“Okay, here are the rules,” Mandy says.“You draw a card, then you move to the next space of that color.The end.You don’t even have to know how to read.”
I nod, looking at the board seriously.
“Ready to get your asses kicked?”I ask.
The girls both laugh.Silas and I smile.
ChapterEleven
Clementine
I’ve gota pen between my fingers, and I tap it against the desk in my cubicle over and over again, staring at the gray wall without seeing it.I should be thinking about work, because Godknows there’s enough to do, but I’m thinking of what I’m gonna say to Hunter when I go over there tonight.
Okay, let’s do itdoesn’t quite seem to capture the gravity of the situation, and neither doesI considered this and I think having sex would be fine and not too damaging, orthis can’t go worse than last time, so let’s get it on!
I think I might be bad at this, and I’m still wondering what the hell Idowhen Jennifer’s head appears around the cubicle, and she smiles a dangerous smile at me.
“You’re making me crazy,” she says through her teeth.
I stop tapping.
“Sorry,” I say.
“How’s that budget going?”she asks, glancing at my computer screen.
I haven’t used it in so long that the monitor went to sleep.
“It’s going great?”I say, jiggling the mouse and praying that a spreadsheet pops up on the screen, not something else.Jennifer glances at it.
It’s the spreadsheet.It’s half-done, but at least it’s not something else.
“I’m sorry,” I say.“I’ll get it done in time, I just...”
My ex-boyfriend showed up again, my parents are getting divorced, and I just found out that my mom cheated on my dad and it feels a little like my whole world is inside a kaleidoscope, rearranging itself as some asshole kid turns it around.
“I’ve had a lot on my plate the last few days,” I say, finding a more professional phrase.
Jennifer just nods.
“I know,” she says.“Clementine, let me know if you’re feeling overloaded, okay?I can have someone else do some of the grunt work.”
“Thanks,” I say.“I’ll be fine.”
It’s nearly September, and for some reason, a lot of federal and state grant applications are due September first.That means we’re rushing to put together proposals and budgets, dreaming up ways that renovating the picnic pavilion at the Alpine Lakes campground promotes diversity among the youth who visit the park.
I quit staring at the wall, and for the next ninety minutes, I stare at a spreadsheet.By the end of the day I’ve managed to make a graph, even if my mind keeps wandering toverydifferent pursuits.
The cubicles are buried in the center of the administrative building, in a mostly-windowless room, so when I walk past a window to the bathroom, I’m surprised to see that it’s raining hard.I stop and watch for a moment, and the sky blinks white with lightning, followed a few seconds later by thunder.
I’m glad it’s not my week outside, backpacking and repairing trails.As much as I like nature, being indoorssureis nice sometimes.
When I get back to my desk, Jennifer is looking at my chair.
“Oh, there you are,” she says.
“I went to the bathroom,” I say, like I need to explain where I was or something.She just waves a hand.
“I was actually wondering whether you’d mind driving some stuff over to the firefighters in the dorm,” she says.“Mike’s worried that the power’s gonna go out, and we took all the emergency supplies out when we renovated, and they got here before we put them back.It’s just flashlights, lanterns, that kind of stuff.”
