FARAWAY, NEARBY
Lightning flashed, doing its white-hot paparazzi dance, and Tika jumped — not in reaction to the too-close strike, but to the pale, gaunt ghost of her own reflection.
I’m dead already, she thought.
Then the darkness returned, and she was able to peer outside again, though there were only two things within eyeshot which provided any interest: the DISABILITY CLINIC sign below, banging back and forth in the storm, and the leviathan weeping willow just beyond her window, the branches of which scraped the glass.
She'd gotten nothing but bad news all day, and her head was a cacophony of voices: No, I’m afraid the procedure out of Germany has encountered some setbacks ... Yes, some of the test subjects have regained mobility ... No, I don’t think it will become viable in your
