CHAPTER 6
Lynda called Jade’s mom and got a ride to pick up Cheri at the movies. She left a note for Mother telling her where they would be, but skipped over what they were doing there. Lynda gathered up the money left on the kitchen counter by Mother for their weekly allowances. Then she called Sinda in to get her ready to go before Jade’s mom arrived. Lynda didn't really want to take her youngest sister, but without Mother home and the time getting so late, it was her only choice. Occasionally, Monique and Paul, their retired neighbors next door babysat Sinda, but their cute Volvo car was not in the driveway. That usually meant that they were playing bridge with some of their friends.
After picking up Cheri and Jade at the theater, Jade’s mom had a car full of giggling girls. Mrs. Ali sold insurance and she must have been good at it since she drove a fancy new BMW. Cheri, Sinda, and Jade were in the back seat sniffing the new leather interior. Lynda was in the front seat trying to explain the situation to Jade's mother.
"Well, Mrs. Ali, Fair Park has many neat exhibits going on right now and I thought Sinda and Cheri might like to see the doll show. Mother said it was all right and she would meet us there." Lynda was lying—but it was for a good cause. Dad didn’t approve of lying. But Lynda was desperate. Mom would understand, she thought.
Cheri started to protest that she didn’t want to go to any crummy doll show, but Lynda shushed her. Jade giggled. Again, Cheri started to protest but then she spotted a new gadget in the car. Was that a cellular phone or an ashtray?
When they arrived at the Fair Park gate and the girls waved good-bye to Jade and her mom, Cheri began a barrage of questions.
"Ok. So why are you dragging me to a crummy doll show? I wanted to go to Jade’s dance lesson. Did you see if there is a computer show instead? I bet Mother doesn’t know we’re gone. You were lying, Lynda. Dad and Mother don’t like us to lie. She’d never let us go by ourselves. Mother would never let us take Sinda. We're going to get into deep trouble if you didn't get permission to drag the baby," Cheri said sarcastically.
"I'm not a baby!" Sinda replied while taking a swing at her sister. “You take that back.” Lynda grabbed Sinda by her tee-shirt.
Lynda interjected, “Put a lid on it, you two. People are beginning to look at us. Let’s move away from the gate and we’ll talk.” The Floyd sisters walked inside the gate and to a bench on a grassy hill. They bunched together so that no one could hear their conversation.
“Okay, girls here's what is going on. Sinda overheard a man and a woman talking last night in the copy room when she was off exploring. They may have been talking about the missing VR equipment. I know I didn't tell the truth to Mrs. Ali but this is an emergency!"
"Sinda, do you remember anything more about the people you heard?"
"Well, he had a funny accent and she smelled good."
Cheri made a disgusted face. "Oh great! That's no help. What are we supposed to do? Smell every woman we see and listen for accents? There must be a thousand people here today."
"Look, arguing with Sinda is going to get us nowhere. We need to think of what to do now. We need some kind of plan," said Lynda.
The girls looked around. Fair Park was a huge place with many different buildings and exhibits. They couldn't check them all before 1:00.
Cheri tried again. "Sinda, did you hear anything else besides the meeting at Fair Park?"
"I dunno. I have to go to the bathroom."
Cheri, being the sister with the shortest fuse, looked ready to call home and forget the whole thing when Lynda said, "Okay. Let's find a bathroom and a directory of exhibits and start looking."
The girls walked up the steps of the nearest building. Entering the building, Lynda saw a directory and the ladies bathroom.
"Cheri, go look at what exhibits are here and I'll take Sinda to the bathroom over there. We'll be right back."
When Lynda and Sinda returned from the bathroom, Cheri was reading aloud the exhibits.
"Dinosaurs, science building. Wow! There's a computer show in the main building! There's also an antique car show right down the hall and..."
Sinda interrupted, "That's a word the lady used last night."
"What word?" Lynda asked.
"Antique. I guess I forgot that part."
"Geez, how could you forget a word like that? I remember that word being in your spelling list last week," Cheri said.
"Well, it was pretty scary last night and I thought they might find me and Mother would be mad if I was in the dark part of the building and Lynda......"
"Okay, okay, so let's give the antique car show a try," Lynda said.
The girls headed down the hall to the antique car show. Cheri was upset they weren't going to the computer show and Sinda was pouting from her last argument with Cheri. Lynda was really beginning to wonder if all this was worth the effort.
While the girls were standing in the ticket line for the antique car show, Sinda nudged Lynda and pointed to a woman in the line in front of them.
"That's the kind of accent I heard last night."
"You heard a woman with that accent?" Cheri asked.
"No, I already told you it was a man. You aren't listening to me. Remember Dad said we were supposed to listen to one another?"
"If you had anything to say that was worth remembering, maybe I would listen!"
Lynda, always the peacemaker, interrupted, "We really don't have time for you two to start fighting again. How come you guys can never get along? Never mind. Don't tell me; I don't have enough time now to listen to the excuses."
"Anyway, that person Sinda pointed out looks Hispanic. So we are looking for a man with a Spanish accent."
Cheri groaned again, "This is hopeless! Look at all the Spanish people here. Besides, he could be Mexican, South American, El Salvadorian or from Spain. Need I go on?"
Lynda tried to reason with her. "We have to try to help Mother or else she'll be working nights to redevelop that CD disk and maybe lose her job. She was gone too many nights these past months as it was."
Cheri seemed temporarily pacified with Lynda's logic while Sinda started to whine about standing in line for too long.
They bought their tickets into the antique car show and began to look around. The hall had a ceiling that must have been fifty feet high. Everywhere the girls looked, they saw cars of every make and color.
Cheri saw a long, black Phaeton that had belonged to Constance Bennett in 1925. A picture on the sign showed Constance Bennett to be a glamorous woman in a shiny gold dress and smoking a cigarette in a long cigarette holder. But just who was Constance Bennett and didn’t she know that smoking cigarettes can kill you? Lynda nudged her.
"Look for a Hispanic man talking to a woman," Lynda suggested.
"I'm hungry," said Sinda, "Can't we get something to eat, Lynda?"
"Look, Lynda," Cheri remarked, "Couldn't you have left her at home? We can do this a lot faster without her."
"In case you've forgotten, Sinda is the one who can identify those people. So, no, I couldn't have left her at home. Besides, she's helpful in her own way, aren't you, Sinda?"
"Yes! I'm glad one of the Floyd sisters appreciates me!"