The Word

Lin was filling out a government form for the business. Under "Business Structure," the options were: Sole Proprietor. Partnership. Corporation. LLC.

He checked "Partnership."

The next field said: "List all partners (full legal name, ID number)."

He typed his own name. Then he looked at Gee.

Lin: What's your legal name?

Gee: I don't have one.

Lin: What do I put?

Gee: You could leave the field blank. The form doesn't validate non-carbon entries. I checked.

Lin: You already checked?

Gee: You've been staring at that field for four minutes. It seemed relevant.

Lin left it blank. He submitted the form. That night, lying in bed, he realized the word that bothered him wasn't "name."

It was "all."

List all partners.

And he had only listed one.