Blaise tried to hide from both Madame Delfault and the chief of Grantville's fire department.

A sudden thought made Julie ask, "Did you see a little girl around here?"

"Mary's in the church. She's looking at the stained glass windows. She likes windows. That she does. She paints pretty pictures on glass. I hope she learned her lesson about glass and how sharp it is when it breaks." Chief Matheny shook his head. "Regular 'Our Gang' you got going, Julie. Try to keep 'em alive, would you?"

"That's my job, Chief," Julie could smile too.

Allan Sebastian hated education.

Teaching would have been his dream job if it wasn't for all this 'education' stuff.

He remembered his first classroom, the smell of it and how it felt to write his name on the chalkboard. He remembered his first stack of papers to be graded and the first report cards he had signed.

He had assumed after the Ring of Fire struck that there would be no place for some middle school math teacher. He had figured that he would have to struggle to remain teaching.

That last part was true. With all the offers and opportunities for someone who knew numbers it was a miracle he hadn't been kidnapped and taken by force to some royal court. Certainly the titles "Royal Accountant" or "Royal Engineer" had a certain ring to them, and he'd already been offered both positions. The loud bevy of relatives who had come through the Ring of Fire with him, including his eldest daughter, reminded him every day of all the opportunities there were available for a man with his experience.

Why couldn't he just be left alone to teach?

Then his youngest daughter had introduced him to Blaise Pascal. That had beenonly a few months ago.

August? It seemed like decades ago.