Chapter 8: 08

Astra had been rushed off her feet all day unboxing new stock for Leonie, and it was only now in the afternoon when she was doing data entry into their accounts spreadsheets that she had time to check messages on her phone.

Maxine had sent through five messages, with increasingly stupid smiley faces on them. Astra rolled her eyes and ignored them, pressing the call button.

"Hey, so do you remember Claire Webster?" Maxine said, not bothering with a greeting.

"Vaguely," Astra said.

She flopped her head into her hands and tried not to panic as the formulas refused to total and nothing on the screen did what she wanted. At least whatever thing Maxine was into now was probably less dire.

"Yeah, so, she changed her name and is completely different now but I tracked her down. Do you want to have lunch with us?"

Astra sat up straight, blinking in surprise. "You tracked her down?"

Maxine scoffed. "Yeah, it wasn't even difficult."

"Is this a thing you're going to be doing now, tracking everyone else down?"

"Do you think I should?" Maxine asked. "It worked out when I tracked you down."

"You're not wrong," Astra said. She stretched in her chair, considering. "Okay, why not? I'll hang out. In return, can you convince my boss it's time to join the 21st century and get an accounting software subscription."

"I'll use my powers of persuasion," Maxine said, in that voice that promised nothing good.

But Astra reminded herself not to worry. Leonie liked Maxine, after all. And Maxine was probably the only part of her life enriched by having been on that show or having a power at all. Whatever she did, it would probably work out.

"Does she still fly?" Astra asked, remembering, finally, what it had been like to see someone flying above them as the camera crew yelled that they should all stay in the same shot.

"I don't think so," Maxine said. "But I'm going to find out if she's still capable."

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*

"Hi, I'm Tori," the woman said, smoothing her hair back and sitting down in one of Astra and Cindy's secondhand dining chairs. Astra could definitely see the girl she once knew in Tori's features. "Wow, you're really..."

Tori's eyes grew unfocused and she leaned forward until Maxine pinched her on the arm.

"What?" Tori said, spooking like a horse. Her elbows ended up around her ears and her head whipped around, eyes darting everywhere.

"She has that effect on people, our Astra. Either you get used to it enough for it to stop working or you, I don't know, buy a bubble to stop letting it effect you," Maxine said.

"Do you think that would work?" Astra asked, putting a hand on Maxine's elbow. "A bubble? I could buy a bubble to live in whenever I went outside."

Maxine tilted her head to the side. "Couldn't hurt."

"I... I have face masks in my bag," Tori said, eyes downcast. "Maybe that will help?"

It didn't help much but they tried to talk through it, anyway. Tori kept drifting into a daze, until Maxine poked her out of it.

"Do you still fly at least?" Astra asked.

Tori shook her head, pulled at her sleeves, looked at her knees.

"It's okay to speak, whatever it is," Astra said.

"I don't really use that part of myself anymore but it's just nice to not be alone with it. It's been so long," Tori said, then burst into tears.

"Okay, next meeting can be on Zoom," Maxine said.

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