Solitude Creek (Kathryn Dance 4)

"What've the munchkins been up to?" she asked as they sipped wine and ate the sandwiches and potato salad.

"Mags's still moody."

Dance shook her head. "I'll sit down with her again. See if I can pry it out of her."

"But she seems to like her club. She was Skyping with them for an hour or so."

"Oh, what's it called? The Secrets Club."

"That's it. Bethany and Cara. Leigh too, I think. Pretty exclusive, it sounds like."

"You kept an eye on it?"

"I did."

Dance's rule was that the children could Skype or go online only if an adult were nearby and checking in occasionally.

"An official club?" Dance asked.

"I'm not sure Pacific Heights Grade School requires much in the way of charter for a club to be official."

"Good point... Secrets Club," she mused. "And what do they do? Gossip about their American Girl dolls?"

"I asked her and she said it was a secret."

They both laughed.

Boling waved off another pour of wine. Since the children were here, he was present only until bedtime, then would drive back home. Just like he never drank when he was chauffeuring the kids anywhere.

"And Wes?"

"Donnie came over for a while. I like him. Really smart. I was teaching them how to code. He picked it up fast."

"What do you think about that game they're playing now, Defend and Respond Expedition...? What is it again?"

"Defend and Respond Expedition Service."

"Right."

"I have no idea what it's about but what I'm fascinated with is that they're rejecting the computer model. Writing out their battle plans, or whatever they do, sort of like football plays. Or like the old Battleship game. Remember?"

"Sure."

"It's a return to traditional game practices. I think there's even an aspect where they do a scavenger hunt or something--outside, find clues in the park or down by the shore. They get out in the real world, ride their bikes, get some exercise."

"Like what I used to play when I was a girl."

"Have to say I was pretty box-oriented, even at that age."

Boxes. Computers.

She said, "I heard people're going back to paper books, away from e-books."

"True," he said. "I prefer the paper ones myself. And besides, given my typical reading material, you're probably not going to find Vector Modeling and Cosine Similarity as Applied to Search Engine Algorithms on Kindle."

Dance nodded. "They're making a movie of that, aren't they?"

"Pixar."