It did end, barely in time for Holly to get home without being late for dinner. Mom frowned but didn’t say anything, and Holly again spent the evening doing chores and homework. Just before going to bed she checked her email, and found a message from Madison.
Heard you’re still obsessing about that spring. Get a life, kiddo. You’re graduating this year, you’re too old for fairy tales.
Anger burned in Holly’s chest. First of all, Mad was wrong, and second, where did she get off talking to her like that? She’d made it clear she wasn’t interested in being Holly’s keeper, so she had no business telling Holly what to do.
Holly hit reply and attached the photo she’d taken of Ohlan, without comment. See how Mad liked that.
She shut down her computer and went to bed, still fuming. Finally she got to sleep by thinking about Ohlan, imagining herself back at the spring with his arms around her and the rain falling gently all around.
~
“I think you’d better come straight home from school and get your chores done,” Dad said at breakfast the next morning. “That way we’ll have the evening for the college fair.”
Holly didn’t like this plan. “I’ve got to work on my article.”
“Oh yes, the article. How’s it coming?”
“I need to type it up from my notes.”
“Do you have a deadline?”
“N-no. I was hoping to get it in the next issue.”
“Well, if we get back early you can work on it after you do your homework.”
Dissatisfied, she poked at her eggs. She wished she could skip the college fair, but she knew the only way out would have been to choose a college ahead of time, and she suspected a sudden announcement that she wanted to go to UNM wouldn’t fly.
Besides, she didn’t want to go to UNM. She wanted to stay here, with Ohlan.
Her heart clenched at the thought that Ohlan might not be here to make her laugh and make her breathless. Just the idea of it hurt.
Dad wiped up the last of his egg yolk with his toast, munched it down, then got up from the table. “Gotta go. Have a great day, you two. See you at supper.”
Holly mumbled a goodbye while Mom went to the door with Dad. In a minute she came back and picked up Dad’s plate.
“You’d better finish up, or you’ll be late.”
“I’m not hungry.”
Holly stood and took her own plate into the kitchen, dumping what was left of her breakfast in the trash. As she headed for the sink she noticed Mom watching her, frowning.
“Sorry, Mom. It was good, I just couldn’t eat it all.”
She kissed Mom’s cheek and headed to her room to fetch her pack. When she came back through the kitchen on her way to the garage to get her bike, Mom was still standing in the same place.
“Is something wrong, honey? You’ve been pretty—distracted, lately.”
“Just getting back into the swing of school. You know.”
“You’d come and tell me if you were in trouble, right?”
“I’m not in trouble, Mom. Where did that come from?”
Mom shrugged and picked up a towel to wipe the counter, which was already clean. Holly walked over and caught her in a hug.
“Worried about your baby bird leaving the nest?”
“Oh.” Mom laughed. “Maybe a little.”
“What if I decided to stay? I could get a job and pay you rent.”
“It’s not about money, honey. You need a good education.”
The conversation was starting to sound familiar. Holly cut it short, squeezing Mom’s shoulders and smooching her cheek.
“See you after school.”
She cruised to the school on rainwashed streets. The air had a cool bite to it, and Holly couldn’t help but think of Ohlan. Maybe she’d ditch her last class and sneak in a visit with him.
Great, Parker. First week of school and you’re already ditching classes?
At lunch she sat with Jen and Debbie, who were full of plans for seeing the robot movie on Friday. Jen razzed her about going to Soldier’s Farewell last Friday.
“Told you it would be a dud. It was a dud, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah. You were right. I think I fell asleep.”
“Well, you won’t fall asleep in Glory Daze!”
“I’ll have to make sure my parents are cool with me going.”
Holly wondered briefly if she could turn this into another visit to Ohlan, then decided against it. She didn’t want to ditch her friends again, or they’d get annoyed and maybe suspicious.
Maybe she’d sneak out of the house Saturday night. That might be her last chance to spend a night with Ohlan. She tried to think of some legitimate way of getting out, but came up blank. It was almost as if her anxiety to be with him kept her from thinking.
If you have sex with an illusion, are you still a virgin?
The bell rang, and she headed off to class. She was so used to the routine already that she forgot her idea of ditching until after she’d walked into her final period classroom. Couldn’t very well leave again, so she sat down, resigned to missing Ohlan for another day.
Back home, she rushed to get through her chores. Mom was still moody, so Holly tried extra hard to please her, even offering to make the salad for dinner because she knew Mom didn’t like chopping vegetables.
Mom had made chicken and dumplings, Dad’s favorite dinner. It put him in a good mood, for which Holly was grateful. She had a feeling the college fair wasn’t going to be fun,.
The fair was set up at the high school. Each college had a classroom where they could hand out brochures and talk about their school.
Holly walked past the room with the University of Colorado at Boulder sign and picked another room at random. It turned out to be a liberal arts college in the Midwest, small and expensive. Holly listened to the nice woman—an alumnus who lived in town—rave about how great the school was, and accepted a brochure. Dad asked a couple of questions.
Holly moved on to another room, another school. Same routine. She wasn’t interested in any of them, really, but she collected a handful of literature hoping to satisfy her folks.
Toward the end of the hall was a room for the University of New Mexico. A lot of kids were standing around in there, talking with the handful of reps. Holly picked up a course catalog from a pile on one of the desks and flipped through it.
Her dad sidled up next to her. “You don’t want to go to UNM, do you?”
“Maybe.”
Holly moved closer to one of the reps, an Asian guy who looked like he probably worked for the lab. He was talking to two other kids about satellite campuses.
When he paused, Holly asked, “What sort of degrees are available from the campus here in town?”
He smiled, liking the question. “We just added two undergraduate degree programs, forestry and computer science. We also offer mathematics, English, and education degrees.”
“What about engineering?” asked another kid.
“Main campus for that, but you can take the first two years worth of classes in weekend intensives at the Santa Fe campus.”
“What are those?” Holly asked.
“They’re designed for students who have day jobs. Basically, you spend two full weekends in a row in classes, and earn one course’s credits for it.”
That sounded interesting. Maybe she could do that and still live at home.
“Is there information about those in here?” Holly asked, lifting her course catalog.
“There’s a listing. Here—let me give you one of these. More information in there.”
He handed her a smaller brochure titled “Advanced Education for the Employed.” Holly smiled her thanks and drifted away, still listening with half an ear while she browsed through the brochure.
This sounded promising. Maybe between the weekend intensives and the courses offered at the Las Palomas satellite, she could put together a degree.
In what, though? She hadn’t thought about what would be a good career for her. She’d only been thinking of Ohlan.
She bit her lip. What kind of career would let her stay near him?
She drifted back over toward the Asian guy, who was chatting with the would-be engineer. She waited until the kid left, then stepped forward.
“What degrees are offered here, again?”
He smiled. “Forestry, computer science, mathematics, English, and education.”
“What’s forestry about?”
His smiled dimmed a little; plainly this wasn’t his favorite subject. “Land and resource management, basically. Here, there’s a summary in here.”
He handed her another brochure, this one specifically about Las Palomas campus and its offerings. Holly smiled.
“Thanks.”
By now she had a stack of information a couple of inches thick. She glanced around the room and spotted her parents hovering near the door.
“I think I’ve got enough to think about,” she said, hefting the brochures as she joined them.
“You haven’t looked at UC yet,” said Dad. “You can get in-state tuition, you know.”
Holly nodded. Because of the Lab’s affiliation with the University of California, children of employees could attend UC at the lower rate. She wasn’t interested in UC, though.
“It’s pretty far away,” she said, glancing at Mom.
“Let’s just stop in and have a look, OK?” Dad said. “Then we can call it a night.”
Holly stifled a sigh. “OK.”
There were almost as many kids in the UC room as there had been in the UNM room. Holly spotted the would-be engineer talking to a rep in a shirt and tie. All the other reps were busy talking one-on-one to prospective students, so Holly drifted over to a table full of literature. She picked up a course catalog and an introductory brochure about the Berkeley campus, then walked back to her parents.
“OK?” she said, flashing the literature to her dad.
He looked around the room, plainly hoping she’d talk to one of the reps, but they were all still busy. He shrugged.
“OK. You can always call if you have questions.”
“Or look them up on the web,” Holly said.
“Or that. OK, kiddo. Let’s head home.”
Holly rode in the back seat with the stack of brochures on her lap, listening to her parents talk about the people they knew who’d been at the fair as reps for the schools. Mom’s college, a small school back east, had not been represented. Dad had gone to University of Michigan and then Stanford, but neither of those had been at the fair, either. Holly wondered if her folks would urge her to consider those schools, too.
Fine. The more the merrier, and the longer she could delay a decision. Though she was thinking more and more that staying here and attending UNM was what she wanted, if she had to pick a school.
None of it mattered as much as Ohlan. She still hadn’t figured out how to stop the demolition of the spring. Maybe she’d go back to the Forest Service office after school tomorrow, and plead with Mr. Drover.
Who would ask her why he should delay the project. A very expensive project, already contracted for, no doubt.
Same old dilemma, and it made her heartsick. She wished she was older, so people would listen to her, or smarter so she could make more convincing arguments.
The trouble was, she couldn’t tell the truth about Ohlan because no one would believe her. And she didn’t like lying. She was a lousy liar. If she was better at it, she could have made up something that maybe Mr. Drover and her parents would buy. Maybe.
This kind of thinking only made her miserable. She thought about Ohlan instead, and about when she could see him again. After school Friday. Never mind Mr. Drover. If her time with Ohlan was limited, and it was looking more and more like it was, then she wanted to spend every possible minute with him.
After school Friday, and maybe another quick visit after the movie. Her folks would assume she was hanging out with her friends.
Holly leaned forward, resting an elbow on each of the front seats. “The gang wants to go to the movies tomorrow night. That OK?”
Mom looked at Dad, who said, “As long as you’re caught up on your homework.”
“I will be.”
When they got home Holly parked herself on the living room sofa so Mom and Dad would see her looking through college brochures while they watched the ten o’clock news. She picked up the one about UNM’s Las Palomas campus and read through the descriptions of each degree, wondering which one would suit her best.
In a perfect world, the spring wouldn’t be destroyed and Ohlan would recover his strength. Holly would stay in Las Palomas, and they’d be a couple. Maybe they’d even get married. Her parents would like him if they met him, she was sure. If he was right that most people assumed he was human, Mom and Dad probably would, too.
So, if all that happened, what would she do for school and a career? What would be the best job for her?
She glanced at the forestry degree again. Maybe if she got that degree, she could work for Mr. Drover at the Forest Service. She smiled, amused at the idea.
She could be a forest ranger. Ranger Holly.
She’d be in the woods a lot, which she liked. And if Ohlan was strong again, he could come see her wherever she was working.
She was liking this plan. She put down the brochure and looked through the indexes of the other schools’ literature to see whether any of them offered forestry degrees. Only UC did, and California forests were pretty different from New Mexico forests. She was liking this plan a lot.
She glanced up at her folks, sitting side by side in their matching armchairs, absorbed in the TV. Home. Not wanting to leave home was part of what this was about. She loved Las Palomas, and couldn’t imagine loving any other place as much.
She gathered her brochures and got up, walked around behind their chairs to give them stealth kisses, and yawned her way to her room. She was tired from the long day and the stress of the whole college question, though now that she was beginning to see possibilities she was less upset about it. She fell asleep almost at once and didn’t wake until she heard a knock on her door.
That was unusual. She looked at the clock, wondering if she’d overslept, but it was actually a little early.
“Holly?” Dad’s voice.
“Just a minute.”
She dragged herself out of bed and pulled on her slippers, combing her fingers through her hair. When she opened the door she saw Dad standing outside, frowning.
“What is it?”
“We need to talk to you. Come on out.“
She followed him through the kitchen, the smell of coffee and toast making her stomach rumble. Mom was sitting at the dining table, looking stressed. Her eyes were a little red. Holly stood beside her own chair, too upset to sit. Dad walked over to the sideboard.
“What is it?” Holly asked again.
Dad picked up a piece of paper and handed it to her. “We’d like to know the meaning of this.”
Holly glanced down and saw her photo of Ohlan, with email headers above. Madison had forwarded it to their folks.