EXAMPLE PAGE - EBOOKS - THE PROMISE OF THE TEA GODS - Flipbook - Page 11
CHAPTER
ONE
prelude to a dream
——April 13
Again, Soo-kang couldn’t sleep. On the other side of his sixth-floor window, the neon city blinked as the black sky rolled endlessly on—flowing, like a dark sea, then lifting him up and tossing him onto a shore
with two names: Paradise, for the man with a reason to write a love
song. Hell, for the man without one.
Yawning, he looked at his watch. Three o’clock. Such a wretched
hour to be awake, he thought. I should be dreaming my way to dawn,
not sitting here waiting for it. Hoping for it. Wanting it to find me, erase
the night, fill me with sunlight . . . His heart moaned. He picked up a
book, then put it down. He looked at his guitar, then looked away. He
looked at his right foot. He looked at his hands. His thoughts left footprints on the somber shore that filled the room. He lit a white candle.
Leaned back. And sighed.
Why do I feel like I’m being pulled toward something? . . . I hate not
knowing what the something is. So frustrating. But the pull keeps getting stronger, so I keep looking for the mysterious-something it wants
me to find—which is like searching for an invisible needle in an invisible haystack. Odd that it feels so close, like it’s right here—hidden, out
