Nestlings

by Nat Cassidy

Ana and Reid had no at-home care in their insurance plan and, by that point, their premiums would have been through the roof if they’d signed up for some. They also made just enough money to not qualify for subsidies. It was one of those catch-22s that only something as cruel as the American insurance system could conjure: if Reid or Ana quit working, maybe they’d be able to get some financial assistance … while also not being able to afford anything else in their lives.

Like most people of his generation, he hated phones with a fiery intensity. Stopping whatever he was doing, breaking his concentration, to pick up the phone and play polite with some oblivious idiot, answer some pointless question, filled him with a red, swirling feeling that compounded on itself with every call.

“Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime, that’s why I poop on company time,”