Bernie always wondered what was so special about number two pencils that they were the chosen ones for filling out the little bubbles of the many standardized tests awaiting him at school. He knew it had something to do with the lead and the scanning machines but he was not a pencil person and he didn’t know if it was the tests that he hated or the fact of having to use a pencil...

Alice was a button with no purpose. At least that’s how she felt. Her destiny wasn’t for some elegant ballgown or a powerful businessman’s shirt cuff. It wasn’t for the casual Hawaiian button up or a warm winter jacket, or even decorative like on some scarves or hats or sweaters that she didn’t know existed. Alice was a plain jane, white, four holed, plastic backup button. She was the kind that was rejected for everyday use and packed away into a small plastic bag, attached to the inside tag of a garment...

Jason was born in Illinois in the winter. It was cold, dark and loud when he was born. The whirring of a huge machine threading steel wire to form nails was the first thing Jason experienced as he himself was spit from its mouth and moved along a conveyor belt to be dipped into a protective chemical coating. A huge magnet sorted and packed him into a box with other nails his size. He spent quite some time wedged neatly in the dark of that box, his head alined carefully next to the others...