Night Support

by Corin Cummings

A former journalist as well as a Pushcart-Prize-nominated fiction writer, Cummings brings to life the world of American expatriates in East Africa. Alex and Lynn, the central characters in the novella, have come to Dar es Salaam with a mixture of conflicting desires and expectations.

Alex, who has never before experienced the third world, struggles to adapt and becomes resentful of his own helplessness. Lynn, an experienced aid worker, hopes the journey will bring them closer together, but she finds herself increasingly disheartened with her boyfriend's paranoia and inability to cope.

Ultimately life in Dar tests much more than their relationship. They discover that poverty is indeed a great equalizer, but not just for the poor. Despite their best intentions, and even their understanding of their own identities, they are merely targets in the eyes of some. They are 'haves' in a land of 'have-nots'.

"Night Support" is cast chillingly in the shadow of the U.S. embassy bombing in Dar es Salaam and explores the concept of personal choice in a chaotic world.

44 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 22, 2013

About the author

Corin Cummings (b. 1971) grew up in Vermont. In 1989 he was part of a performing group that toured parts of the USSR, and was among the first American students to stay with Soviet host families. He was in Russia when the Berlin wall came down. He returned to Russia in 1994 and lived in Tomsk, Siberia, where he worked at one of the country's first independent TV stations. Cummings graduated from Marlboro College and the School for International Training in 1995. He wrote an honors thesis entitled "Shades of Journalism: An apprenticeship in Literary Journalism." He interned and worked briefly at the Columbia Journalism Review in New York City. We worked as a freelance journalist and published in a number of newspapers and small magazines.

Cummings took a job at a small Internet agency in Portland, OR, in 1997. Within 6 months he ran the company's largest client, Visa.com. Two years later Cummings moved to Toronto, ON, to open an office for the agency to serve its second largest client, Molson.com. Cummings gave up on journalism and decided to concentrate on fiction. In 2001 he took up the offer of an expat friend to go live and write in Tanzania for several months. Since 2004 Cummings has worked as a freelance Internet business consultant in order to afford more time to write. He was married in 2005. His first son was born in 2008, his second in 2011. He is a stay-at-home dad. He continues to write and lives in Montreal, QC.