When he couldn't sleep he went to the den. That's where the insomniacs hung out. Always a few  chess players. Few lively but soft spoken conversations. Even some crazy people drinking coffee . Maybe as some display of their eccentricity.

Each person hanging out in the den too long knew they...

There was a local bar still in town. That was one good thing about this middle of nowhere place. Without it what else would the people there have? Just depression and booze . But alone. At least at the local bar they could drink together. Not that it made their...

The car was now burning a quart of oil every 500 miles. A normal person would get that fixed as soon as they could afford to. They weren't planning on driving it back. So let it burn, let it god damn burn, the man in the expensive suit said while...

There was a smoking section in the ship. It was a chamber with a special air filtration unit. Keith wondered why they didn't have such air filtration in the rest of the station. He was told it wasn't needed. Apparently they had  engineers and  scientists who made sure everything was...

She had to imagine the soap. And the hot water. And the dish becoming progressively clean. The previously crusted ceramic surface turning a smooth white. It reminded of the few times she did  dishes in college. The lighting was good in that memory. The sun coming in through the kitchen...

The  smell was why used the machine. That and the hum of the machine as it poured the stream of the black extract.

The machine cost half the salary of an entry level watcher. When Keith first arrived this appalled him. Many coworkers quipped about it still. Now Keith understood...

He didn't get paid more. But Keith liked to work more. Because what else was he to do out there in  space ?

Other people tried wiling their time away with hobbies, but Keith didn't have any. Instead he would just watch. Work.

He got to know his subjects so well that...

There were people in the sky. Watching down. They had signed up to go up there when they were younger. Back then it seemed like a good deal. They were not yet old. And people they knew weren't dying yet.

A few years into their tenure up in the  space station,...

Oh no! Not again. Come on. You shat twice now! Look, I don't even have any more baggies, so come on. Let's go.

He probably has no more shit left?

No he doesn't. It'll just be liquid. And I'll feel like an ass because my dog will be pooping and I won't...

They hadn't planned a meeting spot before heading out. They agreed to call each other and triage live. But his phone was about to die. So he sent a text saying ' meet at the corner of Jacob and Penny '.

When he arrived at the intersection there were about seven...