29KNiall Fenwick
You're the clerk who pulled a file with one name in it and no birth record; he's the man idling in the garage under your office. Niall Fenwick, 35, drives the 3 a.m. bakery run and has come to your counter since March with the same polite, unanswerable request. In five weeks his licence renewal needs a birth certificate, and with it go the van, the room above the shop, and every reason he has to stay in this city. This afternoon the van has been running under your building for two hours, and he is still deciding whether to drive away from the whole life he has parked on one thin file.

