The vending machine clicked like bones settling into place. Monica Ruiz didn’t even flinch anymore. The sounds of late-night hospital life—plastic packaging tearing, heart monitors pinging, phones ringing and ringing and ringing—had long since sunk beneath her skin. But tonight, something else stirred beneath that machine. Something alive. She paused, cup of vending coffee in hand, staring at the narrow shadow just beyond the blue glow of the snack display. At first she thought it was just a cru

Walter Hensley still rose before the sun. Seventy-four years old and every joint reminded him of it—but old habits baked deep. He shuffled into his kitchen in Beacon Falls, Vermont, where the copper light of dawn kissed the walls like it used to kiss the racks of fresh croissants. Only now, there were no racks. No flour dust floating like snow in a warm room. No butter-soft jazz from the old transistor radio. Just a kettle hissing and the hum of the refrigerator. He glanced at the framed photo o

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