CHAPTER 37
Even after several weeks living with the Sterns, the ticking from the stately grandfather clock made Mee-Kyong cringe each time she tried to fall asleep. The Round Robin had been noisy, customers coming and going at all hours of the night, and the pedestrians and taxi cabs polluting the days when Mee-Kyong tried to rest. Here at the Sterns’, that incessant tick was the only sound to be heard at night, lying to its listeners that all was right in the world as it lulled the household to sleep with its deceptive consistency.
Mee-Kyong gritted her teeth and wrapped her arms over her head so they covered her ears. Why did everything at the Sterns’ have to be so tidy? Life wasn’t tidy. And no matter how serenely that old clock clicked away time’s passage, she wouldn’t let it fool he
