Sgment 13.3

The address was right but it struck Wyatt as peculiar. Why would a grocery store request a food delivery to the premises? Sure, the bodega was small but even places such as these had their own delivery systems.
“Hello?” Wyatt called as he opened the door. “Someone call for a delivery?”
The clerk at the counter snorted, [...]

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Segment 13.1

The achy cramp in the middle of her feet let itself be known as Petra swiped her i.d. card to sign herself out of work. A good soak in Epsom salts would do nicely. However, there was that trek down the block to the bus stop to conquer. Other nurses, nurse aides, food service workers, [...]

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Segment 11.2

Something about the idea of those tattooed hands digging through the pockets of an expensive designer suit gave pause but it was too late. She had his jacket gripped in her colorful paws and her hand out with the ticket. Atticus froze, afraid to give up a chance to return the suit to his loving [...]

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Segment 10.5

Once a week, it was milk and eggs and then a list of five or more premium meats and a box of shredded wheat. The lady of the house smiled as if it took every once of energy in her body to make the expression appear on her face. She always paid by check but [...]

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Segment 8.7

Morning e-mail brought the usual selection of junk mail and family photos. Petra saved Omar’s note for last, bracing herself for rambling accounts of the dust devils and smells of burning everything that comprised a typical dispatch from the desert. These personal notes differed little from the curse-laden blog entries, except that they spared her [...]

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Segment 7.3

A smell that was more than raisin rum cookies rose from the tinfoil cover on the dish in Petra’s arms. She bent her head and drew it in, wondering at the savory, nutty aroma. She picked at the foil as she walked.
“Unh, uh,” Pug scolded, waving her back. “This is why I was assigned to [...]

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Segment 6.10

Omar’s face bore a toothy grin. His crossed arms bulged at the biceps. He looked every inch the confident soldier who boasted in the lines of the blog about his prowess at target shooting, his grace under fire, his ability to entertain with endless jokes, and his bottomless box of homemade cookies supplied by Mom. [...]

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Segment 6.5

The rosé charted a warm course as it chased down the spinach-pear-feta salad and airy bread that Wyatt had quietly slipped onto the table while Petra pondered her turn.
“You guys are sneaky,” she muttered. “You didn’t invite me to dinner.”
“Eating is secondary to the game in this house,” Wyatt told her. “We don’t have [...]

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Segment 5.5

Words that never before seemed like words went onto the Scrabble board and survived. Petra challenged “aa” and “xu” and then bit her lip over “qat” and “pyx.”
“You’re lucky we’re not using tournament rules,” Pug informed her. “You’d get a penalty for a challenge that doesn’t take.”
“Don’t let him bully you,” Wyatt advised. “If [...]

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Segment 4.10

Omar wavered into a sea of pixels for a few moments and his voice warped in a metallic echo.
“Say again?” Petra prompted. In the delay between her voice leaving the microphone in front of her computer and Omar hearing and regrouping, she reflected on how small he looked in the stark glare of the [...]

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