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stuff.”
    Cindy looked skeptical.
    â€œAnd I’m not good with people,” Mab said, trying to apologize. “It’s not you. I’ve just found in general that it’s better to shut up and work than try to . . . you know.”
    â€œTalk to people?” Cindy said, sounding appalled.
    â€œPeople are—”
Pain
. “—strange,” Mab said. “Work is safe. You know what’s great? I get to start restoring the Fortune-Telling Machine today. I think it’s going to be magnificent.” She forked up more waffle. “My life is great.”
    â€œYour work is great,” Cindy said, her cheeriness dialed down a notch to what might have been exasperation on a lesser woman. “You have no life.”
    â€œHey,” Mab said.
    â€œSorry,” Cindy said. “I should talk. I live for my ice cream.” She chewed her lip for a moment, looking thoughtful. “So what are you going to do about it?”
    â€œAbout what?”
    â€œAbout the
robot clown
,” Cindy said. “You’re part of a new legend.”
    â€œNot if I don’t tell anybody.” Mab stabbed the last piece of waffle. “Glenda seemed like she wanted to keep it quiet.”
    â€œGlenda gets what she wants. I think she can . . .” Cindy stopped, letting her voice taper off.
    â€œWhat?” Mab said.
    â€œNothing,” Cindy said. “You wouldn’t believe me anyway. Look, youhave to open yourself to the possibilities in your life, or you won’t have any.”
    â€œI wouldn’t describe a robot clown I hallucinated as a life possibility.” Mab stopped to think. “I’m not sure what I would describe as a life possibility.”
    Cindy leaned in close and whispered, “There’s one at the end of the counter.”
    Mab turned to look. The guy with the good shoulders looked familiar, but she couldn’t remember him. And she’d have remembered him. Not pretty but . . . Long nose, pointed chin, strong hand reaching for his coffee cup—
    A yellow iron-gloved hand reaching down to her—
    Not that. That was a hallucination.
    This guy was not a hallucination. He looked down the counter and caught her watching him and grinned crookedly, the corners of his eyes crinkling up, and she thought,
Hello
.
    â€œYou okay?” Cindy said, and Mab tore her eyes away.
    â€œYeah. I’m just having a strange twenty-four hours. I’ll be okay when I get back to work.”
    The door opened, and Ashley Willhoite came in, one of the few people Mab could recognize as a regular, mainly because avoiding her was impossible. Pretty, sunny Ashley was sure everybody wanted to talk to her, so she never met a stranger.
    Wonder what that’s like
, Mab thought as Ashley plopped herself down on the next stool.
    Cindy said, “Hi, Ashley! Breakfast?”
    â€œMaple on waffle, please.” Ashley smiled at Mab as Cindy opened the freezer and took out the maple ice cream. “Hi, Mab. Did you hear Ethan Wayne is back in town? I spent a lot of time in high school looking at his picture in the football trophy case. And now he’s here for real.” She beamed at them. “Tonight, I’m going to make my fantasies come true. You know, like Katie Holmes used to fantasize about Tom Cruise and then she married him?”
    Mab looked at Ashley, perplexed at the idea of pursuing a guy she’d only seen in a photograph. What if he turned out to be boring? Or a serialkiller? Or one of those guys who stuck around the next morning when you just wanted to work?
    Ashley caught Mab frowning at her. “You’re not dating him or anything, are you?” Then she took in Mab’s paint-stained canvas coat and her yellow miner’s hat on the counter. “No, you’re not.” She cheered up again. “I can’t wait to meet him.”
    Cindy put Ashley’s breakfast in front of her, and Mab got