Cute. Weird, but cute. She takes the kindle up to the roof.

It's a pleasant summer evening.

Sunsets are gorgeous when you have a good view of them.

After two weeks in Colorado, during which they watch movies and play board games and read and fly and eat at restaurants and hike and generally relax (and attend two local Thaumatologist services), it is time to go home and announce "Janet" as somebody they picked up in Colorado.

"Bus or hot air balloon?" Julie asks.

The balloon is comfier.

"Alrighty, let's see how fast it'll let me go. Lemme know when you need to stop and pee or whatever."

Zoom.

Balloon rides are also fun. What a good way to travel.

Julie is very very fast when she opens up with her bursts of force, and since the balloon doesn't cartoonishly burst and send Denice whooshing off into the sky she goes ahead and opens up. It's still a long trip, though.

Well, there's lots of pretty countryside to look at, and lots of kindle to read.

The kindle runs out of battery, eventually. Plugging a real piece of tech into a cartoon outlet probably doesn't work, but that's not going to stop her from trying it.

It does not work.

Oh well. Plenty of countryside to look at.

After a day in the air, less a lunch break and two pit stops, they touch down in the Glories' back yard. Winona is there first; she took an airplane.

Denice missed her! Hug!

Hug! "How was your flight?"

Not bad. A little boring 'cause of the kindle thing. Really pretty, though.

"Oh, next time we need to pack you a spare battery thingy."

Ooh. Yes please.

"I'm bushed," says Julie, "I'm gonna eat a can of soup and crash."

"No you're not, I made tuna casserole," says Winona.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Julie eats a lot of tuna casserole and then crashes.

Denice has been getting the hang of this whole 'drink it' method of eating things; she has some tuna casserole too and then snuggles up with Winona. What's she up to today?

"I've been working on finding out more about the institution. How long were you there?"

Ah. She's not sure exactly, but since she was very small; she doesn't really remember before that, just a couple tiny things.

"Do you remember a boy named Robert? Robert Greene?"

Sounds a little familiar but not very, it's not someone she knew... that was that kid who died a couple years ago, wasn't it. She didn't know him but she heard about it, it was really bad.

"Yes, he died, and it's a little suspicious-looking. Did they tell you anything about it?"

Staff didn't tell her anything, that's not how it worked, but the other kids said they messed up his food plan and that it was probably a mistake, he hadn't been in trouble or anything.