Authors: S. B. Divya
Runtime (10 page)
She sent a reply to Ardha’s dad with an electronic signature and the address to her empty credit account. Marmeg’s mind reeled as she limped her way back to the shelter to collect her bag. In a few weeks, she’d be a college freshman, surrounded by hordes of licensed, well-groomed kids who took for granted three meals and a bed and hot showers. Life was about to get real different.
A half-dead pine tree grew in the empty lot to her left. She recalled the scent of alpine air and melting snowflakes, of cold stone tunnels and wet earth, and she hatched a plan: for another year, another race. She would win on her own merits. Trap the Mountain Mikes into revealing their hand. But most of all, she wanted to dance like the wind over granite mountaintops.
Photograph by Susan Yoon
S.
B.
DIVYA
is a lover of science, math, fiction, and the Oxford comma. She enjoys subverting expectations and breaking stereotypes whenever she can. In her past, she’s used a telescope to find the Orion nebula, scuba dived with manta rays, and climbed to the top of a thousand-year-old stupa. You can find more of her writing at
www.eff-words.com
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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novella are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
RUNTIME
Copyright © 2016 by Divya Srinivasan Breed
Cover art by Juan Pablo Roldan
Cover design by Christine Foltzer
Edited by Carl Engle-Laird
All rights reserved.
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ISBN
978-0-7653-8978-7
(ebook)
ISBN
978-0-7653-8979-4
(trade paperback)
First Edition: May 2016
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