Life Lost and Found

15: A Little Broken

Tuesday, August 5

There were too many people in the world. Also, there were too many people on the University of Oregon campus. The entire student body of Ackland High School could have fit into the crowd that Gina and Madeline passed through while simply crossing from one building to another.

Gina was being surprisingly helpful. Giving her a brief tour, helping her take care of paperwork, ID card, etc. Madeline, for her own part, was focused more on survival. "They're people, not monsters," she murmured quietly as they left the student union building. "Lots and lots of perfectly normal people." Which might have been comforting if she weren't all-too-aware of how monstrous perfectly normal people could be.

"Your ID photo turned out nice," Gina mentioned, trying to make conversation.

Madeline took a moment to look at the card she had just received. "Oh, wow. That's—wow. Do they retouch these or something?"

"They only spend five minutes on each card, Madeline. Can you retouch a photo in five minutes?"

"Yes," Madeline answered, and the truth was that she could, depending on the situation. Photoshop had seemed terrifying at first, but it was actually pretty wonderful once she'd spent some quality time with it. Not unlike her companion.

"Let me rephrase that," Gina corrected. "Could you retouch a photo in five minutes if you 1) were a person of normal ability, not some kind of freakish technological savant; 2) were trapped in a basement making minimum wage; and 3) would therefore rather be nearly anywhere else on Earth, excluding certain undesirable locations, including, but not limited to, ghettos and war zones?"

Madeline had barely followed that. "Um. I guess... not?"

"I don't think so. What I'm saying is, your photo looks good because you do."

Nope. She'd merely gotten lucky. "Okay, sure. I'm not a savant, by the way."

"No, you're right. That was hyperbolic. But you are a quick study."

"When it comes to certain things, I guess. Sometimes," Madeline answered distractedly. She was cautiously scanning faces while trying not to make eye contact with anyone.

"Being good at some things some of the time is better than being good at no things all of the time," Gina stated.

"Valid point." Madeline's consciousness emerged from her haze of anxiety enough to realize how beautiful this place was. All massive trees, red brick buildings, and green everywhere. "Are there always this many people here?"

"Depends on the time of day. The population curve drops sharply at night," Gina answered. Madeline couldn't tell if she was joking, since Gina could often be as dry as plain oatmeal. Buried in sand. In a desert. On a planet where water did not exist. Which was on fire.

"Not much left to do," Gina said. "Are you doing financial aid?"

Madeline shook her head. "No, I've been saving. I think I'll be okay." It still amazed her that she even had her own bank account, even if tuition was about to vaporize everything in it. But she had one! With a card and, like, numbers and stuff.

"Not bad." Gina looked briefly impressed. "Since we're here, I suppose we could get your books. Your first term is still a ways off, but it might be nice to get that out of the way. Higher probability of used ones this early too."

"Oh, right. Books. I forgot I have to buy those now."

"Yup. And just wait 'til you see the prices."