Chapter 42

Tina's turn:

I'm not jealous, really. But here I am, this textbook open, and my laptop, and my notepad, and my precious step-daughter and her friend just stopped by and gave me a cookie because "You look like you're stressing, Tina."

I turned to gaze at her and Rachel. I knew that Terri would NEVER have to stress over any educational requirement accorded to the general population. For that matter, neither did I. My stress was because I was pushing hard so that I and my sisters would all graduate in less than two years from today.

"It's math," Terri said. "You know Nikki or Cindy will help you."

"I want to figure it out for myself if I can," I told my daughter. Yes, Terri IS my daughter, even though only ten years separate our ages. She's also my neat young friend, a diminutive bit of comfort, comic relief. It's easy to see her dad's genes in her.

"I know you do," Terri said.

"I do, too," Rachel injected. "But sometimes it's good to have somebody give you a little nudge when there are some sticky parts." She smiled sweetly. "Terri does that for me. It's a good thing."

Okay, these two munchkins just erased the self-pity that I was building up for myself. I bit into the offered cookie.

"It's a 'Cindy' cookie," I said.

"Me an' Rachel helped," Terri grinned. "Rachel said we'd add different dried fruit instead of raisins, and I told Cindy that one nut was as good as another nut, so it's got cashews, and you KNOW how Cindy is with that spice box." She smiled that little lopsided thing that she does when she's being a little snarky.

Rachel's head bobbed, nodding agreement. "Apple. Dried apple. Like in Mom's apple crunch. Do you like it?"

"Yes I do, Rache," I said. "Cindy's home?"

"Uh-huh," Rachel answered. "And she's got a physics book."

That's the latest development. The Physics Department and the Engineering Department cross their streams on the government railgun project, so the Sisterhood is known to the Physics bunch. I don't know that anyone has ever fought over me, academic or not. Well, if you don't count Alan in that parking lot incident, which I don't count.

But Nikki and Cindy are the subject of a nerdfight between the pure sciences bunch and the engineering bunch. And in Cindy's case, there are a couple of English profs who not so secretly hope she'll get disgusted and turn to literature instead.

"Cindy's got a physics book? That's new." I grabbed my phone. "Lemme call 'er." I woke Siri up and said "Cindy."

Two rings. "Hi!" in a voice so bright you can see the smile through the sound.

"Hi, yourself," I said. "Terri says you have a physics book."

"Yeah. Can I come over? We can talk. I'm bringing coffee."

"And cookies. More cookies." I looked up just in time to see Terri and Rachel hitting the front door.

"We're gonna help 'er.!"

"You got help coming," I said.

She giggled. "I need help!"

In a matter of minutes the front door opened again, Terri and Rachel tumbling in, giggling, followed by Cindy with her backpack over one shoulder and a thermal coffee carafe in hand. "Wanna mug?"

"Gotta mug right here," I said. I got up and diverted her into the kitchen where she topped off my mug, poured herself one, and we tended to the cream and sugar before returning to the desk in our home office/hobby room.

"So what's the deal with the physics text? I'm guessing it's not Physics for Jocks."

"No," she said, "it's not. Doctor Embert called me to her office yesterday and gave it to me. Said I'd be well-served to read through it and come talk to her."

I giggled. "She's gonna get you a physics major out of this, isn't she?"

Cindy smiled. "I am going to get an engineering degree."

I smiled back. "And a physics degree?"

"Maybe," she said. "I dunno. I was wading through this text. I see a lot of overlap."

"Really?"

"Yes," Cindy said. "I see where a lot of the engineering math comes from. Or went to."

"I talked about that with Alan," I said. "He says that a hundred and fifty years ago there weren't as many distinctions between pure and applied sciences."

"Yeah, like Doctor Embert smears the lines all the time."

"We all do, at least on that project. But are you thinking of changing majors?"

She shook that red head of hers. "Nope! Told my husband I wanted to be an engineer before I married 'im. And that's what I will be. Doesn't mean that I have to limit my horizons, though."

"Yeah, okay. You sing. You fly. You talked your way though most of college. And you're worried about limiting your horizons. Right..." and I tried sounding serious but who can stay serious too long when Cindy's smiling.

"You know what I mean," Cindy said. "It's all so unreal. Did you ever imagine you'd be where you are today?"

This was a frequent topic among us. I glow when I think about it. "You know the answer to that one."

"Yes I do," she said. "You KNOW how crazy it is."

I do know. In a year and a half I've gone from a high school dropout not sure she was going to live through another month to a high school honor graduate, college student, wife and mom. I cannot imagine what my expression might have been if somebody had suggested that path two summers ago.

Cindy was flipping through the pages of that physics text, showing it to Terri when my phone rang. Dan 2.0's ringtone.

"Hi, Dan!" I answered. I don't know what I was expecting. Last time Nikki's Dan called me he was setting up some happy surprise for her.

"Tina! Need you to get hold of Cindy. Susan's in the hospital and Nikki's at the police station."

"Omigod!" I blurted. "Did you call Jason?"

"Yeah!"

"Is she okay?"

"Yeah. They're ... it's an investigation. I'm on my way there. Jason's an hour away. Go take care of Susan."

"Terri. Rachel. Go stay at Rachel's house. We got a situation."

Cindy was staring at me, surprised. I grabbed my car keys. "Come on," I told her. "Nikki's at the police station and Susan's in the hospital."

Cindy kept her thoughts to herself until Rachel and Terri were around the corner. When they were out of sight, she blurted "What's going on?"

"I just told you everything I know. Let's go see our sister."

She was on her phone when we got into the car. "Dan? Have you gotten there yet?" Pause. "No? D'ya want me to call my step-dad? The judge?" Pause. "No, I don't know anything you don't know. Just wanted to give him a heads up." Pause. "Okay. I'll do that. I'm with Tina, on the way to see Susan." Pause. "My Dan's headed that way? Great! Let us know what's happening. Love you and Nikki." Pause. "Yeah, thanks. Bye."

I drove. Cindy was on the phone with her step-dad giving him what little we knew, which was darned sketchy. She was stowing her phone when I pulled into the parking lot at the hospital emergency room.

We introduced ourselves at the desk as Susan's sisters and got access back into the emergency room. There were two policemen with her. One of them was familiar. He was part of the investigation of the robbery at the Desai restaurant.

"Officer Canfield, isn't it?" I said.

He turned. Susan squeaked "Tina! Cindy! Oh gosh..."

"She's gonna be just fine," the officer said. He turned to his partner. "Remember that shooting at that restaurant a couple of months back? This bunch is all over it."

Cindy was already holding Susan's hand.

"My husband," I said. "He's the..."

"Oh, yeah, I remember now," the other officer said. "Jack, we can let 'em have some privacy."

"Yeah," Canfield said. "Take a few minutes. We're gonna find some coffee. We still have a few more questions."

I stepped to Susan's bedside. She looked disheveled, her face red, obviously from crying. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"I got attacked."

"By Nikki? Why's she at the police?"

"Because there's a guy over at the other end of the hall with a BIC pen in his head."

"Whaa... ?" Cindy blurted.

"I was leaving my history class. Supposed to meet Nikki at the car, so I walked that way. I've got that shortcut, you know, around the back of the building. I expected Nikki was gonna meet me but I guess I was running ahead of schedule or she was running behind. Anyway, you know that shortcut?"

We knew. Saved some steps, but was off the well-traveled paths most students took, running past the shrubbery that hid the utilities behind the building. "This guy..." Her face did something I'd never seen Susan do. It contorted into a sob. "He stepped out, tried to stop me to talk. I told him I had to meet somebody. He grabbed me ... From behind. His arm was around my neck." She sucked in a deep breath and continued. "He said he was gonna have me alive or dead and still warm, and he dragged me to the bushes. He was pulling my blouse open and pulling my jeans down and we both just sort of launched onto the ground and he stopped moving." One more sob. "There was a BIC pen stuck in the side of his head and Nikki was calling 9-1-1."

"Nikki? OUR Nikki?" Cindy squeaked.

"She saved me from getting raped or more."

"You didn't get raped," I said.

"Nope. Nikki must've been half a minute behind me. The cops took her away. An ambulance brought me here. And the guy."

The privacy curtain moved. "Excuse me," came the disembodied voice of Officer Canfield. "Can we get a little time to close this report out?"

"Sure," Susan said. "Come on in. We're okay."

She answered some more questions.

"We sort of overheard your conversation," the other officer said. "Just want to get it first hand, you know, all official."

"What're they gonna do to Nikki?" Cindy asked.

"I dunno," Canfield said. "Give 'er a medal?"

"The guy..."

"Stopped breathing on the way over here. That's off the record," he said, lowering his voice. "I'm not supposed to tell you that."

Cindy stroked Susan's hair, putting some of it back in place. Cindy, without a smile. I guess I stared.

"He attacked our sister. There's a price for that."

Susan squeezed Cindy's hand. "You've been through this."

"And he didn't ... I don't think he had time to regret it."

A nurse stuck her head through the curtain. "The ER doc is ready to look at you, Miss Susan," she said.

Susan asked for us to stay. The doctor asked questions, poked, probed. "Did he..."

"Nope," Susan said. "He was tryin' to get me on the ground and get my pants down when Nikki got there."

"So we don't need a rape kit, then."

She shook her head. "Nope."

"Then you're fortunate. Looks like you're going to have some bruises, but that's about it." He sort of smiled. "Do you want me to prescribe some sedative for the next couple of days?"

I recognized a male voice up the hall. So did Susan. "No, thank you. I think my sedative just showed up."

The curtain pulled aside and a very worried-looking Jason popped in. We stood aside as he said, "Baby..."

"Come 'ere, you," Susan said. "I'm fine." She held her arms open for him.

The boy broke down. When they finally separated, he had tears tracking down his cheeks. "Baby ... I ... I left everything at the substation. Dropped it all. Told the client that I had an emergency and I'd get back there in a day or two. Or somebody would."

"I love you, Jason. And we're okay. And you REALLY owe Nikki big time."

The next head that appeared was my Alan. "Hi, Susan. Hi, gang."

"She's okay," I said. "Any word on Nikki?"

"Nikki's still at the station. Talking with the DA. Her Dan's there with her."

"The guy ... He's dead," Susan said. "At least that's what we heard."

"Oh, that's a development," Alan said.

"We had Officer Canfield here. You remember him?" I asked.

"Yes, I do. He stopped by for coffee a week or so ago," my husband replied.

"He said this one's pretty much open and shut. Nikki's okay."

"Except maybe for the part where she stuck a ballpoint pen in the side of a guy's skull."

"Nikki'll be just fine," Cindy said assuredly. "She did a good thing."

"Anyway, I brought you some clothes. I hope they're okay."