Orange Park, Florida. Dec 7th.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Screams... smoke burning her eyes... suitcases and carry-ons flying everywhere... the wrenching feeling of freefall...</span><br/>Kristie's eyes snapped open and she clutched at the bed, muscled locked and rigid for several seconds before she woke up enough to realize where she was. She blew out a sigh and sat up. Her little dog sprang up off the foot of the bed out of a sound sleep and bounded over to her, then ran to the door, then ran back to her, sat down, jumped up, and whined.<br/>"I know, baby, I know." Kristie mumbled. She leaned forward and covered her face with her hands. "I know you gotta pee."<br/>The dog, whose collar said "Stewart", ran around in a circle and whined again.<br/>"I know baby." Kristie said again. "I'm coming."<br/>The clock read 7:02am. Every night for the last year, Kristie had had the same nightmare about a plane crash. Every morning for the last year she had woken up from that nightmare between 7:01am and 7:04am. She had long since stopped setting her alarm.<br/>Finally she swung her legs down from the bed and stood up. Stewart raced to the door and stood looking back at her. She could almost see him doing the pee-pee dance. As soon as the door was opened, he shot through and ran to the sliding glass door leading to the backyard. She could hear her roommate, Jay, talking to the dog as she shuffled through the house in his wake.<br/>"Hi Stewy! Good morning! Wanna go out? You gotta go potty?" Jay slid the door open for Stewart as Kristie stumbled in.<br/>"Mornin' Sparky! There's coffee." Jay pointed at the coffeepot sitting half-full on the counter, an empty coffee cup next to it.<br/>"Mmmmm." Kristie grunted, patting his shoulder in thanks as she passed. The first thing Jay had learned when he moved in six months ago was that Kristie could not function in the morning before at least one cup of coffee. Any attempt to communicate was met with mumbles and grunts and an occasional half-irritated hand-wave.<br/>She fixed her coffee and sat in the living room, staring at the wall next to the TV as she sipped. The TV was tuned into the news channel, which Kristie ignored until the words "missing plane" filtered through.<br/>"... flight 098, missing since early yesterday morning, is thought to have gone down somewhere in the Atlantic-"<br/>Kristie turned the TV off, cutting off the anchorwoman mid-sentence. She'd had far too much experience with missing planes already.<br/>"Hey, I'm making eggs and toast, gonna fry up some of that ham that's in the fridge, you want some?" Jay called from the kitchen.<br/>"Mm-mm." Kristie grunted, shaking her head even though he wasn't looking.<br/>"So that's a yes?" Jay asked.<br/>"No thanks." Kristie finally said, still shaking her head. Too early. Mornings should be devoted solely to coffee.<br/>"Ok I'll make you some." Jay said, apparently holding a conversation that only he was a part of. "You need to eat more Sparky, or you won't be able to sustain yourself, could mess you up, we don't want that."<br/>"Mmm." Kristie grunted and sipped her coffee. It was too early to argue and easier not to. Stewart would happily take care of anything she couldn't finish.