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 12.8

The meter on the cab spun into its final resting spot.
“Fifty-three twenty,” the driver barked.
“I can see that,” the passenger grunted. She dropped three twenties in his palm. “Still don’t know where Shoals Court Drive is?”
“Sorry, ma’am. It’s a big development. Every section has its own name. I ain’t studied the whole map.”
“Some cabbie. [...]

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Segment 11.3

Maybe it was the scent of the coconut oil or the glare of the sun, but more likely it was the sight of all that flesh barely contained by tiny strips of cloth going by the term “bathing suit” that caused Jamie to lose his focus. Petra restarted him from a dead stop several times [...]

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Segment 10.2

Screeches and flashes from the door alarm filled the hallway, bringing a flock of men and women in white uniforms flying out of patient rooms and offices. Petra pushed through the crowd and called “What happened here?”
“Mr. Tobin bolted again.” It was a female resident who spoke, rather than any of the nursing staff.
“You,” Petra [...]

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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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