"Hey! You over there. Young lady. Did you pay for that record?"

The saleswoman's voice carried. People in the music store turned their heads to look at her, wondering if she might be talking to them.

I noticed that Natty did not turn her head to look at her. Instead, she made for the exit, carrying her bag and a single record. The saleswoman was almost running now, clearly trying to intercept her.

I stepped into her path, and she collided with me, both of us toppling to the floor. I landed on top of her.

"Uh, I am sorry," I muttered, taking my time to get up again.

"Get off me," the woman told me, red-faced and out of breath. Her gaze swept the store.

"Where did that girl go?"

"What girl?" I asked innocently.

"The one in a school uniform like yours. I think she was carrying some kind of bag." She shook her head. "Ah well, never mind."

I met Natty and a few other students at the bus stop. I did not talk to Natty about the incident at the shop until we were back at our school.

Only when we were back in our dorm room, I confronted her.

"You stole that record at the Music Store today, didn't you?"

Natty shrugged. "What if I did?"

"Also, that first time I went to Arlesten with you. When we were waiting for the bus, and you ran back, supposedly to buy a record, and it seemed to take you no time at all to return to the bus stop. Because you did not bother to stand in line at the cash register, did you?"

Natty rolled her eyes. "Don't be so dramatic. It is not a  big deal really, or is it?"

"No big deal? How many of your records did you acquire by stealing rather than buying them? Ten percent? Half of them? Or all of them?"

"Well, most of them," she admitted. "But then, what else am I supposed to do? I don't have as much pocket money as you or Nancy or most of our classmates."

"What if you get caught stealing?"

"I won't. I am much too careful to get caught."

"Like today, huh? If I had not distracted that saleslady, you would be talking to the police now."

"Nobody asked you to do anything." She scowled at me. "I had everything under control."

"Yeah, I noticed." I laughed sarcastically.

Natty was starting to get angry at me. "Lay off me, will you? What is it to you, anyway?"

"If you keep this up, sooner or later you will get caught. Likely they will kick you out of this school, or worse. Are you going to ruin your life just because you fancy yourself a teenage master thief? Is that the plan?"

"What I do or don't do with my life is none of your bloody business," Natty snapped.

"Yeah, sure, go ahead and ruin your life, what do I care?" By now I was truly mad. Oddly and unreasonably angry.

"But that's exactly what I am saying. What do you care? This is my life, to do with as I like. So stay the fuck out of it," Natty shouted.

"I will stay out of your stupid life. Don't worry about it. Just leave me the fuck alone, will you?" I was practically yelling now, and close to tears.

"Are you crazy, or something?" Natty yelled back.

"Yeah, that must be it. I am crazy, to care about any of that shit." For some reason I could not comprehend, I was crying. "Just get out of here, leave me alone."

Blindly, I grabbed for something to throw at her. The only thing within reach was one of my shoes. I hurled it in Natty's direction. She ducked, and it hit the door behind her. As I reached for my second shoe, Natty hurriedly left the room.

I threw myself on my bed and lay there crying for a few minutes. I did not understand what was happening to me. As a Temporal Explorer, you needed to keep a strict emotional distance to the people you encountered in the Remote Temporal Period. You simply could not afford to get emotionally entangled like this.

This was so pathetic. I was pathetic. Unfit to be a Temporal Explorer.

Slowly, I managed to calm down. I retrieved the ansible from where I used to hide it underneath my underwear in the closet, and walked outside to sit under a tree and talk to Mira. It took a bit of time to get her on the ansible line, but eventually she answered. 

I tried to explain to her what had happened, which was kind of difficult as I did not quite understand it myself. Mira tried to console me.

"Look, maybe it is supposed to happen like that," she told me. "Maybe the reason that Natty Fogg fades into obscurity after boarding school is that she turns criminal. Maybe she never even finishes school. If so, it is not your task to try and change that, Cathy. You are just there to observe."

I knew what she was trying to do. She was being a friend. But what she had said was not the whole truth, and we both knew that.

"I appreciate what you are attempting to do, Mira. But we both know that it does not work like that. I am part of the unique consistent history of Natty Fogg's stay at St. Albert's, and whatever I do or fail to do will have an influence, for better or for worse. So do not tell me that I am only here to observe."

"I know." Mira sighed. "Just try and take things easy, Cathy. It's no good worrying about things you can't change."

"I will try and keep that in mind," I promised.

Back in our room, I found Natty lying on her bed, reading a book. I lay down on my bed. Natty gave me a brief glance, perhaps trying to estimate if I was likely to throw more stuff at her. Other than that, she ignored me, and I ignored her.

A bit later, Nancy came to visit us. She took one look at us and asked:"What happened? Did you guys fight?"

"No, we didn't," I said.

"Yes, we did," Natty said.

Nancy rolled her eyes. "What did you fight about?"

I did not reply. Neither did Natty.

"Well?" Nancy prodded.

Natty shrugged. "Cathy got all upset just because I nicked a record at the music store."

"I am not upset," I corrected her.

Nancy ignored me. Instead, she turned on Natty.

"You did what?" she asked, sounding incredulous.

Natty rolled her eyes, but Nancy was just starting.

"We talked about that, didn't we? At length. Didn't we, Nat?"

"Look, this is none of my business. I am out of here."

I got up from my bed and left the room. As I closed the door behind me, I could hear Natty and Nancy talk to each other in raised voices.

When I returned half an hour later, Nancy had left. Natty was stretched out on her bed, looking glum.

I stretched out on my own bed again. For a few minutes or so, we kept an uneasy silence.

It was Natty who broke the silence. "I don't understand," she said.

"It doesn't matter," I replied.

"But maybe it does," she insisted. "I don't know."

"Look, I totally agree that I acted crazy," I told her. "And I promise that I won't be like that again. I will stay out of your life, so everything should be fine."

There was a brief pause after that.

"Why did you cry?" Natty asked.

I froze. It took me a moment to unfreeze. "Because I am, um, emotionally unstable?"

She did not buy that. "Seriously. Did I say anything that hurt you?"

"No, you didn't." I really, really did not want to discuss this. I sighed. "Look, I had sort of assumed that we were friends. Which was sort of stupid since we have known each other only a few weeks."

"Aren't we friends, then?"

"I don't know."

"Let's say that we are." Natty could be awfully persistent. "So, why did you cry?"

She could be terribly dense, too.

"Look, how would you feel if your friend was doing stuff that was bound to wreck her life," I blurted out, "and there was nothing, absolutely nothing you could do to help her? Because she would not even let you help? Because she told you to stay the fuck out of her life?"

For once, Natty was rendered speechless. I waited patiently for her reply.

"You don't understand," she said, finally.

"Obviously. So, why don't you explain?"

She took a deep breath. "You can't understand what it is like to live on the streets, as a kid. And it was not that much different for me before, at the orphanage. The thing is, you learn to rely on yourself alone, never on anybody else. Relying on another person invariably turns out to be a mistake. A bad one."

I nodded. "It's okay," I told her. "I will keep that in mind, from now on. I will stay out of your life."

There was another brief pause.

"Don't," she said.

"Don't what?"

"Don't stay out of my life. I don't want you to stay out of my life," Natty said.

"Are you sure?"

"I think so. Yes, I am sure."

"In that case, I won't."

"Good." Natty grinned. "Though I am pretty sure that I am going to regret that."

I shrugged. "You can always change your mind."

"I know I could. But I won't."

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A / N : Thank you for reading this, and please don't hesitate to add your comments, ideas, suggestions or whatever below. I am always happy to get your feedback.