Free The Variables by Shelbi Wescott Page B

bowling pins, and face painting stations. Many were smiling, some looked perplexed. Most were enjoying themselves.
    At the center of the excitement was Maxine, standing guard with a clipboard. Drawing from her years as the chairwoman for the PTA, she threw herself into leading the event with special attention to the carnival milieu. Huck personally contacted her to fill the role of party planner. She’d organized some carnivals before, so Maxine got straight to work. With a job to do, Maxine had allowed herself freedom and distance from Ethan, who was still mute and refusing his physical therapy.
    Maxine’s grief subsided with the project to keep her mind busy. If the elaborate set-up was any indication, the King matriarch was suffering more than she let on.
    She’d enlisted the help of many of the System’s occupants, including Grant, who was set to perform as a keyboard player in a cover band.
    Perhaps Maxine’s most ridiculous and atrocious act was convincing Cass to don herself in a billowy off-the-shoulder dress and set herself up in a darkened tent in the corner of the Center under a sloppily painted sign that read: Fortune Teller.
    At first Lucy was adamant that she wouldn’t visit Cass. It was a silly, degrading, borderline racist assignment. But Cass didn’t mind; her grandmother, who had passed long before the world succumbed to Scott’s virus, had been a firm believer in divination and the power of the Tarot. So, despite Lucy’s eye-rolls and supplications, Cass assumed the role of the System’s oracle.
    During the carnival, Lucy was relegated to babysitting duty, following Teddy and Harper around with their trails of tickets and goody bags filled with candy, stickers, and other trinkets—which Maxine had demanded as a necessity for the festival’s success.
    Whether Huck had already stocked the System with Maxine’s must-haves or whether he sent his precious military into the nearest city to loot abandoned party supply stores, Lucy didn’t know.  
    When Maxine King planned parties, she moved mountains. So, secretly, Lucy hoped the latter was true. She pictured a trail of guards, seeking out a Nebraskan strip-mall, locating a party store, and gingerly stepping around bodies while stuffing garbage bags with cheap necklaces, miniature Slinkies, and individually wrapped bubble gum.
    Galen, done with his shift at the cake walk, tapped Lucy on the shoulder.
    “Your turn?” she asked and thrust the brimming bags outward into Galen’s chest. “Teddy wants to jump in the bouncy castle again and Harper is over there.” Lucy pointed to the fishing game, where Harper stood, her face smeared with the remnants of a chocolate treat. She was holding a makeshift fishing pole, waiting for the tug that indicated her prize was ready.  
    Galen gave Lucy a look—a cross between resignation and annoyance—and then he plodded away, following after the youngsters.
    Lucy spun and looked at the darkened fabric flaps over the entrance to Cass’s domain. She would have wanted to walk around with Grant, perhaps sit with him in the movie theater where her mother had requested old black and white movies to play during the duration of the event. But he was out of commission. So, with a small shake of her head, she walked straight into the tent. Small twinkle lights danced around her and Cass sat at a covered table, a deck of cards spread downward before her.  
    “You came,” Cass said, and she smiled. “I thought you’d avoid me.”
    “I had to see what my mother had done to you,” Lucy replied, and she let her eyes wander around the small interior of the fabric tent. “Where’s your crystal ball?”
    “I don’t use a crystal ball, silly. Most clairvoyants don’t need gimmicky tools to tell you your past or your futures. Sit.” Cass had adopted a thicker accent for her role; she winked at Lucy and pointed to a wooden chair next to her table, but Lucy hesitated. Cass clicked her tongue. “Please.”
    Lucy sat