By N. E. Shaw
"Rocky, maybe if you put down the chocolate bar, you could use both hands!"
The impatience in Tanya Sloan's voice was lost on her friend. Rocky simply smirked at her and held his snack between his teeth as they worked. The two of them were perched precariously on ladders, hanging a large plastic "It's a Rockin' Fourth" banner on the Youth Center wall. Unfortunately, they couldn't agree on what the word "level" meant, and so neither would let the other put his or her thumbtack in.
"I'm telling you, your side is too low!" Tanya cried.
"Well your thide ith too high!" Rocky shot back through the candy bar in his teeth.
"You're unbelievable." the Yellow Ranger jammed her free hand into her hip. "There is a stripe right here on the wall. Why can't we get one rectangular piece of plastic to match up with it."
Rocky just shrugged. "Maybe 'cauthe your thide ith too high?"
"How would you like to eat those things through a tube for a month?"
Overhearing the threat, Adam left his sweeping to try and break up the quarrel.
"Guys, guys, guys!" he cried. "Violence is not the answer! Make love, not war. That's a figure of speech, Rocky."
Brightening with an idea, Tanya turned to the diplomat with the broom and suggested, "You have a fresh perspective. Why don't you tell us what we're doing wrong?"
So with an artists' scrutiny, Adam began to direct them in finishing their task.
"Ok, Rocky go up a little. A little more. Ok, hold it-- no that's too far, come back. Tanya, drop your end down to match his. Keep going. Wait, go back a bit...that's right. How about a little to the left, both of you....No, Rocky, the other left..."
Finally, the two ladder-bound Rangers cried "WILL YOU GO BACK AND SWEEP, PLEASE!!"
Adam feigned wounding. "Well if that's the thanks I get..."
"Hey guys! Where is everybody?" said Tommy, coming through the door with a grocery bag in hand. As Rocky and Tanya grouchily finished hanging the banner, Adam replied "We're the only ones who showed. Lt. Stone's out getting the smoke machine and the DJ is going to be here any minute to start setting up."
"Where's Kat?" Tommy asked. "Did she go to help Lt. Stone?"
Adam tapped his forehead, making a comment about Tommy's memory. "I told you, we're the only ones who showed."
Tanya and Rocky came down at that moment while Adam went back to his sweeping.
"So, how much were they?" Tanya asked, removing two bottles of Jolt from Tommy's bag.
"Uh, a buck each....you mean Kat didn't show up at all?" He followed Adam to the bar where the sweeping was in progress. Tossed one of the Jolts to Rocky, Tanya cracked the other open for herself and started unwrapping streamers.
"She didn't even call?" Tommy marveled.
"Not since we've been here. I thought she'd have told you if she wasn't going to come, but I haven't talked to her since yesterday."
Yesterday. The field trip to the Science Center.
Adam stopped to look quizzically at him. "You guys aren't fighting or anything are you?"
The day of the field trip had started out fairly normally; all of them meeting in the foyer to wait for the buses to arrive. The only thing odd about the scene had been Kat's uncharacteristic quietness and refusal to go on the first bus with the others. She hadn't been rude or spiteful, she had simply declined to join them when the bus pulled up. They all just assumed she was going to ride with another friend, so they boarded the bus that Tommy's mother happened to be chaperoning, and started their day.
No one had seen Kat after the field trip was over, but she always had her own classes during the afternoon anyway. Only Tommy noticed she wasn't at the Youth Center where she usually spent her off-hours. It was strange for her to change routines so suddenly.
"Fighting?" Tommy repeated, back in the present. "No, not us. I don't think she's mad at me, anyway. If she is, I don't know what I did to tick her off."
Adam shrugged. "Well you better talk to her tonight at the Bash. If I were you, I'd make sure I wasn't in some kind of hot water."
"Hey guys!" Rocky called from the floor. "Check this out!"
They both turned to see the Blue Ranger holding a pair of balloon-art nunchucks he had just made, with a length of red streamer tied around his head like a headband. Howling cartoonishly, he began to attack Tanya with the "nunchucks" just as she was starting to hang the streamers around the doorway.
"Hey!" she protested. "Get away from me, you dollar-store Ninja!"
Turning back to Adam, Tommy sighed. "Good luck getting this place ready on time." Then he turned and headed for the other door.
"Hey, where are you going?"
"To find Kat. I'm not waiting 'till tonight to find out what evil I've done this time."
And then he was gone. Adam sighed in defeat, looking around him at the myriad of unfinished tasks to be done. How was he supposed to get the entire place ready for the Fourth of July Bash on his own?
Catching sight of his two remaining companions, he stopped to watch them pelting each other with party-favor weaponry. Tanya had fashioned herself a shield from the lid of the plastic garbage can, and was beating Rocky with a paper-towel tube.
Well, if you can't lick 'em... said a voice in Adam's head. Join 'em!
Spinning the broom handle in his hand, the Green Ranger shouted a battle cry and leapt into the good-natured fray.
In his little black '88 Ford Ranger, Tommy drove to all of their favorite hangouts one by one, stopping to search for Katherine at each of them. He looked for her at the school, the lake, the plaza where the pizza place was, the swimming pool, Ernie's Harborfront Restaurant, and the little ballet academy where she taught sometimes. She was nowhere to be found. No one had seen her since the previous day.
Finally, his concern mounting, Tommy went to her home to see if she was there. Normally her Saturday mornings were spent away from home, but perhaps she was sick, and her father had insisted she stay in. Parking on the street, Tommy headed up the little concrete path to the front porch, and knocked on the Hilliard's door.
He waited for a half a minute, but there was no answer from the other side. He knocked again, and peered in the window before he gave up. There was no one at home-- not even Kat's father.
Of course... Tommy smacked himself in the forehead. Kat's father was away this week. He had been invited to visit an old work buddy over the holiday, and had flown out of Los Angeles International Airport that morning bound for Australia. Tanya had asked Kat if she wanted to come stay at the Sloans while Mr. Hilliard was gone, but the Pink Ranger had declined. She had told them she would be just fine on her own for a few days.
With no new ideas as to where else Kat could be, Tommy walked back to the truck and sat there for a minute, thinking. Then, silently justifying the cause, he lifted his communicator and spoke into it, "Kat, come in. Are you there?"
After a bit of a pause, he was relieved to hear a familiar accented voice come over the channel.
"This is Kat, go ahead."
"Kat, where are you?" he began, noticing her sober tone. "We missed you at the Youth Center today, the others are there decorating like Ernie asked."
She was unenthusiastic with her apology. "I must have forgotten. I can't make it after all, can you give them a hand instead?"
"Yeah, I planned to, but where have you been since yesterday. No one's seen you. Is everything ok?"
Once again, she was not eager to supply answers. "I've been around. Don't worry, I'm alright. Tell the others I'm sorry I couldn't be there to help."
"Kat, tell me where you are." Tommy insisted. "I've got the truck, I'll head over and we can go someplace."
"I don't feel like going anywhere today, Tommy."
"Then we'll just hang out. You're sure there's nothing you want to talk about?"
"Tommy, I'm fine!" she snapped impatiently. Tommy blinked. It wasn't every day Katherine Hilliard yelled at people.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I'm just a little tired, that's all."
But Tommy's concern was peaked. Something was troubling her and she was refusing to let on what it was. When it came to not revealing problems to friends, Kat and Tommy were actually quite alike.
"Will you just tell me where you are?" Tommy asked gently, trying to sound casual and nonthreatening.
After a moment, she replied. "The gazebo. I've been doing homework out here, but I'm leaving soon."
Tommy thought of the place she spoke of-- the pristine little gazebo perched on the cliffs at the beach.
"I just wanted to know you were alright." he explained.
"Yeah, fine." she said flatly. "Don't worry about me."
Before she closed the channel, Tommy insisted that she call him later on and she gave a noncommittal OK. Then he sat alone for a while, replaying the conversation in his mind. There was no doubt that she was depressed, Tommy knew the attitude all too well; but she hadn't seemed angry at him personally. That was one question answered. The next question was what could possibly put bright, optimistic, smiling Katherine into such a melancholy state. He felt the need to find out before the evening, since she had been looking forward to the Independence Day bash for a month now. He wanted her to feel better, and to have a good time.
Unfortunately, he had made the unspoken agreement not to bother her, and it would do him no good to break that contract. He would have to wait for her to keep her part of the bargain by picking up the phone sometime that day.
Knowing Adam would get his team under control in time to get the Youth Center done, Tommy decided to go home and hope Kat would have the strength to reach out to him in her time of crisis.