Ten line dialogue with two of my characters. I think this is nine lines, but I'm eight days late, and this doesn't have spoilers. So here you go.

◎◎◎

Johanna: "You didn't have to do that, you know."

"I know," I replied. "But I wasn't going to just stand there and let her talk to you like that."

"Why not?" she asked.

"Well- I mean- basic human decency, I guess," I said, taken aback.

"Really," she said skeptically. "I'm not your current charity case, or anything?"

"No, of course not!" I said, now thoroughly confused.

"You . . . really aren't from around here, are you? I mean, I don't know everyone in this town, but they know my family, and I would have remembered meeting someone with hair like yours."

"I'm from Arreed, actually," I said, self-consciously smoothing down my hair at her mention of it. "It's pretty far down south, and I've never been before, and I don't know why someone would ever treat you like that. It's terrible."

"You get used to it," she said, with a shrug that seemed insincere. "I'm Johanna Merrillo, by the way. And, um, thanks."

◎◎◎

That was from an unupublished chapter of If You Should Ever Meet a Rabbin, on my profile. No, that story's not dead, I just need to work on it more.