Then she wished she hadn’t said all that. It was an out and out lie about the origin of her abilities. She’d been so panicked that she hadn’t been thinking straight. From now on, she would solve her problems truthfully, she decided.

"We're near Freedom Fields now," she said.

"Well I'll see you tomorrow night," said Mark, slowing down to a halt.

"Yes. If I am late, please wait for me. You've been nice and all, buying me an ice cream. I'd love to have a friend to show around Wildstar. If I arrive late, it will be because I have trouble sneaking out of here on time. Nobody at the orphanage knows about Wildstar and me."

"Okay Ann, I'll look forward to seeing you tomorrow night," said the reporter, as she stepped out of the car.

"I think my little gift worked," he thought, "It's not surprising. Most children cannot resist a free ice cream. I will have to keep on spoiling her, now that I know she responds to it."

*          *          *          *

“Oh Wendell, what am I going to do?” asked Ann that night, when they were able to talk privately in her room, “Mark’s news story is like another fire, and we have to put it out before it spreads.”

“We just need a way to make him forget everything,” said Wendell.

“You are too young to be so brilliant,” said Ann.

He assumed correctly, that it was a compliment.

The following day Ann was greeted by a talkative crowd of children in the playground at school. Word had spread of her 'interview' with Mark Logan.

"So what did he ask you?" said one girl.

"How I came to know about the fire."

"So what did you say? How did you know?"

"I saw it from the bus on my way home. So I got off and had a look. It was on television news, but they only showed pictures of the remains after the fire was put out. I left ages before that. There was lots of flame and smoke. The firemen must have done lots of work to put that out. The news reporter said that he had spoken to the lady who owned the house. Then he saw her explaining how some neighbour had rescued her daughter from an upstairs room with a ladder. I only saw the fire, which was all that I could tell Mister Logan. I do not think that I will be in the papers," said Ann.

"I would have stayed to watch the whole thing," said another girl.

"Well I did not want to get into trouble for coming home late. So I caught the next bus, and that was it," said Ann.

The girls soon found other subjects for conversation, and Ann was somewhat relieved.

"Well they're easily tricked, but dealing with Mark Logan will be a lot harder than fooling the girls from the school. Kay must have told her story. For some reason, Mark believed it, and then followed the first red haired girl that he saw, me. I watched his green car all the way home and never thought that it was somebody who would cause all this trouble. If I had only stayed inside last night, I might have gotten away with my secrets. How was I to know that he would do this to me? Well I had to save little Kay, no matter what happened afterwards. I still would have done so, even if I had known that I would be found out. So tonight I will be showing him everything. At least Butler One will stop him, if he tries to take over Wildstar. Butler One takes all of his orders from me now. Maybe Jeradd somehow knew that Wildstar would be found by a harmless young girl."

Jeradd was the previous owner of Wildstar, an alien. He had died of old age while attempting to explore planet earth.