“I’m not trying to drag you,” Sveta said, as she set her chin down on my shoulder.

“You were literally dragging me.”

Best Cousin:
yes! where? what do I bring?

“Nothing,” Sveta said. “We’ll have to order in.”

Me:
Blue binder from the coffee table. It has a magazine cutout taped to front.

“That’s not nothing,” Sveta said.

Best Cousin:
I meant food u dumbass

“I like her,” Sveta said.

“People are feeling abusive today,” I said. “Something in the air.”

I told Crystal not to bring food, then typed out the address as Sveta recited it. I left the message typed in the box.

“Address is right. Hit send,” Sveta said.

“We’ll compromise,” I said. “Because I have about a hundred things I’ve been keeping in the back of my mind, and I had everything arranged in my head so tonight would be the night I pulled it together.”

“What’s the compromise?”

“I need to get organized. If we’re not getting some stuff done for tomorrow, I’ll cut out a bit after dinner, and we’ll do it another time.”

“Deal. I think you’ll find we’re better at balancing the cape stuff with the real stuff. In a way, it’s all mixed up for us already.”

“Alright,” I said. “Yeah.”

She hugged my arm. “Send a message to Weld, too? Let him know?”

I did.

“This way,” she said. She walked with a bit of a bounce in her slightly ungainly step. I wasn’t sure she would have been able to if she wasn’t holding onto me.

Stratford Station and the surrounding neighborhood were an area of the Megalopolis I primarily knew for its airfield. Helicopters were in and out, and as someone who often had to fly past, I had to be mindful of the airspace. I usually flew low or gave it a wider berth, using the highway to the north as my guide.

Now that I was in the neighborhood and moving at a walking pace, I could see it was one of the quainter areas. It was one of the first areas to be settled, and the buildings were smaller, with more houses. Not too dissimilar to my mom’s neighborhood. Even the apartment buildings were three or four floors tall at the highest. Like many of the buildings in the early settlements, they’d been built broad rather than tall.

My phone buzzed and I checked it.

I had two messages, excepting the six others I had from Kenzie.

The first was from the Wardens. They wanted to talk at ten thirty in the evening. Committee. Team heads would be there.

I showed Sveta.

“Damn. We can’t spend that long together,” she said.

“We do have things to do.”

“I know,” she said.

I sent a copy of the message with the time to the others.

The other was from Ashley: