Twilight

Walking onto the warehouse floor for the first time was shocking. The floor was concrete, and the walls and ceiling were steel. Rows upon rows of pallets of plastic pails of all sizes and colors, although most were white or black. Even early in the day, the warehouse was as hot as I had feared it would be, though it didn’t seem to bother Tim.

He was walking slowly, allowing me to keep up easily and allowing me to look at everything as we walked past it. Unlike the middle-aged or near-retirement humans I had encountered at the EWE, Tim stood out as the youngest male I'd worked with so far. When he noticed me focusing on him and not the product, he spoke up and started explaining things, seemingly very respectful of my curiosity.

“We will be focusing on drums today. I’ll teach you everything you need to know about how to identify the product and how to palletize them. I don’t think you will be able to ‘roll’ the drums the way a human would but I’m hoping that between magic and a little common sense we can figure something out that works for both of us. How much magic can you use before you get tired?”

I was relieved at the chance to answer a question. “Most unicorns have a magical talent centered around their cutie mark. Their special talent is easier for them to use, although with the correct training, they could learn nearly any spell, but with different degrees of competency. In my case, my special talent is magic. You could say that I am a magical generalist, able to master many different things. However, I don’t believe that I have ever put myself through a magic stress test to see what my limits are. Today will be a learning experience for me in more than one way.”

Tim nodded, very serious. “I trust that you know your own limits, so do your best, but please don’t push yourself too hard. There is a lot of work to get done, but I’d rather you take breaks than injure yourself. I’m not just your trainer, I am now responsible for your safety.”

My mouth went dry at the level of honesty and concern in his voice. “Trust me… I’ll tell you if I need a break. I’m not used to this kind of heat. Texas is hotter than the deserts of the Badlands.”

By that time, we had arrived at the coordinator’s office on the floor. Tim walked me in and nodded to another human a little older than himself.

“Okay Juan, I assume that you’ve met Twilight already? We’re on drums so let me have the drum orders for our trucks and any Customer Pick-ups that you know for sure is coming today.”

Juan sorted through the paperwork and set aside several sheets. “Here’s all of them. Nine orders totaling just over 1,000 drums. If you can get these done, I’ll let you leave early.”

To my surprise, Tim snorted and laughed. “Yeah, real funny.”

We left the office together and I was frowning. “If that was a joke then I’m afraid that I don’t get it.”

Tim shook his head and smiled. “Even with two people working together, 1,000 drums will take more than 6 hours, and that’s not including unloading even more drums just to make empty trailers to use for shipping. We will be working a full day, unless we end up needing to go to the hospital from overworking ourselves.”

The mention of possible hospitalization startled me, but I couldn't deny the very real risks of dehydration and heat exhaustion in this environment. I hated how hot it was.

I swallowed my unease. “If I take a break, then you have to take one also.”

He shook his head. “It doesn’t work that way, kid. Odds are that if you have to take an extra break, then I’ll have to take up the slack. It may not be fair, but life rarely is.”

I resolved right at that moment not to take any extra breaks. All my breaks would be taken with Tim. His attempt at a playful nickname was nice but was also a little out of place. I wasn’t a ‘kid’, and he wasn’t much older than me.

I played along. “I’m not a goat, but if you want to use some pony phrases in a more informal way, you could say filly instead of kid, even though I’m a grown mare.”

He laughed, his mood slightly improved. “Filly, please. I’m not here to insult you. I’ve been wanting to work with a pony ever since I heard about the Equestrian Worker Exchange program, but I never thought it would happen. I know that I’m going to make some mistakes but if you can be open minded and correct me instead of getting mad, I think we could be good friends.”

I giggled. “That sounds good. So, what’s first?”

Tim showed me the pick sheet. “We need 208 drums palletized for a customer pick-up. That’s 26 pallets at 8 drums per pallet. I’ll grab a forklift and put the pallets down and then we can start.”

It took him about 10 minutes to bring in what amounted to be two stacks of pallets and placed them in two rows as close to the dock door as possible and evenly spaced them to be able to walk around them to wrap them once the drums were on the pallets. With the pallets in place, he got off the forklift and showed me the pick sheet again.

“Okay. First things first, we got to verify that this is the correct drum. There are two basic types of drums, tight head and open head. Tight heads have two or three bungs to put in and let out the liquids stored inside. Open heads are easy to spot because the lids are removeable and are latched to the drums with grey metal rings. Open head drums can have no bungs or also have two or three bungs. Before starting to palletize a drum, verify that the item number on the bottom right side of the trailer matches the item number on the order. Then, in case a mistake was made, and the wrong item number was printed, you need to verify that the drum is the correct color, the correct type of drum, tight or open, has the correct number of bungs and that the UN number matches. The UN number will tell you the manufacturer, the drums wall thickness, and if it’s rated for a more corrosive substance, like acid. Those are typically ‘lined’ drums while most others are ‘unlined’. Lined drums are more expensive, naturally.”

At some point during his explanation, I had pulled a pen and a notepad out of my magical storage portal and was taking notes. I didn’t even realize that I was doing it until he looked at me and stopped short.

“Huh. I don’t think I have ever had anyone take notes before.”

I blushed as the pen continued to try to catch up with his explanation. “I am starting as an order puller, but I’m supposed to be moving into sales within a month or so. I need to know not just how to pick and load these products but everything that would help me sell them. Your explanation was better than I was expecting.”

Tim sighed, which brought me up short. “Education helps, but it doesn’t always replace experience. I could probably be in sales myself with my product knowledge, but they won’t even consider me for the position without my education finished. I won’t hold it against you that you’re moving up to bigger and better things.”

The scratching of the pen stopped, and I bit my lip. “Did I take a position that you wanted?”

A sad smile brushed his lips. “Don’t worry about it. I will never qualify for it. Let’s get rolling.”

His acceptance of the loss of any possible promotion worried me. Tim was clearly a knowledgeable worker, but I didn’t understand his attitude towards himself.

He took a position in the trailer about one third in and rolled 8 drums towards the rear of the trailer. The way he hooked the drums reminded me a little of a bowling match I watched as part of my introduction to some of Earth’s sports. It really was an ergonomic way to unload drums swiftly, but I also now knew what he meant about a pony not being able to do it.

My hoof could grab a drum in a similar fashion, but I doubted that I’d be able to roll the drums without damaging them. He clearly had years of experience.

He exited the trailer and stacked the drums, placing 8 on one pallet. Tim continued to explain the process.

“Tight head drums are simpler to stack since their tops and bottoms are identical. For open head drums, however, we stack tops on tops and bottoms on bottoms. This makes it easier to apply shrink wrap and secure them from toppling during transit. When wrapping them, you start in the middle, securing the top stacked drums to the bottle stacked drums and you warp them to at least this mid-point ring in the middle of the top drum all the way to the mid-point ring of the bottom drum. This wraps about 67% of the pallet and secures the drums from falling over. If they are being loaded on a flatbed truck or trailer, I recommend wrapping them top to bottom and securing it to the pallet itself for maximum safety. Now, it’s your turn. Show me what you can do, filly.”

* * *

Tim

I stood back and watched as Twilight tried to analyze how she wanted to do this. She was clearly very educated and was clearly not meant to be doing lowly blue-collar work. I felt blessed to have even been able to meet her and she seemed so cute while problem solving.

With a lavender glow of her horn, she wrapped the drums in her aura, and they seemed to shoot out of the trailer like missiles. With the complete control of a magical master, she had the rest of the 200 drums stacked within 5 minutes and wrapped within another 5 minutes. Trotting out of the trailer, she wiped her brow.

“Whew. It’s hot in there.”

Holy shit. If she wasn’t moving to sales, we would all be losing our jobs.

I gulped. “Yeah… by mid-day, the trailers can get to temperatures of about 150 degrees Fahrenheit. That is one of the reasons why we try to do the drum orders early in the day to avoid heat related injuries. Are you okay? Need to rest?”

She shook her head. “Nope. That was a good warm up. What’s next?”

I stood there slack-jawed. “Warm up, huh... Um. I can move these finished pallets to a staging area with the forklift and you can take these pick sheets to start the next order. You can unload the drums with magic, but Melvin still wants the drum pallets moved with forklifts.”

Twilight nodded and even saluted, which seemed odd to me. “I’ll get it done right away!”

I started moving the pallets and it took 20 minutes to push all 26 pallets to the staging area and then stack them 3 pallets high. By the time I had that done, Twilight had all eight other orders done with literally 100 pallets of drums ready to go. It took me longer to verify that all eight orders had the correct drums than it took her to palletize them.

I turned to her. “Okay then. It’s going to take me at least an hour to move all these pallets so… um, you can go to the break room and enjoy an early lunch. I’ll come find you when it’s time to get back to work.”

She didn’t look happy about that. “But I want to help more.”

I tugged at the collar of my shirt. “Trust me, you’ve done plenty. And there will be more work to do after lunch.”

With a sigh, she trotted off towards the employee break room.

* * *

Twilight

Sitting down in a climate-controlled break room was nice but my salad tasted stale. It was far too early to be eating lunch, and it felt worse to be eating alone.

“I wonder if Tim is mad at me… Did I do something wrong?”

Pondering the question that I had asked myself, I chewed on my salad with zero enthusiasm. Solving friendship problems was my specialty but could I solve a ‘friendship problem’ with someone that I had just met? Especially if I was the problem?

By the time half my salad was gone, it hit me. “I did six hours’ worth of work in under an hour with almost no help from him. He must feel inadequate, which is bad because he’s training me and he’s a good person.”

I forced myself to finish the salad even though I had lost my appetite and remembered from the explanation that Melvin gave me before Tim arrived that lunch breaks at Pipeline were a full hour, so I really couldn’t go back early.

It was the longest hour of my life.

When the hour was up, I returned to the floor, and I was impressed to see that all 100 pallets that I had finished had been moved and stacked in the staging area. What Tim lacked in magic, he surely made up for with skill in driving that forklift. Tim had a hard-working Earth Pony style work ethic, and that was appealing to me since I didn’t like lazy stallions.

I tried to smile at him, but it felt weak on my muzzle. “I took the full one-hour lunch, just like Melvin told me I’d be doing. When will you eat?”

He looked at a watch on his wrist. “I normally eat around 1 pm, any earlier than that and I’ll be hungry again before I have a chance to eat dinner later tonight.”

I looked at a clock on the wall, it was just barely past 10 am. “Oh, I was hoping to eat lunch with you, but I doubt they will let me take two lunch breaks in one day.”

He looked at me with a mix of surprise and apprehension. “If anyone asks, you needed a long break and needed to eat something after moving 1,000 drums with your magic. No one will say anything about it given that a lot of them take smoke breaks or longer than normal lunches without even putting in the amount of work that you already have.”

I had to admit that since humans didn’t know how unicorn magic worked, it sounded plausible. I tilted my head at him before asking my next question.

“Do you need a break before we continue? It doesn’t look like you’ve had one yet.”

Tim chuckled as he shook his head. “I rarely take breaks other than my one lunch. Often times I’ll merge both of my ‘breaks’ into my lunch so I can enjoy a longer lunch, so I’m not rushed while eating but it largely depends on how busy we are. We have some hard-working people here but not everyone carries their weight and the rest of us have to pick up the slack. We probably wouldn’t even need temps if anyone did their fair share of the work.”

His explanation made sense, but it also revealed a deeper problem. From my research, I knew that human companies liked to save money by cutting expenses. With me able to do all the drums without help, they won’t even try to get new temps. How long until they do a reduction in force layoff?

I cleared my throat, hoping to make him feel better. “Well, that break really did help me. I feel like I can handle the next task without hurting myself, like you were worried about earlier. You said something about unloading more drums to empty trailers?”

He nodded, focused back on work. “Yes. You see, the company owns most of the trailers that we use, and they rent a few extras. Empty trailers are dropped off at our suppliers and then we pick them up and bring them here when they fill the trailer up. We then have to unload the trailers to create an empty trailer to ship outgoing products and 80% of the time, those trailers are dropped at suppliers after the deliveries are made. It’s a never-ending process. Unloading trailers is often more work than pulling the actual outgoing orders and loading the trailers at the end of the day. Given that most of the trailers have drums in them, you can see why temps would quit. A 53-foot trailer can hold 360 tight head drums or 336 open head drums. Unloading 6 trailers is literally 2,000 drums if we were to be unfortunate enough to have to unload multiple full trailers, and it does happen sometimes. It’s a lot of work for two or three humans. Between outgoing drum orders and simply unloading trucks, I think we unload about 7,000 to 10,000 drums a week here. I was getting worried about you using too much magic on your first day, but you seem fine after that break.”

I was relieved that he wasn’t mad at me, but I also understood where he was coming from.

I sighed, finally understanding the full process. “And I didn’t empty a single trailer from the drums I palletized earlier because all nine orders were for different drums.”

Tim shrugged, seemingly unsurprised. “That may be so, but all nine trailers are closer to empty so we can probably unload the good trailers to make six or seven empties. Or maybe another unexpected customer will show up needing drums and filling that order will make emptying a trailer that much easier. There isn’t a single person here that likes to pull drums but sometimes the dumb luck of it is that pulling the orders makes getting the empties we need easier. On rare occasions, we get lucky and have an empty trailer from the previous day that didn’t get dropped or we have a trailer with pallets of pails that are easy to unload with forklifts. The rest of the time, it’s all drums.”

I scratched my chin. “Seems like we should have extra empty trailers just to use for shipping.”

Tim’s laugh was bitter. “I’ve been saying that for over a year. The problem isn’t that we don’t have enough trailers, but rather, that we don’t have enough ‘good’ trailers. We have a lot of trailers sitting in the storage yard just waiting to get fixed or scrapped. There is a hold on buying new ones because trailer manufacturers are behind in the production of new trailers.”

I perked up at the information. “So, if I fixed some of the broken trailers, we wouldn’t have to unload drums?”

Tim smiled at me warmly, mirth in his eyes. “Were it so easy.”

* * *

Tim

Twilight’s enthusiasm was almost contagious, but I had explained this same thing to about 20 temps in the last year. We had a maintenance department that did repairs and upkeep on the trailers, but they had a monthly maintenance budget that they couldn’t exceed and buying parts could get expensive.

I walked Twilight to the maintenance shop and showed her the process of fixing the trailers. Making sure that all the lights worked, and the all the DOT regulations were being met. It was a straight-forward process, but it was a lot of preventative maintenance combined with more complicated repairs.

Joe, the maintenance manager, was a gruff man in his late fifties. His weathered face and sharp tongue hinted at years of dealing with workplace frustrations. Worse still, he had no issues with trying to embarrass me, being as crass as possible every single time.

“What’s up, sweet cheeks. Showing your new girlfriend around?”

I retorted. “Can’t call her my girlfriend until after the first date. Joe, this is Twilight Sparkle, unicorn miracle worker. Twilight, this is Joe, the asshole maintenance manager. He could probably explain what he needs for the trailers if you can explain what you think you can do with your magic.”

When I looked back at her, she was blushing slightly and had a mild look of embarrassment. I turned back to Joe.

“I almost forgot that ponies don’t joke around the same way that humans do, and even if they did, your humor requires thick skin and a beer.”

Joe barked a laugh that seemed to paint him as more of a gruff old grandfather-type, and I noticed that Twilight started to relax more.

Joe wiped some sweat from his eyes. “It might be best to hop on the golf cart and just take her to the yard. Easier to explain it out there.”

I climbed into the passenger seat and Twilight hopped into the back of the golf cart. I wished that we could have sat side by side, but I didn't want to give Joe any more fuel for his jokes. It was a short ride out to the storage yard where all the trailers were kept. The yard included empty trailers that weren’t being used and the loaded trailers waiting to be unloaded. We had parking spots for over 200 trailers, but at least 50 were out of service. Some were too expensive to fix with the current budget and some were too old to fix.

Joe parked near the out-of-service trailers. “These 50 or so trailers are out of service. Some are missing doors on the back. Some have a weak floor or holes in the floor. Some need brake lines, brakes or tires. And some are just so old that I can’t get parts for them anymore and the parts on them can’t be used to fix other trailers. I think the only reason we haven’t gotten rid of them yet is the price of scrap steel is too low right now for the company to make a profit.”

I turned to Twilight. “So, do you have a spell that can fix these trailers?”

The mere question caused Joe to frown but he also looked interested in the answer.

Twilight hummed briefly and nodded. “I can use a conjuration spell combined with a transmutation spell to use parts from a trailer that is going to be scrapped to fix the other trailers. Basically, I’ll use the entire trailer, regardless of its original functionality, to replace parts on the other trailers needing to be fixed. In turn, the trailer I’m using for parts will disappear as if it was scrapped. I’ll just need Joe to sign this form.”

She handed Joe the form and he pulled out a pair of reading glasses from his shirt pocket to read it. “What is this?”

Twilight smiled. “It’s just an authorization form. Per my contract, I get compensation for doing things with magic that would normally be impossible without magic. I don’t know how many trailers I’ll able to fix by scrapping one, but it would be reasonable for me to receive compensation for either the value of the parts that I’m providing you or for the scrap value of the trailer since that was the original plan for them.”

Joe signed the form. “I can authorize the scrap value of the trailer. Fixing two or three of these older trailers by buying the parts would exceed my maintenance budget for the entire month. Corporate would probably be a little upset about losing the expected scrap value of a trailer off the bottom line but they would be pleased to get a few extra good trailers at the cost of the scrap value of one. You get paid and the company saves money, I can’t think of a better win/win if this works. I won’t know how to explain losing a trailer if it doesn’t work.”

I cleared my throat. “How much is the scrap value of a 53-foot trailer? I think Twilight deserves to know before she uses a lot of magic. I can’t put my finger on it, but this feels risky somehow.”

Joe scratched the back of his head. “Most dry van trailers are 5 to 7 tons and scrap steel is selling for about 230 dollars a ton right now. I can authorize a payment of $1,500 dollars to her, per her contract if this works, but she won’t get it until her normal first paycheck.”

I looked back at Twilight, trying to gauge her mood. She nodded but also seemed a little sad. I understood her disappointment at the offer of such a small amount of money for pulling off what amounted to a mechanical and magical miracle. She would be helping the company far more than they were helping her.

She sighed. “Better than nothing, I guess. Let’s see if this works.”

With a glow of her horn, me and Joe both took a step back, unsure how this was going to work. Right before our eyes, we witnessed the transformation of the old, worn-out trailers into trailers that looked brand new, complete with new Pipeline Express decals and repainted with the company’s white and blue color scheme. The process was mesmerizing to watch, and five trailers transformed into something new with significant improvements on a sixth trailer. Meanwhile, the trailer that got ‘scrapped’ disappeared from existence as if it was never there.

I walked over to Twilight to tell her how amazing that was when I saw her start to lose her balance and fall. With a speed that I didn’t know I was capable of; I swooped down and caught her before she hit the ground. She was wheezing hard, and it was obvious even to me that she had overused her magic.

I turned back to Joe. “She needs to lay down. I should get her back to the break room. Can you check to see if these six trailers are useable?”

Joe nodded. “I’ll check them out and I’ll finish filling out this form. She’s earned that $1,500 dollars even if I have to give it to her out of my own pocket. She saved me a week’s worth of work in 30 minutes. Go ahead and put her in the golf cart and take her to the break room. I’ll walk back when I’m done out here.”

Carrying her to the golf cart was like carrying a large dog. I expected her to weigh more, but I was glad that she didn’t. I never drove recklessly but this time had a sense of urgency. I knew that human hospitals couldn’t treat magic depletion or whatever the pony term was. I had to hope that an ice pack in a climate-controlled environment would be enough.

* * *

Twilight

I used too much magic. I knew that I used too much magic when I got dizzy and lost my balance. I hadn’t passed out from using too much magic since I was a foal.

As I fell towards the earth, three equally mortifying thoughts competed for dominance: had I passed out simply from overexertion, or was my foolish attempt to impress Tim to blame? Or were they two in the same? Tim was the one who told me not to overdo it and yet here I am.

The hard ground of compressed gravel, as hard as concrete but not as smooth, was going to hurt when my face hit it. The pain never came as warm hands seemed to catch me in midfall. I was aware enough to know that Tim had caught me, as no one else could have.

The sensation of being carried was novel, as I hadn’t been carried since I was a foal, and even then, I had never been carried like this. The golf cart was a smooth ride, though I could feel that it was going at maximum speed. Being carried again felt nice and I wouldn’t have fought it even if I had been fully conscious, even though it would have been embarrassing to admit it.

It wasn’t long until I was in a climate-controlled room again and I felt what had to be an ice pack being applied on my head, near my horn. The ice pack was a welcome relief.

It was odd that Tim seemed to know exactly what to do to help me. Whether by dumb luck or by applying common sense, he was doing his best and I was very grateful. My only problem was that I felt the need to repay his kindness, and I didn’t know how to yet.

At some point I fell asleep, and my body badly needed rest. I would have normally been terrified to sleep in an unfamiliar place, but I could sense that Tim was nearby. He was still here, and he wouldn’t let anything happen to me. Other than my older brother and my father, I don’t think I have ever trusted another stallion in quite the same way that I trusted Tim.

It felt good to lean on him, but I also wondered if this was moving too fast. We were acquaintances at best and coworkers at worst. As my trainer, it would be easy to call him my boss, even though he was an order picker the same as me. I badly wanted to call him a friend and he had earned my trust as actions speak louder than words. His joke with Joe about me not being his girlfriend until after the first date made me blush and consider the possibility.

Would he date me?

It felt like a question that I didn’t yet have the right to ask.

After a while, I started to wake up, very refreshed after a much-needed power nap and I could hear voices in the background. Opening my eyes just a hair so I could pretend to still being asleep, I could see through the window that Melvin and Tim were talking outside of the break room. I strained my ears, but I still couldn’t make out what they were saying. I couldn’t be sure, but I was almost certain that they were going to yell at me. Or at least Melvin would… Tim had my back.

* * *

Tim

It had been a long day. I had spent more time with Twilight watching her sleep and applying ice pack after ice pack than I had ‘working’. Still, we pulled nine orders, and we emptied, or in this case fixed, five or six trailers. The other eight order pullers could do the rest of the work and Melvin could kiss my ass; I wasn’t going anywhere while Twilight was still unconscious. She was my responsibility, and I wouldn’t fail her. I didn’t even take a lunch break while I was taking care of her.

Melvin was worried, but he was less worried about Twilight’s safety and more worried about a lawsuit from Twilight. I had assured him that she was fine but needed to be looked after closely while she rested. He had agreed that me and Twilight had more than earned our pay for the day and he would pay us a full eight hours even if we left early but I didn’t know where to take her, so I had to stay with her until she woke up, something that Melvin understood.

I told Melvin that I would take Twilight home as soon as she woke up and Joe had already signed Twilight’s paperwork authorizing the extra pay for her ‘magic work’ and he had faxed it directly to the corporate office. Melvin was no longer on a warpath, grateful for answers that absolved him of liability, and I went back into the break room to continue my vigil.

Twilight seemed to wake up when the door closed, and she smiled at me. I leaned in close and looked deeply into her eyes. I knew that pony eyes weren’t the same as humans, but she didn’t seem to have any sort of concussion, though I had prevented her from hitting her head.

I subconsciously assumed that using too much magic would have similar side effects to a hangover, so I whispered a question.

“Are you okay now?”

She smiled and nodded. “I’m fine. You did a good job of taking care of me. What’s next?”

I sighed. “Next is going home. It’s already past 4 pm… you’ve been asleep for nearly 5 hours. I was very worried about you.”

She bit her lip. “I’m sorry. I pushed myself to impress you and I guess I never thought about how much magic it would take to transmute an object as big as a 53-foot trailer. Such an object doesn’t exist in Equestria. The more I use my magic, the stronger it gets, so I can say with complete honesty that it won’t happen again.”

I nodded. “They may want you to fix the rest of the trailers by scrapping a few now that you’ve shown that you can. The trick will be preventing you from passing out again afterwards.”

She seemed to think about that. “We can try to do it first thing in the morning so it’s the first thing I do. Then I can take a break as needed and then palletize some drums until I can’t. That will give you the maximum amount of work and magic out of me without me passing out. Good enough?”

I wanted to sigh, but I didn’t want her to think I was mad at her. “I think that is as close as we are going to get as far as ‘good enough’. The other guys had an easy day not having to do drum orders and they only had to unload two trailers without us. I think we can worry about that tomorrow though. I told Melvin that I would take you home when you woke up, so I’ll take you to wherever you need to go.”

She bit her lip again and sighed. “I have nowhere to go. I don’t have any friends in the area, the other ponies I came here with paired up with each other and they don’t need another roommate, and the EWE expects me to find my own accommodation. Renting an apartment is too expensive before I get paid the first check and a weekly rate at a hotel is just as bad unless I can accept a high crime area. I’m not sure what to do and sleeping half the day wasn’t in my original plans.”

I knew what I had to do. “You can stay with me.”

She looked up at me in shock. “Are you sure?”

I nodded vigorously. “My living room has a daybed for overnight guests. It’s much more comfortable than sleeping on a normal couch while couch surfing. I’d be more than happy to host you while you wait on that first check.”

She frowned. “What’s couch surfing?”

I chuckled. “It’s a term for a friend sleeping on another friend’s couch while they are trying to find a permanent place to stay. The economy is crap and inflation is high, so I have no doubt that however much money they gave you to start with wasn’t enough. The government is cheap, after all. If you want to contribute to food or utilities while staying with me, I won’t stop you, but I also won’t charge you actual rent. I don’t know if you trust me enough to stay with me, but this might be the best offer you’re going to get.”

Twilight looked into my eyes, a single tear rolling down her face.

“I trust you,” she whispered. “Let’s go home.”

* * *

Author's Note

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At 5 dollars per 1,000 words, I'm one of the cheaper writers on the site. If you have a story idea, E, T or M, please DM me and we'll work something out.