You are listening to a Clark's World magazine podcast with your host and narrator, Kate Baker.

Greetings, Clark's old citizens. I hope this podcast finds you extraordinarily well.

This is our second story for the month of February, 2022.

Issue 185. I want to thank you for your ongoing support at the magazine, whether this is your

first podcast or it's your over 650th. I want to thank you for word of mouth,

for sending me Neil and I emails for engaging us on Twitter.

You guys mean the world? We can't do this without you.

If you would consider donating monetarily, go to patreon.com forward slash Clark's world.

Our story is titled The Plasticity of Youth and is by Marissa Lincoln. Marissa Lincoln,

who can be found at marissalingin.com, writes fiction essays and poetry. She lives

atop some of the oldest bedrock in North America, where she has a large collection of T-zons

and a keen and constant hope for snow. She is among the premier speculative fiction writers in

the world named after fruit. You like what you hear? You can go back to left to take the lead

and the grandmother granddaughter conspiracy. So, my dear listener, hope you can sit back, relax

and let me tell you a story. The warning light went on as soon as Jess started the car,

low tire pressure. The obstetrician expected her in 45 minutes and it was a half-hour drive.

She got back out to look at the tires, sighing with what little lung capacity she had in her cramped

shared body. The passenger side front tire was completely shredded, Jess swore,

then apologized to the baby and swore again. The baby would have to get used to it anyway.

She would have expected to remember a tire blow out of that size, would not have expected

to make it into the garage without noticing, but there it was half the rubber missing.

There was a noise behind her. She turned, her center of balance far enough off to make it a

...