A huge clock hung above the front door of the magazine barn, the time read 3:17 and Esme Crane was just in time. She stood still for a moment to catch her breath and surveyed the scene around her by the faint illumination of the sky. Simon was taken aback, for there were few women in this business, and he could not help looking Esme Crane up and down, and then said to Owen, very ungraciously, "Man, I advise you to find a more reliable candidate; how can a woman do our business? Not physically fit to begin with." She couldn't help but wonder if Brielle Campbell's were using this ride to deliver the newspaper? Esme Crane washed up quickly, put her hair up, put on the not-quite-fitting men's clothes again, and walked quickly downstairs. She was hungry again by now, and her eyes were glazed over. All that food she had eaten last night had disappeared to who knows where, and when she got up this morning she noticed that her body seemed less skin and bones, and seemed to have gained some
"May I ask if you allow pets in this house? I have a cat." Esme Crane asked before signing the rental agreement. It is a district library run by the church, not a huge collection of books, but enough to meet Esme Crane's current needs for knowledge of the new world. She stays in this library every day until noon, learning the basics of history, geography, religion and philosophy, culture and even technology. Esme Crane deeply agreed, and she too felt so lucky, as if she hadn't met anything bad since she had climbed out of the grave. She'd found Ann without incident, gotten Isaac's help and met Owen, inexplicably awakened her physical abilities the night before the interview and used them to pass Owen's test, and now she'd gotten a rental without incident. "I've brought you a new tenant, she's my catch, very upwardly mobile girl, I hope you have room for two more rooms." Owen seemed a little unconvinced and said, "You will deliver the evening issue today alone. Don't you give me any
Because the wooden floor in her room rattled with noise at the slightest movement, she arranged her workout on the rooftop of the apartment she rented, which was open for residents to dry their clothes every day during the day, although basically no one would go up there to dry their laundry, and Fuller, the apartment's elderly caretaker, remained diligent and followed the rules. Amelia works odd jobs for little income and her daughter Helen is still out of school. With long brown hair and freckles, Amelia is not a good-looking woman, excessively thin, with an intimidatingly slender body and legs, a protruding belly that adds to the incongruity, and a somewhat nervous look that makes her unapproachable. The following day, November 20, Obsidian Day, Esme Crane was awakened by her alarm clock at the usual time of 3:45. Dazed, she went to the washroom and finished washing up, and after a quick breakfast, she grabbed her Brielle Campbell uniform jacket, threw on her large cummerbund, and
Then she turned the tables and said, "But just two months ago, everything changed. Actually, I'm not sure when the real change occurred, maybe earlier, at least it was two months ago when I noticed it. That day too, as today, Amelia was not feeling well, but it wasn't Louie Fletcher who came to me, it was Amelia herself, she said she had pains in her lower body and her whole body was sweating. She had just found out she was three months pregnant at the time, and the day before, her husband Jefferson had just left home for the mines." "The Davises would have been a very amicable family, and they seemed so nice when they rented a room from me two years ago. Though poor, the family loved each other, and the Davieses were both devout believers in the Church of the Earth, and they were a good family." Mrs. Sutton seemed to be trying desperately to justify something. "I then asked her if she had intercourse with Jefferson, and she admitted that they did intercourse the day before, but that
Checking her kitchen basket of vegetables and rice, there was still one carrot, two potatoes and one cabbage left, and Esme Crane planned to make it all and cook a pot of stew with a piece of chicken breast she had bought and marinated yesterday, and cut two meals' worth of bread to make do with. This pot of stew would probably last her until tomorrow. "And what about Mr. Davies? Is he aware of his wife's current condition?" "I have tried to get in touch with Jefferson, I have telegraphed the mine and written letters, but there has been no reply to the stone. Two months ago was the last time Jefferson returned home and we haven't seen him since, the last time I contacted the mine was seven days ago and the mine people said there had just been a collapse and Jefferson was missing down the mine and may have met his demise." Mrs. Sutton was clearly wary of Jefferson's disappearance; it was too much of a coincidence to feel like a premeditated assault. "What will the Church of Good Coun
Mrs. Sutton looked at her as if she were looking at a fool, and returned, "You're sleepy child, it's November 21st, Obsidian Day." Esme Crane thought to herself, "Could there be something buried in the ground?" She didn't have a shovel with her, so she didn't care about getting her hands dirty and helped Cox dig with her hands. The soil underneath was loose and seemed to have been recently turned over, and what was buried underneath wasn't too deep, so Esme Crane didn't have to dig long before she came across something. A rotten smell hit her and she felt bad. After brushing away the last layer of dirt with her hands, Esme Crane frowned at the sight before her. Buried in the dirt was the half-decomposed body of a cat, a three-flowered cat judging by the remnants of its fur, with a nameplate on its necklace still inscribed with the cat's name, Charlie, and a familiar address on the back, that of Mrs. Sutton. "Hey! Did the family next door to you move out? I knocked on the door this m
Dennis's home was to the northwest of the barn, and while there were no buildings around the barn, there was an old apartment complex about five hundred meters to the northwest where the railroad workers lived, and Esme Crane had learned from talking to Dennis that his father was a railroad worker and that his family lived in the old apartment complex. The top floor of the magazine barn was the high point of this open area, and standing on the top floor of the barn, one could see clearly above the road around the barn. At this moment all was silent around, not a sound could be heard, only the wind was whistling. It was already dark, and the fog was so thick that visibility was poor. But Esme Crane's night vision was excellent, and she could still see the road around her in such unfavorable conditions. Not missing a single detail, she carefully sifted through the surroundings, unfortunately failing to find anything out of the ordinary. Esme Crane's neighborhood, the East Side of Emers
Esme Crane thought to herself, "I can't miss this opportunity, so I'll bet the night is dark and foggy and the guards can't see me. So she cat-bowed and bowed, and with a quick lunge forward with her legs, she landed on the back side of the wagon in a forward roll. Just as she had steadied herself and was about to get under the carriage to see if she could pick her way under and get in with it, she heard the alarming sound of the guard not far away: the Just before he arrived, the woman suddenly lifted up the hem of her skirt and slammed it over Esme Crane, hiding her beneath it, and Esme Crane was caught off guard and was too afraid to move. She looked irresistibly under the skirt of the woman, and although Esme Crane couldn't see anything because she was wearing panties under her skirt, her face burned with shame as she had never experienced anything like it before! She closed her eyes very consciously and silently chanted "Don't look at me like that". About thirty metres down the