounded techno-geeky, which was Ray’s particular field of geekdom. Ray said, â€Å"It’s the antidesiccant that they pack with electronics and other things that are sensitive to humidity.† â€Å"The ‘Do Not Eat’ stuff?!† Lily said. â€Å"Oh my God, that’s so stupid. Everyone knows you don’t eat the ‘Do Not Eat’ stuff.† Charlie said, â€Å"Mr. Mainheart was pretty broken up.† â€Å"Well, I guess so,† Lily said. â€Å"He married a complete fucktard.† Charlie cringed. â€Å"Lily, that’s not appropriate.† Lily shrugged and rolled her eyes. She hated it when Charlie dropped into Dad mode. â€Å"Okay, okay. I’m going outside to smoke.† â€Å"No!† Charlie jumped out of the chair and put himself between Lily and the back door. â€Å"Out front. From now on if you have to smoke you go out front.† â€Å"But you said that I look like a child hooker when I smoke out front.† â€Å"I’ve reassessed. You’ve matured.† Lily closed one eye to see if she could better glimpse into his soul and thus figure out his true agenda. She smoothed over her black vinyl skirt, which made a tortured, squeaking noise at the touch. â€Å"You’re trying to say I have a big butt, aren’t you?† â€Å"I absolutely am saying no such thing,† Charlie insisted. â€Å"I am simply saying that your presence in front of the store is an asset and will probably attract business from the tourists on the cable car.† â€Å"Oh. Okay.† Lily snatched her box of cloves off the desk and headed out past the counter and outside to brood, grieve really, because as much as she had hoped, she was not Death. The book was Charlie’s. That evening Charlie was watching the store, wondering why he had lied to his employees, when he saw a flash of red passing by the front window. A second later, a strikingly pale redhead came through the door. She was wearing a short, black cocktail dress and black fuck-me pumps. She strode up the aisle like she was auditioning for a music video. Her hair cascaded in long curls around her shoulders and down her back like a great auburn veil. Her eyes were emerald green, and when she saw him looking, she smiled, and stopped, some ten feet away. Charlie felt an almost painful jolt that seemed to emanate from somewhere in the area of his groin, and after a second he recognized it as an autonomic lust response. He hadn’t felt anything like that since Rachel had passed, and he felt vaguely ashamed. She was examining him, looking him over like you would examine a used car. He was sure he must be blushing. â€Å"Hi,† Charlie said. â€Å"Can I help you?† The redhead smiled again, just a little, and reached into a small black bag that he hadn’t noticed she’d been carrying. â€Å"I found this,† she said, holding up a silver cigarette case. Something Charlie didn’t see very often anymore, even in the secondhand business. It was glowing, pulsating like the objects in the back room. â€Å"I was in the neighborhood and something made me think that this belonged here.† She moved to the counter opposite Charlie and set the cigarette case down in front of him. Charlie could barely move. He stared at her, not even conscious that to avoid her eyes he was staring at her cleavage, and she appeared to be looking around his head and shoulders as if following the path of insects that were buzzing around him. â€Å"Touch me,† she said. â€Å"Huh?† He looked up, saw she was serious. She held out her hand; her nails were manicured and painted the same deep red as her lipstick. He took her hand. As soon as she touched him she pulled away. â€Å"You’re warm.† â€Å"Thanks.† In that moment he realized that she wasn’t. Her fingers had been ice-cold. â€Å"Then you’re not one of us?† He tried to think of what â€Å"us† might be? Irish? Low blood pressure? Nymphomaniac? Why did he even think that? â€Å"Us? What do you mean, ‘us’?† She backed away a step. â€Å"No. You don’t just take the weak and the sick, do you? You take anyone.† â€Å"Take? What do you mean, ‘take’?† â€Å"You don’t even know, do you?† â€Å"Know what?† Charlie was getting very nervous. As a Beta Male, he found it difficult enough to function under the attention of a beautiful woman, but she was just plain spooky. â€Å"Wait. Can you see this thing glowing?† He held out the cigarette case. â€Å"No glow. It just felt like it belonged here,† she said. â€Å"What’s your name?† â€Å"Charlie Asher. This is Asher’s.† â€Å"Well, Charlie, you seem like a nice guy, and I don’t know exactly what you are, and it doesn’t seem like you know. You don’t, do you?† â€Å"I’ve been going through some changes,† Charlie said, wondering why he felt compelled to share this at all. The redhead nodded, as if confirming something to herself. â€Å"Okay. I know what it’s like to, uh, to find yourself thrown into a situation where forces beyond your control are changing you into someone, something you don’t have an owner’s manual for. I understand what it is to not know. But someone, somewhere, does know. Someone can tell you what’s going on.† â€Å"What are you talking about?† But he knew what she was talking about. What he didn’t know was how she could possibly know. â€Å"You make people die, don’t you, Charlie?† She said it like she had worked up the courage to tell him that he had some spinach in his teeth. More of a service to him than an accusation. â€Å"How do you – ?† How did she – â€Å"Because it’s what I do. Not like you, but it’s what I do. Find them, Charlie. Backtrack and find whoever was there when your world changed.† Charlie looked at her, then at the cigarette case, then at the redhead again, who was no longer smiling, but was stepping backward toward the door. Trying to stay in touch with normal, he focused on the cigarette case and said, â€Å"I suppose I can do an appraisal – â€Å" He heard the bell over the door jingle, and when he looked up she was gone. He didn’t see her moving by the windows on either side of the door; she was just gone. He ran to the front of the store and out the door onto the sidewalk. The Mason Street cable car was just topping the hill up by California Street and he could hear the bell, there was a thin fog coming up from the Bay that threw colorful halos around the neon signs of the other businesses, but there was no striking redhead on the street. He went to the corner and looked down Vallejo, but again no redhead, just the Emperor, sitting against the building with his dogs. â€Å"Good evening, Charlie.† â€Å"Your Majesty, did you see a redhead go by here just now?† â€Å"Oh yes. Spoke to her. I’m not sure you have a chance there, Charlie, I believe she’s spoken for. And she did warn me to stay away from you.† â€Å"Why? Did she say why?† â€Å"She said that you were Death.† â€Å"I am?† Charlie said. â€Å"Am I?† His breath caught in his throat as the day played back in his head. â€Å"What if I am?† â€Å"You know, son,† the Emperor said, â€Å"I am not an expert in dealing with the fairer sex, but you might want to save that bit of information until the third date or so, after they’ve gotten to know you a little.†

Reviewing Progress Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reviewing Progress - Essay Example Listening has more to do with the mind that the ear. These changes were necessary to make because if a person does not readily listen to his peers, subordinates, higher ups etc. he will never benefit from what they are trying to say to him. A person should always listen more than he speaks. These changes have made me a successful learner because they enable to keep other's point of view before what I think and then evaluate them in a sensible and unbiased manner. It is important to listen in this world of business because if you do not listen and keep on talking, you will give away more information about yourself and your company than you intend to and others who are clever enough to keep quiet and listen to you will catch the hints from what you are saying and find an advantage from what they have heard from you. Moreover, listening in the workplace is so important if you want to learn better and be a good employee. All the time, your boss, your subordinates and your customers will be trying to tell you something. If the listening skills are developed well, it would get easy for you to accommodate everyone and solve their problems, answer their queries. Being a good listener opens ways for you to hit bright ideas for your company, the project you are working on etc. 3 Identify the transferable skills which you have as you have studied B200 and suggest how they will be of use in future study or other aspects of your work. The listening skills that I have developed in this course will be very useful to me in my future study as well as other aspects of my work because this has helped develop an important aspect of my personality and I can rely on it to help me grow more in my educational career as well as my professional career. The listening skill, once developed, helps a person throughout his life because a bad listener always fails to take the utmost advantage of every opportunity that comes his way. In future study, the listening skill will be very helpful to help me listen to my teachers in other courses and understand what they are trying to educate me about. I will not just hear them; rather I will listen to them. Moreover, in other aspects of my work, it will help me communicate better with my peers. PART B 1 Describe one activity you undertook during which you practiced your discussion skills The activity that helped me practice my discussion skills is that of negotiation. There was a negotiation activity that I took part in and in which I had to negotiate with a second party about this problem that we were both facing regarding contract terms etc. in the activity, I played the Head of the union of workers that existed in the company whereas the other party was the top management of the company. The top management was not ready to raise the wages of the workers of the union and I, being the Head, had gone to talk to them and negotiate the matter in a way through which desirable results can be brought out in favor of both the parties. In this activity, first both parties were given a time of five minutes to practice

Entitlement Progrms nd the hndicps tht go long with hving them Essay

Entitlement Progrms nd the hndicps tht go long with hving them - Essay Example Under wÐ °ivers to federÐ °l progrÐ °m rules, stÐ °tes begÐ °n imposing new requirements on recipients of sociÐ °l help. In 1996, Congress Ð °nd President Clinton scrÐ °pped the old federÐ °l entitlement progrÐ °m Ð °nd replÐ °ced it with the TÐ NF block grÐ °nt. With this lÐ °ndmÐ °rk end to entitlement cÐ °me Ð ° lifetime limit on the receipt of welfÐ °re benefits. Further, recipients fÐ °ce increÐ °singly strict requirements, such Ð °s mÐ °ndÐ °ted pÐ °rticipÐ °tion in work Ð °ctivities, Ð °s Ð ° condition of receiving Ð °id. NoncompliÐ °nce with these requirements cÐ °n leÐ °d to severe finÐ °nciÐ °l penÐ °lties, including terminÐ °tion of Ð °ssistÐ °nce. Ð ll these chÐ °nges mÐ °de welfÐ °re less Ð °ttrÐ °ctive to would-be recipients. Other policy chÐ °nges increÐ °sed the relÐ °tive Ð °ttrÐ °ctiveness of work compÐ °red to welfÐ °re. MÐ °ny stÐ °tes Ð °llowed fÐ °milies with jobs to keep more of their eÐ °rnings, mÐ °k ing it eÐ °sier to combine work Ð °nd welfÐ °re. Ð dditionÐ °l funds were mÐ °de Ð °vÐ °ilÐ °ble to reduce the cost of child cÐ °re. Ð nd the EITC progrÐ °m expÐ °nded considerÐ °bly, creÐ °ting Ð ° credit of up to $4,140 for Ð ° fÐ °mily with two children in 2002.

Fatima Chooljian and the X-ray Patient Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Fatima Chooljian and the X-ray Patient - Essay Example He might have said that if somebody is as particular about practicing religion as the Muslim radiographer supposedly was considering the fact that she wore Hijab at the workplace, he/she must not be in such professions that impart the need for close encounters between members of opposite genders. Irrespective of whatever the older patient discusses about his initial thoughts or perceptions about his encounter with the Muslim radiographer, there is great likelihood of his discussion going in favor of the Muslim radiographer since the commencement of the discussion upon Jesus. He might say that bringing up the topic of Jesus for discussion was very odd at that moment considering that he was having an X-ray done from a stranger who was a Muslim radiographer, but in spite of that, the Muslim radiographer’s response to his question and the discussion that followed was very gentle and meaningful. He might even appreciate the fact that the Muslim radiographer said, â€Å"I may be wr ong, sir, but that’s how I understand it† because this reflects that the Muslim radiographer was not offensive or criticizing in her response to the older patient’s refusal to accept her definition of Jesus.

Strategies for Effective Team Building Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Strategies for Effective Team Building - Essay Example It must be noted at the outset that language barriers, cultural differences, and goal-setting strategies vary across the globe. Assembling a viable team, therefore, must proceed on the basis that these teams will be of an intercultural nature. Local hires with business contacts will be better able to assist in our global growth than outsiders with a lack of local or regional business acumen and connections. Staffing should be a cooperative effort between a human resource manager in the office and a local staffing organization. Potential team members will be screened by the local company and then interviewed at the regional office in more depth. Most of the sales force ought to be individuals from the region with a few senior members of the team to establish and implement the subsequent team-building tools and to oversee the larger operation of the regional office. Once this team is in place, it is necessary to establish and implement a regime of team-building tools which will encourage a set of common goals and reduce potential instances of miscommunication. Intercultural communication remains a significant issue for businesses and non-commercial organizations around the world. It remains a significant issue because miscommunication and related misunderstandings can negatively affect an organization’s pursuit of its objectives (Organizational Cultures, 2000).   The notions of diversity and multicultural teams, in the context of team development, are central considerations.   There are both demonstrated advantages and disadvantages associated with multicultural teams (Stahl, 2005).   The goal ought to be to emphasize the advantages while at the same time making organizational adjustments to better understand the disadvantages and thereby convert them into advantages.

Depression Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Depression - Essay Example The major concentration of noradrenergic neurons relates to the locus ceruleus existing within the middle brain. Noradrenaline is essential in inhibiting and stimulating various emotional responses such as anxiety, stress, aggression, and sleep patterns. On the other hand, serotonin regulates pain, anxiety, pleasure, arousal, and sleep behavior during the sleep-wake cycle. In an attempt to manage extreme cases or incidents of depression, medical and psychological practitioners adhere to a set of standard practice process. First, there is need to focus on psychiatric management. Psychiatric management involves the establishment and maintenance of therapeutic alliance and evaluation of the patient’s safety. As a process, it enhances the coordination of patients’ care, monitoring of the patient’s psychiatric status and eventual improvement of the treatment adherence. The process is also fundamental to the provision of appropriate education to the patient and family. During the acute phase, there is need to focus on the utilization of appropriate treatment modalities such as somatic therapies, pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy while adhering to the condition of the patient. In addition, there is a substantial need for medical practitioners and nurses to determine clinical factors that might influence treatment process. The standard pr actice for management of the disease within my community adheres to the state and national practices with the intention of enhancing effectiveness and efficiency in the achievement of improved health conditions of the target audiences. There are diverse characteristics and resources for patients to manage depression effectively and efficiently. First, patients should access information that helps in managing depression. In addition, the patients who manage depression effectively and efficiently have the potentiality of enhancing their