###
Her day hadn’t gotten any better latter when she went to her barracks where she found that one of her girls had slit her wrists. She found the girl in the girls shower. It was not the first suicide she had ever dealt with. When she had been on the streets she had come across one of her friends who had deliberately overdosed on crazy dust. Thankfully this girl had not been successful and they were able to keep her from finishing the job.
After she dealt with that, she was informed that one of the cadets had missed dinner, which wasn’t unusual, but he had also missed lunch and no one had seen him since morning formation. They found him coming in the gates. He had been gone all day and no one had signed him off the facility. This week she was the Charge Quarters Sergeant. Like the cadet duty officer it was her job to be the watch sergeant for the cadets on watch and stand in for the cadet duty officer. As the CQ Sergeant it was her job to deal with these incidents first and write him up. There was no way she was going to be able to dodge this one. The cadets on the gates, the cadet’s barracks NCO, the cadet’s company commander, (thankfully, it wasn’t Rhonda,) all had to be written up. Finally about 21 near sunset, the School Mistress poked her head into the CQ office.
“Okay Mitch,” The School Mistress said, “Time for you to get away from this!”
The School Mistress had befriended Mitch shortly after she came to the academy. She had heard Mitch singing one night and had joined in singing the harmony to the song she was singing. Later School Mistress had asked it if was okay to accompany her when she sang. Over the last few weeks, School Mistress had talked with Mitch sometimes late into the night. Often they sang together. It had helped Mitch acclimate to her new surroundings. The School Mistress had become like a girlfriend rather than one of the people who ran the academy.
“It is time for me to make my rounds anyways,” Mitch said. As sergeant of the Charge Quarters watch for the week, she was required to check in on all the barracks, the front gate, and the other places around the academy where the cadets were standing CQ watches. She had just finished writing up the incident report on Cadet Dickenson, and wanted to get out of the CQ office for a while.
“Have you been to the look out yet?” School Mistress asked.
“I’ve heard about it; but I haven’t been there,” she answered the nearly ghostly image of the AI as she walked with Mitch on her rounds. “Every time I start there something comes up and I get distracted.”
“You need to check it out!” School Mistress continued, “It has got the best acoustics.”
The School Mistress walked with Mitch to the look out. The pair made an odd couple as they waked to the lookout. The human girl walking with the ghostly image of the School Mistress fading in and out as she switched from emitter to emitter along the path to the look out. They found it deserted. School Mistress had picked her time carefully as she knew that Jill Wilson would often sit and meditate at the look out at the end of the day. It was a favorite place of many people in the academy including Sergeant Green when she had a day off from her duties at Fletcher Militia Base. The Look Out was on a cliff that that overlooked the city of Trenaport. It was a natural shaped amphitheater that the old boarding school used to put on plays and hold small assemblies. It was a beautiful place to meditate, more so at sunset when on those nights when the convention center control system allowed, the area was bathed in a rainbow of light that cascaded from the convention center’s turrets as the sun was caught and directed the setting sun’s light to the lookout. School Mistress had talked to the centers AI manager to get what she was wanted at the amphitheater for this evening. She was going have to buy the AI some books for the favor he did for her as the amphitheater was bathed in a rainbow of light as the sun set into the ocean. Even after the bombing the Glass Castle, as the center was called, the AI was still able to manage the prisms to bath the area around it with various lighting schemes.
“It’s beautiful,” Mitch said softly.
“I know what type of day you’ve had and thought this might cheer you up. Make it better,” School Mistress said appearing to sit down on one of the benches, “Try a scale. It’s okay, it’s only us.”
Mitch looked around to see if they were alone. She really wasn’t comfortable performing with people around. Seeing that they were alone she went through some scales, softly at first then a little louder. She filled the amphitheater with her soft soprano. School Mistress’ appearance had changed she now was on the small stage of the amphitheater appearing to be seated at a piano as she appeared to go through a couple bars of an old, old song. This song was one that she and Mitch had been playing around with for the last few nights. Mitch looked to where School Mistress sat and nodded and began to sing.
Mitch’s soprano filled the amphitheater spilling out into the late summer evening.
Every Last Mother's Child Page 161
