After an adult life of painful and disappointing moments, a woman hears about a crazier woman at the farmers’ market who can put each of those moments into a string of beads that have a power more than mere jewelry.
This bead marks the moment you told Tom Merchant (high on your first-ever vodka shots and the teeth-jittering adrenaline of being out—even just as part of a group—with Tom Merchant, the most brilliant, amazing guy you’d ever met) that you couldn’t care less about your practical engineering major, that thing that your parents were both so proud of.

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  1. “Marking Time” by Stephanie Burgis, Daily Science Fiction, 20 February 2015 [webzine].
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Stephanie Burgis