Small Town USA Local Exposure

The ringing of Julie's cellular phone woke her. She slowly got out of bed, stumbled to grab her purse and pulled out her phone, just in time to prevent the call from automatically rolling over to her answering service. Julie attempted to push the desk chair with one hand while answering the phone, "Hi, this is Juliana." However, her right foot hit a leg of the hard wooden chair. "Hey! This better not be an omen for the day, I had enough abuse yesterday."

"Hello, Julie? What did you say? This is Peter." came a reply from the other end of the phone.

Julie's smiled and blushed, "Peter! That was nothing. Just forget my ranting." Julie paused, but when Peter did not speak she continued, "It's been a few weeks. It's good to hear a friendly voice."

"You sound like you're in trouble already," Peter replied.

"It's just that I'm on a new assignment and, well, it's just not a nice group of people."

"I expect that working in the FBI you would meet a lot of bad people. You know, not every assignment can be like your last one. Most of the time you have to work in hostile territory."

"You sound like Sean. Just a few hours from the capital and I feel like I'm in a war zone. In just one day, I've been insulted, humiliated, called names, kicked, segregated and exposed to poisons. I already have black and blue marks."