Phone Home

_ "Thank you, Fran." Her best friend and her roommate had been there to welcome her in her hospital room after she'd woken up. It had made her glad to be back._ _ "For what?" She'd tried to sit up in her hospital bed. Harder than it looked._ _ "For...

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Let Them Eat Cake

Fran had made it a habit to always make sure that her pets' treats would be kept in a place where her pets couldn't reach them. It'd been a safety precaution, for their own good. One day, somehow, though, she'd made a mistake and left them somewhere...

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Cockroach Motherfuckers

"There's two kinds of work in the world." Fran's roommate was a communist. "First, there's work-that-stays." She was also a writer. "Then, there's work-that-goes-away." The jackal didn't write, herself, but she'd asked about what made her roommate...

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The Spirit of the Law

"We are spirits in a material world." (The Police, Ghost In The Machine) "She was hooked up to one of those machines, you know?" Fran had nodded. "Hardest thing I ever had to do," her best friend had shaken her head. "Well, they're battle...

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Dead To Me

"Got a little soul The world is a cold, cold place to be Want a little warmth But who's going to save a little warmth for me...?" (Vampire Weekend, Unbelievers) "Hey, Fran...?" Fran's best friend's voice had sounded shaky on the other end of the...

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Scorched Earth

"À la claire fontaine m'en allai promener (I went for a walk to the clear blue fountain today) J'ai trouvé l'eau si belle que je m'y suis baignée (The water was so pretty I had to take a dip) Tu as le coeur à rire, moi, je l'ai à pleurer (Your heart...

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The Master's Tools

"Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things." (Terry Pratchett) "So these robot masters," Fran's roommate had asked her as she'd been playing Mega Man, "they're supposed to have been built to do just this one job, right?" The jackal had...

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Out Of Mind

"Where is my mind? Way out in the water See it swimmin'..." (The Pixies, Where Is My Mind?) It'd been one of those mornings on which Fran just hadn't felt like getting up at all. What good could come from it? She hadn't been able to picture...

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