Chapter Twenty
Change is inevitable. Change for the better is not.
–Dr. Abigail Rosen, The F Word: Femininity in the New Century
Mitch woke with a start to fuzzy queasiness that was part pain and part painkiller. Her T-shirt and the waistband of her shorts were soaked with sweat, and she pushed wet hair from her forehead while scanning the living room to orient herself. This medicine made her dreams both real and raucous. In the one she’d just woken from, her arm had dangled from her shoulder, useless but without pain, while Carol walked by her with slow deliberateness, saying something into her cell phone about a cash offer for The Device, never once looking in Mitch’s direction in the eternity it took her to pass.
Her shirt was hard to peel off with only one useful arm, but she strug
