Chapter 67: Shuttle

Seto sent Joan to Pennsylvania on his private jet. He insisted despite Joan's protests. It stopped at SFO to refuel and pick up Michael. On the plane, she and Michael changed into their official California Imagination of the Mind T-shirts, and Joan gave Tamara an official Sacramento Valley Imagination of the Mind T-shirt so she wouldn't stand out. Joan strapped a KC belt around her hips but left her T-shirt untucked to avoid attracting attention. By the time Joan got off the jet, she desperately wanted a walk and paced the sidewalk with Tamara while they waited for the Imagination of the Mind shuttle to arrive.

Michael sat on a bench poking at his phone until a gray-haired fellow in a Texas Imagination of the Mind T-shirt sat down next to him and started chatting. "Howdy! Which performance are you judging?"

"Timeless Treasures, but I'm just entering the scores," Michael replied. "How about you?"

"Whimsical Wonders. I'm judging aesthetics. They have some really fun requirements this year. They're making up a unique mythical creature, and they've got to use dental floss in one of their props."

"That's cool. I'd probably use it as a bowstring."

"Yeah, we've seen a lot of that, but this one team made a shag carpet out of the stuff, and then their creature hid under the carpet, and I can't even remember it all, but they were so funny."

"Nice! For Timeless Treasures this year, they have to pick a piece of music in the public domain and make up a story about how the musician was inspired to write it."

The man nodded vigorously. "Yeah, I heard about that one. I wish I was judging yours this year."

"Well, a lot of teams did 'Greensleeves,' but this one team did 'Ye Banks and Braes,' and afterwards my wife decided to learn the whole thing and wouldn't stop singing it for a week straight."

The man chuckled. "Maybe it's better I didn't do that one this year. I get songs stuck in my head way too easily. Say, want to trade pins?"

"Sorry, we missed the deadline to order them this year." Michael decided not to add that, before Joan had secured her wealthy clients, pins simply weren't in their budget. In fact, if Imagination of the Mind wasn't providing their lodging and meals, the trip would have been out of the question.

"That's OK. I have a bunch of extras. I'll just give you one." The man dug in his luggage and pulled out a sparkly enamel pin with "Imagination of the Mind" on a Texas flag.

Michael took the pin. "Cool. Thanks!"

"Don't mention it. Say, are you here with anyone else?"

"My wife and her friend. They're stretching their legs over there." Michael nodded in the direction of Tamara and Joan. "How about you?"

"My niece is competing in the Durable Designs performance. She's back there with her team." The man turned around and nodded at a group of six kids sitting in a circle on their suitcases.

Michael turned around too and noticed that the kids were playing with Duel Monsters cards. One of the kids caught sight of him and started giggling. Michael quickly turned back, wondering why Joan thought this would be a good idea.

Michael's conversation partner obliviously went on talking as the bus pulled up. "Their design held seven hundred thirty-five pounds at the state tournament. Can you believe it? Every year, they just get better and better."

They stood and got in line for the bus. Joan sidled up to Michael and hugged him while the man kept chatting about his niece's team. They heard giggling behind them but ignored it.

Once on the bus, Joan and Tamara sat together so Tamara wouldn't have to answer difficult questions about Imagination of the Mind, at least not right away. Even though Tamara planned to watch and not judge, Joan gave Tamara a crash course on the various judging positions, the performances that the teams spent months working on, and the impromptu competition that factored into their score but was only witnessed by a handful of judges. The parameters of the impromptu competition were always kept secret until the entire tournament was over so no team would have an unfair advantage.

Shortly after the bus unloaded, Joan heard, "Hey Whore!" and turned to see a group of six kids holding out notebooks. "Can we have your autograph?"

Tamara eyed the kids like a hawk, ready to strike at the first hint of threat, but their sincere expressions put her at ease. Michael gave the Texan he'd been conversing with a sheepish grin.

The kids' parents gaped in horror until one stepped forward. "I'm sorry. I don't know where they learned that word. They don't know what it means."

Joan smiled. "No worries. I'm sure they learned it on TV or maybe Youtube. It means companion, after all. And sure, I'll sign some autographs." She got down on one knee and scrawled her name in one notebook after another.

"What kind of deck do you have?" one kid asked.

"Seto and I are still working on it. He says he wants my deck to be just as unstoppable as his."

"Is he giving you a Blue-Eyes White Dragon?"

"No, but I got to hold all three of them."

"No way! What were they like?"

Joan recalled the visions Seto had shared with her. "Absolutely beautiful in every way."

The kids wanted to stay and chat more, but their parents herded them towards the student dorms for competitors' check-in.