Chapter 54

We were sitting down for dinner together when Cindy's phone rang. She looked at the display. "Susan!" Squeal! "Hi, Sis! Didja?" Pause. "Uh-huh!" Pause. "So when?" Squeal! "Absolutely! We wouldn't miss it for the world!" Pause. "Yeah! We're flyin' up this weekend. We'll be there Friday afternoon." Pause. "Dinner with your mom an' dad an ' you an' your sweetie? You betcha!"

Cindy was in full glow. That was my little mate. Since we'd become a couple, she was usually happy with me, but it always took on an extra depth when she was happy about something good happening to somebody else.

"Oh, Sis, I am sooo happy for you. AND Jason! Tell 'im I, us, we said 'Hi!', okay?" Pause. "Of course! I love you. Bye!"

I looked at the broad grin on her face. "You look awfully happy," I said.

"The circle is almost complete," she said. "You know how I felt about poor Susan being the odd man out on our weekends together. Come the first weekend in June, that's over."

"You ARE happy," I laughed.

"I AM!" she said with a giggle.

We finished dinner, cleaned our dishes, and did a couple of laps around the park. This time we got stopped several times.

"No practice tonight?" Bob Skery asked.

"Sorry, not tonight. We're doing a couple of laps, then Cindy needs to rest up for tomorrow. She starts testing, and when she passes the high school exit exams, she'll be lined up to graduate."

"Fourteen," his wife said, shaking her head. "She sings like an angel, and she's graduating at fourteen." She looked at me. "Dan, you have a real gem there."

"Don't I know it," I said.

Sonny and his wife walked up. Cindy was standing at my side, her arm casually around my waist, a finger hung in a belt loop.

"Hi, Mister Sonny! Hi, Mizz Tammy!"

"Hi, Miss Cindy," Sonny said. "Out for a walk?"

"Yessir," she smiled. "Isn't it glorious this evening?"

"It is indeed, dear," Tammy said. "Did I hear you're testing tomorrow?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Isn't that going to be hard for you?"

"I'd better answer that so it doesn't sound like Cindy's tooting her own horn," I said. "My little cutie has the highest ACT score in the county this year, including the consolidated high school. She went to high school for the last week and a half to attend the reviews they give their graduating students, and she and a couple of her high school friends got run out of the review classes. The teachers said that my Cindy and company don't need to waste time reviewing. So I'm thinking the tests won't be much of a hurdle for her."

Sonny laughed. "Well, then. You could at least get your guitar and play a few songs for us."

Cindy grinned. "I'll go get it, babe!"

So we ended up sitting there with me plunking on my guitar, and Cindy and the rest singing along for an hour.

Walking back to the trailer after it was over, she giggled. "You're too easy, baby!"

"Too easy?"

"Yeah. You'll drop what you're doing to have fun with people."

"They took advantage of me, baby," I laughed. "They got me talking about my favorite subject – you!"

"You're my biggest fan, aren't you, Dan," she said.

"Yes. And you've got some big fans. Helen. Charlie. Jim. Your sisters."

"But you're the one ... the biggest one."

"I will happily accept the title."

"Comes with a kiss, you know," she said, stepping onto the step into the trailer and turning.

I collected the kiss. From a couple of inches, she was adorable. I could make out the freckles that I adored, a sprinkle across her nose. I kissed her nose.

She wrinkled it. "Freckles. You're thinking about my freckles, aren't you?" She knew. I was an open book to this little girl.

"Mmm-hmmm," I said. "Saw 'em on Day One. Melted right through the crust on my heart."

"I used to lay awake at night wondering why I had to endure freckles like that. Thought I was a freak. Turns out that I was just waiting until you came along to think I was adorable."

"You ARE adorable, little red-headed girl."

"Then why don't we go inside and adore each other?"

"Perfect idea!"

"Yeah," she smiled. "I have tests tomorrow. You're supposed to help me relax."

Two showers later, we were in the process of making sure that she was relaxed for the next day.

I had a couple of days' work left on the job so I returned to the familiar haunts of the last several months, walked in, greeted Sara and the rest of the gang, tossed my laptop bag into my temporary office, and then headed to the coffee station.

Sara was there with her mug. "Cindy starts her tests today, right?"

"Yep," I said.

"Thought so. New next door neighbor's son is a high school senior and he's as nervous as a cat."

"Cindy's excited."

"That kid ain't Cindy. 'Is tracks in the dirt are two footprins and a pair of parallel furrows where his knuckles drag."

"Gee, Sara, tell us how you REALLY feel!"

"Feel sorry for the kid, really," she said. "Cindy's excited?"

"Oh, yeah. I get tickled thinking about it. I mean, she's got a few friends at the high school now, but here's this little red-headed fourteen year old running the halls, getting ready to graduate. High school teachers told her she didn't need to do the review classes. Everybody knows about her non-scholastic exploits. You gotta know how many heads shake."

"And tongues wag," Sara added.

Jerry had joined the conversation. "You're proud."

"Yes I am, Jerry. You've seen Cindy since we've been married. Last summer, when I first met her, she was totally different. Shy. Subdued. Unsure. Now, I think she'd be up for the Oval Office."

He laughed. "Cindy's no politician. She knows things. And knows things that aren't so. And knows the difference."

"Yeah. On another note, though, you remember my lead technician, Jason Ellerbee?"

"Sure," Jerry said. "He schooled me on the system protection networking. What about 'im?"

"I sent him up to Tennessee to help my buddy on another project. He's getting married."

"Neat-o. Good guy!"

Sara raised an eyebrow. "Dan, I've been takin' care of you for too darned long to think that's all of THAT story. Spill it."

"His fiancee' is eighteen."

She smirked. "Well, he wasn't a full-fledged electrical engineer, so perhaps his girl-fu was weakened."

"You two are something," Jerry laughed. "Dan, I'm really gonna miss having you around."

"Oh, I'm gonna miss being here. You've got a good little plant here, even if your staff is slightly warped."

Sara stuck her tongue out at me.

"See!" I quipped. "Warped!"

"Well, you know we still want you to drop by from time to time," Jerry said.

"I will," I replied. "I'll bring business cards."

"We'd rather you bring Cindy," Sara retorted.

"Thank you for being supportive, Sara," I laughed. "Now I'm going back to my cave with hurt feelings. I may close the door and weep softly in the dark."

Amid laughter I took my coffee mug and went to my office. I knew better than to expect a word from Cindy today. The school had made a big deal about locking out cellphones for the testing days and I knew that Cindy would be the last one to risk her special status to break a silly rule. The rule was about cheating. Yeah, Cindy was 'cheating'. She came to the game with forty IQ points in her favor.

I got the expected phone call at three-thirty, when school officially let out.

"Hi, sweetie!" I said. "Did it go okay?"

"Puh-leeze!" she said, then giggled. "It was like I was idling."

"Good! We can go out for dinner tonight, okay? The Sommers sisters?"

Squeal! "Perfect! And just so you know ... I was sooooo relaxed."

I was smiling when Sara stuck her head in the door, holding a couple of binders in her hands. "That Cindy?"

"Yep."

"How was testing?"

"She said she was idling the whole time."

"'Bout what I figured. Look at who they graduate these days and what they know, then think about Cindy."

"I know," I said.

By Wednesday it was over. The testing, anyway. And by Cindy's own estimate, she'd achieved her goal, but the official scores would be issued in a few weeks, so she was talking about going back to her old middle school.

Wednesday was church night for the Hardesty bunch, so we didn't visit them, but Thursday she was back on the bus and in middle school.

Cindy's turn:

Okay, I had my 'high school experience'. That's what I told my homeroom teacher when she asked how things went. I tried to NOT sound like I was bragging when I was asked about how hard the tests were. I get so torn over that bragging thing, because I'm really NOT bragging. It's just that so much of this stuff is easy for me. I know it's not that easy for others, and I really didn't understand that I was different like that until Dan and I got started together and he started noticing.

Mister Jim caught up with me as I was walking between home room and first hour and went with me to the class.

"I'm pulling Cindy out for a little bit," he told my teacher, Mizz Crockett. We went to his office and he asked me about the tests.

"I don't think I have a problem, Mister Jim," I said. "You know what I can do."

"Yeah, you scare me sometimes." He smiled. Next to my Dan, Mister Jim has done more to get me where I am. Well, then there's Judge Charlie, too, because without him, Dan and I wouldn't be married.

"I called the school board office and asked them if there was a way to expedite getting your scores. They said we might know by next Monday."

I couldn't help myself. I kind of squealed. Mizz Latham, the assistant guidance counselor, looked around the corner.

"Happy with ourselves, are we, Miss Cindy?"

"Yes, ma'am," I said. "Mister Jim said I might not have to wait a month to get my test scores."

"That's good," she said. "I know that wait would've KILLED me." Mizz Latham was a year out of college herself. She was nice to us students, too, but I'm sooo glad we have Mister Jim. Anyway, she smiled. "I need to call the high school and get you some order forms for your graduation gown and a class ring and your graduation invitations, right, Mister Jim?"

"One of us needs to, Miss Carlee."

"Let me do that, then." She grinned at me. "It hasn't been THAT long that I had to do that stuff for myself. We'll get you fixed up."

"Thank you," I said. "When you get that stuff, just tell me so I can take it home."

Mister Jim smiled. "Cap and gown. Cindy, would you like to make a big deal out of this at our middle school graduation?"

"Big deal?" I talked about that whole 'middle school graduation' thing with Dan and Mister Jim and Mizz Ann, and we all thought it was kind of silly, but a lot of parents liked it. I hadn't thought about middle school graduation. After all, I was headed towards a high school graduation.

"Sure," he said. "All the middle school graduates will be wearing blue and gold, but you'll be wearing your high school gown and it's going to be purple and white. You'll stand out, and the principal will announce you and explain why you're in purple and white. That's all."

"Mister Jim," I said, "I don't want to act like I'm bragging, you know..."

"You won't be bragging. We, us at the school, we'd be bragging. Kind of dishonest, really, because YOU'RE the one with the ability. But we wanna take credit for you using it."

"Okay," I said. "Let me talk to Dan, but..."

"Dan's gonna wanna watch you on the stage, Mizz Cindy. I know how he is about you."

I smiled. "I know how Dan is about me, too, Mister Jim. And I'm even worse about him!"

"Y'all coming over this evening?"he asked.

"Unless there's some sort of tragedy," I said.

"Good," he said. "I guess you need to go back to class. Mizz Crockett's been whining about not having her teaching assistant for the last week and a half."

Every class I went to for the rest of the day, I got asked the same questions about where I'd been and how the tests were. Kaylee and I ran the halls together with a bunch of other kids, including some boys, and Kaylee said they were my 'posse', just like a celebrity. That made me laugh, but then in class the teacher was going on about some science thing that wasn't even close to the things we'd, Dan and I'd done on the project, so I was daydreaming a little, and it came to me. Maybe Kaylee was right. I WAS a celebrity, and a totally different celebrity than the quarterback of our football team, because it was only a middle school football team, after all. But academic celebrities aren't very common. And I WAS one.

I guess I thought I was giggling to myself but it was out loud.

"Miss Cindy? Do you have a comment?" Mister Hollis asked.

"Oh, nossir. Sorry. I was thinking about what you're saying about aquifers and another thought crossed my mind." It was only a little white lie. Dan and I talked about the water supply for the project and I probably knew more about aquifers than most people. Hydrology, Dan said. That was a lot of what happened with me in science. Mister Hollis would talk about something, and I'd go home and ask Dan and sometimes we'd get on the internet and wade through things so I'd KNOW.

Don't get me wrong. Mister Hollis is a GOOD teacher. He tries. He likes us kids, well some of us, and he likes teaching. But it's eighth grade science. It's like he's trying to cover the whole universe and doing it using words of two syllables or less. I mentioned that to him one time when we were talking. "Miss Cindy, I know. But you're something special. And your husband can better take you into whatever subject that interests you, and I can keep doing this class and hoping that I prime the pump for a few interested kids."

After science class, Kaylee couldn't wait to ask me what I was giggling about.

"Honestly," I told her, I didn't know I was giggling out loud. I was thinking about what you said about me being a celebrity."