[crow]

It had been pretty well a month since she'd really seen Maple, hadn't it? She couldn't exactly say anything about it now, at least not without sounding massively unbelievable.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," said Lacuna, with maybe more resignation than she felt, and followed Maple out. The two of them walked out of the apartment complex together, down the flight of stairs and then out through the main door. The bright August sunshine greeted them. As did the heat.

"Ugh." said Lacuna, immediately.

[crow]

She didn't like heat. She didn't like the cold either, but the thing about the cold was that you could put on more layers. After a certain point, there wasn't anything left for you to take off if heat was your problem. You couldn't just shed layers of skin or fat or flesh til you cooled down some. What you could do was stay inside your air conditioned room.

Okay, maybe that had contributed to her not coming out of hiding for so long.

[crow]

It hadn't been anything like a primary reason, but it had been one of the factors that helped. Every time she holed up in her room, she forgot what a sweltering bastion of discomfort it was outside right now. Every time she walked out into it, to go to work or for groceries, she was forced to remember it again. She was being forced to remember it now.

"Come on, it's just a little walk," said Maple, without the least bit of sympathy.

[crow]

This was maybe a little uncharitable of her, since what constituted a 'little walk' to Maple wasn't nearly so mundane to most of the others in their little group. Not everyone did four miles every morning for fun as a nice little pre-breakfast exercise.

As it was, the walk down to Jack's shop was eight blocks, which was an inconvenient and rather sweaty distance in this weather. By the time they got there--- heck, by the halfway point--- Lacuna regretted having acquiesced so easily.

[crow]

She wanted to see Jack too, to catch up with what he'd been up to. Her self-imposed break from her friends hadn't been intentional. It had just been a side effect of her self imposed break from the rest of the world.

But was it worth this? Was it? She pondered the question as she walked past several other perfectly good eating establishments, all of which looked delightfully air conditioned from where she was standing, outside, feeling sweaty and terrible and not at all enthused about anything.

[crow]

Eventually, they reached Jack's shop. Finally. At long last. The only real gratification that Lacuna had was that it looked as though Maplesweet was sweating too. At least she wasn't completely suffering alone. It wasn't the balm that air conditioning would be, but it was something. Misery loved company, and all that.

It was easy to spot Jack's shop, of course. But then, it would be. He ran a toys and pranks and mischief supply store--- that was what he called it, anyway.

[crow]

It was mostly known as a toy store to everyone else, or sometimes a joke shop, depending on what you knew it for. His clientele was almost entirely children, which suited him just fine, since his maturity level had never really graduated past that anyway.

Not that he minded--- that his maturity level was what it was, anyway. It had been manning up as an adult, or running away to stay a kid, as far as his family was concerned. Jack, clearly, had chosen to run away.

[crow]

Moreover, he had chosen to run away to the city, which most of his folks couldn't stand, where they really couldn't bother him about coming back into the fold and stopping with the juvenile stubbornness. And he had gone there to open up a store specifically designed to encourage the same behavior in the kids around him.

His folks weren't on great terms with him, but Jack was happy. And he got enough business that he didn't seem too troubled by his financials either, which was a nice bonus.

[crow]

Plus he liked his work, which was maybe part of why his shop did so well. His clients could sense his enthusiasm--- they could tell that he was genuine, and not trying to sell them a gimmick for a fast buck that wouldn't deliver.

Foals were naive, sure, but sometimes they were even better at reading people than full grown ponies were. That was why it was so tricky to lie to any of them, and why privately Lacuna rather respected the authors of children's books.

[crow]

They had to convey that sense of authenticity, and do it convincingly enough that the kids would buy in. It wasn't an easy job.

Jack looked up from whatever he was doing on the counter when they walked in. "Hey!" he said, grinning at the both of them. "Look who it is! Finally came out of the writing cave, have you, Lacuna?"

That he didn't immediately shove his project behind him where they couldn't see it was... a good sign, she guessed.

[crow]

She hoped that it was, anyway. It meant he wasn't worried about the two of them seeing it, which probably meant that it wasn't for them... right?

She hoped it wasn't for the party. Jack was a good friend, and he only went overboard with his practical jokes about once a year on average, but it wasn't like he gave you a warning about which day that would be. That would ruin the surprise of it, and the surprise was most of the point.

[crow]

He did, at least, generally go easy on Cocoa, because he felt that he and Cocoa were kindred spirits. Never mind that Cocoa hadn't run away from home at all, but had moved here with the blessings of his parents and siblings and numerous members of extended family. It was more that Cocoa was daunted by the city than the other way around.

But Cocoa also wasn't the type to reject anyone's sincerity if they offered it, and Jack had been sincere about identifying with Cocoa.

[crow]

Jack was actually sincere about most things, unless he was lying to you to set you up for a prank. If that was the case, then all bets were off. And, come to that, Cocoa didn't reject a lot of people in general, even when they weren't being sincere at all. Even when he could tell they were lying about something.

It probably wasn't for Cocoa's party. She was just feeling a bit paranoid. She had been in the writing cave too long.

[crow]

She had just admitted it to herself, so she couldn't really rebut his assessment. She might have wished to, to give herself the illusion that she didn't have this particular unfortunate little fallacy of personality, but the evidence was staring them all in the face.

"Nice to see you too," she said. It was a pretty weak comeback, but she wasn't feeling up to anything more exciting or witty. Besides, she was happy to see Jack, even if she didn't maybe look like it right this minute.

[crow]

"So, what brings you here?" said Jack. "I mean, I knew you were coming out tonight because there's a party at Pep and Cocoa's, and you wouldn't miss that for the world, right? Since we're all such good friends and all, and since Pep and Cocoa worked so hard to make it nice."

He was giving her a significant look, more significant a look than Lacuna really thought the occasion deserved. She frowned at him, wondering what exactly it was he was trying to get at.