VISUAL EFFECTS / CH. 3: WOUNDS
FRIDAY MAY 13TH, 2270
That afternoon, Simon prayed for himself and for Alice. Also for the people in the singles and newly-married's group. Most of them would have felt the impact of Alice's reporting too. When you expose a mission-leader for embezzling, that does tend to have an impact on Christians who've supported people in that mission. Simon had been affected more than most, of course, having a sister working in the mission with her husband. He re-watched the offending article and then watched more of Alices' work, wondering how to broach the subject. That evening, he decided he ought to talk to his sister first.
----------------------------------------
“Hi, Sis. How's stress levels?”
“Fine, Simon. All is calm and peaceful, both at home and office.”
“Wonderful!”
“What's up? You don't ask about stress unless you're going to shock me.”
“Tentative steps towards getting to know someone.”
“As in someone significant?”
“Much too early to tell. It might be, I don't know. But there's a complication. Well, lots actually.”
“Go on.”
“Number one, yesterday she denied she believed in God. I told her God had said she had when she was ten, still did really, and He still believed in her.”
“Really? So you've been nominated to bring her back to the Lord?”
“I guess so. I think I'm also supposed to go somewhere dangerous with her so she can come back alive.”
“That's complication two?”
“I suppose so. Timing not known, destination not known, we need to talk a lot more.”
“And you're happy to?”
“She's a pretty woman, about my age, and God says she's got faith. Yes, I'm attracted.”
“Congratulations, even if it is complicated.”
“There's no guarantee of romance, it might just be friendship. But you know us males, ever hopeful.”
“Hmmm. Yes, I do. Well, it sounds like you've got some prayer to do.”
“Done some, it's worse.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. She's an investigative journalist you've heard of. Alice Findhorn.”
“Oh, wow. She's a believer?”
“Backslidden, wounded too, I think, far from God recently, but still loves truth. God says so, so maybe we dismiss previous experience to the contrary.”
“Oh dear Lord! You realise the mission's still suffering.”
“I guessed. But... it could have been worse, couldn't it?”
“If she hadn't exposed it then?”
“Yes.”
“Simon... this is confidential.”
“I'm listening, I won't talk.”
“It was worse. Another few weeks and the organisation might not have survived. We could recover a lot of what he'd siphoned off. So yes, it absolutely had to happen then. It might have been better if it hadn't been so public, but on the other hand, without the publicity and his arrest... who knows? The board might not have believed it.”
“So, what do you think, Sis?”
“She said a lot of nasty things about Christians in her reports. Some people won't forgive her easily.”
“I expect she won't forgive herself easily either. She's already been apologising for any harm done.”
“You told her?”
“No. She just realised either I'd been hurt or someone I knew had been hurt by her work. Very honest human reaction that she never wants to hurt innocent bystanders. She expected it to cancel tomorrow... I can't let that happen, not with what God said.”
“What happens tomorrow?”
“Walking the ridge and lunch at the Crown or the Walker's Boots. Either with just me or the whole mob from church. The whole mob is probably too many, but... just the two of us? That's probably going to be way too intense.”
“It's ages since Mick and I have walked the ridge.”
“You mean you'd come and chaperone for your little brother, Sue?” Simon asked eagerly.
“I think I'd like to talk to her. And it might help relationships all round, don't you think? We'd be quite happy to let you two have plenty of talking time, too. Especially if it's reciprocal.”
“Sue, you're a star! What's Mick going to think?”
“I'll persuade him it's a good idea, don't worry. But don't accept without Alice's approval. That'd be a bad start.”
6PM
“Alice? Simon, with an alternative idea.”
“I'm listening.”
“I think there are too many in the crowd from Church, we'd never be able to talk. Plus it might be awkward too. I also think the whole day together could be too long for just the two of us. My sister suggests she and her husband could come along.”
“Whatever I did affected your Church?”
“It's affected my sister more, but there's a lot of people in the church who might bear a grudge even if it didn't affect them directly. But Sue says your timing was good, so don't be too harsh on yourself.”
“My timing was good, but not my method?”
He took a deep breath, to stop himself answering. He was pretty sure it would be painful. “I'd much rather talk it through face to face, Alice.”
“I'd much rather it was out in the open. I didn't sleep well last night, and knowing your whole church is up in arms against me and trying to figure out what it might be about isn't going to help me sleep tonight.” Not even if she used her gift on him.
“We could talk about it this evening if you like. Have you eaten?”
“I've just started making dinner.”
“Oh, I was about to ask you out for a meal.”
“I suppose I can stop.”
“You'll let me invite you out tonight, then? How about the Chinese restaurant next to the sandwich shop.”
“Simon, as far as I know, we're not dating, nor planning on dating, just finding opportunities to talk. Is that where things are in your book?”
“Absolutely,” he confirmed. “Well. You like truth, so I'll add 'so far, anyway' to the not planning on dating.”
“We hardly know each other.”
“I know. I'm just refusing to rule out long term possibilities of what God was maybe planning.”
“I found that admitting I believe in Him helps deal with some nasty memories. Yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so.”
“I'm glad to hear that.”
“I'm still not sure I believe in Christians though. Except maybe you, you seem genuine enough, so far. Chinese restaurant, half an hour?”
“See you then.”
----------------------------------------
Alice didn't waste time, “So, what wouldn't you tell me on the phone?”
“Hey, let's at least order first!” he protested.
“Maybe I'm going to decide you don't really want to eat with me.”
“I want to. I just hope you're going to want to eat with me afterwards.”
“Depends how sharp your knives are, doesn't it?”
“I was thinking of using the chop-sticks,” he tried to joke.
She fingered hers. “Hmm. Not much point on them, it might hurt. Go on, jab.”
“You really want me to ruin your meal?” Simon asked.
“No.”
“Good. So, I didn't want to tell you because I think you might be angry or sad afterwards, and if you decide to run away I want to be able to follow you to reassure you that forgiveness is possible. Can't we wait until we've eaten?”
“Oh all right, I'll eat while the sword dangles above my head.”
“I'll try and blunt the edges and let it down gently. Is asking what got you into journalism a safe subject?”
“Not too dangerous,” Alice agreed, and proceeded to tell him.
----------------------------------------
7PM, CHINESE RESTAURANT.
“OK. We've eaten, spill. What did I do to your sister, indirectly wreck her career?”
“You don't want dessert?”
“No. You said my timing was good, but... what wasn't? Broadcasting something?”
“What wasn't good was your broadside against the whole missionary community as a bunch of hypocrites perpetuating and benefiting from a situation where people give just to salve their consciences and don't care a fig beyond that.”
“Oh. The piece against the corrupt mission leader. Thought it might be, what with the Church connection. I was pretty angry about that one.”
“Yes. Normally you don't exaggerate.”
“It's not the sentence I'm most proud of, no. Is there more?”
“Yes. Using footage of Sue taking part in a fund-raising drive for earthquake relief wasn't exactly nice either. For the record, the mission gave more out of general funds than it received from the special fundraising, and Sue and Mick's income is all gifts given directly to them to support their work, not through general funds. She didn't benefit one penny from that presentation you used as background.”
“And you think my report implied she was benefiting from the earthquake?”
“It doesn't really matter what I think, Alice. It's what the people who don't know her situation as well as I do think. You must realise that.”
Alice was quiet for a bit. “She must hate me. You ought to, too.”
“I don't. She doesn't. She might want to talk to you about just what lay behind your vitriol, and she probably wishes you'd do something correcting the impression you've left a lot of people with. But it probably doesn't matter anyway.”
“The damage is already done, you mean?”
“I was more thinking that it's not going to be as widely circulated and people being people are much happier to believe a scandal than a reporter saying sorry. Unless you managed to do some kind of exposé of how the destructive forces of the free press are deliberately targeted at innocents.”
“They're not. Certainly not my pieces.”
“I know. That's probably what makes it so painful and damaging.”
After a long silence, she decided. “I'm not going to run away.”
“Good.”
“Does saying sorry help?”
“It certainly makes forgiving easier. Makes it required, actually.”
“I expect... actually I'm sure. I didn't care who I hurt with that piece. I'm sorry.”
“You've been hurt by someone, obviously. That's what the pain God talked about was.”
“Yes.”
“But that's not a subject for a restaurant, and it might not even be a subject to talk to me about. Me physicist, not psychologist.”
“You're taking it all pretty calmly, though. And I expect that I did need to hear it face to face. Well done. You sure you're not a psychologist?”
He shrugged. “I've got a fairly simple taste in books. If it's got words, and it's not philosophy, I like reading it.”
“What's wrong with philosophy?”
“Heard of Schroedinger's cat?”
“Oh, the one which is dead and alive at the same time?”
“Exactly, absolute rubbish. A cat can't be alive and dead at the same time, everyone knows that. To get absolute rubbish all you need to do is try to explain something scientific to a philosopher, and listen to their response.”
“I don't get it.”
“Nor did the philosophers. It didn't stop them telling everyone how wonderful it was and incorporating it into their deranged mutterings. The whole thing about quantum physics is that a human observer can't know, except of course in the real world you can check for the cat's heartbeat, hear it scratching to get out, and so on. But it is a thought experiment, that's fine, we like to simplify things. You don't need to torture a cat to demonstrate any of that though, or to say that the cat is alive and dead at the same time.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“But... isn't it?”
“No. It's just that there's a function called the wave equation which gives you a probability of different things based on what you can know, and that impacts other things and so on. It doesn't say anything about what God knows. I expect someone got drunk one night talking to a philosopher and now all the world knows more about torturing cats and less about reality, which is what physics is supposed to be all about.”
“I used to enjoy studying philosophy, though I never got very deep into it.”
“It is supposed to teach precision of terminology and thought. I'm not opposed to it at that level.”
“Good. I'd hate to start having to use equations instead of words.”
“Careful! It sounded for a moment that what I object to might be relevant to you.”
“Well, you did rather state that God says I need to spend some time with you, and I do prefer to avoid constant arguments with people that I spend time with.”
“So, speaking of that message. Did it make perfect sense to you?”
“I'm pretty sure I don't remember the whole message, so I hope you do. Or if I do, then no.”
“I remember it.”
“Well?” she asked. What was wrong with her? She could have just lifted it from his brain, but she didn't.
“Here?” he replied.
“Ohhh, I suppose it's another thing for tomorrow, isn't it. Just don't forget it.”
“I really doubt I could, but I wrote it down anyway.”
“How's tomorrow going to work with your sister around?”
“She and her husband need some walking and talking time too. I guess those in front will let the others catch up every so often and we talk about things in pairs until we're done with that.”
“I'll need to do some confessing first.”
“And if it's OK with you, I'll share what God said with them too.”
“I hope I get a chance for informed consent.”
“We're meeting up there, so I could tell you on the way. Will that do?”
“I don't actually know where we're going, you realise.”
“Does that cause huge amounts of fear and anxiety?”
“Not really. I just wonder what the big secret is.”
“It's not a big secret, it's just a nice bit of lumpy landscape Sue and I grew up visiting, with an option of two pubs which serve good food about half-way between the station we'll be going to and the one we'll be leaving from.”
“Those being?”
“Midwell and urm, Blackwell, I think it is.”
“Never heard of them. OK, I'll just follow your lead. Thankyou for the meal.”
“Thankyou for coming, and not running away,” Simon said.
“See you in the morning,” Alice said, smiling.
“I had a terrible thought this afternoon that I might have committed some major social mistake: was I supposed to offer to walk you home or to work after lunch?”
Alice shrugged. “Probably not. I think that's more a dating thing.”
“Oh, OK,” Simon said, somewhat relieved. Then he added “Are you sure it's not a 'concerned for your safety' thing? Because I am.”
“Why?”
“God told me you needed help and protection.”
“So, you want to walk me home?”
“I do, rather.”
“Hmm. Can I probe into your motives on that one?”
“Sure. Ask away.”
Alice raised an eyebrow at that, and with that permission looked at his thoughts. Simon wasn't sure if he was attracted to her, but he'd been honest about the protective feelings. She also saw that he'd downplayed what God had said. “Help and protection in general, or from some particular source?”
He blushed “From me.”
“You'll never make it as a journalist if you can't get your quotes right.”
“A journalist?” he was taken aback.
“Well I'm pretty sure I don't need a physicist in the future, and no offence, but you don't quite have the build for a stereotypical bodyguard.”
“Probably not, no.”
“And when I take a camera man with me, they come as part of a crew, so you don't fit in that category either.”
Just then, the waiter delivered the bill for the meal. True to his word, Simon paid it, but Alice was once again surprised: Simon took one look at the I.D. scanner and decided to pay in cash. The waiter seemed to become distinctly unfriendly at that point.
“Home's this way,” Alice said.
“I passed the test.”
“I'm curious. You'd been about to pay with your I.D, and changed to cash.”
“Yes. The scanner wasn't exactly radiating trust.”
“Pardon?”
“The scanner wasn't trustworthy. It had been compromised.”
“You saw evidence of tampering?”
“Not physically.”
“Hmm. That's a useful ability. I wonder what that waiter's called.”
“It might say on the receipt, they often do.” He checked, “According to this, his name is Rudolph, which doesn't seem very likely.”
“Well, if he wants to be Rudolph, Rudolph he is.” She looked at Rudolph's thoughts. He was examining the I.D. scanner for some sign that his opening it could be detected. “Rudolph is a crook,” she announced.
“It could have been anyone,” Simon said.
“No, just now he was checking to see if he'd left any scratches on the case. I don't do things, but named people? Not a problem.”
“Even out of sight?”
“Yes.”
“That's a useful ability.” He looked at her quizicaly “So... when you asked if you could probe me and I thought you meant with questions, you did it the other way?”
“Hmm, guilty as charged. But not feeling very guilty, since I did ask your permission and you said OK.”
“Do you feel guilty about Rudolph?”
“Not really. He's a crook.”
“We should report him,” Simon said.
“How would you normally do that?”
“No idea. I never feel able to.”
“You asked why I became an investigative reporter; this is the bit of it that I didn't tell you. It lets me gather evidence I can report people with.”
“It was suspicious how he turned nasty when I decided to pay cash,” Simon said.
“I agree. You'd be happy to talk to a contact I have in the police?”
“Urm, what would I say?”
“Just what happened: that you saw something suspicious about the I.D. scanner, and decided to pay cash, and the waiter turned from all smiles to grouchy.”
“They won't count it as wasting their time?”
“Certainly not if they open up the scanner.”
“I've never contacted the police before.”
“I have. Don't worry, they don't bite.”
----------------------------------------
“You're saying you saw signs of interference on the I.D. reader?” the policewoman at the other end of the phone asked.
“I'm not really sure. I thought I saw scratches like someone had been trying to open it, but I might have imagined them; it might have been his attitude, which seemed a little... predatory. There was something I felt suspicious about, so I decided that paying with cash was a better idea. I just said 'I'd rather pay cash, actually' And when I said that, his whole attitude changed.”
“Well, banks do charge a handing fee if a company doesn't normally use it.”
“I walk past there most days and I've seen the manager paying cash for deliveries, so I know they use it.”
“So, you would consider the response suspicious?”
“I can't see any legitimate explanation.”
“Can you hand the phone back to Alice now?”
“Certainly officer,” Simon agreed, and heard Alice say “I didn't know for certain know why Simon decided to pay with cash, but I saw him look at the I.D. reader as if it was going to bite him. And I certainly saw the attitude change in the waiter. It was instant, before he'd been very friendly, almost over-friendly, and when Simon asked to pay cash it was like we'd just exposed his aunt for insider dealing.” There was a pause as the officer posed another question to Alice “No, I haven't, Oops, I retract that, yes I have, I saw him buy himself a sandwich at lunchtime with his I.D.” another pause, longer this time, “He's not any of those, he's somewhere in the friend category,” Alice responded, adding, “No, he's not a boyfriend.”
Another pause, “A few days. As for what I know about him? He works at the university, in the physics lab. According to the university site he's researching low voltage discharge events in simulated near-Earth Space environment, whatever that means, and he's slightly above average in the number of papers published per year. I also know he's a committed Christian, and expect he's probably going to try to get me to go to church on Sunday, even though I used some footage of his sister in an unfriendly way, in my piece on that corrupt mission leader a few years back. Now, much as I love chatting to you, all my instincts say that waiter is a crook, and that's why I called. According to the receipt he's called Rudolph. A more Chinese sounding name I couldn't possibly imagine. Anything else we can help with?”
----------------------------------------
9.10 AM, SATURDAY, HYPERSONIC TRANSIT POD
“Simon?” Alice said as they began to accelerate along the vacuum-filled tube in a two-seat pod.
“Yes, Alice?”
“You were going to tell me what God said, if you remember.”
“I was waiting until we were alone.”
“I don't know if you've noticed, but we are alone.”
“He said 'She who will soon pass needs your help and protection. Look at her truly. Remind her she believed in me when she was ten, and she still does though she denies it even to herself, from pain and because she thinks lies hurt less. She has experienced pain, but never any curse. She has set herself towards a great task prepared for her in advance, and she takes the right path. She must go, but not alone, for if she goes alone she will not survive.”
“So... the message doesn't actually say it's for me.”
“Did you notice anyone else passing? I didn't.”
She thought back. The campus had been almost entirely void of life. “No. OK, I'll give you that one. But it doesn't say you need to be the one who goes with me.”
“No it doesn't. But it does say you need my help and protection. Where are you going?”
“I don't actually know. I know that I've got a number of different lines I'm investigating right now, but as to which one? I don't know.”
“Oh. I'm still offering to come along, if you find out. Oh! I meant to ask, did you sleep better last night?”
“Yes, Thank you. I always do when I ask permission,” Alice added.
“Pardon?”
“I don't sleep well when I use this mind-reading thing on innocent people without asking permission.”
“How does it work?”
“No idea, what about yours?”
“I decide to use my other vision and sometimes I see people and things differently. Sometimes it just flicks in itself, like yesterday. I'm not sure what makes it work or not. Beyond that, I don't know.”
“No control beyond that?”
“Not really.”
“What do you see? Now.”
Simon blinked. “Now? You want me to look at you?”
“Please.”
“Why?”
Alice shrugged. “I wonder if I've changed.”
“Are you sure you want me to look?” Simon asked.
“Nervous of what you'll see?”
“No. It just feels a little... like intruding.”
“Whereas me examining your mental processes isn't?”
“Can we talk about that first?” Simon asked.
“I guess so.” She seemed more tense.
“No pressure.”
“Yes, there is.”
“There is?”
“Yes. You've told me all about your unique ability. Shouldn't I tell you about mine?”
“Maybe not here,” He suggested, changing his mind.
“Ha. You're still afraid of bugs?”
“Aren't you?”
“Look at me and see, Simon.”
He opened his othersight eyes. And turned away. He decided it hadn't been a good idea.
“What wasn't a good idea?” Alice asked.
“Looking at you.”
“That ugly?”
“No. You've sorted out your relationship with God, haven't you?”
“I've done some praying.”
He nodded. “I've found it's never a good idea to look at people newly filled or re-filled with the Holy Spirit. Did I say it wasn't a good idea?”
“No, you decided it about me.”
“You hear decisions?”
“Yes. You don't, I assume.”
“Not often. I've always dismissed it as my imagination.”
“And you don't hold hands with people very often.”
“No. Should I?”
She removed her gloves. “Let's see if we need to worry about bugs.”
[Do you hear me, Simon?]
“I didn't see your lips move.”
[Just think to me.]
[Like this?] He thought back.
[Exactly. I don't know how you don't know you can hear me like this.]
Memories came flooding back to Simon. [Too much training when young. It's rude to eavesdrop.]
[So you've just ignored hearing people's thoughts?]
[I... I think I just pushed it into the background, I've just remembered hearing some embarrassing things and spending ages trying not to hear anything.]
[You are a marvel, Simon.]
[I am?]
[Yes. Take it from me. I never managed to not hear anyone. What did you see, when you looked at me? Can you bring the picture to mind for me, and sort of push it to me?]
[The first time I saw you, or just now?]
[First time.]
[Like this? {image}] He tried to send what he thought of as the key with it.
[Exactly] Alice received the image perfectly. [Wow. I was a complete mess, wasn't I?]
[Very badly wounded, but beautiful at the core.] he pointed out.
[What about now? Purely for academic reasons, not that I'm at all vain.]
Simon laughed at the phrasing of her admission. [Your core is now blinding, your wounds aren't as bad any more, but they've still got an awful lot of healing to do.]
[You're not going to show me?]
[I don't think that'd be wise, no.]
[I sensed some protectiveness about that.]
[Well, what do you expect? God's told me to protect you, and sin is just as dangerous as physical dangers.]
[So, you're talking mind to mind with someone who can read your thoughts even while not holding hands, but won't show me what's just below the top level of your thoughts?]
[Please don't take a look, Alice.]
[Why not?]
He let go of her hand. “Because giving in to temptation is a bad thing, and I don't want you re-opening the deepest wound in your being. If you must see your new self then tell me, and I'll show you. But like you admitted, it might feed your vanity although since it's all God's work so it shouldn't. But misusing your gift? That's got to be much worse, surely?”
“My gift!” Alice repeated, brought up short.
He offered his hand again, and she accepted it. [Your gift of being able to do the impossible, hearing thoughts based on a name? It has to be from God, doesn't it? Just like my othersight.]
[It's a long time since anyone's called it that. And I have been misusing it.] It wasn't quite a question, but there was a question behind it.
[I saw a great painful rip in you, Alice, I don't know if you saw how deep it goes?]
[Very.]
[This is guesswork, but I think it's making sense to me. At core, if you were more whole, you'd be beautiful, but there's that rip, it almost goes through the middle of you, and I think it's your use of your gift. You're using it for good purposes, but you're also misusing it. There's a lot of pain on both sides of it, but some of it is self-inflicted, like you were saying about the bad dreams. God doesn't intend the gifts he's given us to be used for sin. God's given you that gift, and from his mercy, he's left you with it over the past years, but.... if you're using it for wrong reasons, can't God take away gifts he's given?]
[When I misuse it, God takes away more of it. {misery}.]
[I'm just guessing.]
[I'm not {misery}. I'm remembering a mess of painful memories.]
Simon saw tears on her cheeks, and didn't know what to say or do [Would you like a handkerchief?]
“No,” She said, looking up at him, miserable and vulnerable, taking her hand away. “I'd like someone who's seen my ugliness to hold me and tell me it's going to be all right.”
“You want me to hold you? You've just taken your hand away,” he pointed out, confused.
“Not just my hand. Me.”
“You're asking me to hug you?” his confusion turned to surprise.
“Yes. Sorry, it's wrong to ask.”
“No, it's not,” he said. “It might be complicated in this space, but it's not wrong.” He managed to put one arm around her.
“There's plenty of space,” she said, unbuckling her seat belt and sliding up onto his lap. “I'm not egg-shells, Simon, not physically, anyway. Hold me tight please. I'm sorry.” He felt a tear on his neck, then she couldn't hold the sobs in any more. “Oh, God, I'm sorry! What have I been doing?”
Simon felt incredibly awkward, holding this grown woman who he felt he still hardly knew, who was sobbing on his lap like a hurt child. But he held her, and spoke half-remembered passages from scripture about God's grace, that might help reassure her.
A little while after her sobbing had died away, the alert bell chimed. They had three minutes before arrival.
“Thank you, Simon,” Alice said, sliding off his lap. “You're good at hugs.”
“I'm not good at remembering Bible passages.”
“I know someone who claims her daughter was conceived in one of these,” Alice said, conversationally.
“Urm.”
“Sorry. That's probably an inappropriate comment.”
“It was rather.”
“But in the interests of removing the scandal from the story, they were on their way to their honeymoon and they both came down with food poisoning their first night, after eating some kind of sea-food. Oysters? I can't remember. Anyway, they were sick in hospital for the rest of the week and one of the nurses said 'congratulations' as they were being let out out. Thank you for keeping your mind pure, Simon. I'll try not to crawl into your lap again any time soon.”
“I can't say it was easy.”
“But it was what I needed. In all three ways.”
“Three ways?”
“I needed a hug, I needed to know more about God's love, and I also realise I needed to know you weren't the sort of man who was just after my body. It's going to make confessing to you much easier.”
“Alice, I'm not at all sure you should be confessing to me.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Fire away.”
“If I steal you away to a life of dangerous adventure, am I earning the undying hatred of some sweet-natured innocent girl?”
“Not as far as I know.”
“Nor of a fiery-tempered one?”
“If anyone's secretly in love with me, then they haven't let me know.”
“So, if I pour out my innermost secrets to you, what are we talking about in terms of worst case psychological scenarios?”
“Urm, great mental and emotional intimacy, mixed with physical proximity, get confused for romance, leading to an unequal and potentially abusive relationship where you feel dependant on my approval and I feel I have to know all the answers. Unfeasible expectations leading to eventual crisis and breakdown of the romance.”
“Oh. I guess you've read the same book I have.”
“Can I ask you a question, Alice?”
“Go ahead.”
“Given that you're threatening to unmask your most secret sins to me, are you thinking that you're entirely free from romantic feelings for me?”
“No. I'm hoping to limit the number of people I have to tell to a single binary digit.”
“Alice, what are you saying? We don't know each other well enough for romance.”
“I know. But like you've said, we've had some mental intimacy and as for physical proximity, well, I'll try not to admit that in public. I don't feel confused.”
“You're scaring me, Alice.”
“Scaring you?”
“Yes. I could probably cope with a woman I've known for two years threatening romance. Three days? Scary.”
“Sorry.”
The pod stopped at their station, and they got out quickly. There were hefty penalty charges for clogging up the hypersonic network.
Three steps out of the station, Simon saw his big sister, looking down the road. “Sue!”
“Simon! I thought we'd be here second.”
“Someone needed to travel really urgently, apparently. We got bumped to a later slot, with appropriate fare rebate.”
“Oh, very nice.”
“Sue, let me introduce Alice, who's coming back to the Lord.”
“From a long way off,” Alice added. She guessed Sue was five years older than she was. “Sorry for what I did to you. I can't even say it was accidental.”
Sue looked at Alice, and saw red around her eyes. “Are you OK?”
“I've been doing some crying, if that's what you mean. Along with scandalizing your brother.”
“Oh that's easy,” Sue said. “Any way in particular?”
“Well... Just now I was suggesting that I ought to confess all my sins to him as a short-cut to normal dating.”
“Are you serious?” Sue asked.
“I'm not sure. But apparently I scared him.”
“I'm not surprised.”
“Sue,” Simon said, “Alice also reminded me about eves-dropping.”
Sue's eyebrows rose, and her voice dropped in volume. “Did she now? That might explain a few things.” she looked curiously at Alice.
“If you're thinking what I think you're thinking, guiltier than charged,” Alice said.
“Simon, can I ask you to go and extract Mick out of the second-hand bookshop?”
“Got a crow bar?” Simon joked.
“Tell him we're leaving now, and he's welcome to run to catch up.”
“That might do it.”
“You can catch up too. I want to talk to Alice a few minutes, if that's OK?”
“I think it would be good idea, Alice,” Simon told her.
“As in, without Mick hearing?” Alice asked.
“Mick knows about me” Sue said, “But he doesn't know about Simon. I didn't even know Simon could still eavesdrop. We didn't try it together since I went to university when he was about thirteen.”
“He didn't know he could do it either.”