by Meg Napier
It wouldn’t be much longer until the NHRB spoke to her, too. For now, though, she had to get through the date. “I’m not sure where we’re going,” she finally admitted. She hadn’t cared enough to ask.
“Let me know,” Nadine said.
“Sure,” Rosalind agreed. They’d exchanged numbers and Nadine had sent her several messages throughout the day. Rosalind ignored them.
“See you tonight at six.” Nadine blew her a kiss.
Rosalind frowned, running her fingers through her speckled white hair. Deep down she knew Alden was wrong. Their fates were tied together, whether he realized it or not.
Alden sent her a reminder to be ready by five. He was picking her up, ensuring she didn’t bail on their agreement. As if she would while he was holding her thumb drive hostage. She had a back-up in the safe, but it was outside the lab where anyone could find it.
She drove home, trying to push everything out of her mind. She’d counted ten different NHRB agents on her way out the gate. Most of them stared as she left. Goosebumps lined her arms.
Aware of the plastic cutting into her cheeks when she forced a smile to the security guards, she drove below the speed limit. It was hard not to push down on the gas and speed away.
She didn’t relax until she was on the winding back roads leading to her house. There were several pot holes she had to avoid, but at least no one was following her. Heart pounding in her ears, she laughed. Paranoid much? The NHRB hadn’t even interviewed her. They’d interviewed Alden.
Slamming the house door, she prepared for an evening of misery. Alden told her to dress for either a movie or dinner. Knowing him, they’d do both.
She brushed the tangles from her hair and slipped on a blue long-sleeved shirt. She was ready to face whatever Alden planned.
When he pulled into the driveway, she was disheartened to see someone already in the front passenger seat and another person in the back. She opened the door and nearly fainted. She didn’t want Nadine to know where she lived.
Nadine was bouncing in the backseat waiting for Rosalind to scooch in.
Alden’s date was a middle-aged woman twice his size with blonde hair and a long nose.
“This is Blanche Evans,” Alden said. “Blanche, this is Rosalind Ellis.”
“Nice to meet you,” Blanche said in a nasally voice, her breath fogging the mask she wore.
“Same,” Rosalind said. Blanche was no Mia.
Alden shot her a look.
She ignored him.
“Hey, Roz—I mean, Rosalind. I can’t wait to see where we’re going. Alden refuses to say.” Nadine grinned, her plastic mask distorting her lips.
Rosalind knew her own mask did the same thing, so she couldn’t judge. Or at least shouldn’t judge how others looked in theirs. “He wouldn’t tell me either,” she said. She didn’t care where they went, as long as the evening went by quickly.
Alden chuckled.
Blanche snorted, “Ollie’s a sneaky one. Asked him out for over a year and he finally said yes. Now he won’t even let me pick the place.”
“It’s a surprise,” Alden said.
Blanche snapped her mouth shut.
Rosalind wished Nadine would do the same. It seemed to take forever to get to their destination with the chatterbox. Alden had gotten tickets to a virtual play called “Unmasked Lovers.”
Live plays went out of fashion after the virus and now virtual plays were all the rage.
A vise squeezed her heart. The last time she’d watched a show had been a ballet before the virus. Rosalind had been so preoccupied, she hadn’t paid attention to Ashley, not even when she leaned in close and breathed in her ear. The only thing on Rosalind’s mind at the time was getting back to work.
It was almost the same this time. Except she wasn’t thinking of prizes or fame for new discoveries. She imagined Ash beside her, holding hands, teasing – the things she should have done five years ago.
The play ended with the two lovers holding each other, one dying in the other’s arms. Nadine dabbed her eyes and sniffled. “It’s so sad and romantic!” Nadine wound her arm around Rosalind’s as they shuffled out.
Rosalind tried tugging her arm out. Nadine gripped her tighter.
Blanche nodded, “Yes, it is.” She leaned against Alden as they walked.
He stumbled. “Glad you liked it. There’s one more surprise. I hope everyone’s hungry.”
He looked as miserable as Rosalind felt. Why was he doing this? She wanted to force him to tell her what happened with the NHRB.
“Isn’t this wonderful!” Nadine bounced on the balls of her feet. Her red hair smacked the sides of her mask.
She started to think of Nadine as a pixie. She danced and twirled and skipped, dragging Rosalind along with her.
Alden stopped the group in front of The Label, an expensive burger place. The tables were set in their own plexiglass cubicles. The menu was a computer system integrated into the table. Once you were ready, you ordered by swiping the menu items. The menu disappeared after confirming the order, to prevent anyone from accidentally ordering while eating.
Nadine and Blanche were impressed.
Rosalind had to admit she was, too. Alden had outdone himself. She tapped her fingers on the table, wishing the food would hurry. Blanche was giving a nasally narration of the squirrel problem she was having.
“Squirrels everywhere! Every time I think I’ve run ‘em off, they keep coming back. I don’t know how they’re finding their way in. It hasn’t even been a harsh winter!” She complained.
Alden nodded. “Maybe I can help you sometime next week.”
She thumped his back with a meaty hand. “That’d be great!”
Rosalind tapped the table harder, trying not to laugh at the look on Alden’s face. It served him right.
Nadine pointed at Rosalind’s hand. “What’s that?”
“What’s what?” She asked, without looking.
“The ring on your finger. Are you married?” Nadine sounded horrified. She scooted away from Rosalind.
Rosalind chewed her bottom lip. She’d forgotten about her ring. She must’ve put it on out of habit. The question was a little too personal, but Alden’s look told her to answer the question. Sighing, she shook her head. “I was married.”
“Divorced?” Nadine’s girly voice came back.
“No,” Rosalind said. She felt queasy.
“You’re still married?” Nadine’s eyes narrowed. Then she looked from Rosalind to Alden and her face turned blood red. “You’re not married to each other, are you?”
Blanche sucked in a breath, her lips disappearing in her mouth. “Tell me it isn’t true, Ollie.”
“We’re not married to one another,” Alden assured her. “But we’ve both been married. Our wives died during the first Coronavirus wave.”
“Oh, no! How terrible!” Blanche said. “You poor, poor thing!” She thumped his back again. She didn’t sound or look like she thought it was a terrible thing.
Nadine sounded more sympathetic. “I’m so sorry. My aunt died of COVID-19. It was horrible!” She laid a hand on top of Rosalind’s.
“Thank you,” Rosalind managed. A lump formed in her throat. She was relieved when the food and drinks came. The mechanical cart stopped in front of their plexiglass cubicle.
Closest to the food, Rosalind let the machine inside and passed the plates around.
Nadine picked at her food, tearing little bites with her fingers.
Blanche went all in. Bits of burger stuck to the sides of her mouth and chin as she spoke and chewed at the same time. She wiped her hands on the front of her pink and white blouse. Grease smeared all the way down. She ignored the napkin Rosalind pushed toward her.
Alden was lucky he didn’t have to sit in front of her.
He picked at his food, listening to Blanche’s stories and adding an, “Oh, my” or “Wow!”
Rosalind wasn’t hungry either, but she ate so she wouldn’t have to speak.
> When she wasn’t nibbling, Nadine offered a chatty conversation bordering on manic.
At least Nadine seemed to treat her with more respect and stopped pawing at her. When Alden dropped Rosalind off, he slipped the thumb drive in her coat pocket.
As glad as she was to get it back, she was too tired to work on Little Moirae. She fell asleep on her living room couch and dreamt of holding Ash in her arms as she passed away.
Chapter 12
Bear Den Hollow
Watauga, TN
25 February 2025
Tuesday 4:45 am
Rosalind spent all day Monday trying not to think about her seventh-year anniversary. Alden had offered zero help. He said he was done. Period. He was going to continue dating Blanche. He suggested she continue dating Nadine.
She had to admit, Nadine had calmed down since their first date. But Nadine was not the one for her. It was obvious Blanche was not the one for Alden either. He insisted his mind was made up.
Hers was, too.
More NHRB agents roamed around the buildings and parking lots at work. Their dark eyes matched their clothes. Rosalind stayed away from them.
Then, when she was again disappointed with the lack of seed growth, she realized her mistake. Everything was in flux. Time. Energy. Everything. Only with a controlled balance did everything harmonize. If it wasn’t balanced, the earth shifted to create a balance. Even the human body craved equilibrium, even if it meant an unhealthy balance.
Why hadn’t she seen it before? It was the key to everything!
When she was finally home, she made the proper alterations and created a remote-control using schematics Alden had left. Little Moirae was almost ready for another test. She briefly wished she could ask someone for help, but there was no one else.
She grabbed the thumb drive and ticket stubs from the safe. She only had one shot to make this work. If it failed, the ticket stubs would be gone forever.
Taking a deep breath, she was at peace.
Her hands didn’t shake as she flipped the monitors on and grabbed Little Moirae’s new remote. She took a clean hazmat suit from its rack against the wall. Footsteps echoed in the cave halls.
She smiled.
Alden had a change of heart after all.
She was glad he came to his senses. Blanche was a character, but she didn’t see their relationship going anywhere. He was like a teenager, dating the wrong person out of spite.
“You’re just in time,” she said.
She dropped the hazmat suit.
It wasn’t Alden.
“In time for what?” Nadine asked.
A strange buzzing filled her head as she stared at the smaller woman. She was having trouble processing the image before her. Gone was the manic-pixie-girl and the high-pitched girly voice. The petite person in front of her took up too much space and the NHRB suit she was wearing fit her better than the lab coat. “How did you get in here?”
“Your friend Alden was kind enough to help me,” Nadine smiled.
“He wouldn’t help you,” she said.
“You’re right. He didn’t know he was helping me. He’s quite stubborn. We had our best agents interview him. He never once broke or turned you in.”
Rosalind raised an eyebrow, trying to make sense of everything. The buzzing in her head got louder. “Then how?”
“Me,” Nadine gave a bow. “We needed a way in and I knew if I could get you to go on a date with me…Well, I can’t give away all my secrets, but I will say, for someone who doesn’t like to be touched, you sure let me touch you a lot. If there was going to be a second date, I might warn you about checking your clothes before heading to your lair.”
“My clothes?” The blood drained from her face. Of course! She’d slipped on the same sweater the next day before heading to the lab.
Nadine laughed. Cold and unwavering. “We’ve had our eye on you for years. At least, I have. I told you I read your profile. I also did a little digging. Not only did you and Alden work for CERN, you were attempting to bend the spacetime continuum.” She flicked her small hand in the air. “Too obvious, I know. What I also discovered was something no one else had connected the dots to yet. Your little girlfriend—”
“Wife!” Rosalind growled.
Nadine snorted, “Your wife managed to kill several members of the White House.”
“What are you talking about? Ash wasn’t a murderer!” Rosalind had never wanted to punch anyone before, but she wanted to now.
“Not a murderer, no. But she was the link to their deaths,” Nadine smiled unpleasantly, like a lioness about to spring on her prey.
“The gala,” Rosalind muttered. Ashley had been invited to a gala where she met someone who’d been to Wuhan. Then Ash interviewed a White House official. It made her dizzy to contemplate.
“I can’t have you screwing up what we built here,” Nadine stepped closer. “You may have wondered about the power surges the past few days? Or maybe not.”
Rosalind had wondered about them, but couldn’t find the cause.
“We patched into your network. It took us months to figure it out. Alden was no help. I don’t know why you bring out the loyalty in others. You’re a criminal. Criminals don’t deserve loyalty.” Nadine pulled out a grey device from her suit pocket. “Now, if you’ll be so kind as to come with me, you’re going to help me get a promotion.”
Rosalind backed away. Her life’s work wasn’t going to end like this! Grabbing the envelope from its perch on the counter, she dashed inside the little room separating Little Moirae from the monitors.
“There’s no reason for you to make this any harder than it has to be,” Nadine said. “Do you know what this is? What it can do to you?” She waved the device in the air.
Trembling, Rosalind nodded. A particle dissolver. All NHRB agents allegedly carried them. There were rumors about such devices. Some said it paralyzed the victim when set on low. Some said it cooked your insides when set to high.
“Good. Now, come out of there before I call the rest of my team in and force you out,” Nadine’s finger twitched on the trigger.
Someone ran into the room, tackling Nadine. A blast from the dissolver shattered half the wall.
“You came back!” Rosalind was shocked and pleased.
“You’d best go now,” Alden said.
Stuffing the envelope in her pocket, she knew what she had to do. Her hazmat suit was still in the control room with Nadine and Alden. She opened Little Moirae’s door. There was just enough room to crawl inside.
Nadine screamed, “Do you know what happens to you when you get hit with that much radiation?”
“Yes, I do,” Rosalind said, smiling. It’d been part of the warnings at CERN. “No matter what happens to me, it’s better than this life.”
“You’re crazy! I knew it the moment I saw you! It’s people like you who make the world a dangerous place,” Nadine said.
“Hurry, before I get cold feet and decide to date Blanche after all,” Alden encouraged. “You were right, she was terrible.”
Rosalind smiled, grateful her friend was back. “See you on the other side. I hope.”
She slipped inside, closing the door. Bracing herself, she pressed the button on the remote.
Bright flashes of light burst into her skull. Seeing everything for the first time, she suddenly understood how the universe was created.
Then the knowledge was gone.
She was sucked into darkness and pushed through a tunnel so fast her stomach lurched. It was like everything inside was being ripped in half. Light met her eyes. It took a split second for her body to catch up.
Chapter 13
Hotel Griffon
San Francisco, CA
25 February 2020
Tuesday 5:00 am
Rosalind sucked in as much air as she could. Her skin and brain were discombobulated. Her fingers twitched. Something soft was in her hand. She blinked several times, her nerves tingling. She was no longer in Little Moira
e or the caves under her home in Watauga, TN.
She was in a room with a large bed and window with a view of the Bay. Someone was folding dark clothes into a bright pink suitcase in front of her. She gasped. It was her! She was looking at herself.
Long black hair. Pale skin slightly pink from the sun. She’d visited this very moment in her dreams over and over again.
Crouching behind the partition separating the room from the bed, she heard what her younger self hadn’t heard at the time: running water and singing from the bathroom. Her skin tingled and insides warmed.
Ashley was in there. Naked. Alluring. Her goddess.
If only she could sneak around herself and meet Ashley in the bathroom. Surely, Ash wouldn’t know the difference. She was Rosalind, after all. A quick glance at her reflection in the window made her change her mind. The years hadn’t been kind.
She’d have to satisfy herself with watching. The wedding band worried around her finger. She was so close to the one person she wanted to see the most in the world! As she watched young Rosalind place the plane ticket on the counter beside the coffee pot, she willed her younger self to stop thinking about particles and formulas long enough to miss the plane.
She watched the young, naïve Rosalind pause and run her hand over the envelope with the ballet ticket stubs before throwing them away.
Her head buzzed with a flurry of bees.
Cradling her head in one hand, she felt her pocket with the other. A sigh of relief. It was still there! She had to wait for the right moment. The cell phone pinged. Rosalind wondered if she could toss the thing out without getting caught.
With each passing second, the swarm in her head grew louder. A strange swirling floppy sensation spread in her gut.
How much longer could she wait? Part of her wanted to jump out and say, “Surprise!” There were theories about doing such things, but no one actually knew what would happen.
Patience was the key to getting this right. She’d been patient for five years. She could be patient a little longer.