Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 106839 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106839 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
But that’s a worry for another day because Amon left and went on with his business and now it’s time for me to do the same. I change into my bell bottoms and halter top, leaving the diner just as the lunch rush is getting started because there are plenty of Revenant waitresses who like to work lunch and dinners during the week and I’m just not needed. But that’s fine. Because I am needed down at McBooms.
I’m always needed at McBooms because Lowyn is so damn good at buying new pieces of old junk that those catalogues constantly need attention. Plus, I am in charge of the teenagers and there ain’t a teenager on the planet who can’t use some extra supervision. My past teenage self included.
There is some squealing going on when I enter the store, and the same two boys are hanging about. These boys and girls are Lowyn’s helpers in her tent during Revival this season, so naturally they are getting close and even though the boys aren’t needed here at the store, it’s not surprising that they’re showing up. It’s summer, after all. Chasing girls is pretty much what all high-school boys do during the summer.
Still, things must be guided or they will go off the rails. Having once been an out-of-control teenager myself, I understand that persons of this age are often unreliable, overly emotional, and impulsive.
The adult in the room can handle it in one of two ways:
One, forbid them from doing things. Like telling the boys they can’t hang out. Or telling the girls they can’t have music.
Or two, you can give them a project.
I don’t actually wish someone had given me a project at fifteen because then I would not have Cross. But I do generally subscribe to option number two.
So let me think… what might be a good way to keep teenage boys busy while showing off for the girls they like? Why, moving heavy objects in the heat of midday, of course.
I call them all into the back storage area where Lowyn keeps the pieces she hasn’t had time to stage yet. She’s been so busy with her new life with Collin down at the compound that this area is starting to become a bit of a mess. So I tell the teenagers to put all the pieces out on the floor in a place that makes good design sense. Girls decide where and boys do the moving.
The girls are excited. This is fun for them. The boys, not so much. But that’s just because they haven’t thought things through yet.
You see, it only takes about ten minutes of moving armoires and bookshelves before they need to take their shirts off. Which allows them the opportunity to show off the muscles they’ve worked so hard to build all year doing sports. Which in turn allows the girls the opportunity to admire them.
Everyone is satisfied and I don’t come across as the ‘mom’ in the room, even though I am. Once they are all settled into their new project, I gather up the stack of mail, take it over to my favorite dinette set, and plop it down so I can go through it.
Now this is when I pause and remember that letter that came to the Revenant diner. It’s still tucked in my waitressing uniform, which is in my car, so I go out and get it. Then bring it back inside with me and study the pattern.
Of course, the most obvious thing is that they are both worksheets. The other thing they have in common is that they are not simple worksheets. They are not for small children. They were both made for adults. Or maybe a really smart teenager who enjoys a puzzle challenge.
I don’t have the other one, it’s at home on the kitchen counter, so I can’t try and solve it. And that one seems like a long project, what with all the different languages involved.
But I feel like I could solve this one. The equations are mostly simple. They start out that way, at least. It’s not 2+2 or anything that easy, but more like x + 5 = 21. Which looks special because of the x, but all it’s really asking is what is twenty-one minus five.
“Sixteen,” I mutter, my finger tracing down the key at the bottom of the page. And sure enough, there’s a number sixteen there and it comes with instructions: Turn right.
I turn right in the maze until I bump into another equation. It’s much the same, just slightly more difficult. Still, it’s solvable with half a minute of figuring. This time, the answer tells me to continue straight. I keep going, solving the equations and tracing my pencil through the maze, until I realize that the line I’m drawing has nothing to do with getting to the center of the maze, because this little pathway is turning into a picture.