Page 21 of Keeping Penny

Pyro wanted to add his reassurances along with his friends, but he found that he’d been holding his breath instead, hoping against hope that she’d say yes. Why it was so important to him that both Penny and Bowie be in their bunk room, safe, he couldn’t say. And now that she’d tentatively agreed, he felt his breath whooshing out in an audible exhale.

“You said…you said we were headed to Norfolk? And we should get there in a week or so?” Penny asked.

Casper frowned. “Yeah. Weren’t you told?”

Penny shrugged. “There was a meeting, but I couldn’t hear what was being said very well because we were late and I was in the back. The hangar isn’t great on acoustics, and a lot of people were mumbling and talking and complaining.”

“What’s acoustics?” Bowie asked.

“Don’t interrupt, baby. We’ll talk about it later, okay?”

“Sorry. Okay.”

Penny ran her hand over Bowie’s tangled dark hair and turned back to Casper. “I heard from others that we might be headed to the States, but I wasn’t sure how long it would take to get there.”

“Yeah, this ship’s been at sea for over six months, and they paused to let us fulfill our mission of the evacuations. Now it’s headed home to Norfolk.”

“I’m sure everyone onboard is excited to be going home after so long at sea,” Penny said.

“Mommy, Casper keeps saying a bad word,” Bowie whispered in a not-very-low tone. “Why is he allowed to say it but I can’t?”

Pyro did his best to hide his grin with his hand, but Penny saw it and rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Norfolk is the name of a city, honey. It’s spelled N-o-r-f-o-l-k. He isn’t saying that bad word.”

“But he is,” Bowie insisted. “And you said it too.”

Penny closed her eyes and sighed.

“Can I say it too then? Norfolk, Norfolk, Norfolk.”

“That’s enough, Bowie,” she said sternly.

“I’ve always said it like this, Nor-fick,” Pyro told the little girl.

“Nor-fick. I like that,” she declared. “We should all say it that way and not the naughty way.”

The little girl sounded so adamant that everyone around the table couldn’t help but grin.

“Nor-fick it is,” Casper said.

“Mommy, will I be able to go to school when we get to Nor-fick? Or will they not want me there because I’m too hard to teach?”

“What the hell?” Buck muttered.

Of course, Bowie heard him. “That’s a bad word too. You shouldn’t say it,” she informed him.

Penny opened her mouth to respond to her daughter, but Pyro beat her to it. He couldn’t stand the thought of Bowie thinking she wasn’t good enough to be in school. “You’re not hard to teach. You’re the smartest little girl I know.” He wasn’t going to tell her that she was the only little girl he knew. “How many other people do you know who could navigate this ship without being able to see? Not me.”

“Me either,” Obi-Wan chimed in. The others all added their agreements.

“Why would you think people wouldn’t want you in school?” he couldn’t help but ask.

Oddly, instead of being candid, as she’d been around him so far, Bowie looked toward her mom.

Penny sighed. “The people in the village we lived in were uncomfortable around her because she can’t see. The teachers all thought it would be too hard to teach her. That it would take too much time away from the other kids.”

“Put your hands over your ears, Bowie. Right now, please,” Pyro ordered.

To his surprise, the little girl immediately complied.