"Hey Ettie, how's your project going?" Hank asked as we all filed in the room. The rest of the team ran off to hide. I didn't see a magic wand or any hexes in Ettie's hands, so I thought the disappearing acts were a little overkill.
"I'm making a lot of progress. I remembered we were getting a new member today, so I thought I'd better show myself and try to counteract whatever vicious things I'm sure Josh has said about me," Ettie replied while walking towards me.
The annoyance I saw in her hazel colored eyes when she said Josh's name confirmed my suspicions that there was something between the two of them at one time. I had no doubt I wore that same look any time I said Nate's name.
Ettie had shoulder length, blonde hair and her eyes were bordered by frameless glasses. She was dressed how I pictured a stereotypical scientist, with a nice skirt that hit her at the knees, a dressy button-up blouse and a white lab coat, equipped with a pocket protector.
"It's nice to have new blood to work with. I'm afraid the rest of the gang and myself have been working a little too long together. I'm sure they've told you I'm Esther, otherwise known as Ettie." She stuck out her hand to shake, and I looked down at her pencil width fingers. She was just a little bit on the thin side.
"It's nice to meet you, Ettie. I'm Peggy. I've heard you mentioned, mostly just the fact that you do actually exist and I'd at one point probably be able to meet you," I responded while shaking her hand.
Not only were her fingers skinny, they were also freezing cold. I was grateful that the shaking didn't last long.
"You're very diplomatic. I think I might like that about you. Let's walk over to your station, so we can get to know each other better," she said, grabbing my arm and leading me away.
For everything that had been said about her, I was a little surprised she was trying to get to know me. Although, the thought that she could be out to get a hair sample to create some kind of voodoo doll of me crossed my mind briefly.
When we got to my desk, she plopped down in a nearby chair and rolled over to me. As I sat down in mine I said, "I'll admit that there might have been hints you'd be brewing up a potion against me rather than trying to get to know me, so this is a little surprising."
She sighed. "Josh. I really wanted you to get my side before they totally turned you against me. Josh and I dated for a few months. I decided the relationship wasn't going to go anywhere and broke things off. Evidently, he thought we were destined to be together for the rest of eternity. Don't get me started on my response to that.
"Either way, he took it bad and when happy-go-lucky Josh was down in the dumps, the rest of the team blamed me and decided to ostracize me. It's not like I want to work all by myself in a closet; it's that I didn't have much of a choice with all the glaring going on during that time."
I felt kind of bad for her. In the world of he said, she said, I tended to side with the female of the pairing. I hadn't done the real relationship more than once and I would've liked to think everything ended well for the other party, but I never checked back. I did find out he moved out of the state, but that had nothing to do with me.
"How long ago was this?" I asked.
"Six months ago. I'm hoping that you coming into the mix may open a door for my return. We used to get along really well, as surprising as I'm sure that sounds after everything you've probably heard. I'm an asset to both teams Hank has us grouped in. I can program and build the interfaces. No one else really spans both worlds, so if something isn't going quite right with one side, I can usually help find the problem."
"What do you think I can do to help?" I asked.
I thought bringing them all back together could be my good deed for the decade. I'd considered letting Nate have a place to stay long-term as something that would get me nominated for sainthood, and adding a little more goodwill wouldn't hurt.
"I was wondering if maybe you could host a party at your house sometime this weekend. Maybe if we can all get together outside the work setting, we could make some progress," she said hopefully.
Her idea could work for my case as well. We didn't know where the person we were searching for worked, but maybe we could host an open house and invite the whole community, so I could get to know everyone and see if anyone seemed shifty. Trying to do that during lunch had proven just a tad difficult.
"You know, me and Sean should have an open house type event. It'll give everyone in the community a chance to come over. Today is Thursday, let's have it Saturday afternoon."
I wanted to get it scheduled and done with as soon as possible. Whether it was necessary or not, I hated any kind of party. With Nate's proposal, he owed me big time, so I wasn't worried about clearing details with him.
"That might just be perfect. You're such a doll. Is there anything I can do to help, since it's such short notice?"
"I don't think so. The house came pretty well equipped and I'm great in the kitchen. Plus, I can put Sean to work."
"Well, let me know if you think of anything. I better let you get back to work," she said, standing up to leave. "Thank you so much for hearing me out."
"I like to give everyone a fair chance. I've always been a shy person who doesn't have a lot of friends and I'm trying very hard to change that."
Being undercover was really making me realize how my timidity had hindered me in the past. I'd always felt the need to keep a part of myself hidden, and even though I was lying to everyone I'd met, I felt more open than I ever had. If I was totally truthful, the change started when Nate came into my life, but I wasn't willing to give him that much credit.
"It seems you're already on your way to making friends with all of us in this department, so it's hard to believe you've ever had problems." She walked out the door without acknowledging anyone else and called back, "See you tomorrow."
After she left, I woke my computer up and started looking over the code again. We'd spoken relatively quietly, so I didn't think anyone had overheard the party plans. I'd noticed a few craned necks trying to see what was going on, but for the most part everyone gave Ettie a wide enough berth that our conversation was private. I wanted to get Nate's opinion on specific times before I made any big party announcements, so it worked out well for me.
As I was getting back into the code, I made notes of a few places that I saw oddities to bring up with Hank later. Reading through so much code started to make my eyes blur a little. I could write code all day long, but scanning it without actually doing something with it did have a tendency to get tedious.
I decided I needed a little break and it'd been a while since I'd used the bathroom. I made my way to the unisex bathroom Hank had been kind enough to point out. I took care of business and was washing my hands when my vision started to blur a little like it did when I first met Hank. When it cleared, I wasn't in the bathroom.
I'm in a kitchen, but it's a very primitive kitchen. There is a big wooden tub for a sink and the stove I have is actually just an open fire. I'm in the middle of deboning some kind of fish with a sharp stone. Looking around at the rest of the room, I see the floor is just dirt and I'm not really sure what the walls are made of, it looks like earth.
I take inventory of myself and see I'm wearing a long tunic style dress that reaches my ankles. It is a light shade of blue. There is also some white cloth that I have draped diagonally over my left shoulder. I'm not a history buff, so I have no idea what time period I'm currently residing. Not that I have seen any clues that indicate anything other than it is a really long time ago.
"Mama, Mama," a young voice says while the owner of the voice runs into the room. My brain tells me this is Mirari, my daughter. She's young, only five years old. She has brown hair that is curling in natural little ringlets and bright blue eyes. She's speaking in a language I don't know by ear, but I can understand.
"Yes, sweetheart, what is it?" I ask. Like my last hallucination I do not seem to be able to control what I say. These would be a lot more fun if I could ask questions. I'm not sure what answers I could
get out of a five-year-old, but in the last one I could have grilled that Lord fellow.
"When will Papa return? I want to show him this rock I found." She's really adorable in her little pink tunic.
"He should be home anytime now. He just needed to run over and help your grandpa for a little while," I reply as I start chopping up some vegetables that aren't familiar to me. Seeing a pot of water waiting for ingredients, I'm guessing we are having a soup or stew tonight.
"Can I help you with supper?" she asks as she comes in closer to get a look at what I'm doing.
"When I'm all done cutting everything, you can help me stir, but you're still too little to help cut things," I tell her, finishing up and taking all my bounty over to the pot and dropping it in.
Mirari, having followed, picks up a spoon and stirs the ingredients together.
"Tell me about the rock you found. Can I see it?" I ask.
"No, it's a secret only Papa can see. I found it outside the house when I was playing with Aleta," she says.
"I'm sure your papa will love the rock. You always find him the prettiest ones."
I hear some noise from outside and then a man's voice say, "Yaritza, Mirari, I'm home. ?Where are my angels?"
"Papa, I'm helping cook supper," Mirari yells, putting the spoon down and running from the room.
Her running kicks up some dust and a few pieces must land in my eyes, causing me to start blinking.
When I finally get the dust clear, I opened my eyes to see I was washing my hands. That was twice in one day that I'd had some weird vision. I wondered if they were putting something in the drinking water. The town was pretty odd, but I hadn't noticed anyone else zoning out for hallucinations. I made my way back to our office area and stopped at Hank's station.
"Hey Hank, you didn't happen to feel anything weird just now, did you?" I asked.
I really didn't need to wait for an answer. I could tell he thought I was a little off. I didn't think he knew me well enough to really judge that, but I refrained from telling him he was the crazy one.
"No, why is something wrong?" he asked, looking a little more concerned.
"I just got a little headache for a second and thought it was a bit odd. Is there something that happens here in the building around this time?" It sounded like the best question to get me out of the situation and back to my desk. I knew whatever his reply would be wouldn't matter too much in the grand scheme of things.
"Let's see, it's four o'clock, which is usually when they do a reactor test down in the fusion labs. They run them a few times throughout the day. ?They have them at eight-thirty a.m., four p.m., and twelve-thirty a.m. The tests are always monitored and very safe. In fact, I've never heard of any troubles from the tests before."
Well, I hadn't ever been in the building before either. There was no reason why a reactor test would affect me, but something seemed to be.
"I'm sure it was nothing to do with that," I said, waving the thought off. "I must have just stood up too fast or something. Thank you for the information though."
I headed back to my desk, trying to figure out what about a reactor would cause me to have the visions. I knew nothing about reactors, so I didn't have a whole lot to base any guesses on. Both of the blackouts appeared to have happened during the test, but I was fairly certain that had to be some kind of coincidence.
I didn't have any issues the day before at home, so unless proximity had something to do with it, reactor issues were out. I was glad I wouldn't be there for the last test of the day, but I would've really liked to figure out a plan to make sure it didn't happen again. I wondered if covering my head in aluminum foil would work.
Probably not, but it was a step I was willing to take if I didn't have to travel to an alternate universe. I wasn't sure I really wanted to discuss my little issue with Nate. As crazy as he could be about all things concerning me, it was best I kept it to myself.
CHAPTER 9
Behind every successful man there is a surprised woman