What day is it? Monday.

It is early evening, and Serena is heading back to her apartment after having finished work for the day.

Is she tired? Yes and.

She is exhausted. She had to be completely on the ball, right from the beginning to the end. Her half hour lunch break was something she usually took at her desk, but her lunch remained uneaten. She hadn’t been able to steal even a moment to take a bite.

She knows that food would help - a bit - but she doesn’t know that she has even enough energy to do anything about it.

Is she going to make it back to her apartment unmolested? Yes and.

She has three blocks to walk from the bus stop to her apartment block.

Does she notice the hawker? Less than 12 to succeed. 19. Fail.

She blinks in surprise when the hawker with the tray of samples gets in her way. She can’t quite tell what the samples are, but that doesn’t matter. The sympathetic hawker gives her a couple, and she eats them mechanically.

The food perks her up a bit, making her real…