I don't own the Mighty Ducks. They'd be on real television and there would be a Tanya action figure if I did. Disney owns them. I'm not making any money off this. And I'll sic the Rottweiler in my building on you if you sue me.
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Nosedive was ensconced on the couch, staring at the TV screen, when he saw a blonde projectile approaching like a submarine’s periscope. Before he could say, “Hey, Tanners,” she had already passed him by and called out, “I’m goin’ out again, tell Wildwing not to, y’know, worry or anything, okay?” She waited only long enough for Nosedive to nod agreement before exiting the room and the Pond.
Several minutes later, Wildwing entered the room. “Dive, have you seen Tanya?” he asked.
“Yeah, she said she was goin’ out. She didn’t say when she’d be back. She’s been doing this a lot lately, hasn’t she?”
Wildwing nodded. “I’m getting a little worried. I wonder where she goes, anyway?”
Once out of the Pond and away from prying eyes, Tanya headed out of town, towards the suburbs. The walk was refreshing, and it allowed her to sort out her thoughts. It was times like these when ideas could finally connect to each other, the missing links becoming obvious. People had gotten used to seeing the stocky blonde duck in various shades of purple; several other walkers waved hello to her. A couple of drivers along the highway looked surprised, but no one was rudely staring. She walked for about a half hour.
It looked no different from any other stretch of the highway, but this was her stop. Carefully she climbed up one of the poles until she was at the top. Then, with delicate balancing, she walked along the power line to the center. There she sat down, feeling the cable bend under her weight. But she knew it wouldn’t break. She wasn’t a dumb blonde; she wouldn’t have chosen this as her hideaway if she would be put in danger. Once she had squirmed very slightly and gotten fully comfortable, she opened her book and thumbed on her MP3 player; she had just exported her new Ella Fitzgerald CD to it, and she was curious to know how it sounded.
Now where was I? Oh, that’s right, Baley was about to make a big mistake and point the finger at the wrong guy. At least I think it’s the wrong guy. Asimov’s had me guessing since the first page. And Glen told me there were two more! Tanya flipped through The Caves of Steel until she found her bookmark. Above the roar of cars and the occasional cursing of a road-enraged driver, she found a sense of peace.
Seventy-five pages or so later, she looked up to see several birds- or other birds, I should say- perched on the power line. She smiled, but only briefly. Sometimes she wished that there was a way for her to communicate with her distant Terran relatives. She would have loved to know if they had opinions about the Mighty Ducks, and if so what they were. She had gotten used to their company, and she was fairly certain that some of them had gotten used to hers. As that thought passed through her mind, one of the birds turned to look at her. She would have sworn that there was recognition in its beady gaze. She tried to meet its stare, but her eyes started to tear up. She turned back to her book, slightly disappointed in herself, and whiled away even more time. Only when she ran out of music did she finally close her book, put it away, and most carefully jump off the cable. She had learned to break her falls with more than pain.
Dusting herself off, she flicked her MP3 player back on and headed back towards the Pond. Let them wonder where she went and what she did and why she did it in the first place. She enjoyed the sense of mystery it gave her. With this little secret, she wasn’t just the stuttering blonde tech with the fear of large reptiles and insurance salesmen. She had something no one else did, and it empowered her.
“Hey, Taunny, where ya been?” Duke asked upon the blonde’s return. Tanya looked at him, a smile playing around the edges of her beak, and shrugged.
“Come on, Tanya, aren’t you ever going to tell us? Have you discovered some mall that you don’t want to tell me about?” Mallory narrowed her eyes suspiciously at her fellow female.
“No, not that…” Tanya grinned. Before anyone else could ask her, she went into her lab; the walk back had spurred her creative juices.