Anthony finds me sitting on the floor with a circuit board between my hands ( Read more... )

It is perhaps unsurprising that eventually my daily run takes me past the house where Joshua’s car is registered. My subconscious knows that I’m particularly dense and responds accordingly ( Read more... )

Al sends me out to look at the Corvair, come up with a figure on restoring it, and I’m only too happy to comply. I don’t even look at the owner, focus instead entirely on the car. The engine needs to be rebuilt from the ground up and if we could find a replacement, it might be cheaper, but I don’t hold out much hope for finding one. Otherwise, ( Read more... )

I’m half under the hood of a Camry when I feel a tingle of magic from somewhere outside. I jerk up, immediately hit my head on the hood, and back away from the car while I try to figure out simultaneously who is wielding the magic and whether I’ve managed to give myself a concussion ( Read more... )

When the dust settles, I realize that the phages didn't stop with magic and went for my shoulder too. I probe at it gently, discover that poking hurts. Suddenly, I hear a sound from a corner, a strangled, choking cry. I look up, my wound forgotten, scanning the dim corners ( Read more... )

I don't know how it happens that I wind up telling the newly-awakened how it is, but I've been in this position a dozen times. The script never changes.

"It's alright. You're not crazy."

"There are more like you... like us."

"I understand."I have about an ounce of empathy to go with my tuppence-worth of social skills. I can never tell if they ( Read more... )

The battered man on the threshold triggers other memories.

Face down against a table. There's a curious sensation of my back open to the air.

Bloody hand prints in the snow.

Cold winters and colder welcomes."Oy, you alright?" I ask. I resist the urge to nudge him with my toe and instead squat beside him to mutter the words that allow me to see ( Read more... )

"I found a job, you see," I tell her ( Read more... )

After some research, I'm convinced that no one is going to try to acquire the demesne. For one, the land it's on is public. For another, despite having been there once before, it takes me three tries, a number of wrong turns, and being threatened by a redneck with a shotgun before I find it again ( Read more... )

I finally splurge after a couple of interviews go well and pay the money for an Extended Stay that has dropped their rates low in hopes that someone, anyone, will give them cash. The shower has hot water practically forever and I revel in it. My stack of creature comforts also include a real bed and a tiny kitchenette that is still larger than the ( Read more... )