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That was a lie, but a well-intentioned one Orsay knew about heraddiction She knew about her mother’s trips to rehab, each of which was followed by a period of normalcy where she would take Orsay, and put her in school, and arrange tidy little fah normal time for Orsay to think, ain find her mother’s “works” stashed in the back of a cupboard, or find her mother barely conscious and sprawled across the couch

Her mother was a heroin addict She’d been a secret heroin addict for a long ti the early years when she’d still been married to Orsay’s father and they’d lived in Oakland Orsay’s father had worked out of the park service regional headquarters

But Orsay’s rew ever worse, and soon there was no hiding it There was a divorce Orsay’s ht for custody Her father took a job at Stefano Rey, wanting to get far away from the city and far away from his ex-wife

Orsay had lived a lonely life since then School was a once-a-day video link with a classroom all the way off in Sunnyvale

Occasionally she’d make a short-term friend with one of the kids who came with their parents to ca and hiking But never more than a day here and a day there

“Dad I’ important here It’s not about Mo withvery, very weird in my head”

“Sweetheart, you’re a teenager Of course there’s so in your head If there wasn’t, you wouldn’t be a teenager It’s nor about…well, diff—”

And that’s when her father had simply disappeared

There

Not there

She’d thought she was hallucinating She had thought the craziness had suddenly overtaken her

But her father was really gone So were Ranger Assante and Ranger Cruz and Ranger S

So was everyone in the Main West caround

The satellite uplink was dead The cell phones were dead

All that first day she had searched, but there was no one Not in any of the carounds she could reach easily, anyway