I had other files. There were names on those files. Whittler, Bilious, King Crow were some of the many on the shelf I’d deemed ‘independents’. For teams, there were ones like the Ambassadors, Green Tea, N.N., Ossuary, Empire Eighty-Eight, and the Clans. I’d made it a priority to collect those. I worried we might need them.

On the bottom shelf, I had my magazines. Costumes Under Clothes, Gleam, Heroines, Masque, Shine On. Some of the boxes in the corner had my latest haul. Much of it would be duplicates. Maybe I’d give some of them out to seniors.

I could still smell a faint mildewy smell, and promised myself I’d identify the source when I had time. I’d left the window open, and the weather was warm, which was helping. A lot of this was what I’d salvaged from the office back home; I’d retrieved it from boxes and filing cabinets and hauled it here over a dozen trips. I’d rigged up tarps to keep the water off that corner of the house, but some of that moisture had been coming up from below. I would have to find the source of the smell and transcribe the text before throwing it out.

Maybe I could get Gilpatrick to get a kid who needed punishing to do it for me.

Information was too important. Even if that information was from the glossy, superficial magazines about superheroines that had been pitched to girls just like me eight to ten years ago.

Faint smells aside, I could draw in a deep breath and feel muscles from shoulder to calf relax. This was more of that seventy percent part of the seventy percent fit where the job suited me.

That thirty percent, though. I wouldn’t stay here forever. I hoped. It had been a thing that I’d hoped would look good on my college applications. That hadn’t worked.

I could hear the commotion as the mob of kids started coming in downstairs.

I walked over to my computer and booted it up. It booted up instantly, but the connection to the internet took a while. I opened a notebook and began searching through it.

I found the name before the internet succeeded in connecting. I closed the conversation from the day prior and waited for the internet before composing an email.

To: Deferent.I@Mail
Subject: Damaged pillar
I was a bystander when a car crashed into a pillar on Small St, near Basil Ave. Thought I’d let you know it’s damaged. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help or any info I can provide.

Thanks for what you do.