overheard walking the dog down Benton
8 min @ the dining room table
Mara hasn’t been here long. She hasn’t been anywhere long recently. She was only on earth three hours.
Still it counts as a life. Each life is called a ‘catskin’ and they’re filed and tallied not long after the transition. First they’re hung up much like laundry on a clothesline. Miles and miles of iridescent sheaths, they don’t look morbid because they’re not in any identifiable form, the way sheepskin rugs don’t really look like sheep.
The ‘Skin Counter looks just like a washer-woman with her indigo head tie and apron with bottomless pockets. She’s tallying Mara’s three hour tour of duty and deducting the debts paid. This was Mara’s fourth ‘skin. She’s going to have to pull a longer shift on her next life because she’s still got a lot of debt to spread over the next five. Maybe she’ll volunteer for one of the Shade Countries. It’s like overtime, the lives there pay a greater debt.
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