There was no question which one was Cassandra Hofstadter-Bergdorf. She had Beverly's striking beauty and ice blue eyes and Leonard's unruly curls. She also had the cutest toddler Penny had ever seen in her arms. Although she was alone in her car, Penny "awwwed" aloud. She loved little kids. As long as they were other people's little kids and she had no responsibility for their well-being.
"Hi! You must be Cassandra! I'm Penny, Leonard's friend."
Cassandra offered a friendly smile that did not meet her eyes.
"Of course you are. Have you ever installed a car seat?"
"Um... no."
"Of course you haven't."
Cassandra placed the toddler on the ground, keeping a firm hold on her leash (it was attached to a backpack but it was still a leash) and opened the back door of Penny's car. She looked for a moment like she might vomit but quickly composed herself. Penny had cleaned the car before picking her up and couldn't imagine what was upsetting the woman... Oh, an empty can of diet soda had rolled out from under the seat. Wow.
Cassandra took so long adjusting the car seat that a cop tried to hurry them along.
"OH MY GOD! Write me a ticket! WRITE me a TICKET right now for trying to ascertain the safety of my child by properly installing a car seat. I said WRITE ME A TICKET! I would love to go to court and have you explain why my child's safety is less important than your meaningless traffic ordinance... Is it because we're two women? Does it offend you to see two women with a child? Give me your badge number!"
Cassandra didn't get a ticket but she did get a badge number and quite a few stares. When the cop drove away, she returned to the task at hand as though nothing had happened.
Penny looked at the leashed toddler who seemed to be having an argument with herself. Penny wondered if she was re-enacting the scene between her mother and the police officer. There was something familiar about the way she tossed her mop of curls and she babbled angrily.
"And what's your name?" Penny asked, kneeling down to speak to the child.
"She doesn't yet have the verbal capacity to answer that question for herself but if she did, she would respond 'Lenore'," answered a muffled voice from Penny's back seat.
"Awww, like Leonard?"
"Like the poem by Edgar Allen Poe."
Penny didn't dare ask the name of the poem.
"Poe! Poe! Po-o-o-o-oe!" chimed Lenore.
"Oh, Lenore, you can't even read yet and you already know more about literature than I ever will, dontcha?"
It was cold comfort that Lenore didn't actually know what she was saying when she looked Penny in the eyes and responded, "Yeah."