So there Annie was, standing at the screen door, looking out at the Suits approaching the porch. She switched on the outside lights, and the Suits, three of them, stopped when they noticed Annie in the doorway. I could see that she was completely unfazed by these strangers in her yard.

One of the Suits spoke up in perfect English. He was almost a foot taller than the others. “Hello, very sorry to bother you but we misplaced a phone and we’re wondering if anyone might have seen it.” They all started to walk toward the front steps.

“What kind of phone was it?” Annie’s question was followed by a CLICK. She had locked the screen door— very smart.

The noise of the CLICK stopped the Suits dead in their tracks; it looked like they didn’t know what to do. Then they quickly huddled into a circle and started talking in Chinese among themselves.

When they had reached some sort of consensus, they faced Annie, and the one Suit spoke again. “It was a smart phone . . . very new.” The other suits nodded and repeated, “Yes, new . . . new.”

Annie was friendly but cautious. “No, we haven’t found anything. Where are you from? Are you lost?”

These questions sent the Suits into another huddled conference. They started to get into a bit of an argument and then the tall Suit stopped the discussion and turned to face Annie.

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