All Our Names Read Online Free PDF

feeling so well myself.
    Isaac loved that. “That man is something special,” he said over and over. He said it was proof that there were still real revolutionaries around, “not only rich boys waiting to be government ministers.”
    The day after that message appeared, we scoured the campus in search of others. We found six more that day, five the next. On the third, every one had been painted over and replaced with a handwritten poster that said: “It Is a Crime Against the Country to Deface Our University Walls.”
    “Soon,” Isaac said, “everything will be a Crime Against the Country.”
    “I’m sorry,” I told him, “but it’s already a crime to say that.”
    He held out his arms to be arrested.
    “We should start practicing for this,” he said.
    The following Monday, Isaac arrived on campus with a dozen fliers he had made, using stolen paper and markers. When I askedhim where the paper came from, he clasped my shoulder and said, “Sometimes revolutionaries have to take what they need. Some take food, and guns. I take paper.”
    We christened that afternoon the start of our paper revolution.
    “Our first act of war,” Isaac said, “is to hang these up where everyone can see them.”
    The fliers contained a new list of Crimes Against the Country.
    “Why should they be the only ones who get to say stupid things?” he said.
    That first flier listed four.
    It is a Crime Against the Country to fail to report any Crimes committed Against the Country.
    It is a Crime Against the Country not to know what is a Crime Against the Country.
    It is a Crime Against the Country to ask what is a Crime Against the Country.
    It is a Crime Against the Country to think or say there are too many Crimes Against the Country.
    Isaac watched as I read and admired his work.
    “I’m no poet like you,” he said. “Just a poor comedian.”
    “We need one more,” I said.
    Isaac handed me his marker.
    I wrote the fifth and final crime on each of the fliers before showing it to him:
    It is a Crime Against the Country to read this.
    He put his arm around my shoulder and kissed the top of my head.
    “Together,” he said, “we’re remarkable.”
    We waited for midday, when the university shut down until the hottest part of the afternoon had passed, and then quickly posted the fliers on the entrances to the main buildings on campus. Isaac signed each one after we had taped it to the door: “The Paper Revolution Has Begun.”
    When we finished, I suggested we go home. I still thought like someone afraid of ruining his chances of becoming a student.
    Isaac shook his head no. “They’ll be gone by the end of the day, and we’ll have missed out on all the fun.”
    Over the course of that afternoon, we stood outside of every building, Isaac right next to the doors, me a few feet behind him. It was better than we had hoped. A small rotating crowd of students hovered around each entrance. At one point someone tried to take one of the fliers down, but he was quickly pushed to the back of the crowd.
    The next morning, when we returned to campus, the fliers and the paper revolution were all the students could talk about.

HELEN
    I knew my time with Isaac was temporary. His visa granted him one year, and we never discussed the possibility of extending it. I did, despite my best efforts to stay grounded, sometimes imagine that one day we’d drive together to City Hall, nicely dressed, carrying simple silver bands picked up from the town’s largest general store in our pockets, so that we could declare our marriage in front of a judge, in the hope that by doing so we would be able to make something permanent, a shared life which, as the saying goes, no man or woman could tear asunder. I imagined us living on a large farm, far away from any town and family, with only chickens and acres of corn for company.
    “How would you feel about living on a farm?” I asked him.
    “That depends. Are you there with me?”
    “Maybe if you were