Free Runaway by Anne Laughlin

like-minded individuals, as she puts it?”
    “I don’t know. I’ve marked the areas in the paper where she advocates her position. See what you think.”
    Jan looked at her notebook. “I’ve heard the book Atlas Shrugged mentioned. Do you have any thoughts on why that book would be important to Maddy?”
    “You don’t need to know much about the plot of the novel to see why, and Maddy does reference it in her paper, which isn’t really appropriate in a research thesis. Atlas Shrugged is a novel. Rand portrays the government as a collection of dunderheads hell-bent on punishing people for their creativity and production, especially if an idea or invention improves the lives of others. The government in her novel will find a way to rob you of any motivation to implement it.”
    “She’s clearly anti-government, then.”
    “Yes, but we have to remember the context. Atlas Shrugged depicts a government that has powers ours does not, that takes steps toward socialism and communism that ours never has. It’s a fictional US government, and it’s in response to this fictional government that the hero of the book, John Galt, sets up a new society in a remote area of the country. It’s a society where the individual will be freely rewarded for the work they produce and not concerned with what a government decides is in the best interest of the masses.”
    “But she’s too young to have been thwarted yet. Or even to see yet whether she has ideas good enough to be suppressed.”
    “True, though she’s very intelligent and I don’t doubt she has confidence in her ideas. That comes through in her writing. But I don’t think she has a very clear idea of what she’s running to.”
    “I’m sure she doesn’t. I appreciate you reaching out to us about this.”
    Natalie tore a corner off Maddy’s paper and wrote her number down.
    “Please call me if you want to talk this over further. I’m really concerned about Maddy.”
    Jan gave her one of her cards and watched as Natalie walked out of the office on her excellent legs. Nice, but not Catherine Engstrom nice.
    The next person up came complete with whistle around the neck, athletic shorts, polo shirt with the high school logo on the front, and… Yep , Jan thought, lesbian hair .
    “I’m Yvonne Kuterasaminsky.” The woman smiled. “Call me Coach. It’s easier.”
    Jan grinned and closed the office door. Coach said with a chuckle, “Usually when a door closes around here, someone’s getting an ass-kicking. Am I in trouble?”
    “No ass-kicking today. I’m looking into Maddy Harrington’s disappearance.”
    Coach nodded and sighed. “It’s never a good thing when they take off, you know? I mean, even when it turns out they’re okay and no real harm done, it’s still bad that something made them leave in the first place.”
    “Any idea what might have made Maddy leave?”
    “None,” Coach said. “I only know her on the soccer field. And she’s not even on the team now. She was with me for two seasons and then she didn’t come out this year. Not sure why…she really seemed to enjoy the game. She played well and she played all-out.”
    Interesting, Jan thought. So Maddy wasn’t just all about computers.
    “How was she with her teammates?”
    “Here’s the thing. She was a good scorer and not selfish, and it’s difficult to find both in a player. She usually scored every game. And all the girls would come up and congratulate her, but it wasn’t the big hug and bump.” Coach shook her head. “Girls that age, well, they hang all over each other. They’re devoted to each other. Maddy didn’t seem to have any of that.”
    “Were they mean to her?” Jan asked.
    Coach thought a moment. “No. It was more that they never included her. And she didn’t try.”
    Jan thought about that later as she waited for Peet outside the high school. She stood in the crisp air of a beautiful fall day and tried to understand what could drive a lonely girl toward the