In the silence of her house, Tania sat listening to music via her earphone. She didn't know why she still did that. She lived alone; nobody else would feel disturbed by her listening to anything. Even if she turned on the TV, which showed the Council's news only nowadays, at full volume, no neighbour would feel compelled to bang on her door and demand that she turned it down a notch.
She was alone, in the practical and social senses. It was just over a year after Gema's passing. Her late brother was the only family member she had left after their parents had left first, and she had been content living with ever since, until the day the stray bullet sent him to the other world.
