Living in America, part 2
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
2002
Rebecca and Jack’s last hurrah as foster parents was almost over as quickly as it began.
Claudia was mostly quiet on the way home; she laid claim to the plainer of the two spare bedrooms and expressed no small amount of surprise that they had an Internet connection, but still didn’t have much to say until they sat down for dinner.
“This is pretty good,” she said, after taking her first tentative bite of pork chop.
Rebecca smiled. “Thank you. We’ve never been much for five-course extravaganzas, but we do our best.”
“Doesn’t need to be that fancypants. Second house I was in totally phoned it in all the time. Lasagna out of a box like every night, and if it wasn’t that it was some kind of takeout. I even offered to do omelets, just to have something different, but they didn’t want the twelve-year-old cooking.”
“You know how to make omelets?”
Claudia nodded, but didn’t say anything else on the subject; she ate in silence for a few minutes, then wrinkled her nose. “Okay, I have to ask. Which one of you’s the smoker?”
“That would be me,” Jack said, treating his plate to his best sheepish face. “I’m quitting, though.”
“Yeah, that’s what they all say.”
“Hey, bad habits of fifty years don’t just disappear overnight. I’ve cut down to two a day from three packs at my worst. Cut me a little slack, Claud.”
Claudia froze, then dropped her fork and left the table in a hurry. After they heard the door to her bedroom slam shut, Jack blinked a few times.
“What the hell did I say to bring that on, Becks?”
Rebecca sighed. “I don’t know, but I think this is going to go a bit more smoothly if you let me find out.” She finished her potatoes first, both to give Claudia a little time to cool her heels and because she’d never been fond of cold potatoes, then headed upstairs herself.
They both knew that fostering older children brought its own set of challenges, some of them the same reasons Rebecca hadn’t pursued a career in middle school education, but Claudia hadn’t seemed like the sort to storm off at the drop of a hat. She was certainly cocky, if her fervent wish to get out on her own was any indication, but this wasn’t something Rebecca had seen coming; she could only hope Claudia hadn’t tried to climb out the window.
She knocked on the door, and allowed herself a quiet sigh of relief when Claudia said, “What?”
“May I come in, Claudia?”
“Whatever.”
Rebecca chose to take that as a ‘yes,’ and opened the door; Claudia was sitting on the bed, leaning against the headboard, arms wrapped around her knees. “He’s not here, is he?”
“No, Jack’s finishing his dinner.” Rebecca closed the door and sat down on the foot of the bed. “We’re not your enemies, Claudia. We want to help you, but it’s hard for us to do that if we don’t know what you’re thinking, and we’re both completely baffled as to what happened down there.”
“He doesn’t get to call me that.”
Rebecca smiled a little, despite the situation. “Jack... gives people nicknames, when he decides he likes them. Whether they want him to or not.”
“I don’t mind in theory, but - the only person who gets to call me that is Joshua, no one - no one since has earned it. Just because he had a few good ideas for messing with the robotics team doesn’t mean he earned it.”
“Joshua would be your brother, then?”
Claudia nodded.
“Well, I’ll let Jack know he struck a nerve, but I can’t promise he’ll stop. I’ve been trying to get him to stop calling me Becks since 1956.”
“That’s different. You’ve been married to him since, what, 1957?”
Rebecca smiled. “1963, actually, and that only means I haven’t been trying quite as hard.”
“Yeah, yeah, call me a liar for six years.” Claudia stretched out her legs - she was still wearing her shoes, but under the circumstances, Rebecca didn’t feel the need to bring that up - and they sat in silence for a few moments.
“So,” Rebecca said, “a little bird told me you like science fiction.”
Claudia rolled her eyes. “Monica’s really desperate to keep me in the system, isn’t she? I’m surprised she didn’t say something about my project. ‘Really, Claudia, hacking is illegal, you shouldn’t be telling me what you’re doing or I’ll have to report it to someone.’”
“Well, I can certainly agree that there’s likely a better way to get the robotics team to take you seriously, but she didn’t mention it. I saw your backpack.” She waved a hand at the backpack in question. It had clearly seen better days - the plastic piping was fraying and the straps appeared to be made of duct tape - and while Rebecca didn’t recognise the cartoon character on the front, the lab coat he was wearing spoke volumes.
So did the cartoon character’s purple gloves, but that was likely a coincidence.
Claudia shrugged. “Well, I do, but don’t feel like you have to bring it up just to make me feel better.”
“I didn’t. I brought it up because we happen to have quite a bit of Star Trek and Doctor Who on tape. Call it a peace offering, if you’d like, but we wouldn’t mind at all if you wanted to watch some.”
“Really?” Claudia smiled - it was small, but more genuine than anything Rebecca had seen from her so far. “You know, you guys are surprisingly cool for old people.”
“We do what we can.” Rebecca stood, and added, “I don’t know about you, but I’m still hungry. What say we finish dinner?”
“Oh, I think I can manage that.” Claudia stood as well, brushing her hair out of her eyes. “I’m still not saying I’m sold on this arrangement, just for the record. But maybe it won’t suck as much as I thought.”
Washington University, Minnesota
1956
Rebecca wasn’t only late for her appointment; she’d missed her original time slot entirely. Fortunately, her professor accepted her saying that she’d been tied up in traffic - it was technically true, even if that traffic was on foot - and his next slot was free, so she still got to have her meeting. After the way her day had gone so far, she found she needed the slice of normalcy.
After the appointment, Rebecca decided to take herself out for dinner. It had been a very strange day, and she thought she’d earned the treat. Besides, taking a little time for herself had always helped her recover her inner balance.
Unfortunately, her plan didn’t last very long before it completely fell apart. When Rebecca turned away from placing her order, she found a middle-aged black woman in the seat across from her, scrutinizing her through catseye glasses.
“That was quite impressive work you did this afternoon,” she said; it was a few moments before Rebecca could do something other than gape, but the woman didn’t seem to be holding that against her.
“I - I’m sorry, ma’am, but who are you and what are you doing at my table?”
The woman smiled, or at least, Rebecca thought so; it was there and gone so quickly she couldn’t be sure she hadn’t imagined it. “I am Mrs. Frederic, and I have an offer for you.”
“An offer.” Rebecca frowned. “I... take it you’re not referring to my student teaching.”
“Hardly. That hat has been giving us no end of trouble for the last decade. Without your assistance, I’m sure it still would be.”
“Well, thank you. I think.”
“The work would be of a similar nature,” Mrs. Frederic continued. “You have already shown a remarkable aptitude for it. I prefer not to approach those who aren’t capable.”
“I see.” Rebecca wasn’t sure if she was up for that sort of adventure every day of her life, but she didn’t want to say no without giving it due consideration, if Mrs. Frederic had gone to all this trouble to find her. “And when would you want me to start?”
“Tomorrow, if you’d like.”
“With all due respect, ma’am, I would not like that. If I don’t finish my degree now, people will assume I either got married or started a career I intend to keep for the rest of my life, and I likely won’t get the chance to do the work.”
Mrs. Frederic nodded. “I can understand that perspective.”
“I’m not closing the door on the offer permanently, mind. Now is not the time, but if you still feel you need my services in May, after I’ve defended my thesis, I’ll consider it.”
“Oh, I’m sure we will. I’ve been looking for a suitable partner for Agent Secord for the last year, and I think I’ve finally found one.”
Rebecca had to make an effort not to choke on her soda. “I - he acts like he’s twelve! He’s unprofessional and thoroughly annoying and I’m hardly surprised he wasn’t getting the job done by himself. You can’t possibly expect me to--”
But when she looked across the table again, she found that she was ranting to an empty chair; in fact, it showed little sign of ever having been occupied.
“How did she do that?” she said to herself, before focusing on regaining her composure by the time the waitress returned with her meal.
In the weeks that followed, Rebecca did her best to put the strange day behind her. It proved to be easiest when she was teaching, or working on her thesis; she found it increasingly difficult to watch or read the news without reading something else into it. She knew it was ridiculous - for all she knew, Jack and Mrs. Frederic were running the world’s strangest hat shop - but it was an impulse she couldn’t seem to stop.
By the time she defended her thesis, she had nearly forgotten about the job offer; perhaps because of that, Mrs. Frederic appearing as she rounded a corner after her graduation ceremony was just as much of a surprise as the first time.
“I take it you still require my services?” she said, once she’d recovered her poise.
“We do,” Mrs. Frederic said. “You can pack light; we’ll ship what you need and store the rest. We will be expecting you at these coordinates within two days.” She handed Rebecca an envelope; rather than wait and try to sort it out on her own, Rebecca opened it.
“South Dakota?”
“If you leave early tomorrow, you should be able to make the trip in one day. Good luck, and congratulations on your new degree.”
“Thank you. I--” But Mrs. Frederic was gone again; Rebecca sighed, and returned to her apartment to start packing.
For lack of anything better to do, she left early the next morning. The drive was peaceful, if long, and Mrs. Frederic had had the foresight to include directions in the envelope. As she drove, Rebecca found herself wondering more than once why she had agreed to this, or at least not said no outright when Mrs. Frederic initially made the offer. She supposed it was for the security of having something to fall back on when she graduated, rather than having to dive into the job market right away.
But even that didn’t explain why she was taking the risk of having to work with the single most annoying man she’d met in her life.
It was near dusk when Rebecca reached her destination, though she wasn’t sure if she’d missed it entirely at first; there was so little around that she wondered if she’d read the directions wrong before she saw the warehouse. There was little else a building of that size and shape could be. As it was also the only building within miles, she decided this must be the place.
As she got out of her car, a door in the side of the warehouse opened, and a man emerged. He was perhaps near Mrs. Frederic’s age, and Rebecca found herself wondering if he had some Indian heritage - but it was too dark to tell, and she was more interested in counting her blessings that it wasn’t Jack.
The man gave her a warm smile. “Hi there. You must be Rebecca.”
“I am,” she said. “You were expecting me?”
“Mrs. Frederic mentioned she had a new recruit coming in. That and Jack hasn’t shut up about you since January - it’s good to finally meet you. I’m Gus. Come on in, I’ll give you the tour.”
Rebecca found herself a little dubious, especially of the fact that Jack had been talking about her for four months running, but followed Gus inside; it was a better option than standing outside in the dark. He led her down a stark white hallway that seemed better suited to a hospital than a warehouse, then into a dimly lit office that was hazy with cigarette smoke and bustling with secretaries.
“Becks!”
She had missed Jack until he said something; he was sitting at a desk in the corner of the office, grinning at her. “See, I told you I’d see you around.”
Rebecca glared at him. “Shut up.”
Gus pulled her along on the tour before they could trade any more barbs, but even that short conversation left Rebecca with the sinking feeling that this job might be every bit as horrible as she’d feared.