“How’d the Steelers do today, Tiko?”
Diego knows that during the flight to Pennsylvania, Sully was holed up with Sepulveda reviewing out of country procedures and other materials related to their trip. He guesses that Sully didn’t get a chance to catch up on that afternoon’s playoff games.
“Shhh, don’t ask too loud, Sully. The Steelers lost earlier, so everyone’s bummed. That may be why this place seems slow, people up the house licking their wounds. Or it could be the weather. How’re the Saints doing?”
“Who Dat! Right now, we’re down, but I hope we rally and win. I guess you can take the Americans out of the US, but you can’t take the football out of us. I’m following the game online now but be prepared to watch it sometime tonight.”
Diego sees Wendy, seated beside her brother, roll her eyes. In the past two weeks of interacting with Wendy in preparation for their excursion, Diego knows she enjoys watching an occasional game with her brother and Tiko, though she doesn’t follow the NFL like they do.
“Okay, Libby, I need a quick translation. What does ‘redd up’ mean?” Wendy asks, seeming to want to steer the talk away from football. Diego takes a quick glance around the table and only Vito appears mildly interested in football talk.
“’Redd up’ means to tidy or clean something up. And before you ask, when Tiko said ‘up the house’ he meant at home.”
“Oh, that, I knew. All of you MacGillivrays have said ‘up the house’ in all the years we’ve known you. Tewow, how was it learning all this new slang once we US Psycepts invaded ABQ?”
The quietest member of the group looks up from making his tea. Sarah had thoughtfully brought two teapots with hot water. Maddie placed her tea bags in the teapot and poured her tea in the mug when it was ready. Tewow added lemon slices to his teapot water and was pouring the hot water over the small tea leaf infuser filled with his personal leaves hooked over his mug when Wendy asked her question.
Tewow replies as his tea is steeping. “It was an interesting time. There was an adjustment period for everyone, and slang was only a part of it. Honestly, speaking English so much took the most adjustment. While English is the legal common language of the GT and we use it in our written communication, in SWACon, we either speak our own tongue or Spanish. There are far more descendants of Spanish and Mexican settlers than white settlers in SWACon.”
Sepulveda nods her head in agreement. “I was young when the first wave of Psycepts arrived in PsyTown, but I remember my dad complaining about having to speak English so much. Like Tewow said, we read English quite well, but we speak Spanish with fellow Albuquerqueans at least. My dad was a police officer assigned to the PsyTown area and was forever frustrated because he mispronounced many English words, only really knowing them from reading. He made sure I took extra English language lessons so I wouldn’t have the same problem if I followed in his footsteps of becoming a police officer. At least for the past dozen years, one requirement for Psycepts being accepted in Albuquerque is to know basic Spanish. Of course, it was too late by then as ABQ had filled up and the residents were being sent to the next conservatorship.”
“I, for one, appreciate that there are so many Spanish speakers. Growing up in Chicago speaking Spanish made me stick out in school as we were a small number. There are many Spanish-speaking pockets throughout Chicago, but it’s a small percentage for such a big city. How does your mother like it, Diego? We’ve only been on the Council a few weeks together, so I don’t know her that well,” Vito asks.
“She’s from the Miami area, so she’s used to everyone in the neighborhood speaking Spanish. I barely remember Miami, I was seven when we left. When we arrived fourteen years ago, she was sad leaving her family behind when she came to SWACon as none of them are Psycepts. But moving to such a large Spanish speaking community lifted her spirits. She likes living in ABQ, though the spices are different. That’s okay, the family sends us Miami care packages with all her favorite stuff.”
Just then, Sarah and another server bring their food orders to the table. As everyone begins to eat, a police officer steps through the diner doorway. He looks around the dining area and heads to their tables when he spots the large party.
“Good evening, Sgt. Randolph. I’m Deputy Peterson with the Potluck County Sheriff’s department. We’ll be your point of contact with law enforcement outside the forest. The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, DCNR, oversees anything to do with the forest. I, or one of the other deputies, will be with your party in the forest, but the Forest Rangers take lead there. They were a bit put out when we showed you the forest the last time, even though we stayed out of the interior.”
“Understood, Deputy. Starting to my left, you may remember my sister Wendy, she’s our group leader, I’m just the muscle. Next to her is Libby. The space at the outside corner is for you, we figure it would be easiest to speak with all of us from there. Next to your seat is Vito, then Maddie, and Tewow is at the other table’s end. Officer Sepulveda is to his left. She and I are the only police personnel in this group, everyone else is
