Sabrina (Knox #3)

The Outsider

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Sabrina

A Knox family story

Part of the Enfield Undrowned universe

Cover photo taken by NASA/Bill Ingalls. This image is a work of the US federal government. As such, the image is in the public domain in the United States.

The added text is the work of the author and no additional copyright is claimed.

Your mother is a kick-ass black-belt karate instructor and English teacher.

Your father? A combat veteran Army Airborne Ranger paramedic with a penchant for saving lives on and off-duty.

So, what are you going to do with your life? Something unexpected, that’s what, and you’re not going to take any shit, either…

Tags: Coming of Age, School, Hockey, Science, Science Fiction, Romance, Military, Space, Workplace, Alternate Timeline

Boldness is the beginning of action, but fortune decides how it ends.

– Democritus

Greek philosopher
460-370 BC

Fortune favors the bold.

– Virgil

Roman poet
70-19 BC

Sabrina

⭢ 🚀 ⭠

Prologue:
The Bright Stuff of Dreams

08 July 2011 – Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida

Jeff Knox stepped off the shuttle bus and turned around.

Next, he watched his daughter, Sabrina, bounce off the NASA bus. Her raven ponytail swished from side to side with each step while pulled through the back of her Boston Bruins hat. Jeff grimaced at the thought of the boys who would soon swarm around his increasingly pretty little girl.

Jeff had scored tickets to watch the launch of STS-135, the last Space Shuttle mission, from within the confines of Kennedy Space Center rather than somewhere more distant.

A partnership between the Nashoba News Corporation and the Devens Regional High School Free Press meant his eldest son, Alex, held valid press credentials. NASA upgraded their visitor passes to press passes, allowing them access to the press observation gantry at Complex 39, three miles from the launch pad.

Allison Newbury, PhD, whispering a word or two in people’s ears hadn’t hurt either. She’d been one of Jeff’s high school girlfriends. Allison was also the project lead on the astronomy package being launched today.

“Why are we wasting time at this place again, Dad?” Ryan Knox griped as the family stepped off the bus.

“Ryan, we’ve explained this to you three times. This is history, the final shuttle launch. We explored the space program’s history here during the last two days. Pull your attention away from your phone for half a second, and you might learn something. Like, where did that all-important phone’s technology start?”

“Right …” his middle child snorted and muttered under his breath.

Jeff ignored his son’s sullen response. Ryan’s attitude hadn’t been an issue until the middle of the hockey season this spring. Jeff figured all the testosterone flooding Ryan’s body during puberty was the reason for the change.

Alex, Ryan’s twin, hadn’t changed much emotionally. However, physically, Alex was now three inches taller than his brother. They were fraternal twins, not identical, and Alex and Ryan had always been different. Jeff thanked God for that, especially now.

Jeff and Keiko led their family up the stairs to the platform that overlooked Launch Complex 39. Alex set up his camera and tripod to record the mission’s liftoff. Ryan unfolded his chair and sulked. Sabrina and Jeff looked around, taking in the view. He sighed. Alex walked over and joined them after setting up the camera.

“I’ve wanted to come here since I was a boy,” Jeff said in a low voice to Alex and Sabrina. “Touring the Space Center these last two days has been great, but watching a launch live? I’ve been dreaming of that since I can remember.”

“Yeah, the Mercury program must have been cool to see back when you were a kid, huh, Dad?”

Jeff rolled his eyes at Sabrina’s question. His daughter already used sarcasm far too well.

“Shaddap, kid,” they all said simultaneously.

Jeff glared at Sabrina and Alex while his youngest and oldest laughed. He used that phrase often – too often, it seemed. Jeff sighed and shook his head. He turned away to set up his chair.

NASA had scheduled the launch for 11:26 a.m. – a little over an hour and a half from now. The mission clock showed only forty-five minutes remaining in the countdown. ‘Planned holds’ built into the countdown were the reason for the difference.

As a result, most of the family used the time to discuss various space-related topics, ranging from orbital mechanics to life aboard the spacecraft to the physiologic stresses of spaceflight, to fill the time. Ryan continued to stare at his phone instead. He was more than a little miffed that the family wasn’t somewhere he could at least watch a baseball game or two.

Most of the family rose from their chairs at T-minus nine minutes to get a clear view of the launch. Unfortunately, the gantry rail blocked part of it while seated. The countdown restarted after the final planned hold.

Ryan never got out of his chair. He just sat there with his phone in his hand, playing a game. He couldn’t look more bored if he tried. Radio transmissions to and from the pad and announcements from Launch Control at KSC echoed across the sun-splashed base, adding narration to the moment.

Jeff recalled the Challenger disaster as he looked through the humid air at Atlantis in the distance. He remembered the buzz surrounding the mission slated for that fateful morning in January 1986. A female teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, would have been the first civilian in space. She would have returned to her classroom following the mission. A lump still formed in his throat when the images from that day surfaced in his mind.

Seventy-three seconds into the mission, the Challenger exploded, causing the booster rockets to fly away wildly, and the explosion eventually kills everyone onboard. The Y-shaped exhaust trail mocked the question everyone would soon ask over and over. Jeff watched the tragedy happen live on television in his physics class. A shocked silence swallowed the previous cheering in his classroom. Crying broke the silence moments later.

“Nothing worth doing is ever truly without risk,” Jeff often told his kids. That was why.

Jeff’s heart rate increased as the clock wound toward zero. The orbiter’s access arm retracted at T-minus seven minutes, thirty seconds, and the ‘cap’ atop the external fuel tank at T-minus two fifty-five. Those were the only visible indicators of a progressing countdown the family could see from where they stood.

An unplanned hold at T-minus thirty-one seconds gave Jeff a chance to get his excitement under control again. At T-minus three seconds, the orbiter’s main engines fired, followed by the solid rocket boosters at zero, though no sound yet reached their ears.

The shockwave pushed the humidity away from the pad in a briefly visible cloud. It sped across the Florida salt marshes, bending reeds and grasses, before slamming into the family braced against the deafening roar of the spacecraft. The craft tore itself free of the planet’s gravity with over seven million pounds of thrust.

A great gout of yellow-white flame pushed the white and orange spacecraft higher and higher. The thundering bass rumble vibrated the metal structure, the surrounding air, and the organs inside their bodies.

“Go …” Jeff whispered into the roaring noise.

Every launch Jeff watched on television – and now in person – reminded him of the grief of that failed launch twenty-five years ago. He still held his breath whenever Launch Control broadcast, “Go for throttle up!”

The towering white exhaust trail grew as the craft rolled onto its back and climbed over the ocean to the east. Minutes passed as he tracked the progress of the orbiter beyond where he could see it. Finally, he blinked tears from his eyes and turned back to his family.

Sabrina stood immobile, her eyes wide and unblinking as she gazed skyward. She enjoyed watching launches on television with her dad, but this was orders of magnitude beyond that. The concussion from the initial engine ignition stunned her, and the sustained roar awed her like nothing else had. Even after the orbiter had receded into the sky above, taking the sound and fury with it, she stared in fascination.

“What do you think?” her father asked in a low voice, startling her. “Do you want to build them now like your brother?”

“‘Build them?’” Sabrina echoed while turning to look at him. “No, Dad …” she whispered.

Her gaze returned to the sky. Her path in life was now clear.

“I wanna fly them!”

Part One
Ground School

⭢ 01 ⭠

Specific Impulse

26 April 2012 – Hilltop Road, Lancaster, Massachusetts

“AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!”

Sabrina Knox’s inarticulate scream echoed through the front entryway before her backpack sailed down the hall.

The bag slammed into the door frame leading to the living room ten feet away. The impact crushed the almost-full plastic water bottle riding in a side pouch. The cap blew off and sprayed the bottle’s contents into the living room. Sabrina paced back and forth in the front hall, still trying to calm down after kicking the front door closed.

The seat next to her on the crowded bus had remained unoccupied the entire trip home. Nobody wanted to poke the bear when they saw the storm clouds over her head. Not even her best friend, Tommy Jones, risked sitting beside her. He tried talking to her – not that she noticed. Her angry stomp up the front steps to her house preceded her backpack’s flight.

“I have already taken a shower this day, daughter. Are you trying to tell me something, perhaps?” Sabrina heard in Japanese.

Sabrina looked up to see her mother staring back at her from the doorway to the living room. As she often did, Keiko must have been meditating before Uncle Ken’s funeral portrait. Her mother’s clothes were soaked, and water was dripping off them. She had forgotten that her mother was to come home early this morning because she had attended a school training class.

“Please clean up here while I change, then put your gi on. After you complete those tasks, meet me in the gym,” Keiko ordered.

Embarrassment replaced anger as Sabrina removed her shoes before leaving the foyer. Her parents had long enforced the rule that shoes were prohibited in the house past the front hall, as it was a part of Japanese culture. She cleaned up the backpack mess and then climbed the steps to her room to change into her karate gi.

Sabrina knew she’d soon be a sweaty mess before she entered their gym at the back of the house. She hadn’t received her customary greeting from her mother. There was no hug or questions about her school day – just the summons to the gym. That didn’t bode well.

Sure enough, her mother stood on the sparring mat in her black gi, complete with the black belt denoting her sixth-dan status. Keiko nodded to her daughter and motioned to ready herself on the mat. Sabrina warmed up. Each bowed to the other before Keiko lunged at Sabrina.

Sabrina had studied karate since age five, and she was no pushover. Unfortunately for her, her mother had also started at age five. Thirty-six years of study kept Keiko as fit as she had been at age eighteen, even after three children: whipcord slim with phenomenal stamina and reed-like flexibility.

Sabrina knew her father appreciated her mother’s trim appearance. Sabrina could see it in her father’s eyes when he looked at his bride. But, of course, that was whenever her mother wasn’t beating him up on the mat, too.

Keiko’s speed forced Sabrina to clear her head and focus. Keiko chased her youngest child around the mat for fifteen minutes, pausing occasionally to see if Sabrina would take advantage of an opening. Finally, Keiko stepped back and gestured that they should stop.

“Heavy bag,” she said to her tired teen daughter.

Sabrina bowed and put on her punching gloves and leg guards. By the time she stood in front of the bag, her anger had returned. She attacked, burning off her anger with punches and kicks. Eventually, she slowed and stopped. Keiko instructed Sabrina to kneel on the mat, face her, and meditate after removing her gloves and guards. Keiko knelt with her.

After a time, Sabrina heard her mother ask, “Daughter, when you look at me, what do you see?”

“You?” Sabrina answered, opening her eyes and feeling uncertain. “My mother?”

“Yes, daughter, but is there anything else you see? Look deeper.”

Nothing came to mind until moments later.

“A reed in the wind,” Sabrina replied. “The eye of the storm.”

Keiko nodded with a slight smile.

“Explain your thoughts, Sabrina.”

“While the three of us,” meaning herself and her siblings, “whirl around you, there you are, seemingly without concern. Nothing disturbs you. You adapt to the situation. Dad does well at that, too, but he’s not in your league.”

Keiko nodded and chuckled.

“If only it was as simple as it appears,” Keiko muttered. She continued in a normal voice. “Your father accomplishes his control because of his Army training to a certain extent. A soldier must learn to be silent and watchful to better understand the situation and his surroundings. A civilian EMT or a paramedic does much of the same. They must process information from their senses and intuition to correctly evaluate and treat a patient.

“I use what you have heard me describe as ‘being still’ to do the same. Before acting, I calmly process the various inputs from situations. I have more practice with karate than your father in this, though I am still learning. I also have the benefit of taking my time to make my decisions.

“You have passion – fire. Good, Sabrina. But it would be best if you tempered and harnessed it so it does not consume you. Now, do you believe you can calmly tell me what made you so angry today?”

Sabrina’s anger welled up again, but she stomped it down before it showed.

“I met with my ‘guidance counselor’ at the middle school today. He recommended I enroll in secretarial school in the future.”

‘Glen Oglethorpe’, Keiko mentally sighed as she closed her eyes to keep herself calm. ‘How he retains his position, I shall never know …’

Opening her eyes and smiling at Sabrina, Keiko asked, “Did he also recommend you take Home Economics instead of your planned science courses?”

“No,” Sabrina snorted with a giggle.

“Obviously, I suggest you ignore his advice. Please do not speak to your father about this before I have an opportunity. I fear he would march down to the middle school and drag Mr. Oglethorpe behind the woodshed before giving him a sound thrashing.”

That drew another snort from Sabrina.

“Go wash up and begin your homework. I will leave for the high school soon to pick up your brothers from baseball practice.”

Mother and daughter stood and bowed respectfully to each other before Sabrina bounded away.

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦

An hour or so later, Sabrina was in her bedroom, and a soft knock drew her attention.

“Come in!”

Alex stuck his head around her door.

“Got a minute?” He still wore his baseball practice uniform.

“Of course, Alex.” She turned away from her homework to give him her full attention. “What’s up?”

“Are you okay? Your mood was so dark at school and on the bus that you were a regular black hole!”

“I am now, Alex. Mom had me meet her on the mat when I got home.”

“Yeah, that’ll do it,” Alex chuckled. Their mother’s method of attitude adjustment was legendary. Not even their father was immune. “What happened?”

“Mr. Oglethorpe said I should pursue a secretarial school.”

“The Ogre said that?” Alex asked, using the common nickname for the counselor. “What an idiot!”

“Mom asked me if he recommended Home Ec classes as well.”

“Uh, oh! Mom’s pissed!”

“Ya think?”

Their mother held no love for Glen Oglethorpe. When Keiko began teaching high school English in the same district, their first meeting did not go well. He asked – ordered – her to get him a cup of coffee at a staff mixer. She told him to get off his fat ass and get it himself. The siblings shared a laugh at the man.

“The real reason I’m here is Tommy left me a voicemail on my cell wanting me to ask you if he pissed you off somehow,” Alex said.

“Huh? No, why?”

“He said he tried to talk to you on the bus and that you blew him off pretty hard.”

“I did? I don’t even remember him talking to me …”

“I heard you were pretty oblivious this afternoon. You should call Tommy when you get the chance.”

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦

Sabrina sat on her bed an hour later, leaning against the headboard while gazing at the enlarged STS-135 launch photo on the far wall. Alex’s image, taken seconds into the mission, was his Christmas present to her last year. It showed Atlantis streaking into the sky atop a golden plume of fire. That morning in Florida brought her future into sharp focus and gave her a goal to reach for. She’d already taken steps to get that goal closer to reality.

While she struggled to reconcile her thoughts about the upheaval during her school day, another knock shifted her attention to the door. Her father, still wearing his work uniform, peeked in.

“Hey, Princess. Can I come in?”

“Of course, Daddy!” she replied with a smile.

“How ya doin’? Your mom said you were pretty pissed when you got home.”

“You could say that.”

“She told me what happened. I’d offer to kick Glen Oglethorpe’s butt for you, but I wouldn’t want to deprive you or your mother of the opportunity.”

“Come on, Dad. You know violence doesn’t solve anything.”

“Right,” he chuckled. “As Heinlein pointed out in Starship Troopers, why don’t you ask the Carthage city leadership about that? Still, beating up the heavy bag is a better choice. It’ll keep you out of jail.”

“That’s always a good plan.”

“Your mom cleaned your clock for you?”

“I think she took it easy on me,” Sabrina replied, rolling her eyes. “You know she does that to get us to focus on what made us angry, not the anger itself so that we can talk about it.” She shrugged. “It worked. Again.”

“And what made you angry about what the Ogre said?” Her father caught her with a surprised look. “What? Don’t you think we hear what you guys call your teachers? I can’t wait to hear what you guys will say about your mother if any of you have her for English.”

“Wait till I tell her whatever we say was your idea.” Sabrina laughed at the look of mock horror on her father’s face. “Seriously, Dad, I doubt the Ogre even looked at my file before he offered his ‘career advice.’ He certainly hasn’t talked to me. He doesn’t know me or my goals.”

“What are you going to do about it, then?”

“Shove it in his face when I reach them.”

“That’s my girl!” Jeff said with a smile. “Now, what are you going to do about those goals? I know you told us last summer that you will fly into space one day, but what are you doing to make that happen?”

Sabrina nodded. She had been expecting this question for some time.

“I’ve emailed Aunt Allison in Hawaii and Aunt Heather to ask them how they reached their goals. They both told me I needed to push hard in my school classes, look into learning to fly, and start thinking about what schools would help me reach those goals after high school.”

“You’ve been emailing Allie and Heather?” he asked, surprised. “I haven’t heard anything about that …”

“I asked them not to say anything to you or Mom just yet because I wanted to tell you first. I only started asking them a month ago. I’ll call Grandma Jane and ask her about becoming a pilot.”

Heather Pelley wasn’t Sabrina’s aunt, nor was her mother, Jane Donnelly, Sabrina’s grandmother, but Sabrina and her brothers considered them as such.

“Do you want to go to a different camp this summer instead of the one we signed you up for? Or maybe some other place that might help with those goals?”

“No, this camp will help me achieve another goal: making the high school hockey team next year.”

“I’m gonna caution you again: You know there’s no girls’ team, and boys play the body even more than in the leagues you’ve been in until now. You’re built more like your mom than your brothers or me, and this is the age group when most boys start growing bigger than you. I don’t want to sound dismissive, like the Ogre, but I also don’t want you to get hurt.”

“They can’t hit what’s not there, Dad,” Sabrina replied with an evil grin, hopping off the bed and dancing back and forth. “I’ve heard the nickname they’ve given me.”

Jeff rubbed at the pain behind his eye before turning his gaze back to Sabrina.

“Just save that language for when you and I talk, okay? Your mom will castrate me if she even thinks I’m teaching you to talk like that.”

Sabrina hugged her father.

“Of course! Gotta keep my dad safe!”

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦

“Sabrina?”

Sabrina closed her locker and turned around.

“Hi, Tommy!”

Tommy Jones smiled in relief at seeing her smile.

“Thanks for calling last night. I was petrified that I had done something to piss you off until you explained what happened.”

“C’mon, TJ, we’ve been friends since you moved in next door! Like a dozen years!”

“Yeah, but you’ve always said we’re an aberration, that it’s not natural for boys and girls to stay friends this long, especially as they grow up. Anyway, you were pretty upset yesterday. I can’t believe The Ogre said that to you!”

“He’s a bigger doofus than Ryan.”

“I’m not sure ‘doofus’ covers what he is.”

“Covers who, The Ogre or Ryan?”

“Yes,” Tommy replied, drawing laughter from the both of them.

“All right, good point. There’s the bell, so we’ve got to get to Social Studies.”

“World History from 500 to 1600 CE … thrilling stuff …”

“You’ve heard what my dad, the history major, says about repeating history if you don’t learn from it. But I know what you mean. I learned more Medieval Japanese history in a week with my grandfather’s family in Hiroshima than in the entire month they allow for in a middle school Social Studies class.”

“Do you think knowing how to speak and read Japanese helped you learn it easier?”

“Maybe,” Sabrina acknowledged. “It was easier to read the historical markers myself, rather than having my cousins translate them. Maybe that helped me absorb it better? Plus, they gloss over so much at our age.”

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦

When Tommy and Sabrina stepped into the hallway following class, an unwelcome voice called out to her.

“Miss Knox?”

Sabrina bit the inside of her cheek, trying to keep the expression of distaste off her face while she turned.

“Yes, Mr. Oglethorpe?”

“I’ve taken the liberty of writing out a draft educational plan for you for your high school years,” he said with a smile.

‘He probably thinks that’s a friendly face,’ Sabrina thought while she took the paper he extended to her. She bit her cheek harder when she read the ‘plan’ for her future.

“Mr. Oglethorpe, I don’t see any Advanced Placement classes anywhere on this, nor many science classes. And I’m already taking Algebra I this year. Should I stop taking math classes for the next four years?”

“Well, you won’t need those …”

“And why not?” Sabrina asked, cutting the older man off.

“Well, we discussed your options when we met the other day.”

“NO!” she barked. “You TOLD me what YOUR vision of MY future is. That condescending, sexist, 1950s crap you tried to sell me yesterday is BULLSHIT!”

“Miss Knox!” Oglethorpe gasped.

“Shut up, you dried-up old fart! I’m talking!”

Tommy blinked while Oglethorpe’s mouth dropped. Other students nearby started to gather.

“I’m taking AP classes like my parents did at their schools before I graduate from Devens Regional! Then, I’m going to a school that will help me reach my goal of working in the space program!

“Maybe I’ll get a master’s or even a doctorate! And, I’m gonna learn how to fly because my actual goal isn’t just to be an astronaut; it’s to FLY the damn spacecraft I’m riding in! You might pigeonhole other students, but you aren’t doing it to me!”

The middle schoolers nearby cheered at Sabrina’s angry outburst, but none louder than Tommy Jones. Oglethorpe closed his mouth after a second or two. A deep, red flush crept up his face, like mercury rising inside a thermometer. He grabbed Sabrina by the collar, scratching her neck.

‘Smooth move, Ex-Lax,’ Tommy thought, using an expression his father often used while Sabrina blurred into motion.

Before the other students processed her movement, Sabrina held Glen Oglethorpe’s hand in a pronating wrist lock. The hold caused the older man to lean forward and down while trying to reduce the pressure on his twisted arm joints.

“Listen up, old man,” Sabrina whispered in his ear. “What you just did is considered assault and battery on a minor under fourteen. I might have you labeled a pedophile if I push hard enough! You’d be a Level III sex offender, unable to live within a thousand feet of a school, all that stuff.

“Don’t ever touch me again, nor any other student. In fact, don’t ever speak to me again. If you continue to bother me, I’ll let my father deal with you. In that case, I’d count myself lucky if I were you. Because my mother might not restrain herself if I send her instead.”

Sabrina increased the pressure on Glen Oglethorpe’s wrist before releasing him and walking away.

“Have I told you how much of a badass you are lately?” Tommy muttered to her as they walked to Algebra.

Sabrina glanced at her friend before her face broke into a wry smile.

“No, but a girl likes to hear it, at least this girl. You may continue to butter me up until we get to Ms. Franklin’s room.”

“Not that I’m all that knowledgeable about martial arts, but that didn’t look like karate.”

“It wasn’t,” Sabrina said. “You know how my dad’s doing tactical EMS these days and working at DMD? He brought me to a training class a year ago – defensive tactics – and I wanted to learn some of what the instructor taught that day.

“What he taught can be learned in Aikido, a martial art that prioritizes joint locks and throws over karate. Do you know those old Steven Seagal movies? He’s like a sixth- or seventh-level Aikido master who tossed people everywhere in them. Anyway, the instructor commented on how good a learner I was and how I could probably take anyone else there.

“One of Dad’s group was fairly new to the team and snorted about how he’d break me in half. Dad, the instructor, and I shared a look before they let me take the new guy apart. I think I had him in that same hold I used on the Ogre and put him on his stomach in two seconds, and then I did it again when he thought the first time was a fluke. He wasn’t laughing by the time I was finished with him.”

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦

No one from the administration called Sabrina to the office after her confrontation with Mr. Oglethorpe, and she did not hear any rumors that they planned to.

No one saw the counselor at Burbank Middle School after that day, nor was he seen at any other school in the district again that year. Reports were that he retired immediately instead of facing possible repercussions from the school district related to grabbing and scratching Sabrina.

Sabrina urged her parents to let the incident go and finish middle school in two months to move up to high school the following year. Keiko and Jeff were less willing to do so but finally agreed with her wishes.

The day after the confrontation, Sabrina and Tommy sat together at lunch. They almost always did. While considered relatively popular, they hadn’t connected with the rest of their class and were happy to hang out together.

They lived next door, were the youngest in their families, and shared a similar sense of humor. As they laughed at something, a newer class member approached their table.

“Sabrina?”

“Hey, Naomi,” she replied to the Goth girl. Naomi Taggert came to the school after the Christmas break. Her mother had transferred to Fort Devens around that time. “What’s up?”

“Would you mind if I sat with you?”

“Not at all. Grab a chair.” Naomi sat next to Sabrina while casting a wary look at Tommy. “You know that Tommy’s my neighbor, right?” Sabrina explained. “We’ve been buds since we were two or three years old. He’s cool.”

Tommy caught Naomi’s look.

“I’ll catch you later, okay, Sabrina?” He rose from the table. “I need to ask Mr. Jeffers a question about the stuff we went over in history today. I’ll see you on the bus. Bye, Naomi.”

Sabrina tried to keep a frown off her face when she turned back to her new table partner.

“Sorry,” Naomi offered in a meek voice. “Boys kinda make me nervous.”

“I don’t know what kind of boys you’re used to, but Tommy isn’t like that. He’s my friend – best friend, actually – and it’s not because he knows I can kick his ass if he steps out of line.”

“I saw what you did to Mr. Oglethorpe yesterday. Where did you learn how to do that?”

“That move? A SWAT defensive tactics class.” Naomi looked at her in surprise. “Dad’s a paramedic and runs the local EMS service, providing towns around here with medics when needed. He’s also a tactical medic with the regional SWAT team. One of their training sessions was in defensive tactics about a year ago.

“My brothers had a baseball tournament that day, and nobody else could watch me with Mom gone. I went with Dad so that he wouldn’t miss the training.

“Dad mentioned to the instructor that he would like to have me learn some holds – you know, for when I start dating. Probably because some of them would be easier to do in a car than the karate I’ve been taking.”

“How long have you been taking karate?”

“Seven or eight years,” Sabrina shrugged. “It feels more like fifteen with how often Mom and I practice at home.” Another look. “Mom’s a sixth-level black belt and an instructor at our dojo. I work out with her often, especially during hockey season, and I can’t get to the dojo regularly.”

“What are you going to do next year at high school? I’ve heard there’s no girls’ hockey team.”

“Join the team,” Sabrina shrugged. She explained when she saw Naomi’s skeptical look. “Title IX is a wonderful thing, Naomi.” Sabrina quoted,

“Title IX”: No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

“The Army partially supports the district’s budget besides other federal funding the district receives, so they have to at least let me try out. I wouldn’t be the first girl they’ve ever had on the team, even though there aren’t any at the moment.”

“What will you do about the people who don’t want you on the team?”

“Prove them wrong,” Sabrina said with another shrug. “There should be plenty of freshmen boys trying out next year that I’ve played with and against over the years.

“When we were younger, they didn’t care that I was a girl. They don’t care now, and they won’t care next fall. Anyway, why the question about the wrist lock I put the Ogre in yesterday?”

“I ‘developed’ early. That attracted the older boys where Mom was stationed before. Many high school-aged boys hung around the entrances to my old base housing building. Once I started developing, I began to dress like this so I wouldn’t attract their attention. But the all-black and baggy clothes shtick only attracted their attention even more. I’ve been a target for years.”

“Has it been a problem here?”

“No. Mom and I live off-post this time. We are renting a small house. I can walk there from here if I need to. But I’m a little worried about next year. This,” she waved at her wardrobe, “isn’t me, and I’m tired of not being me. I wanna wear things I’m more comfortable in, but I’m afraid of what’ll happen when others notice my figure.”

“I’m sure Mom would show you a couple of things that could be helpful. She worked with the same instructor to make the moves easier for civilians to understand.

“Her dojo now uses those same moves in their basic self-defense classes. I shouldn’t try to teach you anything since I’m not an instructor. Do you want to come over after school and meet Mom?”

“Can I come over tomorrow? My mom expects me to be home right after school today.”

“Sure.”

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦

Naomi joined Sabrina and Tommy for lunch again the next day. She gave Tommy an apologetic smile.

“Sorry about yesterday, Tommy. I’ve gotten grief from others – mostly older boys – wherever I’ve lived, so I’m still not real comfortable around them.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Tommy replied with a casual wave of his hand. “My brothers treat me the same way, so I’m used to it. And unless you were born after September 1998, you’re older than I am. Where are you from?”

“Leavenworth, Kansas,” Naomi replied, her shyness now gone, or at least on hold. “Mom had me while stationed there, then raised me herself. Thankfully, there were plenty of daycare options for her when I was little so that she could stay in the Army.

“Anyway, I don’t have a dad in my life, and other kids kinda picked on me because of it. We lived in two other Army towns before she transferred here last Christmas. And changing schools has always made it hard to make friends.”

“I can’t imagine,” Sabrina said with a shiver. “We’ve lived here all our lives, and Tommy and I’ve been friends and classmates since preschool.”

“You guys aren’t from military families, then?”

“Well, my family isn’t a military family,” Tommy admitted, “but Sabrina’s dad was in the Army twice.”

“Twice?”

“Dad joined the Army in 1987, after high school. That’s where he met Mom. My Uncle Ken, Mom’s brother, was Dad’s roommate in the 82nd Airborne. Dad got out of the Army in ‘91 after Uncle Ken died in the Persian Gulf War. Dad reenlisted after the attacks in 2001, and the rest of us stayed here instead of following him to his duty station. Like I said yesterday, he’s a paramedic now.”

“And your mom? You didn’t say yesterday.”

“English teacher at the high school. What about your mom? What does she do in the Army?”

“Finance,” Naomi shrugged. “Nothing too important, not like being a paratrooper.”

Tommy cut Sabrina off before she could answer.

“It’s very important, Naomi. The Army’s gotta pay their soldiers and pay for the beans and bullets, or they wouldn’t have an army for long. A tiny percentage of the military actually fights, and they need many people to support them. They’re all essential. Everyone’s part of the team, of the same machine.”

“You’ve been listening to my dad too much, Tommy,” Sabrina chuckled.

“Sabrina, the more I think about my future, the more I think of going into the financial world – forensic accounting, specifically. Of course, things still might get done without people checking the books, but I doubt it.”

“And what are you going to do, Sabrina?” Naomi asked.

“Pfft,” Tommy cut in. “Boring stuff. Little Miss Badass over there’s gonna be an astronaut.”

Naomi looked at the friends, taking in the byplay.

“How did you guys do this, anyway?”

“What? Rag on each other? You’ll find it’s easy to rag on Tommy,” Sabrina joked. “If you’re gonna be hanging around with us, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”

“No, how did you get me to open up?” Naomi clarified. “I’ve been here almost six months, and this is the longest conversation I’ve had with anyone in this school!”

“It’s your fault,” Tommy mumbled around a mouthful of sandwich. “You’re the one who let us in. You asked questions, and we answered them. Simple.”

“Is that why you’ve looked so miserable all this time, Naomi? Because you’ve felt so isolated here?” Sabrina asked.

“I guess,” Naomi shrugged, uncomfortable again now that the spotlight was back on her.

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦

“Miss Taggert is a very nice young lady,” Keiko remarked to Sabrina after dropping Naomi off at her house that afternoon. “She will be another good friend to you, especially next year. There are a lot of changes coming for you, Sabrina. Those changes will be easier to negotiate with friends.”

“I figured Tommy and I would make more friends next year, anyway. I like her, Mom. She says her mother will leave the Army when her current enlistment is up, and they’ll likely stay in the area unless something changes. Naomi should be with us all four years of high school.”

“Your friendship will likely benefit her more than anything I teach her. An existence such as the one she led until now can be very lonely for a young person.”

“Mom?” Sabrina looked over in surprise at her mother’s statement and the tone of voice she used.

“Sabrina, my school experience was somewhat bleak. If you have not noticed, other young ladies can be rather cruel. In addition, my manner of speech isolated me, and I did little to change that.

“Had it not been for my brother’s encouragement to ignore others and pursue my goals, I may have asked your grandparents to enroll me at an all-girls school. My thinking at the time was that the environment would be better for me, but I know now that it would have been even more isolating.”

“But you’re so confident, so self-assured.”

“It is something I cultivated as I grew up, Sabrina, which required a lot of time for me. Meeting your father at Fort Bragg gave me the final, firm push I needed, and my collegiate experience was much more pleasant for me, for the most part.

“Even though I knew your father would be my future, it finally allowed me to relax around others outside my family and enjoy life more. That gave me more confidence.” Keiko smiled over at her daughter. “Thankfully, I do not believe you suffer from such a lack.”

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦

Keiko sat on the couch next to her daughter and presented her with a slim book a week after Sabrina’s Eighth Grade graduation in June.

“What’s this, Mom? Pooh? I haven’t read Pooh stories for a few years now.”

“I am aware of this, Sabrina, but this book is not one of Milne’s Pooh books. Instead, your father and I wish you kids to recognize the value of balance in your lives. You are very driven, Sabrina, and we believe this book will help you in that regard.”

“A children’s book?”

“Again, it is not, but uses Pooh and other characters from those stories to introduce the concepts of Taoism.”

“Which is what?”

“It is a belief system that encourages contemplation. It promotes simplicity and letting things take their natural course, which is not an unimportant lesson.

“Still, it may conflict with your goals or feel like it does. You will encounter situations you cannot control in your life, Sabrina, and you must learn not to allow them to affect you.

“You must also learn to hear other philosophies and ideas, evaluate them yourself, and decide if they fit your beliefs and goals. I chose to give you this book because of how Taoism is presented. The author uses the familiar characters as examples of how different people embody different ways of being.”

Sabrina thanked her mother, promised to read the book, and headed upstairs.

“Whatcha got there?” Alex asked as she passed him in the hall. She showed him the book. “Ah. Your turn.”

“‘My turn?’”

“Yeah, Ryan and I got the same book from Mom last year. But, of course, the difference is I read mine. I doubt Ryan even opened his.”

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦

“Thanks for picking me up, Herm,” Sabrina said to the recently graduated high school senior. “When we get to your place, I have to thank your folks again for letting me stay with your family.”

Herman Schultheis looked over at the daughter of the man his brother DJ served with in the Army.

“Of course, Sabrina. The traffic doesn’t look too bad, so we’ll be at my house in less than half an hour. How was your flight?”

“It was good,” she replied with a shrug. “Better’n flying commercial, that’s for sure. Not many flights from Boston to Denver stop in Fayetteville, North Carolina, so flying charter was a better choice for us, anyway.”

“Why’d you stop there again?”

“Dad’s been out of the Army since 2005 but still volunteers to run around the woods, scaring the ROTC cadets at the base back home. He does that as part of the aggressor force on their training weekends. Then, there’s their preparatory exercise before their major evaluation after their junior year.

“For the last couple of years, he’s been going to that major evaluation as an aggressor. He goes to that at the base near our house, then he plays aggressor at Fort Bragg in North Carolina for cadets from colleges east of the Mississippi.”

“Well, having you stay with us is the least we can do since your dad helped get me on the staff at the hockey clinic. And since he saved my brother’s life all those years ago.”

“I’m looking forward to the clinic and meeting the rest of your family.”

“I don’t know why, but Mom looks forward to having a teenage girl in the house again.” Sabrina stuck her tongue out at Herm. “At least you’re a hockey player, unlike my sisters,” he grinned.

They walked into the hockey clinic’s rink the following day before other participants arrived. Herm needed to be there early since he was on staff. He would help the other staff finish setting up for the week-long camp. Sabrina wasted no time getting changed and heading out to the ice.

When Sabrina exited the tunnel into the bench area, several well-known instructors warmed up by firing shots at one goalie. Swinging herself onto the boards, she placed her helmet beside her and let her legs dangle over the ice. She briefly watched the small crowd pepper the goalie with shots before cupping her hands into a makeshift megaphone.

“HEY! MICKLICZ!”

The NHLers stopped shooting and turned toward the bench as a group.

“I’m glad to see your shooting’s improved since the Dallas series! God, you were brutal! Dad says he’ll fly out here and give you some pointers since you seem to have forgotten what he taught you!”

“You call your dad and tell him he can kiss my … um … backside!” Chris Micklicz yelled back. “I can’t forget what he didn’t teach me in the first place!”

Sabrina smiled and hopped off the boards before skating over to her father’s former high school teammate and hugging him.

“Hi, Uncle Chris!”

“Hiya, short stuff! How’s your mom and that dirtbag she married?”

“They’re good,” Sabrina giggled. “Of course, if you ever called them, you’d know this.”

Chris rolled his eyes.

“You’re gonna try out for the hockey team when you start high school next year, huh?”

“No, I’m gonna make the hockey team, Uncle Chris!”

“Tell your folks to help you with your confidence problem when you get home,” he chuckled. Sabrina poked him in the gut. “You’re staying with one of your dad’s Army buddies this time instead of at the hotel?”

“Well, his family. Mr. DJ and his wife have three little kids at home. One was only a few weeks old, so he suggested staying at his parents’ place. I’m staying in what used to be an in-law apartment, so it’s like having a hotel suite all to myself! With Herm working here, getting to the clinic every day won’t be a problem.”

“Hey, Micklicz, stop hitting on the campers. You could go to prison for that!” one of the retired pros called.

“Bite me, Jean!” he yelled back. To Sabrina, Chris asked, “What happened to me being your brother’s favorite hockey player? I have to tell you I’m feeling a little put out here.”

“You’re still his favorite hockey player, but that’s because he doesn’t like hockey much anymore. He’s focused on baseball now.”

“I thought Alex was the big baseball star?”

“They both are. Ryan’s a pretty good second baseman, not that I’d say that to his face. Alex is a fire-balling pitcher who is developing some filthy breaking stuff. As freshmen, both got a little playing time with the varsity baseball team this year.”

“Why the sudden change, though?”

“Honestly, Uncle Chris, I think it all started after Ryan and I came here two years ago.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because I blew his doors off that year,” Sabrina snorted. “Don’t you remember? I faked him out and broke his ankles three different times back then! Then, I dared to get more playing time than he did that season. He hasn’t played since then.”

“He’s a sore loser?”

“I’d just say ‘loser,’ but Mom and Dad yell at me when I say stuff like that.”

⭢ 02 ⭠

Stoking the Fire

01 August 2012 – Crawford Street, Fitchburg, Massachusetts

“You’re gonna bounce yourself right out of the car if you don’t chill out a bit,” Jeff chuckled to his daughter as the sun peaked over the hill to their east.

“Daaaaaad! I’ve been waiting for my first flying lesson since I took that Eagle Flight last year after the shuttle launch!”

“Waiting none too patiently, I might add …” Sabrina punched him in the shoulder, a typical response to his humor. The women in his immediate family – and his extended one – always did that to him. “PARENTAL ABUSE! POLICE!”

“And just how hard do you think your friends at work and on the SWAT team will laugh at you once they learn your fourteen-year-old daughter beat you up?” she teased.

“Pretty damn hard!” he laughed as he turned onto the airport access road. A hard right put them on another, more minor access road leading to the flight school.

“G’mornin’!” the large red-headed man behind the counter said as he stood. “Are ye ready fer yer flight, lassie?”

“Yes, Sir!” Sabrina chirped while bouncing on her toes.

“In case you can’t tell, she’s kinda looking forward to it,” Jeff muttered.

“I wasnæ sure. Ye never can tell with teenagers.”

“If you two yucksters are finished with the comedy routine, I’d like to get airborne.”

“She’s the shy an’ retiring type, eh?” Hamish asked. Sabrina glared back. “Och!” he laughed. “I’ve seen that look enough tæ know when I’m aboot t’get yelled at! Ma used tæ look at me da that way!”

“Oh, come on, Mr. MacDougall!”

“Mr. Knox, ye’re welcome tæ wait in our lounge while we be out flyin’. T’is not much, but t’is air-conditioned.”

“Thank you for the offer, but I’ll go to the airport restaurant for breakfast first. Doing stuff at this hour was fine when I was in the Army as a teenager, but it’s for the birds on a day off at forty-three. I need more coffee!”

“Aye, but t’is a great time of day tæ be flying, ’specially today! Should be nice an’ calm all mornin’!”

“Well, you two enjoy yourselves. Princess, no buzzing the tower.”

Jeff waved as he walked out. He had submitted all of Sabrina’s paperwork to the flight school the week before. Everything was ready to go.

“He does know that Fitchburg’s næ a controlled airfield, so there’s næ a tower to buzz?” Hamish muttered before turning back to the young girl in front of the counter. Sabrina giggled while shaking her head ‘no.’ “Well, my young lassie, are ye ready tæ get tæ work?”

“Yes, Sir!”

“Then let’s go an’ see if the mechanic put the propeller back on the plane.”

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦

It took Hamish a good hour to roll the aircraft onto the ramp. He spent that time quizzing Sabrina about her online ground school topics and reviewing the pre-flight checklist with her.

He then spent another half-hour on the plane’s walk-around, ensuring she did things correctly. Hamish was in no hurry, even if Sabrina was. Her appointment would take up both of his two-hour morning instructional slots, so they had plenty of time.

“Ye dinnæ want to trust yer memory when it comes to any checklist, lassie,” Hamish cautioned. “In stressful situations, they’ll save yer life by helping ye remember a critical step. They’ll keep ye from killing yerself and others if ye get complacent on ‘routine’ flights, too. They be callin’ that ‘underload’ in CRM – crew resource management. What happens when yer mind isn’t busy enough up here, and ye think, ‘I can remember all this stuff.’ Næ, ye can’t, so use the checklist.

“Another saying ye’ll hear repeatedly is, ‘There be old pilots, and there be bold pilots, but there næ be any old, bold pilots.’ Is where ye be going or what ye’ll be doing once ye get there as important as yer life? Both will still be there by the time ye arrive safely.

“T’isn’t a military mission, where completing the mission t’is the most important thing. Landing safely at the end of yer flight so ye can go home tæ yer family t’is. Physical aptitude is important, aye, but there be times when good critical decision making is a better skill set tæ have.”

Sabrina sat in the co-pilot’s seat and thought about Mr. MacDougall's words. It wasn’t different from what her parents tried to teach her and her brothers. You can be good at something, but sometimes it’s better to understand why you are doing it. She nodded to her instructor to let him know she understood.

“Alrighty, enough of the lectures. Are ye ready tæ fly?”

Sabrina bounced in her seat with excitement. Somehow, the plane didn’t jump off the tarmac.

Sabrina’s eyes widened when Hamish told her she would handle everything from then on – start-up, taxiing, and the takeoff. Hamish noted some slight hesitation when she first reached for the control yoke of the Cessna, but that wasn’t uncommon for students.

However, once Sabrina finally got her hands on those controls, that disappeared as she talked herself through the start-up checklist. True to his word, Hamish let Sabrina handle the takeoff. His hands rested on the controls the entire time, but he didn’t need to make any inputs himself. Instead, he spent a few minutes pointing out various landmarks before starting his basic instructional program.

Students who had taken lessons with Hamish as their instructor wrote numerous testimonials about how patient he was with them. Even two who washed out praised him for this.

Sabrina talked with a few former students before meeting Hamish and choosing him as her instructor. During that initial meeting, Sabrina impressed Hamish. She wasn’t shy about asking tough questions, which drew a snort from her father when Hamish mentioned it.

Visibility was excellent with the wing mounted above the fuselage, but Sabrina commented on how quickly that changed in turns. Finally, after thirty minutes on a northwestern course, Hamish told Sabrina to turn back to the southeast. After crossing over Fitchburg Airport, he gave her a slightly different heading while they continued to chat.

“Do ye recognize where we are, lassie?” he asked his young charge.

“Well, that’s I-190 over there, and that looks like the Route 117 interchange …” she muttered. “Are you gonna have me barnstorm my house?” she asked with a mischievous grin.

“I can see I’m gonna have tæ work harder tæ get anything past ye!” he laughed. “But, næ, I’m not. The FAA doesnæ have much of a sense of humor aboot that – or anything, really.”

Sabrina blushed while continuing to scan the terrain below.

“I cheated a bit,” she admitted. “I’ve been studying satellite imagery of the area since Dad booked this lesson for me.”

“T’is næ ‘cheating,’ Sabrina,” Hamish laughed again. “Studying the area, or areas, ye’ll be operating over t’is never bad. Things look different from a few thousand feet in the air than they do at ground level. So, fer extra credit: what do we need tæ avoid given where we are?”

“The ground,” Sabrina answered immediately.

“Och, ye have yer father’s sense of humor, dontcha?”

“As Mom would say: ‘Unfortunately, yes.’ In all seriousness, Fort Devens and Moore Army Airfield are to our left, stretching between ten and seven o’clock. Restricted airspace. We should be fine if we stay west of Route 70 while south of Route 2 and well west of the Nashua River while north of it.”

“Ye have studied the area, then?”

“I’d rather not have some F-15 out of Westover or Otis shoot us down on my first flight.”

“An armed, special ops Black Hawk from Moore chasing us would be more likely, lassie. But that’s something I’d rather avoid, too.” He looked at his student again. “Ye’re doing vurry well. How do ye like it?”

“I’d never land if I had the choice.”

“Sorry, næ mid-air refueling capability on this aircraft. Næ bathrooms, either.”

“Yeah, limiting factors.”

“Right, so that brings up another topic fer discussion: distractions. Ye’ll be multitasking almost constantly up here. Ye’re continually evaluating fuel status, weather, terrain, other air traffic, and yer own endurance on some level when ye’re out flying.

“Different priorities come and go depending on where ye are. Fer example, Boston’s Class-B airspace is vurry busy, and næ a place I like tæ take students until the end of training. There be too many demands on yer time in there. Even oot here, it can be hectic on a nice day like this. T’is especially true when the gliders are flying in and out of Sterling.”

Hamish showed her how to announce her intentions on the Unicom radio so that other pilots would know what she was about to do. He then showed her how to waggle her wings as they passed over her house three hundred feet above the ground.

Sabrina saw four people waving up at her from the driveway – her mom, Alex, and her grandparents, she figured. One person stood there with their hands in their pockets, and she didn’t have to guess who that was. After the flyover, they climbed and turned west.

Hamish let Sabrina fly, having her make only minor course adjustments. However, she needed more coaching to keep a constant altitude. Even flying VFR – under visual flight rules – Hamish required new students to check the altitude and attitude indicators often since the body’s senses don’t notice minor changes well.

Pilots must also stay within proscribed altitudes, depending on where they are, or risk drifting into another aircraft’s airspace. Nevertheless, Sabrina smiled when he told her to descend slowly toward the summit of Great Quabbin Hill.

“My dad’s parents are at the fire tower, I’m guessing?”

“Ye must not be any fun tæ buy presents fer,” Hamish groused. “Are ye gonna be a detective or some such?”

“No, an astronaut pilot.”

Hamish had her call out their intentions on the radio once more. After a low pass over Enfield’s Lookout Park, where she waggled the wings again, Sabrina banked while pulling up. She brought the aircraft into a tight yet smooth turn. Hamish looked over and raised an eyebrow after they returned to level flight. Sabrina noticed the look and blushed again.

“I asked for high-fidelity flight simulation software and controls for last Christmas and my birthday in June.”

“What’s our base course back tæ Fitchburg then, Amelia Earhart?” Hamish asked as he glanced down at the plane’s compass.

“Um … I don’t know how to figure that out …” she admitted.

“At least ye’re honest about what ye don’t know,” Hamish said before he pointed at one of the instruments. “This is the VOR, or ‘VHF omnidirectional range.’ Line us up on zero-five-zero on this, then read the compass. Once ye have the compass heading, keep us on that, regardless of what the VOR does. That should bring us close tæ Fitchburg Airport. We’ll go over how tæ use VORs in-flight next time, lassie.”

“Ground school covered VORs, DMEs, and VORTACs, but plotting courses in real-time isn’t something I’ve done.”

“T’is one reason ye map out a flight plan beforehand,” Hamish responded, holding up theirs, “so ye don’t have to fumble with a sectional chart in flight. Today was about getting ye introduced to the physical part of flying. Most of the mental comes later.

“Don’t worry, lassie, ye’re way ahead of where most folks are in their first lesson. Are ye havin’ fun?” Sabrina nodded that she was. “And that’s what’s important right now. Ye’ll worry over some of the stuff we’ll do down the road, but what’s important is that ye keep feeling that flying is fun.”

Hamish let her fly until just south of Fitchburg before taking back the controls for the landing. He had Sabrina read off the checklist for landing, stressing the absolute necessity of following them at all times again. Hamish told Sabrina to keep her hands and feet on the controls and let him make the inputs. He wanted her to feel what he did as they landed. He also talked her through watching her airspeed, how to enter the pattern, watching for traffic, and a thousand other things.

‘Head up and stick on the ice, Sabrina’, she thought to herself, equating the lessons with those from hockey: be ready for anything.

They taxied to the flight school hangar. Sabrina waved to her father, who stood inside and off the apron. Once it shut down, she bounded out of the plane and leaped at Jeff.

“Well?” he asked after putting his daughter back on the ground.

“AWESOME!”

“I cannæ tell, but I think the lass enjoyed herself,” Hamish chuckled while shaking Jeff’s hand. “Mr. Knox, ye’ve got yerself a natural stick-and-rudder pilot here. If the lass was allowed tæ get her pilot’s license before seventeen, or a student license before sixteen, it’d be a question of how young she’d be when she did get either of those.

“Sabrina, let’s go intæ the office, and I’ll show ye how ye tæ log those flight hours. Ye cannæ get a student license fer two more years. But, as I told yer da, there be no restriction on training with an instructor.”

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦

The four weeks before school started passed quickly, but Sabrina’s parents didn’t give her or her brothers time to be bored. Instead, they helped with yard work and other minor projects around the house. They also helped their mother finish setting up her Devens Regional High School classroom. Sabrina also took another two flying lessons.

This year, she would ride to school with her mother and brothers rather than take the bus, as she’d been doing. After eight years of school at the same place – Lancaster’s Rowlandson Elementary and Burbank Middle shared a large building – the route to school would be a new one for her. Keiko would also bring Tommy Jones to Devens Regional High School since he lived next door.

The first day of school was, as usual, barely controlled chaos. Keiko mentioned that student drop-offs at the high school were much worse when the Army’s guard shacks were present. Finally, three years ago, they relinquished the plot west of the Nashua River to the Town of Shirley.

Sabrina could see the stout barrier of the Hospital Road gate in the distance past the football stadium. Alex and Ryan drifted away from Sabrina and Tommy, who were, after all, freshmen and lower forms of life. As other freshmen arrived by bus and car, the new high school students waited to see who they knew.

“Hey! Rocket Girl!” someone called out. Sabrina grinned and greeted a young African-American boy as he approached.

“S’up, Shawn? How was your summer?” Sabrina asked while bumping fists.

“Not bad. We spent a good chunk down in Alabama, where Dad’s from, then another chunk in Carolina, where Mom’s from. Not one of my cousins knew what I was talking about when I started yapping about hockey, though! All they kept talking about was football! You?”

“Hockey camp out in Colorado in July, then flying lessons through August.”

“Nice! Who’s your buddy?”

“This is my friend, Tommy Jones. Tommy, this is Shawn Hurt, a friend from youth hockey.”

“Good to meet you, Shawn. When did you first run into this one?” Tommy asked while nodding at Sabrina. Shawn laughed.

“Funny you should put it that way. We crashed into each other during a peewee hockey game years ago. High school will be the first time we’ve played together on the same team, though. You?”

“I moved in next door to her when I was two. You grew up around here, then?”

“Over on Littleton Road in Ayer. Mom and Dad met at Fort Jackson and married while stationed there. Mom left the Army when she got pregnant with me, and Dad transferred to the 646th MP Company here in 2004. He got out four years ago and got hired by Littleton PD. My little brother and I have been in the Ayer schools until now. Hey, here comes one of my friends from Ayer. Yo! Wheels!”

“S’up, Slick? How ya been?” asked the blonde girl in a wheelchair as she rolled up to the group. Ice-blue eyes swept over Sabrina and Tommy. “Who are these other ambulatory humans here?”

“Erica, Sabrina Knox, and Tommy Jones. Guys, this is my friend, Erica Thorisson.”

“Nice to meet you guys,” Erica replied.

“Here comes one of our other friends,” Tommy commented as Naomi approached. “Naomi, these two folks are Erica Thorisson and Shawn Hurt. Erica, Shawn, this is Naomi Taggert.”

Tommy’s eyes swept appreciatively over Naomi’s new clothes and the figure hinted at underneath them. He saw Shawn do the same thing. Erica glanced at her watch.

“We should find the gym,” she said. “It’s almost time for Freshman Indoctrination, I mean ‘Orientation.’”

“I’ve been in and out of this place since before I could walk,” Sabrina mentioned. “I know where it is. Plus, it’s not like there aren’t a couple of hundred freshmen heading that way, too. I’m sure we’ll find it easy enough.”

“Yeah, but if I want to be anywhere near you guys, we need to get there pretty quick,” Erica pointed out. “It’s not like I can climb the bleachers.”

“If you let me carry you, you could sit up there with us.”

“Thanks, Slick, but you’ll have to show off your manliness another day. Don’t drag your knuckles on the linoleum, by the way. The custodians hate having to buff out the scuff marks.”

“You’re so pale. If they try to turn off the lights for a video presentation, they’ll have to cover you up to block the glow, you rolling glacier.”

“At least they’d be able to see me in the dark. They’d probably trip over your dusky self.”

Sabrina and Tommy nearly spat their drinks out at the exchange. Naomi’s eyes widened in shock.

“This shit is mild, kids,” Shawn laughed. “You should hear us when we get going.”

Four friends found seats in the first row of the gym bleachers to sit near Erica. School staff looked confused when confronted with a student in a wheelchair. They tried to say Erica had to move, that she couldn’t block the aisle or the spots in front of the first row. Sabrina cocked her head at one of them.

“Are you going to provide chairs for the rest of us so we can sit with our friend while you stick her in the corner over there?” she asked the sputtering, blustering man dressed in athletic wear. “That won’t foster the welcoming community mentality the principal will probably talk about in his welcome speech, will it? Stashing her away by herself?”

“You know that was the hockey coach, right?” Shawn asked in a whisper while the older man stalked away, grumbling under his breath.

“He can get bent,” Sabrina responded in the same manner. “‘Nobody puts Baby in a corner.’”

“What?” Shawn chuckled.

“A quote from an old movie Mom makes me watch all the time, Dirty Dancing. The line seemed to fit.”

Sabrina could see the coach cast disapproving looks her way from time to time out of the corner of her eye. Don Atwater, DRHS’s principal, strode to the center of the court and faced the bleachers. Sabrina tuned him out while he droned on and on about inclusiveness and being kind to one another. She was sure most of her classmates also did.

Sabrina agreed with the message; she had heard it throughout middle school, too. She was sure many of the Class of 2016 would ignore it and be their usual cruel selves soon enough. That one of the staff members started to do the same thing to Erica didn’t bode well in her estimation.

Sabrina also saw her mother glancing over from her spot along the wall. Keiko was disappointed when Carl Hammond, the principal who hired her fresh out of graduate school, retired two years ago. While her mother tried to keep Sabrina and her brothers from hearing her opinions of Mr. Atwater, inevitably, they would.

Keiko acknowledged that she held Mr. Hammond in particular regard; he and his wife still visited the house on Hilltop Road, especially since he retired. However, she was less than impressed by Don Atwater’s leadership abilities. He had his favorites, and Keiko Knox did not fall into that category.

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦

At lunch, Sabrina’s group of freshmen sat together at an open table while taking in the surrounding scene. She recognized some of her former classmates from Burbank Middle and waved to them, but there were plenty of kids from other towns she didn’t know.

One of the unrecognized freshmen sat huddled by themselves at a different table with the hood of their black sweatshirt pulled up. ‘Keep away from me’ radiated off that person in waves. Those who didn’t pick up on that non-verbal message received a hateful glare to go with it. They quickly found other places to sit.

“What’s that person’s deal?” Sabrina asked. Erica and Shawn looked over.

“Black Ruby,” Erica answered with disdain. Shawn shuddered.

“Who?”

“Ruby Sepulveda,” Shawn replied. “Angry, wants to be left alone most of the time, you name it.”

Sabrina rose and headed toward Ruby’s table, causing the eyes of her friends from Ayer to goggle.

“Hi, Ruby,” Sabrina offered. Ruby glared back, but Sabrina was unimpressed.

“What do you want?” Ruby asked with a snarl.

“I wanted to say hello and ask how you were doing. I haven’t seen you since we left Big Steps Preschool eight years ago. We used to be friends.”

Ruby’s eyes softened briefly in confusion but soon returned to normal glaring.

“We must not have been best friends because I don’t remember you,” she spat.

“I’m Sabrina Knox.”

Again, the eyes changed momentarily, this time widening in surprise.

“Well, thank the Lord!” Ruby exclaimed with mock joy. “Little Miss Goody Two-Shoes has returned to brighten my days on Earth! Isn’t that just great? All my troubles have been banished forever!”

Sabrina’s face began to color, but not in embarrassment.

“Go away, little girl,” Ruby continued. “I don’t want your friendship or your pity. I especially don’t want to hear more stories of your perfect family or see more pictures of it.”

Unfortunately, Ruby misread Sabrina’s reaction to her comments.

“Does the truth hurt, little girl? Can’t stand to hear how life isn’t all sweetness and light? You have no idea about the pain I carry.” She waved dismissively at Sabrina. “Go away before you get hurt.”

“You can kiss my fucking ASS, Ruby!” Sabrina growled. “Don’t tell me how I feel or how my FATHER feels! I know it’s not the same as what your family went through, but don’t tell me that day didn’t cost him and his friends, either! I lose my dad for a week every goddamn July 15th!

“He still beats himself up twelve years later for ‘not doing enough’ for your sister. He spends most of that week sitting on the back deck staring off into the distance, but at least he isn’t crying for that entire week like when we were younger.

“Do you know how often I’ve sat with him while he listens to Pearl Jam’s Indifference, over and over? He sits down to talk to your mom every month at one of the Dunks they own together, and, half the time, she has to reassure him he did all he could that day.”

“Mom doesn’t own a Dunkin’ Donuts …”

“Maybe if you’d pull your head out of your ass once in a while, Ruby, you might notice these things. Your mom doesn’t manage a Dunkin’ Donuts. She co-owns five with my father!”

Ruby sat blinking like an owl while staring at her classmate.

“I came over here to say hello to a friend I haven’t seen in years. Too bad all I found was a petty, sad little bitch instead. I was going to offer you a spot at our table over there, to offer you a chance to make some new friends. But, of course, you can stay over here, being lonely and miserable if you prefer. Honestly, I don’t give a shit anymore.”

Sabrina started to walk away but turned back to the table and gave Ruby a hard stare.

“Oh, and if you ever try flashing your pathetic, little claws at me again, I will fucking plant you. Have a nice day.”

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦

“Erica, what’s wrong?” Sabrina asked later in the day.

“My next class is upstairs in 207, but I don’t know how I’m gonna get up there,” Erica replied, frowning. “I mean, the elevator’s right here, and I know I’m allowed to use it. But you need a key to call the car, and I just realized I haven’t gotten one from the school yet. So, I’ll be like twenty minutes late for that class by the time I go to the office and get one.”

Sabrina also frowned before an idea popped into her head. Glancing up and down the hall, she pulled her key ring from her pocket before inserting one key into the elevator’s control panel. Erica heard a buzzer sound from above her, inside the elevator shaft. The buzzer grew louder – and closer. The keyway Sabrina had used was marked ‘Firefighter Operation.’

“What are you doing?” Erica hissed.

“Getting you upstairs,” Sabrina answered.

“Getting us in trouble is more like it.”

The doors opened, and Sabrina removed the firefighter’s key, silencing the buzzer.

“Come on,” she said before rolling her new friend into the car. Sabrina even wheeled Erica in correctly, backing her into the elevator so Erica wouldn’t stare at the back wall on the ride up.

“Hold it right there!” a voice called out after they emerged on the second floor. Sabrina turned to see Mrs. Haversham, one of the history teachers, striding toward them. “Unauthorized use of the elevator is grounds for detention!”

Sabrina’s eyes narrowed.

“She’s authorized. It’s in her IEP. I helped her out because the office hasn’t given her a key yet, which is an apparent violation of that document. I’m shielding the district from an Americans with Disabilities Act violation while I’m at it, too.”

“Don’t get smart with me, young lady!”

“Sorry, I thought that’s why we were here? To get smart,” Sabrina retorted. “Erica, any relevant quotes from the Americans with Disabilities Act you want to share with Mrs. Haversham?”

“Not really,” Erica replied with disdain. “We’re going to be late for class.”

Sabrina turned Erica’s chair toward Room 207 and left Eleanor Haversham in the hallway.

“Well, that was fun,” Erica laughed ruefully. “How are we getting into trouble tomorrow?”

“I don’t know what’s in store for tomorrow, but I’ll be back to help you downstairs after your class. I’m sure we’ll get another detention for that.”

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦

Two hours later, Sabrina sat in the outer administration office, waiting for an after-school meeting with the assistant principal.

She was pissed off.

Spending her first afternoon after high school in the office instead of hanging out with her new friends was bad enough. Mrs. Haversham’s attempt to bring her into the assistant principal’s office without either of her parents only added to her anger. If the woman tried to lay another hand on her, Sabrina would feed Mrs. Haversham that hand up her rectum.

The door to the hallway opened. Keiko held the door while Erica Thorisson and a woman Sabrina assumed was Erica’s mother entered. None of the three looked happy. Finally, Keiko stepped up to the desk.

“Hi, Keiko,” the senior admin assistant, Mrs. Latham, said in a tired voice. “Terrific first day, huh?”

“Hello, Nicole. It was a good day until I learned I needed to attend a meeting with Eleanor Haversham regarding my daughter.” Keiko looked at Sabrina. “What is she accusing you of?” she asked in Japanese.

“They haven’t given Erica an elevator key like they’re supposed to,” Sabrina answered in the same language, “so I helped her get to class. Mrs. Haversham saw us leaving the elevator and raised holy hell.”

“‘Helped her,’ how?” Keiko asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Dad gave me a firefighter’s elevator key last year. He told me only to use it in an emergency.”

“This instance might not qualify as an ‘emergency,’ but that is a discussion for another time.” Keiko turned to Erica and the other woman and switched back to English. “Dixie, this is my daughter, Sabrina. Sabrina, this is Erica’s mother, Mrs. Thorisson.” Dixie Thorisson hugged Sabrina.

“Thank you for helping out Erica, Sabrina,” she said. “Where is this slack-jawed idiot, then?” Sabrina and Erica stifled chuckles, as did Keiko and Mrs. Latham.

“I didn’t hear a thing …” Nicole Latham muttered before walking to a door and knocking. She stuck her head in, said something, and waved everyone over.

“Sabrina, as difficult as it might be, do not react to anything said in that office,” Keiko whispered in Japanese. “As your mother, let me handle this.” Sabrina nodded wordlessly.

When the four women stepped into the assistant principal’s office, Phil Lanier rose to welcome them. Keiko smiled because she respected him, but she ignored Eleanor Haversham. She had no use for the woman. Someone must have informed Dixie Thorisson about the people representing the school because she did the same.

“Mrs. Thorisson, this meeting is between another family and us. So, I’m going to have to ask you and your daughter to wait outside,” Eleanor Haversham ordered.

Dixie glanced at Mrs. Haversham before looking at Phil Lanier and raising an eyebrow.

“I specifically invited the Thorissons, Mrs. Haversham,” he clarified as he walked around his desk. “Let me move that chair so Erica has more room to maneuver.”

“Thank you, Mr. Lanier.”

“Now that we’re all here, Mrs. Haversham, would you please explain your issue with these two young ladies?”

“Students are not allowed to use the elevator,” she stated in a haughty voice. “Miss Knox became disrespectful when I caught them stepping out of it.”

Sabrina (Knox #3)

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