Excerpt: The Five Corners

The old man was crazy.
“Only compared to some. To a king anyone is a beggar, but to a poor man everyone is a king. To a sane man, I’m mad, to a mad man, I’m perfectly sane,” the man answered, like he had somehow…heard…his…thoughts…? “And, for the record, son,” the man added in a highly educated, “matter-of-factually” voice, “you’re old enough to be my ancestor.”