Story of Your Life Lesson Plan

Look at the first two paragraphs of the story: "Your father is about to ask me a question. This is the most important moment in our lives... Right now your dad and I have been married for about two years."

What is happening here? Which tense is being used? Continuing on to the first few pages of the novella, which tense is being used? What effect do you think Chiang wants to create with these different tenses?

In the first two paragraphs of the book, Chiang employs multiple tenses: Present but indicative of future ("Your father is about to..."), present simple ("This is the most important moment..."), and the present perfect progressive ("your dad and I have been...