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 ^{(it's beta!)}

Jeff woke to the usual sound of his buzzer alarm going off. He sat up reluctantly, reaching his hand up the back of his neck rubbing the sore birthmark. He laxly looked to his right finding his wife rousing. He observed the birthmark on her neck, wondering why it never hurt her. He ran his fingers across the barcode tattooed over it. He wasn’t one to question why it was there, everyone had one. He again ran his fingers over his birthmark still troubled by it.

He picked himself up, walking to the bathroom and stripping down for his morning sanitation. He always enjoyed the warm spray and smell of the chemicals. Jeff rinsed himself off and clothed himself for the day’s tasks ahead. The television came on the moment he entered the living room with the news.

“Same ole’ news,” Jeff mumbled to himself.

He watched as he poured himself a glass of milk. It was the reports of yesterdays fight against terrorism as it was everyday. Shoot after shoot of obscure film glorifying the triumph of the troops as they got caught between firefights or were doing a lineup execution. Jeff never found any of it fascinating as he had been watching the same sort of thing since he was still in diapers. It was nothing particularly new in his opinion.

Jeff downed the last of his milk and grabbed a bagel. He walked out the door grabbing his briefcase as he went, and squinted into the early morning sun. The door locked behind him as he walked down his steps onto the sidewalk where his morning commuter bus was waiting for him.

Jeff edged his way to the back of the bus where his neighbor Tom would, as usual, greet him with a smile then tell him all about how wonderful life is. Jeff broke an insincere smile that Tom never did quite catch, as he always does every morning.