After her discussion with Autumn Belfontaine, Cindy had gone through the day in a sort of haze. At least none of her work involved dangerous equipment or vital systems, but she knew all too well this world was a place where you needed to keep your wits about you.
However, she couldn’t stop thinking about her sister’s friend and everything that had gone down last night. Even with only the slender channel of text messaging, she felt as if she’d gone through the whole horrific episode herself.
Autumn had reminded her that there were people she could talk to if it was really bothering her — probably because Autumn knew that she and Kitty had lost their parents when they were younger. However, knowing that what she was experiencing was probably an echo of those first frightening days when a neighbor had taken them in until Aunt Betty could fly out and collect them, Cindy didn’t really feel like she should take up a counselor’s problem. She knew what was going on, so she should be able to manage on her own.
Except she kept wondering what had happened to Amy’s parents. The last she knew, they were being loaded into ambulances as Amy watched, and then Amy had to go over to her friend’s place to stay until things could get sorted out.
Cindy fingered her phone in her pocket. Should she text Kitty and ask whether Amy had sent any further messages?
On the other hand, Kitty would be in the middle of her teaching responsibility right now, working as a junior TA with the beginning reading class. Text messages weren’t as intrusive as actual phone calls, but it wouldn’t be good for Kitty to have her phone chime while she was in the middle of helping a first-grader work through a basic reading text.
No, better wait for a more opportune time. Even if she had to wait until suppertime, it wasn’t like she could make a huge amount of difference in the meantime, not when she was up here and Amy was down on Earth.
Behind her, someone called her name. She turned to look squarely into a broad chest covered by a t-shirt that proclaimed: You can’t scare me. I’m a troubleshooter.
Cindy craned her neck to look up at Justin Forsythe’s grinning face. He was a clone of Ed White, and although he hadn’t quite gotten his full growth yet, he was already tall and well-built.
And has a girlfriend, so there’s no use making cow-eyes at him. He’d broken a lot of hearts around Shepardsport when he’d hooked up with the Dornhoff girl.
“Hi, Juss.” And she turned to face his companion. “Hi, Spence. What are you two up to?”
“Wondering what’s eating at you.” Spencer Dawes was a DJ, but Cindy didn’t know him all that well because his air shift was late in the evening, long after the front office closed for the night. “It’s like you’re in another world.”
“I guess you’re right.” Cindy hated having to admit it, but she knew Spence had her in one. “I’m up here, but half my mind’s down on Earth.” She explained about Amy’s situation. “I know worrying isn’t going to do her or her folks any good, but I can’t get my mind off her.”
Juss gave her a sympathetic smile. “Ken Redmond would say that means you don’t have enough work to do, but I think you just don’t have enough work to do right now. How about helping us study for our digital logic exam.”
Cindy cast a quick look around, considering how to get out of this one. “Um, I really don’t think I’d be much help to you. I mean, I don’t know much of anything about digital logic.”
“Actually, that makes it all the better. You can quiz us on stuff without accidentally cueing us to the right answer. And sometimes the best way to make sure you understand something is to explain it to someone who doesn’t know anything about it.”
Cindy could tell she was out of excuses. With her gym time shifted to the evening to make room for Constitution class, she no longer had any obligations until suppertime. “OK, I guess we’ll see how that works.”