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Well, the plans have been made, the tickets bought, and the weekend will be time enough for packing... Now I can write!
We were halfway to the beach, me still trying to think of a way to get away, when Angel stopped and said, "Dawna, you're not dressed up! You can't go to the party like that!"
"What are you talking about?" I replied. "I'm going like this..." My voice trailed off as I saw how foolish I'd been. That could have been an excuse for getting away... "But I'll look really our of place," I said hurriedly, trying to repair the damage. "I'll go back right now..."
To late. With a rather cruel laugh, Angel had grabbed my arm and was dragging me off. "No time," she said as we headed onwards, "you'll just have to go as you are!"
The party was splendid, I can give it that much. But after a while, it was maddening. The light show and loud music had given me a headach. I hadn't eaten since lunch, and the only things on the bar were large watermelons filled with some kind of punch. One sip was enough to make me decide not to drink the noxious stuff. All I wanted was to get away, preferably with something to eat. As I wandered half-heartedly back to the bar, I seemed to see someone I knew out of the corner of my eye. But when I turned to face her, I found myself facing a girl with long blond hair with a pirate hat perched on top, thick makeup, and green eyes behind black-framed glasses. No, not just green eyes...bright, smokey green eyes, with a twinkle in them...eyes I had seen before, behind the same glasses...Cindy's eyes! I turned away quickly, telling myself that I was seeing things. It's not her, I told myself, the hair's wrong, and the clothes...
And that was where the thought stopped. For the girl I had told myself wasn't Cindy had just taken my hand, and said, in Cindy's voice, low, but clearly hers, "I guess this wig does change my looks. Even my neice doesn't recognize me."
This was the moment I had dreaded. There was no way to get away now. Turning to her, but still staring at the sand at our feet, I muttered, "I'm sorry... I'm sorry about everything, Cindy..."
"Shh! Do you want the whole party to know I'm here?" The girl who was Cindy looked around quickly, then pulled me toward one of the large tents clustered under some palm trees. I had avoided them, since I knew why these tents were here, and that it wasn't for chatting or sleeping. But Cindy clearly didn't, for she lifted the flap of the nearest one and bent over to go in. Seconds later two shouts came from inside, and she emerged to the sound of laughter from inside. I thought I saw a hint of a blush under her makeup as she straightened her already straight hat and muttered, "Kids these days... Well, think there's any tents with nobody in them?"
There was a tent with the flap open, and it was empty. As we sat down on the soft pillows inside, Cindy asked "Ok with you if I close the flap?"
"If you don't want people walking in, we'd better!" I said as I closed it myself and turned the battery-powered lamp in the tent on. "Listen, I am really sorry about everything..."
But again she cut me off. "Need to get this thing off, it's awfully hot," she said, taking off her hat. She seemed to have a hard time getting it off, but just as I was about to help her, she got it off, and with it the blond hair. Under it was her black hair, although more tousled the I had seen it before. Now she looked more like herself, or as much like herself, or as much like herself as she could in black pants, top, and boots, and the strange, thick, makeup.
Tne next moment, I was blurting out my apologies for the photo, the hard drive, her sister's death, and everything else I could thing of, which was quite a lot and included how bad the party was. Finally she stopped me.
"No need to be sorry for being alive," she said, and I was relived to see that she was smiling. "I wish you had asked for the photo, but I can understand why you didn't. I was your age once too..." She stopped. "I read everything about you on the drive, and I'm not angry at you. There's others I might be angry at, but not you. And I'll find them..."
"And I'll help you," I said. I was plesantly surprised she was so calm about the whole thing. I had been expecting rage of the sort she had flung at me about the photo, only many times greater. But now she was so nice... And so I found myself telling her everything about me...about my Aekean family, about the collapsed crane, about my darkside and the monster within me, about the little scientist and his death, about the disk he had given me, about the sea-people. When I was finished, I was agast at myself. There was no way she would belive me. She would just get angry and call me a lier.
But...she didn't. She just looked at me for a long time. Then she said, "If you were able to lie, I would think you were lieing. But I know you can't. And besides..." She looked me straight in the eye. "It's easy to see the truth in your eyes...just like it was with Celeste." She took off her glasses and busied herself with polishing them, but I saw a tear flash in the corner of one eye. Again I started to try to apoligise, and again she stopped me. "Can I see that disk you were talking about? It sounds like it might be important..." She looked up, and for the first time, I saw her without her glasses on. She was prettier than I had ever noticed before. "Of course," I said, "but I don't have it here..."
"Of course not," she said, putting her glasses back on, "whenever you can..."
"It could be tonight if we can get out of this party," I replied. I explained that it would be the best time to go back to Angel's flat, since Angel herself was here at the party and wouldn't notice her.
That was when the embaressment continued...
The party had shifted focus to the area of the tents by then, and so there were several spectators to the sight of two girls emerging from one tent, one ajusting her tousled hair and tilted hat, the other making sure her short skirt hadn't rode up...