If she was going to keep seeing the red mist, she might as well be earning money while she was doing it. She called Travis back.

"Changed my mind," she told him. "I'm coming in."

"You sure? We can work out something where I give you a couple of paid vacation days, if you want. Gertie is already trying to get the other servers to kick in some of their tips."

"No, I need to keep my mind off things. I'll be there in twenty minutes."

When she arrived, Travis was standing in the back room. "Don't go anywhere," he told her, as she punched in. Travis left, and then returned a minute later with all of the servers, chefs, bussers, and dishwashers following him. Travis stepped forward and addressed everybody.

"Everybody who works here is a hero. Each and every one of you. However, Charlene is a hero who rescued an abducted six-year-old, so let's show her some appreciation, okay?"

The entire restaurant staff applauded. There was also whistling. Gertie, beaming, applauded the most enthusiastically of all of them.

"Speech!" somebody said.

"No speech," Travis told him. "She's been through a serious trauma. Everybody be nice to her today. Okay, back to work."

Almost everybody left the back room. Charlene felt like she should be feeling bitchy about this display of appreciation that she'd never wanted, but it honestly made her feel pretty good.

Gertie walked over to her. "I know you need your space," she said. "Just checking to see how you're doing."

"I'm fine. They should be giving you credit, too."

"Oh, they did. They all lined up and applauded when I got here."

"Well, that was nice of them."

"Yeah." Gertie nervously scratched her neck. "So are we okay?"

"You mean as friends?"

Gertie nodded.

"I don't think so," Charlene told her.

"I never asked you to come with me. You volunteered."

"I completely, one hundred percent get that. I'm self-aware enough to know that I'm being irrational. And I may get over it. I'll let you know if I do."

"Okay. Thanks." Gertie looked like she wanted to say something else, but instead she turned and left the room.

* * *

Several of Charlene's customers recognized her. She got much larger tips than usual. Not one person gave her a disapproving wag of the finger and said, "Now, now, you ought to have minded your own business!"