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followed her gaze and agreed that the flat-bottomed projector the man was unfolding onto the AV cart was similar to the digital presenters used in many newer courtrooms. Unlike the older overhead projectors, which required special acetate film, the digital presenter had the capacity to project original documents onto a screen. Claudia sometimes used Elmo projectors when testifying, to demonstrate to a jury the elements of forgery in the case she was presenting.
    “Should we go talk to him now?” Kelly asked.
    “Let’s wait until he finishes setting up. It might bug him if we interrupt while he’s busy.”
    Kelly was about to make a retort when a teenage girl approached them with the TBL greeting, a toothy smile, full of sincerity. “Hi, there, sisters! Welcome to the meeting, I’m so glad you came tonight. How did you happen to hear about the Temple of Brighter Light? Was it from one of our flyers?”
    “Hi, there, cutie,” Kelly said. “What’s your name? Or should I just keep calling you ‘cutie’?”
    The girl pointed to the white plastic badge pinned to the linen jacket she wore over her dress. Her name was engraved in blue lettering. “I’m Magdalena.”
    “Of course you are,” Kelly said.
    “Not Mary Magdalene?” Claudia added.
    Magdalena smiled again, her lively eyes dancing between Kelly and Claudia, probably assessing their reason for attending the rally. She said, “No, it’s just Magdalena, but you can call me Magda for short if you like.”
    Kelly linked arms with the girl. “Okay, Magda. So, tell me, do you live at the Ark?”
    Magda looked startled, making Claudia wonder if they should have taken a less direct approach. “Uh, yes,” the girl said, “I do. How did you—?”
    “I’ve heard it’s quite the place. How do you like it there?”
    “I love it,” she said. Her body language sent a different message.
    “Why do you shake your head ‘no’ when you’re saying you love it?” Claudia asked with a smile. “That’s called cognitive dissonance.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “It’s a fancy expression psychologists use that means you’re trying to believe in two opposite ideas at the same time. You said, I love it , which is a positive statement. If you meant what you were saying, your head would be nodding. But while you were speaking, you shook your head from side to side—negative. So, which is it?”
    “I—well—”
    “It’s okay. I’m teasing,” Claudia said, not wanting the girl to feel she was being judged.
    “Hey, Magda,” Kelly said. “See that man over there, the one who’s hooking up the projector . . . ?”
    Magda swung around in the direction of Kelly’s pointing finger. “Brother Miller? What about him?”
    “I was thinking he’s kinda cute in an older-guy sort of way—you know, like our age, not yours.”
    Magdalena glanced back at James Miller, and made a face that said she seriously doubted Kelly’s taste in men. She gave a little shrug. “If you say so. He’s not married or anything, but you’d have to be TBL if you wanted him to ask you out.”
    “What if I asked him out?”
    That drew a scandalized look. “That’s not the way it works. He’s a man, and that means he would have to ask you out if he was interested. Anyway, I don’t think he cares about anything but his computers. He’s always working on them.”
    “Doesn’t he have any friends?”
    “Of course. We’re all friends at the Ark.”
    “But what about someone special?”
    Another shrug. “I wouldn’t know about that.”
    “Maybe you could introduce us to him.”
    “I don’t know . . .” Magdalena suddenly seemed to remember that she was at the rally for a purpose, and that the purpose was not to hook up other TBL members with visitors. “Maybe afterward,” she said, moving them back on track in a manner so practiced for one so young that she must have been trained to handle all sorts of situations.
    “Have you ever heard Brother Stedman lecture?” she