Checkered Hearts
Needed the visual confirmation of presence that had sustained them since childhood.
Focus, Arthie told himself. Sector times. Brake points. Apex speeds.
But his mind kept drifting to Cyrus. To the message he'd received that morning: Good luck today. I'll be watching the feed. Structural. And a emoji—unexpected, playful, the doctor revealing himself in pixels.
The grid formed. Arthie found his slot, seventh position, not ideal but recoverable. He went through the rituals—steering wheel adjustment, visor check, the pattern of breaths that lowered his heart rate from 120 to 80.