Britannia, NY

Karen is in an exceptionally crabby mood. Nonetheless, she's at Habitat, where she's working a Sunday double shift, because obviously the solution to all of life's problems is to work as much as possible before you collapse into insanity brought on by sleep-deprivation.

The truth is, she'd rather work herself stupid than have two minutes to herself. If she has time to herself, she'll end up thinking about the life that isn't hers any more. So after staying up pretty much all night, she came in at 5:30 this morning to open the shop. It's been busy, what with tourists coming in for coffee and cider on their way to go see foliage, and she's given her best faux-cheerful curmudgeon routine, which is always good for tips.

Things are slowing down a bit, and so Karen's out from behind the counter, sweeping up around one of the corner tables.