"Good afternoon," Callisto greeted the family upon arriving to their picnic area. "I'm Callisto Mandjet. Nice to meet you all."
"Nice to meet you, too, Callisto," responded the middle-aged man. "I am Arnold and this is my family."
One by one, Callisto's gaze met each of the family members, followed by their polite greetings.
"Come sit down," Arnold's wife said invitingly, pointing an open spot between the two young kids for the young lady to sit down on. "We got a ton of food with us, so feel free to eat to your heart's content."
Callisto plopped down in between Arnold's two young children, earning curious looks from them, their attention especially drawn towards her silver hair and cat ears.
The eldest son grabbed a wrapped sandwich from one of the baskets in front of them, offering it to the young lady. "Here you go."
"Ah, thank you!"
With a grateful smile etched on her face, Callisto accepted the offered sandwich and took a bite.
The oldest son watched with bated breath as the silver-haired girl's mouth worked on the food before swallowing it, a delighted expression contorted Callisto's features, her cat ears perking up and twitched energetically in tandem.
"It's good!"
Callisto's remark elicited a reaction out of everyone.
They were pleased.
"We have a lot more where that came from," Arnold's wife happily told the young lady. "So eat your fill!"
While the eldest son is offering Callisto a plastic cup full of orange juice...
"Here's some more sandwich and a drink."
"Thank you so much!"
The two young kids wanted to quench their curiosity.
"Are the cat ears and your silver hair real?"
"Don't you have ears under your hair, too?"
"Hmm... Why don't I leave that to your imagination? And yes, I do have ordinary ears, they're just hidden behind my hair. Look."
Callisto, from the moment she joined Arnold and his family in their picnic spot, had been using her power to amplify all five of her senses at once.
Doing so allowed Callisto to exert more power compared from only amplifying one of the five.
"Hey, Callisto, I've been curious ever since I heard your name. Are you related to Dr. Raymond Mandjet by any chance?"
"Yes. I am the second daughter of Papa... No, Dr. Raymond Mandjet."
"See, Arnold? I told you she's related to him, Dear."
Slowly but surely, Callisto was gradually increasing the level of intensity of all of her five senses. And she intend to keep doing so as long as she wasn't feeling overwhelmed by the surge of information flooding her brain.
She wouldn't want another instance like the durian fruit incident to happen again, especially not near a lot of people.
"Hey, Big-sis, let's play! We got a kite!"
"Sure thing! But it's been a long time since the last time I played with a kite, so you have to teach me how to make it fly again."
"Don't worry, we'll show you how!"
Callisto expected an abnormal reaction to occur within her body as she continued to exert more of her power.
But so far, she wasn't feeling anything unusual.
"On my count to three, you let go of the kite and I'll run as fast as I can, okay, Calli?"
"Got it."
"I'm gonna start counting now, okay? One, two, three!"
Callisto was starting to feel a little bit fatigued from continuously exerting herself. She could also feel the amount of information she was receiving from all five of her senses beginning to strain her mind little by little, a clear sign that she was nearing the limit at which she could handle her heightened senses without repercussions.
But even after all that, nothing was happening. There was no sign of any abnormal reaction from utilizing her power.
Callisto and the little boy stood next to the boy's brother that was controlling the kite.
"Hey, make it go higher," said the little boy to his brother.
"Yeah," the brother responded, gradually releasing more lines to make their kite hover higher.
The sight of the kite riding the air left Callisto and the two boys gawking in awe. Though, at the same time, the silver-haired girl was having an internal turmoil, disrupting her from truly appreciating the simple joy of watching a kite join the clouds in the sky with other kites.
"Am I still being reserved with my power," Callisto asked herself in thought.
At this moment, Callisto had already stopped pushing the sensitivity of her senses to the highest that she could handle, even though she was certain she could push herself a little bit further if she wanted to.
Callisto figured that tampering with her senses alone might not be the way.
Or maybe it was all just her being paranoid, after all?
The uncertainty of it was gnawing at her, especially knowing that there was a way to make sure if using her power do have some kind of a bad after effects on her.
Something that involved working her muscles to perform an action.
But...
"Hey, Calli, would you like to control the kite?"
"Of course."
"Here, hold on to the reel tight."
While holding the kite reel, Callisto made a quick glance around the park before turning her attention back to the kite above.
There were a lot more people now compared from a while ago just like she expected.
And she was certain that the number of people in the whole Riverbanks would only continue to grow bigger as the afternoon progresses into the evening, considering that it was still school break.
"At this rate, I have no choice but to call it for today," Callisto said in exasperation to herself. "I might as well enjoy myself while I'm here."
"You can make it go higher if you want," said the boy standing on her left.
"Yeah."
In response to that, Callisto twisted the reel forward, allowing the kite to fly even higher.
The little boys could not help but let out their excitement while watching their kite ride the wind higher and higher as it flew close with the kites of other visitors of the park.
Eventually, after playing with Arnold's two little sons, the three returned to the picnic area.
Right then, Callisto announced her departure to everyone.
"Thank you for your kindness and the food. I had a lot of fun playing with the kite. I'm heading out now. I hope you all have a great day."
"You're welcome," Arnold responded, a soft smile tugging at his lips. "There's lots of dangerous people out there at this time, and honestly, you're a stand out. So be careful out there."
"Yes, I will. Now then..."
After a kind exchange with Arnold, Callisto bid farewell to the middle-aged man and his family. Once she reached the bridge connecting the park to the main area of the Riverbanks center, the young lady had decided where to go, the shade of her eyes returning to its natural sky-blue color.
"Guess I'll check out the carnival by myself."
In that moment, at a parking lot right outside the Riverbanks Center, Adela arrived and went straight for an empty parking space and got out of her vehicle.
Right then, she remembered what Raymond told her before she left the hospital.
* * *
"She said she wanted to visit the park, so I gave her the go," Raymond said from Adela's recollection.
* * *
And so, with no delay and a determined stride, Adela headed straight inside the Riverbanks Center to find Callisto.