The bank where Dot worked was a dull and lifeless thing, all concrete hallways populated by banal ghosts. Amurrika Bank was popular and useful in that people conducted transactions of disapproving portraits even though the people were becoming more robot-like and the majority of the portraits had degraded into meaningless ones and zeros.

It was half-past nine and Dot was late. Again. She couldn’t quite pull of She-Who-Walks-Unnoticed-Between-Raindrops in her purples and yellows, especially when rest of the drones wore gray. Instead she adopted a face of painstaking misery, as if today was the worst day ever, and hoped that people would leave her alone.

She slid into her booth and peeked over at her neighbor. Melissa recoiled at the sight of Dot’s face. “Yikes. Bad day?” she asked.

“Yep!” Dot replied cheerfully. As she started up her computer, she began laying the groundwork for a story that would make the rounds, and thus brighten everyone’s day by engaging their curiosity.

Magic through imagination.