[A steel coil spring, a steel triangle, and a piece of sturdy nylon mesh]

She woke with a start, the ceiling fan was off balance again and making a
squeaking noise that was impossible to ignore. 

She groaned and rolled over, throwing off the one blanket she kept on just
to keep the drafts off. The apartment was muggy, like always, and she
sighed. She stood up and shuffled across the tile floor and moved last
night's dishes out of the sink.

She stared into the mirror, not fully awake and not even really looking,
holding onto the chipped porcelain. She let the water run, trying to let it
go long enough for it to cool down any, since it, too, was the same
temperature as everything else in the room. The water never really cooled
down, but she felt like if she let it run a few minutes, maybe it helped a
little.

The dampness on her face drew the heat away for a moment, and she sighed
again. 

She pulled back the heavy drape that hung across the window, and she was
surprised at how bright it was. She glanced at her watch. 8:30. "Damn", she
thought to herself, and she splashed water on her face once more. She
grabbed a wrinkled shirt from the pile, not quite sure whether it was clean
or dirty, not that it mattered. Everything had the same soggy feel anyway.

She grabbed her mug from the shelf by the door, glanced back across her bed
and the tiny apartment, feeling like she was forgetting something. She
grabbed the door, gave it the now familiar hard yank, since it always stuck
except on cool nights. She slammed it behind her and locked it with the
padlock that hung loosely on a peg.

A voice came through the door across the hallway. "Not so loud! I'm still
tryin' to sleep, no thanks to you." 

She hissed "Sorry!" and hurried down the hall and down the stairs to the
street.

The street was busy, everyone was already trying to get out of the heat, the
shady side of the street with the two story buildings blocking the sun was
crowded, and the café was packed with pushy patrons trying to buy pastries
and coffee and meat pies for breakfast. She tried to step around them as she
hurried, having to step into the street as she did, the sidewalk was so
packed.

It wasn't actually much hotter in the sun. With air this heavy, it didn't
really matter what you did, it was just going to be hot and muggy and
miserable, and she knew it.

She hurried around the corner, dodging a man playing a steel drum on the
corner, right in the middle of the pedestrian traffic. She shoved past,
nearly knocking a woman into his drum. She left another muffled "Sorry!" as
she broke out into a run. She tore down the street, then down an alley, and
then through an iron gate and out into another street. 8:35.

She dodged through traffic, not that it moved fast, with the tiny, crowded
streets, but she got a horn blow in her ear for her trouble. 

There was a park in the middle of this block, and she turned in and ran,
sprinting as fast as she could in the relatively open space. Again out into
another street, this one with nicer buildings and a little less traffic.
Neat iron fences on brick walls lined the street, and she saw fruit trees
and climbing vines with flowers behind them. She didn't stop to appreciate
them, though, and kept running. 8:37.