Suddenly, the silence in Spindrift was deafening to Mayfair. Her dislike for her room was palpable. She felt like clawing at the walls. When Corliss and Donna stopped by to say it was time to go to dinner, she told them she would be right down.
Corliss’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Are you upset with us about our comments concerning this Leo guy?”
Mayfair was never great at hiding her feelings, because she never believed it was nece
ssary. What was a more futile lie than that? Sooner or later, even the dimmest of friends and relatives would sense your unhappiness if you were unhappy, your anger if you were angry, she thought.
“Upset is too strong a word. Disappointed, maybe, but maybe that’s my own failing,” Mayfair said.
“We’ll talk more about it,” Donna promised. “The only thing final is the word final.”
“Oh, spare me, little Buddha,” Mayfair said, and both Corliss and Donna laughed. It eased her mood and lessened her tension. “Let’s eat,” she said. “I’m ready.”
The Supremes marched down to the dining room.
Mayfair deliberately avoided discussing their conclusions about the evening now known to her as the Night Below the Fence. Although both Donna and Corliss knew she was deliberately avoiding the subject, they let her direct their conversation to gossip about some of the other drifters. Maybe they wanted to avoid talking about it themselves.
They had a choice of things to do after dinner. An old but famous silent movie, Battleship Potemkin, was being shown in the media center. Peter Townsend, because he was good at it himself, had proposed a Ping-Pong contest in the game room, and a guest NASA scientist who had been given the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers was available tonight and tomorrow for conversations about oceanography and public health. One had to be impressed with the expense Spindrift would go to for only a handful of students. But as Dr. Marlowe had said on more than one occasion, every one of them was a potential new Einstein.
Corliss decided she was going to the Ping-Pong contest. She declared she wanted to beat Peter Townsend’s ass. Donna wanted Mayfair to go with her to the NASA scientist’s forum, but Mayfair said she wanted to see the movie. She had read about it but had never seen it.
“Boring,” Donna declared.
“If it is, I’ll join you, or I’ll go watch Corliss play Ping-Pong.”
The compromise worked, and the three parted, attracting the surprise of Dr. Marlowe, who had observed how the three did almost everything together. Thirty minutes later, with everyone off someplace, the lobby, cafeteria, and lounge were empty and silent.
Twenty minutes into the film, Mayfair rose.
On the way out of the media center, she felt Dr. Marlowe’s hand on her wrist.
“Bored?”
“No, I realized I had seen it,” she said. “I’m going to watch Corliss win the Ping-Pong contest.”
Dr. Marlowe nodded. She was sitting with Lars Stensen, who perked up at the sound of Corliss’s name.
“I’ll join you,” he said. “I realized I saw this, too.”
Dr. Marlowe gave her a knowing smile. Lars’s infatuation with Corliss was obvious, especially to Corliss. Mayfair and he left the media center.
“I wasn’t lying,” he said. “I know all about that film. It has the scene with the flag that was hand-painted on the film itself. Startled the audience in those days.”
“Yes. Human ingenuity is fascinating,” Mayfair said dryly. “Go on without me. I have to do something first.”
He nodded and hurried away. She turned the moment he was gone and headed toward the kitchen. She had made up her mind the moment she woke up this morning, actually. Minutes later, she was out the door and crossing to the woods.
• • •
For a few moments after she had gone under the fence, she paused and debated with herself.
It took only that long to dismiss fear and put aside any caution. She practically ran down the hill and once nearly toppled.
That would have been utter disaster. But she was fine.
She broke out exactly where the three of them had the night before and hurried to the entrance of the mall. She thought someone was playing the drums but realized quickly that it was only her heart pounding.
The mall was a little busier than it had been the night before, but this time, without her companions walking in sync, she wasn’t attracting the same attention. She didn’t mind that, but she almost wanted to touch base and turn right around as if she was in some relay race. That way, she could get herself back to Spindrift before her absence was noticed even by Corliss or Donna.