Put simply, Ted Chiang is one of our generation’s greatest speculative fiction writers. This may seem like hyperbole, but we believe it to be true: Reading Ted Chiang will make you a better person, on a level that no self-help book ever can. His stories force us to engage with our possible futures — and our possible selves — in ways that are all but unparalleled in the field. This story, which originally appeared in Exhalation, a collection the New York Times named one of the ten best books of 2019, and is now out in paperback, is a perfect example. We’re thrilled to make it available online for the first time. Enjoy.
Nat could have used a cigarette, but company policy forbade smoking in the store, so all she could do was get more and more nervous. Now it was a quarter to four, and Morrow still hadn’t returned. She wasn’t sure how she’d explain things if he didn’t get back in time. She sent him a text asking where he was.
A chime sounded as the front door opened, but it wasn’t Morrow. A guy with an orange sweater came in. “Hello? I have a prism to sell?”
Nat put her phone away. “Let’s take a look at it.”
He came over and put the prism on the counter; it was a new model, the size of a briefcase. Nat slid it around so she could see the numeric readout at one end: the activation date was only six months ago…
