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Chapter 179 – Summer JobsAlex was already planning for summer work. She had to skip the waitressing thing at Gloria’s, even though she really missed Gloria. And Gloria’s doughnuts. But she needed to spend more time with Shar. As things were, she was going to run into problems as soon as she had to rush off on the next Code Terawatt. Okay, she was already looking for emergency sitters, but it wasn’t that easy.
Ray was working at that garden center again, and that was an all-day job. He said he needed to put together a decent nest egg, because taking his girlfriend out to dinner in D.C. was going to be expensive. Alex figured she would make dinner for the two of them whenever Ray wasn’t eating at the Georgetown sports-team training table. She was also happy about Ray’s choice of a degree, because having a communications degree meant he could get a job as a sports announcer or a sports reporter or one of those ESPN-type jobs covering sports, and he’d be really good at that.
Louis and Marsha were both going to be attending the Paradise Valley community college. Louis was doing it so he could keep working at Driscoll Enterprises with his dad, and Marsha was doing it to be with Louis. And also to work at Driscoll Enterprises, which had hired her again for the summer. Marsha was grumbling a little about having to wear a Terawatt uniform this year when she and Louis hit the convention circuit, but Alex had promised to help her put together a really great Terawatt costume. And really, who knew more about Terawatt uniforms than Alex and her mom?
Nicole was going to go to Loyola Marymount, and Robyn was going to attend Cal, and they were both working the same jobs as last summer so they had some cash when they went off to school, even if both of them could drive home if they wanted. And Helen was going to Stanford because they had a biophysics department where they were offering courses on the science of superpowers, and Helen was totally fascinated by that. Maybe that came from living in their town, which was pretty much the superpowers capital of the world. The basketball guys were off to major colleges, too, with Heyward going to UNC, which wasn’t that far south of D.C., so Ray planned to get together with him once in a while. Kristi even got into California Institute of the Arts down in Valencia in Santa Clarita Valley, and wouldn’t need to throw hair dye on anyone going there.
Annie was already starting on her big summer internship, but she was so busy she didn’t have time for little sisters to come out and visit. Alex was a little frustrated about that, but when Annie spelled out what she was doing, it really sounded like she wouldn’t have any free time at all until mid-summer. In addition to tons of paperwork she had to read through and fill out, she was taking a nine-day training in D.C. on ‘security concerns for DHS and DOD researchers’ that went all the way through two weekends, and then a one-week training in New York City on ‘ethical research issues in modern research conditions’ that Jack was claiming was totally because of Danielle Atron and Maggie Walsh. Yeah, Alex could believe that. So then, in the evenings Annie was studying the research materials the SRI had for her, and so it sounded like there really was hardly even any time for Annie to Skype with her.
And one of the big projects Alex was working on with Shar was cooking. Alex was making lists of all the stuff she needed for her apartment kitchen, and the lists were getting pretty immense. So she was working on keeping the list to something reasonable and making sure she could even fit all her purchases into that little kitchen.
Plus she needed to make enough food for Terawatt. And Ray. She figured she needed to buy four or six place settings, plus a basic ‘pots and pans’ set with cooking spoons, plus maybe a dozen 9"×13" metal pans that could nest for storage, with lids for the pans, because she’d decided that if she made rice or spaghetti or stew or a fancy salad or whatever, she needed to make enough to fill a 9"×13" pan or two of leftovers, just so she didn’t have to cook a ton every single night. And if she had a bunch of leftovers, they would cool off a lot faster in a flat shallow metal pan instead of in a tall, square plastic tub.
She wanted a microwave and a toaster and a toaster oven and a big mixer and a slow cooker and ten other things, but there was no room for all that junk, and buying all that stuff at once would put a dent in her checking account. So she was trying to cut down on her list. And cooking with Shar was part of that, because it let her decide what she really needed and what was just a luxury. So … a decent-sized microwave and a big slow cooker. And a cheap little toaster oven she’d use as her toaster, too.
What she really needed was a big colander and one big cooking pot that would still fit in her cupboards, not one of those immense stockpots that you needed a ton of space to store when you weren’t using it, unless she was just going to keep the stockpot on top of her stove 24/7. What she didn’t need was a separate rice cooker, or a big stand mixer like Gloria used, or a breadmaking machine. What she really needed was salt and pepper and half a dozen seasonings she used all the time. What she didn’t need right off the bat was the other fifty herbs and seasonings and stuff that her mom had in the cupboard. Okay, she needed coriander, just because she liked it a lot in stews. And her mom would probably send her off with a baggie of bay leaf.
Since she had a full-sized fridge all to herself, she planned on buying a lot of ice cream. Gloria said places like Baskin Robbins would sell ice cream by the gallon or even two gallons, just by slicing sections off their five-gallon tubs. It was more expensive than buying cheap cruddy store-brand ice cream, but it would be way cheaper per ounce than buying those Ben & Jerry’s pints all the time. Mmmm, Baskin Robbins mint chocolate chip ice cream by the gallon …
Maybe the real problem was there were like sixty Baskin Robbins flavors she’d like to buy a gallon of. And a gallon of their Pumpkin Pie ice cream in October. It was so yummy, and it was so good as a milkshake.
And there was lots of other stuff she needed, but she could bake cakes and desserts and casseroles and stuff in those 9"×13" pans, too, so they were going to get a lot of use. So she also needed a little hand mixer and a whisk and a couple of spatulas, although she could do some of that kind of cooking with her TK. It was just that using TK to make food to give her calories to fill her up after she burned calories by using her TK was just a bad idea.
And that still didn’t cover the actual ‘edible stuff’ part. She needed big bags of rice and spaghetti and macaroni and lasagna noodles and all that stuff. She needed breakfast stuff and lunch stuff. She needed salad fixings and veggies she liked and dessert stuff. She needed flour and sugar and baking powder and baking chocolate and like that. Her lists were still pretty huge. And she didn’t want to ask Willow or Jack for help, because she knew if she did, she would get to her apartment and find someone had filled her fridge and shelves and counters and cupboards to the brim already and wouldn’t let her pay them back, either.
Holy crud, if she wasn’t really careful, she was going to have to shop like three or four times a week, and then with no car she was going to have to lug home everything she bought. She left Shar watching some meatballs they’d just browned, and she ran upstairs and grabbed her tablet, and she checked to see how far she was going to have to walk with a bunch of bags of groceries. Okay, a block and a half wasn’t too bad, but maybe she was going to buy one of those rolling carts you thought only old ladies wheeled around behind them.
She’d better check whether Ray could keep his car on campus, and then she could just borrow it whenever she needed to haul a big bunch of stuff around.
“Alex?” Shar asked worriedly while she watched Alex start making some pasta sauce.
“Yeah, bug?”
“Are you gonna forget me when you’re off at college and stuff?” That was totally a whine there. Not that Shar sounded like her or anything.
Alex scooped Shar up and hugged her and insisted, “No way! Not ever! And you’ll be doing school stuff, and making tons of new friends, and doing lots and lots of stuff with Auntie Willow and Uncle Jack and Auntie Hanna and Auntie Janet and a ton of people, and you’ll probably forget about me!”
“Nuh-uh! No way! Not ever!” Shar switched to a pretty good imitation of Willow. “Totally of the not!”
Alex told her, “I won’t forget you. And you’ll probably be too busy to bother with me anyway. And you’ll probably have a mega-awesome room of your own at Jack’s, with way too many Barbies and toys and who-knows-what.”
Shar insisted, “I won’t ever be too busy for you!”
Alex smiled and kissed her on the top of the head, because Shar was already too busy for Alex a lot of the time, and as Shar got older, and discovered boys, and found new stuff, she’d get more and more busy. Alex suddenly had to swallow a lump in her throat and blink away some tears. She needed to talk to her mom and see if her mom felt like that all the time these days.
* * *
After dinner that night, Alex sat down with her mom and dad and went over her emergency plans in case Terawatt had another last-second emergency. “Okay, between nine and five on Monday and Wednesday and Friday, Louis can let Marsha rush over and babysit. But not when they’re out of town doing conventions. Which reminds me, I need your help making a Terawatt costume for Marsha to wear when they’re running a booth at conventions. And Robyn can cover from seven to ten on any morning. And Nicole can cover from four until maybe seven any night, unless she has a date that starts early. But I don’t have anyone to cover Tuesday or Thursday from ten to four, or when Louis and Marsha are doing cons.”
Her mom and dad just looked at each other. Her mom said, “Your father and I talked about this. We’ll cover Tuesday and Thursday from ten to four for you, but this just really drives home how unprepared you’d be to have Shar living with you at college.”
Alex frowned at that, but it was totally true. Totally not fair, but true. “Jack could do it, but only because he had Mrs. Murdock to come over and stay with Charlie for as long as Jack was gone.”
Alex’s mom smiled gently. “Well, when you and Ray get married and have kids, maybe we’ll retire and move to a place near you, so Terawatt can rush off to save the day and you’ll have babysitters who have the clearance to know why you’re leaving at the drop of a hat, and why your children can fly and benchpress the sofa.”
Her dad added, “But no having children anytime soon! Okay?”
Alex nodded. “We’re not having kids until someone really mega-smart figures out how to keep ’em from expressing powers until they’re old enough to handle them safely. And maturely. So maybe twelve. Or sixteen.”
Her dad just smiled. “Maybe Annie and I’ll slip that project into the queue. I’d like to be a granddad while I’m still young enough to enjoy my grandkids.”
Her mom pointed out, “And if there’s a chance of a superpower-related incident, you need to tell Ray’s folks the truth.”
Alex tried not to wince. “Yeah, I figure we need to sit ’em down and tell ’em.”
Alex’s parents looked at each other and snickered. What was so funny about that?
Alex’s mom grinned. “When we talked about that very thing, just between the two of us one night, your dad pointed out what they would assume the talk was going to be about.”
Oh. Right. If Alex and Ray made his folks sit down in the living room for a serious talk, the first thing they’d probably guess was Alex was pregnant.
Alex’s dad smiled. “As soon as they find out you’re not pregnant, and you’re not dumping Ray, and you two didn’t just rush off to Vegas for a quickie wedding, they’ll be so relieved they’ll let you get away with pretty much anything.”
Alex managed not to blush. Much.
Her mom added, “And I was thinking maybe we could talk to Andy and Dottie about maybe taking Shar for a few hours now and then, just when we needed her to.”
Alex complained, “Mister Botswell? He can’t take care of Shar! He can’t even take care of his lawn!”
Her dad frowned at her. “That’s not really fair. Andy may not take great care of his lawn anymore, but he can babysit. And Dottie certainly can babysit. It’s not Andy’s fault he had to take early retirement from the plant when he hurt his hands. And Shar likes Dottie.”
Someone yelled from upstairs, “Yeah! She makes me chocolate chip cookies!”
Alex rolled her eyes. “And I bet Mrs. Botswell wouldn’t make Shar eat all her vegetables before dessert either.”
Alex’s parents both smiled. Her mom said, “I wouldn’t be surprised. At any rate, Shar could go over there, or Dottie could come over here, and I’m sure they’d be fine for a few hours.”
Her dad said, “I don’t think we could ask Jennie and Howard. Shar and Jennie didn’t exactly hit it off.”
Alex groaned to herself. “Well, it isn’t Mrs. Sliff’s fault Shar chased a ball right through one of Mr. Sliff’s iris beds.”
“THAT WAS ACCIDENTAL!” someone yelled from upstairs.
Alex went on, “I can see why maybe Mrs. Sliff isn’t happy with Shar. And Mr. Sliff, too.”
Her dad pointed out, “Howard does love his yard. He spends a lot of time on his iris beds and his roses in the back yard, and he has Staub’s Yardcare come in regularly to manicure that lawn to within an inch of its life, and he has someone trim his noble fir three or four times a year.”
Her mom said, “I’ve seen artificial Christmas trees that don’t look as perfect as his fir tree. I think we’re lucky Shar didn’t break a few branches off of that.”
When Alex went upstairs later, Shar was in bed like she was supposed to be, but she wasn’t asleep. She sat up and whispered, “It wasn’t my fault. And I even made apology cookies like Auntie Willow says to. And it isn’t my fault mean ol’ Mrs. Sliff’s allergic to nuts. And I don’t like the way she looks at me with those ‘I’m blind’ glasses.”
Alex managed not to roll her eyes much. “She’s not blind. She just has to wear really heavy dark sunglasses when she’s outside because she had some eye surgery thing or something years ago.”
“Well, I still don’t like her or her glasses, and her iris are stupid flowers.”
* * *
The next day, Alex took Shar over to Sophie’s house for a playdate. Shar had to take her Terawatt Barbie and Skipper dolls with a couple of disguises in their secret disguise gym bags. Shar explained, “It’s because Sophie only has really girly Barbie doll stuff and you never know when a monster might show up and Barbie will need her uniform to go kill it.”
Alex just said, “Well, don’t lose any of it, because we don’t want other people finding it and figuring out Terawatt Barbie’s secret identity.”
Shar nodded vigorously. “Yeah. Totally. We have to keep Sophie’s mom from finding out Barbie’s secret identity because she might tell the TV station. Or not make her baked apples for us. And maybe one of her neighbors works for Baron von Kreep.”
Alex just nodded, like that made sense. “You know, Terawatt doesn’t believe in Baron von Kreep.”
“Well, that’s okay, ’cause Sophie and me will find him and blast him to pieces.”
After Alex got Shar all situated at Sophie’s, she drove over to KPVC and talked to Laura Marsters for a while about freelance work during the summer.
Laura sadly told her, “I’m sorry Alex, but we have more than enough stringers right now, and there’s no high school or college sports until fall. If something last-minute comes up, like a supervillain attack on the town hall, you’ll probably already be on your way there before we can find out and call you. So we’re interested in seeing anything a Pulitzer Prize winner shoots around the valley, but we don’t have work for you.”
Alex pretended she wasn’t bothered. “I guess that makes sense. And it’s not like I haven’t made a lot of money already.”
Laura smiled a little. “I hear the Paine Foundation gives the winners a pretty big bonus check.”
Alex grinned. “I was totally surprised when I saw how huge it was. And I met Bruce Paine at the luncheon!”
Laura rolled her eyes a little bit. “Was he drunk? And did he make a pass at anyone?”
“Umm, I think he was totally sober. And he gave a funny speech. And he brought his girlfriend, who’s really pretty and really nice. And this Iowa reporter brought his wife and daughter, and the daughter went gaga when she saw Mr. Paine, and he was kind about it.”
Laura said, “I’ve only seen pictures, but I bet a lot of women go gaga for him when they meet him.”
Then Alex drove over to the newspaper office and got the same spiel. She knew the newspaper had even less money to throw around than the TV station. She figured her best bet was letting Willow look for local superheroing opportunities, and maybe A.L. Mack could show up at one of them.
On the way to pick up Shar, Alex listened to a news radio channel. It seemed that pretty much all the Congressmen and Senators from Maine were starting a big push to get some anti-bullying bills, and there was a ton of support. Even the President was joining in and acting like he hadn’t told Terawatt to kiss off a couple of days ago.
And Shar had tons to tell about Sophie and Sophie’s mom Mrs. Moore and Sophie’s house. Alex had seen Mrs. Moore before, and she thought Mrs. Moore was trying to be the Terawatt of housewives. It also really bugged Alex that Sophie’s mom only encouraged Sophie to do really girly stuff, and didn’t encourage Sophie to do well in school, or stuff like that. She wasn’t sure Shar recognized the difference, but Shar was expected to do well in school and be just as good in math and science as anyone else, while Sophie was basically being told that girls didn’t need more math once they knew enough to make a cake or double a recipe.
Shar was telling how she taught Sophie and Mrs. Moore about science cookies, and she didn’t seem to recognize what her story revealed about Sophie and her family. Alex wondered if it was too late to try and talk Mrs. Moore into letting Sophie go to the plant’s science camp with Shar.
* * *
That night, Alex and her mom spent an hour on the phone with Aunt Ashley, planning out the big trip at the end of June when Alex would fly to Paris and meet Aunt Ashley and they’d play tourist for five days before Alex would fly home again. And they could fit it in while Shar was off at summer camp, so no one had to stay home from work to babysit Shar. Ashley also had special family miles as a perk of her flight attendant job so Alex could fly free, if she didn’t mind flying standby the whole way. Alex thought that sounded fun, even if her mom was sort of not thrilled about the idea.
Afterward, her mom had a little talk with her. “Honey, you could get stranded in someplace like the New York airport or the Paris airport if you’re flying standby.”
Alex hugged her and said, “Mom, I’ll be okay. It’s not like I’m a vulnerable teenaged girl. I can take care of myself.”
Her mom hugged her back. “Alex, you may be the most special person on earth, but you’re still a teenaged girl. And people will think you’re vulnerable. Bad stuff happens to young women on vacation every day.”
Alex pointed out, “Look, if I really get stuck, I can just go silvery and fly somewhere on my own. Or I can call Jack and have him fly me somewhere. Or I can just use my credit card and buy a regular ticket. And when I’m in New York, Jack and Willow and Annie are all close enough to help me out, or I could just fly over to one of them. And when I’m in Paris, I could just fly over to London and get help from Hermione. Or I could just puddle into the plane and hide in the cargo hold for a few hours during the flight. I’m not going to be trapped in an airport and helpless.”
Her mom fussed, “And have you thought about how much you’ll need to pack to go to Paris for a week?”
Alex admitted, “I was figuring on just what I’d be wearing on the plane, then a pair of jeans, a couple t-shirts, some underthings, my travel dopp kit and makeup kit, and a little bottle of Woolite so I could wash stuff in the hotel sink. And maybe one nice dress with my ballet flats, because they pack up really nice and small. And my tablet. And a box of energy bars and a water bottle. And my GoPro.”
Her mom just stared at her. “That’s it? If I was going to Paris, I’d need a couple of suitcases of clothes and things. What about a hair dryer? What about a charger for your phone and your tablet and batteries for your camera? What about … your uniform?”
Alex grimaced a little. “I’m not taking my uniform. If something comes up, I can handle it while I’m silvery. That uniform takes up a lot of room, and I totally don’t want to be lugging it through customs and stuff, which would be pretty hard to explain. And anyway, I want to keep everything down to what I can fit in my daypack.”
Her mom shook her head and then changed the subject. “Oh! I got a leotard sewn for Marsha. I just put in an invisible zipper in back. We need to get a dressmaker’s dummy for her measurements so we can spray it and have it fit right.”
Alex nodded. “Yeah, and we need her hat size for the wig, and her shoe size for the boots, and we need to get her over here so Dad can do the mold for the mask.”
Her mom smiled. “Alex, in case you haven’t noticed, you can get a decent Terawatt mask at every web costume store you can think of. You’re very popular.”
Alex grinned at her, “Hey, maybe I could get a Terawatt costume from a French costume shop if I need one!”
* * *
That weekend, Marsha came over with Louis in tow, while Shar was off with Alex’s dad. Marsha insisted, “This is never gonna work. I mean, before the prom I saw what you look like when you’re not wearing overalls, and you make me look like Kathy Bates.”
Alex frowned. “That’s not fair! You look pretty. You’re not fat, and you’re not all brick-shaped. Just because you’re not working out like I do …”
Her mom chipped in, “Alex has abs you could bounce a quarter off.”
Louis added, “She has abs you could bounce an anti-tank missile off. You have to stop comparing yourself to Terawatt.”
Marsha scowled at him and explained to Alex, “He went out with your mom’s list and bought the boots and the boobs and the wig and the mask, and he spent a totally stupid amount on some of that stuff, and he said I wasn’t all fat, but then he bought me a couple pairs of Spanx!”
Louis shrugged. “I read on a cosplay website that a lot of girls were wearing Spanx to get that superheroine shape, and I thought it was a good idea.”
Alex’s mom smiled gently. “I’ve got a pair, and it’s a lot easier putting on a pair of Spanx to fit in a nice outfit than exercising for four months.”
Alex thought Louis had ‘pulled a Louis’ again, coming up with an idea he thought was great that maybe looked bad to someone else.
Louis complained, “I apologized a ton, and I even bought her flowers! I mean, I was gonna buy her a box of chocolates, but I figured she’d cream me if I did after I bought the Spanx and all …”
Alex’s mom just said, “Marsha, sometimes you just have to realize that men are simple creatures who aren’t smart enough to figure out how we’ll see their actions.”
Louis nodded. “Exactly, and … Hey!”
But that was enough to get Marsha to laugh.
Alex took Marsha up to her bedroom with all the stuff and the leotard her mom had made for Marsha. She said, “Let’s try it with the Spanx and see how it looks, okay?”
Marsha sighed. “Sure. I mean, I really don’t want to stop eating for the summer and work out two hours a day just to wear that stupid costume. I have no idea how you do it.”
Alex confessed, “It’s the GC-161. It burns totally ridiculous numbers of calories, at least on me. And I work out every morning.”
Marsha admitted, “Well, you look pretty awesome in that uniform. I mean, you really do look like you could take a missile off your abs.”
“Okay, maybe I work out really hard. But I couldn’t take a missile off my abs.”
So Marsha sat on Alex’s bed and changed clothes while Alex pulled stuff out of the box and the rolling bag Marsha brought. Marsha had a thong so her underwear wouldn’t show, which was really good. And both pairs of the Spanx, which really pulled in Marsha’s tummy and waist, and really emphasized her butt. And the black tights. And the boob padding in a fitted bra. And the leotard that Alex’s mom had adjusted to Marsha’s measurements, which weren’t really all that different from Alex’s, especially after Marsha was wearing the Spanx. Alex helped her with the zipper in the back. Then the knee-boots and the fake utility belt. And the wig, which wasn’t a cheap costume shop wig, but was a really expensive wig from a real wig shop that even came in its own box with its own wighead and stuff.
Holy crud, Louis had spent a ton on all this stuff. And the wig was tight enough that Marsha needed help to get it on. After she stuffed her hair under a wig-cap, Alex draped the wig on Marsha’s head, and Marsha held the front of the wig at her forehead with two fingers as Alex tugged the rest of it in place.
Then Marsha touched up the wig with a special brush, and put on the black eyecrayon, and applied the deep red lipstick, and stuck on the rubber Terawatt mask. She tugged on the long gloves, which even had the fingertips trimmed off two fingers on each glove. “How do I look?”
Alex grinned. “Great. Take a peek.” She pointed at her full-length mirror.
“Wow,” Marsha whispered. “That Spanx crap really works. I am totally stealing ’em for when I wear nice dresses. Or maybe even my new jeans.”
And Marsha really did look great. She looked like a genuine, top-of-the-line Terawatt impersonator. Maybe she didn’t look perfectly like Terawatt, but Alex knew exactly what Terawatt really looked like. Marsha could fool pretty much anyone who hadn’t met Terawatt before.
Then Marsha sort of checked herself out, admiring her boobs and her backside and her stomach and her legs. She grumbled, “I totally have to practice in these boots.”
Alex admitted, “Yeah, I had to practice for days before I dared go out in public wearing ’em, and I could fly instead of walking around everywhere.”
Marsha grinned. “Come on, I have to show Louis.”
Alex suggested, “And you should work on your Terawatt voice, too.”
Marsha pitched her voice a couple notes deeper and tried to sound more forceful. “That is an excellent idea, young lady.” She switched back to her normal voice. “Man, that’s uncomfortable. How do you do it?”
Alex just shrugged. “Lots of practice. And I picked a pitch I could do for a while. Sometimes, when I’ve been Terawatting for a long time, it’s kind of hard to get back to my normal Alex voice.”
So Alex gave her some tips on walking up and down stairs in those boots, and Marsha sashayed out to show Louis how she looked. Alex crept along behind her but stayed out of sight.
Marsha asked from the top step, “How do I look?”
Alex heard Louis. “Uhh … guh.”
Alex’s mom said, “Louis, you’re drooling.”
Marsha did a fist-pump and cheered, “Yes!”
Alex peeked over the railing, and Louis was staring up at Marsha like she was the most gorgeous woman on earth, pretty much like Ray had stared at her the first time she did the full Terawatt thing in front of him. And Alex knew Louis didn’t look at her that way when she was Terawatt. It was kind of cute, like that special moment in a romantic movie.
Or at least it was until Marsha tried strolling down the stairs in five-inch heels and stumbled. Alex caught her with TK, even as Louis dived onto the stairs to try and catch her, which probably would’ve gotten him hurt. Or maybe gotten both of them hurt.
Marsha hung in mid-air and complained, “Shit! I really gotta practice in these heels.”
Alex used her TK to fly Marsha around the room and land her standing up right in front of Louis. Louis took her arms and checked, “Are you okay?” And as soon as Marsha nodded yes, Louis was kissing her. Well, they were kissing each other.
After about fifteen seconds, Alex’s mom had to clear her throat pretty loudly.
Louis and Marsha pulled apart a little, even though there was a little arc of spit still connecting their lips. Louis looked at Marsha and gasped, “We gotta go.”
Marsha looked at him and nodded. “Right now.”
They rushed out the door, with Marsha staggering a little in those heels and Louis helping her with an arm around her waist.
Alex grabbed Marsha’s stuff with her TK and pulled it down the stairs. Then she yanked open the back door of Louis’s car and put Marsha’s clothes and the wigbox and the rolling bag in. Marsha gave her a quick thumbs-up as Louis hastily backed out of the driveway and rushed off.
Alex’s mom fussed, “Are they going to go do what I think they’re going to do?”
Alex admitted, “Umm, yeah, if you’re thinking what I’m thinking. But Marsha’s been on the pill since way before she even went out with Louis, although I don’t think her dad has any idea, and they’ve been … together since San Diego Comic Con, I’m pretty sure. Maybe the night before Louis got knocked into the fishpond.”
Her mom sighed. “Sex is hard to say no to. I don’t have to know any details about you and Ray that you don’t want to tell me, but once you do it and it’s good for you, it’s a lot harder to decide not to.”
“Mom!” she squawked. “And we haven’t even gotten to third base yet. I am totally not. And Willow gave me the whole 4-1-1 on having sex.”
Her mom gave her the raised-eyebrows thing. “And just what advice did you get from the soon-to-be Mrs. O’Neill?”
Alex swallowed. “Maybe I’d rather not say, so you don’t get mad at her. But some of it’ll be helpful when Ray and I finally go all the way, and some of it’s a little too TMI, and some of it … maybe I didn’t need to hear those parts. And she’s going to be Rosenberg-O’Neill but their kids are gonna all be O’Neills.”
Her mom asked, “And is Charlie okay with a new stepmom who’s not that much older than him?”
Alex nodded. “Yeah. Hanna says Charlie’s really happy that his dad’s really happy, and not just cheerful and pretend-happy to keep Charlie’s spirits up.”
Her mom grimaced. “I can’t imagine how awful it was for Jack. I … I don’t know if I could keep going on if I lost George like that.”
Alex confessed, “I don’t think I could keep going on if one of you died because I wasn’t doing a good enough job.”
Her mom hugged her fiercely. “Alex, I don’t ever want to hear you talking like that, because you always do a wonderful job. I could never do what you do, and sometimes I don’t know how you keep going out there after the things you’ve seen, and the things that have happened to you.”
Alex hugged her back. “You could. I know you could. And you’d do it for the same reason I do. Because you’d want to protect your family and your friends and your town, and sometimes the only way to do that is to go fight battles really far away.”
* * *
So Alex wasn’t sure what she was going to be doing for the summer, right up until she got the phone call the next morning.
“Alex? Frank West here.”
“Hi, Mister West! I wasn’t expecting to hear from you this soon.” She made sure her tPhone had his number and it was listed properly.
“Just Frank, okay?” He said, “First, I need to know if you’re available for a few days next week.”
She thought about it for a second and said, “Well, yeah, even if I’ll have to do a little scheduling. Unless you want a nine-year-old tagging along with us.”
“Uhh, no. Definitely not. I wouldn’t want a nine-year-old tagging along even if I was covering a new Disney World. And this is definitely not going to be Disney World.”
She asked, “Okay, what is it?”
He cleared his throat a little. “I got word that the Army Corps of Engineers is about to start excavating the Oswell Spencer Building in downtown Davenport starting Monday, and I think that could be right up both of our alleys.”
She stopped and thought for a second. “Yeah. Especially if there’s anything in there that’s still not dead.”
“There might be something in there that’s still alive? I mean, un-dead?”
She sighed a little and told him. “There’s something that was in the security cam footage at the very end, before the building collapsed.”
“I was looking over that just a few minutes ago. You mean that big thing with the spikes in the front? It’s gotta be dead after getting thousands of tons of burning building dropped on it and then being left for months.”
She just said, “I really hope so. Because if it’s not …”