Donna hasn’t been herself lately, and her manager’s having a fit. Jonah called crying this morning, George lost his wits again over something minor, Mildred says it’s been years since she felt anything but guilt. Allison cuts herself because God said she’s a sinner, Michael sulks on the couch refusing to make dinner for the kids. Omar is so angry. Angry all the time. At the holiday party Heather makes her entrance, already trashed on wine. Tina sighs like a prophet in class, Imani is sobbing about her past to therapists who don’t get it as Roland freaks out for no reason on a cashier at the theater. Veronica is so bored she may as well be dead, wedded to a man she cannot love. Stuart has an awful opinion about everything. I mean everything. Yusef’s words sting everyone around him like a bee with bad knees. Larry buries people’s pets for a living. Louise left her family at the badlands and took off for Vegas. Dan ran, he just ran and ran, with nothing, into the woods. Grace shook her parents off and got cozier with their goods. Eleanor’s favorite social activity is calling the feds on “suspicious” people when her daughters aren’t occupying her time. Marianne, the respectable daughter, is demanded to grow a spine. In the bough of an anxious frenzy, MacKenzie cancels the seminar, goes to the bar instead. Terrance’s permanent mood is brood, and everyone hates him for it, especially his teachers. Esperanza got hassled at the park for sparking a blunt, even though it’s in a decriminalized marijuana state. Freckles, the cat, actually came back, but he was still a miserable feline. Annabelle doesn’t know the first thing about leaving, the distant dream of a tree living on top of a mountain. Patricia is numb all the way to her lungs, they stole her voice when they took her son away. Eddie, on the other hand, is hell-bent on owning everything. He sees a community of poor folks and he gets the machinery ready. Jeri, the street mime, is unable to find a way out of the box they put them in, Glen drives everyone nuts when he sings. And did you hear about our girl Heaven? She got on an international red-eye and was never seen again.  ~ Nikki Wallschlaegera.