Page 44 of Instant Karma

“So, what? You came here to critique my spelling?”

“That wouldn’t be my first comment, but since you’re bringing it up… you do know thatFortunais spelled with ana,not ane,right?”

His jaw tightens. “Autocorrect,” he deadpans.

“Proofreading,” I counter.

“Okay!” he practically shouts. “This was a fun encounter. Thanks for stopping by.”

His mom clears her throat, drawing both of our gazes toward her. She looks expectantly at Quint.

His shoulders shrink into something almost like a pout, and he lazily gestures from me to his mom and back. “Mom, this is Prudence. Prudence, my mom. I think I’ve maybe mentioned her… a time. Or two.”

“Yes, we actually met a few minutes ago,” says Rosa. She smiles at me. “Quint has told me that you’re exceptionally dedicated to your schoolwork.”

Quint looks almost uncomfortable at this statement. We both knowdedicatedis not the word he used to describe me. Bossy, maybe. Or controlling. Orimpossible to please.If he’s comfortable cursing around his mom, he might even have said worse.

I’m sure that whatever he’s told her, it definitely wasn’t something as generous asdedicated.

“Oh!” says Rosa, her eyes suddenly brightening. “That’s it! You can train her!”

My focus snaps back to her. “What now?”

“It’s perfect. You already know each other, you’ve worked together… I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me before.” She sighs and tucks a loose strand from her braid behind her ear. “My brain is so scattered these days.”

“Whoa, whoa,” says Quint, looking from her to me and back. “What are you talking about?”

“Prudence,” she says, gesturing at me, “came by today because she’s doing some extra-credit work for your science class, and she wanted to get some hands-on information, maybe even spend some time doing volunteer work for us.”

Quint shoots me a look. I smile sheepishly back.

“And I don’t have time to train anyone new, but itwouldbe nice to have an extra hand over the summer. And then you show up and… I don’t know. It seems a little serendipitous.”

Quint raises an eyebrow. “Extra credit, huh?”

I shrug. “I need to bring up that grade somehow.”

“Oh, and Quint…” Rosa sets a hand on his shoulder and her expression is suddenly disheartened. “I was going to send you a text when I got a second, but… well, Luna was brought back today. She was found up at Devon’s Beach, horribly dehydrated.”

It’s clear this news is upsetting to Quint. I suspect Luna is the sea lion she mentioned earlier, but I’m surprised at Quint’s reaction. He doesn’t even try to disguise his horror.

“Is she…?”

“Opal is with her now. It’s touch and go so far. You know how these first hours are so critical…”

Quint swallows, then nods. “She’ll fight. She did last time.”

Rosa, though, doesn’t look as confident. “It seems like she’s still having problems feeding herself. I’m worried…” She makes a sound in her throat, hopeless and distraught. “It’s possible we may not be able to rehabilitate her. If she pulls through this, we might need to consider other options. I don’t know. Let’s wait and see what Opal finds out.”

Quint drags a hand through his hair, making the front stick up oddly above his brow.

A sorrowful silence falls between them.

I inch forward. “Um. Who’s Luna?”

Quint shuts his eyes, like he forgot that I was there, or maybe he was just hoping that I’d magically vanished. “No one.”

But Rosa answers, “She’s a sea lion that was found washed up on the beach last year. We had her for five months and thought she was ready to go back, so we released her a few weeks ago. But…” She shakes her head. “She was brought in again this morning.”

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