Annie laughed, his observation correct. "You're right about that. They don't know what they want me to do. Anything to get me out of their hair, I think." She looked out the window at the other cars in a standstill. A group of grubby men were huddled in a circle outside of a questionalble-looking store. One of them noticed her and they all turned to see her. One gave her a creepy, buck-toothed grin, and she shivered and turned back to Steve. "No, I kind of got into it myself," she continued as traffic moved forward a bit. "I would always look up at the stars when I was little. They were so far away; they gave me hope, I guess. A distraction from my parents, too, I guess. I learned about the constellations. I was obsessed, always reading books about space. I guess it just kind of followed me as I grew up." She laughed to herself. "That was probably the obsession that bothered my parents the least," she said, remembering her "wild years" in high school.