Page 49 of As They Are (Strawberry Springs #2)

As I walked, I hoped no one noticed them. It had been very tempting to take them out and never use them again when Mom had asked what they were. It was always tempting to hide what I struggled with, even when it was to my own detriment. Having Wren there made it easier to explain.

Thankfully, she had taken what Wren had said easily. Maybe she didn’t understand it, but she didn’t argue. I wasn’t sure if my neighbors would have the same reaction.

Maybe I wasn’t giving them enough credit. Or I could be exactly right. It was hard to tell how people would act when they heard about a disability.

Food ‘n’ Things wasn’t busy, and I was able to grab what I needed for chicken alfredo. When I turned the corner, I ran into Henrietta and Marjorie, who were talking by the freezers, ice cream in hand.

“I swear, every time you get ice cream, you regret it!” Henrietta’s voice was tight. “Why do you insist on making yourself suffer?”

“It’s ice cream ,” Marjorie said. “What else am I supposed to do?”

“Not eat it?”

“That’s miserable!” Marjorie’s eyes cut to me. “Henry, tell her that life without ice cream isn’t worth it!”

“Everything is good in moderation, but if it makes you sick, then even less of it is probably best.”

Marjorie sighed. “What a doctor answer.”

“He has sense,” Henrietta said. “So get the sorbetto.”

“That’s boring,” she complained as I walked around her. I thought I was free to check out with Dale, but she grabbed my arm. “Hey, what do you have in your ears?”

My shoulders slumped. I was caught. “Earplugs. It’s a little loud today.”

“You’re telling me,” Marjorie said. “I don’t care, but Hen here can’t deal with it. I keep telling her she’ll adjust once we get back to work, but she’s been in a bad mood all day.”

“I’m fine!” she insisted. “I just hate loud noises, especially when they’re repeated like that. Couple that with the stress of having to socialize, and I’m ready to crawl out of my skin and into a quiet cave and stay there.”

“That sounds similar to what one of my autistic students experiences,” someone else added.

We all turned to see that Nicole, the local teacher, had joined us.

I rarely spoke with her, though I knew she and Cain had had problems in the past. “The girl I’m talking about is autistic, though.

It often goes undiagnosed in women, and our understanding of it is more recent, so plenty of older adults were never evaluated.

Might be something worth talking to Henry about. ”

My shoulders grew tight as I watched the two older women carefully.

“We don’t need to get her evaluated. Have you seen this woman’s doll collection? I know she has autism. Knew it the second they had a word for it!”

“Marj!” Henrietta hissed, her face darkening. “Don’t mention the dolls.”

“At least you know,” Nicole said. “Where did you get those earplugs, Henry? I wanted to gift some to the girl in my class, but haven’t been able to find a set yet.”

“Wren got them for me, so you’d have to ask her. I think the brand is on the case, though.”

“Give them to me too,” Marjorie said. “I’m staging an intervention.”

“I’m—” Henrietta began.

“No, you’re not fine. Usually, I annoy you, but this time I think you’re close to divorcing me. If we’re getting back to running a library, you’ll need something to make sure you don’t lose your mind.”

“Do they get rid of humming?” Dale called. “One of the freezers is broken and I can’t take it anymore.”

I looked in between all of them. Even though I hadn’t admitted anything about myself, I felt welcomed.

As if being different didn’t make me worse off.

I should have seen it coming. Strawberry Springs was a family, even when we made each other mad.

There was a reason I chose to settle down here and not in a city.

“So, do you have an obsession?” Marjorie asked.

“Me? Why?”

“Henrietta has her dolls, and while you were zoned out, Nicole was telling me the little girl in her class loves Barbies. Do you have one?”

“H-how did you know?—”

“I’m not dumb. Or maybe I am, in which case, feel free to tell me I’m wrong.”

“You’re not,” I said. “It’s just hard to admit it. Where I came from ... it wasn’t understood. Or accepted.”

“It still isn’t in some areas,” Nicole said, hand on her hip. “A lot of people think it’s a disease or something to be cured. Really, it’s just a different way of experiencing the world, one that’s on a spectrum.”

“Exactly,” I said.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re all being sweet,” Marjorie said, waving her hand. “I wanna hear about Henry’s thing.”

“My special interest is growing flowers.”

“Oh,” Henrietta said. “That’s a good one.”

“Is that why your garden is so massive?” Nicole asked.

“Pretty much.”

She hummed. “Nice.”

“Can I steal some?”

“Marjorie!” Henrietta chastised.

“I’ll let you have some,” I replied. “As long as you don’t cheer on Jackie’s raccoon thing.”

“You drive a hard bargain. The truth is, it won’t go on forever. They’ll turn feral when they slow down in the winter.”

“And how do you know that?”

She shrugged. “I’ve trained a bunch of them.”

I raised an eyebrow and turned to Henrietta. “You let her do this?”

“Do you think I could stop her?”

“God forbid a woman has a hobby.” She threw her hands up and grabbed at her ice cream. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m getting this and will be having a date with my toilet later.”

“Oh my God ,” Henrietta groaned. “I faced homophobia for this.”

“You love me, baby. You know you laugh when no one’s looking!”