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285breathes in huge gulps, like someone has been holding his head underwater and he%u2019s just now been allowed to surface.Running late, Kayla texts Coach. Be there as soon as I can.The tangerine sky has faded into a muted blue; raft-like clouds drift overhead. A neon purple open sign blinks on and off behind them.%u201cDo you live around here?%u201d Kayla asks the woman while they wait. She notices wet crescents under her armpits. Her jeans have an elastic waistband.%u201cI work over there.%u201d She points at the diner across the street, Perks, located in a small strip mall. A black leather coin purse is wedged into the front of her pants. She keeps opening her mouth wide, like she has an ache in her jaw. When the police officer comes to collect their statements, she goes first and a few minutes in she stops talking and claws at the fabric just over her heart.30A second ambulance is summoned. Actually it turns out to be the same ambulance as before, piloted by two muscular, serious-looking young men with goatees. The moment they dropped the man in the coveralls at the emergency room, they were called right back.Once the woman is on the stretcher, one of the paramedics turns to Kayla and asks if she%u2019s family. She starts to shake her head, but then the woman sits up a little and cries out, %u201cWhy yes! That%u2019s my daughter.%u201dAt first, Kayla thinks she has misheard the woman. Or maybe the woman is in shock and has mistaken Kayla for someone else.%u201cIs that right?%u201d the paramedic asks, impatient. %u201cAre you two together?%u201dShe looks at the woman being loaded into the ambulance, her sneaker soles dark with blood. She feels caught between her desire to make it to Kissimmee in time to fight and 355 Laura van den BergThis 2016 photograph depicts a Florida gas station reminiscent of this story%u2019s setting.What is the significance of a mundane location typically %u201cuntouched by time%u201d (par. 15) suddenly becoming a scene of chaos? What other moments in the story play with a contrast between the past and present?Storms Media Group / Alamy Stock PhotoCopyright %u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.