"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...

When you see a deer you're supposed to slam the brakes. Reduce speed as much as possible. After that, if a  collision is inevitable. You have to let go of the brakes. If you keep the brakes on the front of the car slopes down. And the deer will go...

The tests showed neither conclusive evidence for good or bad. Basically he wasn't going to die from it anytime soon. But the  doctor s weren't willing to say that he would not die from it. He could still die from it. The numbers were still high. But they weren't so...

"Do you think they understood?"

"Yes. Walter might act dumb. But he's actually just as sharp as Christian."

"Okay good."

"That doesn't mean we are off the hook?"

"Oh?"

"No. Even though he got the message. Doesn't mean they'll be able to deliver."

"Should we consult a different--"

"No. We can't have this coming back to us....

Wednesday morning, quiet at the office . The junior employees had yet to arrive. Usually they'd have one of their playlists blaring through the Sonos by now. There would be chatter here and there. The occasional outburst of emotion used in response to something another person said. Contemporary small talk.

This...