Doctor's Orders [Shrimp] Blitz

Where do the years go? Io blinks, and it seems as if it's been too many.

She read once that time passes by faster as you age, that one year becomes shorter in perspective to the rest of your life. It's true and it's not: some days stop and stew in their own anger, heavy and cloying. Some days are so busy that the sun sprints by, and she doesn't make it home until it's nearly risen again. If time is a current, its acceleration changes at each impasse, each bend, each fork.

Castle Ruined standing in the doorframe makes Io feel as if she's waded backwards through time. It's been ten years since she ran her own campaign, with a different mindset and a different approach. And she'd somehow won and found herself in over her head, making decisions that solved little and pleased no one, acting as a conscience for a city without true sovereignty. But-

"Of course," she says, and gestures to the seat across from her desk. "It's good to see you."

The office is small: there is little capital to be gained in saving lives unless she signs another contract with one of the oil barons, and spends more time patching up PR reports than wounds. But word of mouth and her solid skills keep her comfortable. She does her job, she cares about her patients, and she does it well.

Quietly, Io takes the steaming kettle from the platter that lies on top of her desk, and pours two mugs worth of tea. It begins to bloom as it steeps, color cascading from the sachet. Tea making is easy, there is only one ingredient.

"So, you're running for mayor again." It's not a question. The gossip and the whispers and the advertisements have just started to disperse, like a dandelion puff floating in the breeze.

"What makes this campaign different from the last?"