8

         Kindra sat up in her bed. Andy lay next to her, dead asleep, sprawled all out with his guard down. It was pretty early in the morning. Kindra wanted a cigarette – that was why she was up, but she was also up thinking about the mugging the other night. And Andy. And ________. She was getting pretty introspective, which didn't happen that often. Or maybe it was happening constantly. It didn't really matter, because it didn't seem to get her anywhere.

          She stood up, grabbed a pack of cigarettes from on top of the fridge, and walked to her balcony. It's not like it was much of a balcony, just off the second floor, but it was enough to see over people's heads and not look them straight in the face when they walked by. They could easily look up and recognize her, but they could also ignore her at that level.

          There weren't many people out – it was only 6:30. It was an in-between time even for people with early jobs, but it was the perfect time for people stumbling back from Isabella's cafe. Kindra smelled cigarette smoke though she hadn't lit up her own cigarette yet and glanced over to see Pink walking by. He seemed very into his own moment. Pink was one of those tenants who, though he lived on the 12th floor and she lived on the 2nd, she always heard about. Everyone always heard about him – it was because of his late-night habits of throwing things against walls and crying. And the drinking. He seemed careless.

          As Kindra watching him walk and lit up her own cigarette, she thought about how careless he was. He could stay up all the time, throw fits, mourn whatever, drink and be crazy, all in the comfort of his own head and his own problems. He simply did his own business at the expense of the hundreds of others in castle apartments and didn't stop to wonder how he influenced them. She figured she was functioning the same way.

          When someone ran into her the other night and it turned out that someone got mugged, Kindra immediately felt ashamed that she had assumed they were just trying to piss her off. It was one of those things where she was turned into the bad guy. The only reason she didn't turn around and wasn't able to help was because she was obsessing over making sure her night was okay. That made her bad. She could only be the victim if she part of a tragic scene – not one where her own faults got in the way.

          Kindra's own thoughts didn't flow so perfectly in her own head, but somehow or another, she came to the conclusion that she wanted to always assume that there was something for her to do. She didn't want to be caught up in her own selfishness.

          When Kindra glanced back over at Andy, he was awake and looking at her. She took this as a cue that they should go ahead and get breakfast, so she got him dressed and they walked to Casa de Waffles.

          "So, how was your day with your dad yesterday?" Kindra asked.

          "Good," Andy said.

          "What'd you do?" Kindra asked.

          "I went to his work."

          "Did you fly in the airplanes?"

          "No," Andy said, "I flew a toy."

          "Like one out of the gift shop? One of those little planes?"

          "Yeah."

          "Why not go in one of the real planes?"

          "Cause there were too many people there,"he said.

          Right, Kindra realized, the museum was open on Saturdays. It was probably a good thing that Andy couldn't get in the planes anyways. They were meant for show, not riding. Of course _______ wouldn't listen to that if she that.

          "Wanna hear what happened to me?" Kindra asked. Andy was quiet, so she continued talking. She used that voice that adults use when they're talking to kids about something exciting – where they try to sound excited themselves so that the kid will get interested. "I went to a play and then when I got out, there was a bad guy."

          Andy was quiet.

          "He was hurting this other guy. I saw him. But right when I saw him, before I could do anything, the bad guy ran away."

          "He ran too fast for you to catch him?" Andy asked.

          "Yep," Kindra said.

          "...fast as a plane?" Andy said.