She heard the news from Sarah from HR.

"Your mom is ill."

She knew the facts. They couldn't get her down there. It was easy getting people up. Getting people back to earth. Harder. Sarah didn't need to spell it out. Marianna's mom would probably be dead before they could get her...

The man walked into the  cafe thinking about his kids. They would be the age now where they would hang out at these places. If only he could talk to them. But he couldn't. He didn't have the time anymore.

It was a crazy deal. Years ago. He had asked another...

The man with kids proposed a deal. Since the other man who did nothing all day had  time on his hands. Why not give some of it to him?

"That sounds so crazy I might be open to it. What will you give me in return?"

"Money."

"Isn't that just a job?"

"You're right....

The end of summer, the air was thick. Always like this. It could be night and you'd feel comfortable walking around in shorts and a tanktop.

There was always a party. Someone had a keg. Now people didn't seem to drink as much. Not people her age.

A  small town felt like...

"What the hell took you so long?"

"You won't fucking believe. I almost. I almost hit a bunch of fucking kids!"

"You did?"

He hadn't. But he didn't want to rephrase or explain what had actually happened.

"I took their  frisbee though. Look."

"Now why did you do that?"

"I don't know," James shrugged without looking...

Cal understood not why Keith went to the machines. Why not enjoy the morning coffee at the cafe?

"I never enjoyed those on earth either."

"Cafes?"

"Right. Always thought they were. Fake."

Next time Cal went to the cafe in  Spacecity he wondered whether he himself thought it felt fake. It was obviously fake....

They put us two to a room. Optimally they would give each person their own isolation space. But they said people went crazy being alone. So they gave us one other person to be with. My guy was from the middle of nowhere.

He kept mentioning how warm it was. Warmer...

"Hey!"

There were screams. Muffled.

"Hey! You fucking asshole!"

"HEYYYYY!"

The youngish man took off his ear buds. Non-chalantly looked over at the screaming man. Why did that face look so familiar? It wasn't just the face actually. Something about the way he was moving. The man outside was bouncing from one feet to...

I got the rollie on my arm and i'm pourin Shawn Don,
and I roll the best weed cause I got it goin on.

After he hung up the phone that's what he swore was playing in the background. Where the hell was his boss? Why would he be listening to such...

He liked the color that the agency picked out initially.  blue .

But nobody else seemed to. Shawn wasn't sure whether they really disliked the blue... or if they were pretending not to.

It wasn't "their" color people said. My God, Shawn thought to himself. Is this what he had clawed himself...