Hagar
Hagar licked a paw before curling up into a tight ball under the far corner of the memory foam futon. The two biggest humans had screamed upon seeing her. The smaller ones had giggled. One of them had suggested she had snuck into their luggage.
That idea was silly. No self-respecting furze pig would submit themselves to airport security. Radiation was no beauty treatment.
Rather, in search of unusual comestibles, the hedgie had unpacked herself from the surrounding woodlands. It was known among her kind that glampers were a good source of treats.
Emry
The dad accepted that the youngins who clung to him during the wee hours of the night were among his and his wife’s reasons for wanting to make the most of their earnings. Conversely, whereas he acknowledged that using search engines and the Internet was marketing’s “new sexy,” AI advertising increasingly unnerved him. So, he sought a fresh direction.
Realizing his ambitions could be best brought to fruition by music, the man took to soliciting on the corner beneath his city’s most populated office buildings. Few passers-by, though, seemed to enjoy the riffs that he played on his acoustic guitar.
Dzintra
Dzintra was tired. It was that time of the month and the undergrads for whom she was responsible had, mostly, opted to sleep in. Nonetheless, it was her style to review course material before midterms and finals. So, she stood behind the lectern and spouted all manner of gobbledygook about cognitive dissonance and Cialdini’s Six Principles.
On exam day, the students with the poorest recorded attendance unplugged their earbuds and tendered her a gift. It was a copy of Plato’s Republic. Those kids explained that a tome on the ideal state ought to suffice as reciprocity for high marks.