Unexpected Offer
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 724
[Saturday, 5 August, 2017, 6 p.m.]


:: Walking home after one surprise, brings another, even bigger surprise. Part of the Unfair Trades arc in Mercedes, within the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::




LaQuinta’s new boss had given her a ride from the two-lane freeway back to the bottom of the offramp. He’d started apologizing as soon as he’d started braking. “The cops are overlooking the seat belt rules when getting people out to the clearing areas, or back from them, but that stops at the street light ahead. Will you be able to walk from here?”

“Of course. But… I’m not riding in the back?” She motioned at the bench seat in the cab.
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Threads Tangling Together
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1180
[Saturday, 5 August, 2017, 5 p.m.]


:: On the way back to her new home, LaQuinta gets an offer that seems too good to be true. She makes an unusual choice. Part of the Unfair Trades arc in Mercedes, within the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::




“Five o’clock!” the crew boss called, his voice carrying up and down the line. “Anyone wanting pay in cash, line up next to the scale.” He paused next to LaQuinta. “You, too.”

“I was basically just passing out water bottles,” she protested.

“You sorted my paperwork, kept the tally going when I got busy with that argument between Ava and her brother Eaton.” He snorted, throwing his shoulders into it like lifting a sack of grain. “I’ll double your pay tomorrow if you agree to run interference between two thirty-year-olds who argue like toddlers. For me?” He batted his eyes outrageously.
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Temporary Work
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1209
[Saturday, 5 August, 2017, 1 p.m.]


:: LaQuinta is restless in her new living quarters, so she goes looking for work without her Surrey. Things become complicated fairly quickly. Part of the Unfair Trades arc in Mercedes, within the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::




LaQuinta stared around the interior of the converted schoolbus, called a ‘skoolie’ though that insulted both the bus’ origins and the education of anyone who repeated the term. She sniffed, surprised to smell cedar. Leaning close to the light-colored paint, she shook her head. Standing on the sofa, she brought her face close to the wooden strips on the ceiling and laughed.

When she stepped down, she quickly smoothed the cushion and checked the surface for dirt. The whole place, contained in a forty-foot schoolbus, was a bit larger than the motel room converted into emergency housing for earthquake refugees, felt very, very different.
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A Loose Thread
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1490
[Saturday, 5 August, 2017, 10:00 a.m.]


:: Captain Marquez is discussing the recent events involving LaQuinta Dixon when one of the chaplains makes a comment which turns out to relate to the investigation of the Cort twins’ attempted kidnapping. Part of the Unfair Trades arc in Mercedes, within the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::




Captain Marquez rubbed her thumb over her right eyebrow as she stared at the lieutenant in charge of their current outreach projects, or rather, in charge of the teams each coordinating a different outreach project as part of their case load. “I know it’s an unusual step, but she’s one of the key witnesses, one of the only witnesses in the Cort twins’ abduction. Ms. Park can explain how they all got to the zoo, who approached her, and that she lost consciousness with the kids in the stroller next to her. But LaQuinta Dixon is the one who can explain where the children were found, alone, and unconscious.”

“That makes her important to the case we’ve been building against one kidnapper, though it was obvious that there were others involved.” She sighed. “She’s also had her housing completely vandalized, losing everything but the clothes on her back and a few dollars in her wallet. That puts her at risk of more violence, and in unsafe conditions which would make it easy for one of the kidnappers still at liberty to try to silence her.”
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Intermission
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1084
[Saturday, 5 August, 2017, 7 a.m.]


:: Many small events happen at the beginning of an average work day in California (and elsewhere). Part of the Unfair Trades arc in Mercedes, within the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::




“Mister Durante?” an accented voice asked, just as the man stepped out with travel mug in one hand and his house keys in the other. Alfonso Durante turned, his eyes widening as he recognized the crowd of people standing on the sidewalk. Two Mercedes cops, two men in business suits, a woman wearing several pins on the lapel of her charcoal gray business suit, including a green Esperanto flag, a woman in a black, unmarked jumpsuit with military cut, and a person so androgynous that Alfonso couldn’t make a guess at gender, even in profile.

Alfonso glanced at the local cops, then nodded. “Yes.”
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Smashing Ripples
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1363
[Friday, 4 August, 2017, 7 p.m.]




:: LaQuinta’s day gets exponentially worse, but part of the problem is uncovered with the help of an angry, frustrated reporter. Part of the Unfair Trades arc in Mercedes, within the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::


:: Author’s note: EARNED HAPPY ENDING. This looks bad. This IS difficult for LaQuinta, but it is also a huge mistake made by one of the unseen bad guys. ::




At seven o’clock in the evening, it was still bright outside, and the August heat radiated up from the sidewalk as LaQuinta stepped outside the old-fashioned laundromat to walk to the temporary accommodations at the end of the block. The mound of linens in her cheap round plastic basket poked out at the two spots where slats had snapped, but the pieces also poked out, scraping against her tee shirt on one side but the other was trying to catch every edge she sidled past.
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