"Hello, sweetie."
A bone-weary sigh escaped her lips as Sarah Woods crossed the threshold. Just a few months after she graduated from college, she inherited this house from her grandmother. When she was young, she loved spending time here. It was the only place that really felt like home. Though it looked small from the outside, it was large on the inside. The house was twice the size of its original footprint. Her grandfather had built a huge single-story addition on the back of the house as a workspace for his craft-addicted wife, but it was perfect for Sarah, who repurposed the area for large quilting projects. Leaning down, she attempted to pet the slender Siamese between the ears as the purring feline, Ming the Merciless, wound her way around Sarah’s ankles. It had been one hell of a day. She dropped herself in the nearest recliner, and Ming leaped into her lap.
As a medical technologist and the principal phlebotomist on the 7-3:30 shift at the county hospital, she never lacked patients on a normal day. A major pile-up on the freeway during this morning’s rush hour, involving a bus, two semi-tractor trailers, and better than a dozen cars, kept the hospital staff hopping through her shift and beyond. Her morning caffeine was a distant memory, and lunch never happened. She was tired, hungry, cranky, but thankful it was Friday, and even more grateful that her name was not among those unfortunates listed as “on-call” for the weekend.
Knowing she would soon fall asleep if she didn’t get moving, Sarah lifted the cat off her lap and pushed herself up and out of the chair. Her first stop was the laundry room, where she kicked off her shoes and removed her rumpled “Peanuts” scrubs and underwear. The soiled garments were tossed into the open washer. A laundry basket of clean, unfolded clothing sat on top of the dryer, and she rummaged through it in search of her favorite sweats. The basket was cold against her bare skin as she carried it into her bedroom and dropped it on the dresser. Her muscles were tight, and her neck felt like it was in a vice. A hot shower would be the perfect medicine. Ming followed Sarah into the bathroom, jumped up on the vanity, and curled up in the bowl of the sink as Sarah turned on the shower.
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