“Late again! Dammit. Dammit to hell. God I hate mornings!” Markie muttered as she punched the wheel and the gas pedal simultaneously, kicking up dirt behind her beat-up used-to-be-white Chevy as she fish-tailed down the yellow sand road.

Mentally, she mapped her route to work. Down Marshland road, past the Kyger plant on the left, left on Leg’O’Mutton Road, God, I hope there’s no fender-benders anywhere! Halfway around the circle, straight through the light to the restaurant on the corner, its classic Apple sign muted for the town rules. Shit, I’m not going to make it, I’m gonna get fired…

Half of her said, Great, I hate this job, but the other half… She leaned, glanced into the rear-view mirror at her reddened, naked eyes.

A glimpse of bleary eyes in the foggy bathroom mirror as she drew breath and cracked knuckles, tried to snatch the wedding band from its spiral toward the drain. Her husband yelled from the bedroom, “You’re late again, you stupid bitch…!”

Her lips became a taut line.

That’s me, all right. Just cling to the worthless, spirit-killing crap of life.

Survive.

So maybe she’d get fired. She would miss everybody. Especially the other waitresses, Carla and Jenny, with their light-hearted fussing; Bob, a young version of a dirty-old-man Santa Claus and his outrageous but harmless flirting as he tended the bar, and big gentle bear Adam, cooking and cracking his endless supply of blond jokes.

Markie smiled, in memoriam.

“Markie, what’s this?” Adam had said, holding his huge palm outstretched over her head. “A brain sucker. What’s it doing? Starving to death…”

Her boss was a different story. Sure, Benny was nice enough; he laughed sometimes, joked around with all of them, but when it was evaluation time, pay-raise time, well, that was when it got really obvious…

I can’t even afford a divorce. How did I get into this? Lord, maybe I am stupid…

Markie didn’t see it until it was too late. The squir­rel darted back, forth, stopped, darted, its saucy plume flicking.

Oh no squirrel you dumb little nooooo!

Rubber shrieked but she felt it. Thump. Something turned in her stomach.

Oh. No.

All the times she had seen little creatures left on the road to be hit again and again by others. She remembered her anger at people who wouldn’t even stop to make sure it wasn’t suffering, move it off the road at the very least.