by Simon Archer
Directly across from the door was a small reception desk and bar. Samuel was sitting behind the desk. When he looked up and saw us, a huge smile crossed his face.
“Clark!” he said happily. Samuel was getting along in years, but the sparkle was still in his deep blue eyes. He had a full head of gray hair that needed to be cut. It bounced around as he limped out from behind the desk to meet us. When he reached us, he hugged Kennedi and shook my hand. If I hadn’t been able to see him, I never would have guessed a man as a frail-looking was shaking my hand.
“It’s good to see you, Samuel!” I told him.
“It has been much too long since you have visited! What are you doing with yourself these days?” He asked me as he limped back to his chair. He had never volunteered a reason for his limp, and I had never asked.
“I just got back from a very short trip to Vegas,” I said. “Now, it is time to get back to work!”
“Well, before you do that, you should see the incredible things your girl has been making,” he replied, winking at Kennedi.
“That is the plan,” I told him. “Where should I start?” Before he could answer me, I heard the door to the studio open. I turned around to see Ellie and Rosie walk in. Samuel's smile got even bigger.
“Hello, beautiful ladies!” he piped up. “I didn’t know you were stopping by today.” Rosie and Ellie both walked over and gave him a hug.
“Kennedi was telling me about some plate designs that she had. I wanted to check them out because I have been waiting for her to make just the right one for us to use at Belavi,” Ellie told him.
“And I am here to see this bowl she has told me so much about. Have you heard about the bowl?” Rosie asked Samuel.
“Indeed, I have,” he answered. “I’ll go get it for you.” Samuel started to stand up, but Kennedi stopped him.
“Oh, no, you don’t!” she scolded respectfully. “I will get it while you relax. You have been here for two days practically.”
“Fine,” Samuel shrugged his shoulders and relaxed back into his chair. “Bossy,” he called after her as she walked away. Kennedi looked back over her shoulder and stuck her tongue out at him. I laughed at the two of them. Samuel turned his attention back to me.
“Did you win anything in Vegas?” he wanted to know.
“A little,” I told him. “We were only there for one day. Kennedi and Rosie went with me, and after a day of seeing the sights, I played poker for a little while, we slept, and got up to come home.
“Why so quick?” he asked. “Vegas can be done fast, but not usually that fast!”
“Oh, yeah?” I replied. “How long was your fastest Vegas trip?” Samuel was a great storyteller, and I had a feeling a tale from him about Vegas would be very entertaining.
“Three days,” he responded but did not offer any further details. Right when I was getting ready to ask him some questions about his trip, Kennedi returned, holding a bowl.
“Here it is,” she said as she handed the bowl to Rosie.
“So, tell me again what happened?” Rosie inquired. She took the bowl from Kennedi and started inspecting it. It was a beautiful orange color with sky blue streaks swirled throughout. It was rather deep, and the top edges curled in, making it almost like a drinking glass.
“I wanted to see if the nano-glass would break if I took it directly from the heat and submerged it in ice water. So, that is what I did. When I pulled it out, I left the ice and water in it. Not only did it not break, but the ice also didn’t melt for five days. You will notice there’s not even a lid on it!” Kennedi recalled.
Rosie looked up at her, shocked. “Have you ever tried just putting ice water in one of your regularly cooled nano-glass bowls?”
“Absolutely. I have a huge bowl I use for ice during events. The ice always melts at a regular rate,” Kennedi told her.
“What about heat? Have you tried putting anything hot in it to see if it stays hot?” Rosie asked distractedly as she continued to look over the bowl.
“I did,” Kennedi replied. “That is one of the reasons I wanted you to come to look at it so quickly. I dropped a ball of regular, molten glass into the middle of it. It took three days for the glass to harden, and the regular glass did not melt on to the nano-glass. The bowl kind of acted like the non-stick pan that Ellie cooks eggs in!” Her comment caught Ellie’s attention.
“If you can recreate it in pan form, I will buy an entire set!” she said excitedly. “Does the outside get hot or cold, depending on what you have on the inside?”
“Nope!” Kennedi answered cheerily. “Samuel has been putting hot and cold things in it, off and on, to see if any of the heat or cold would transfer to the outside. Nothing has.” Samuel started nodding his head.
“That’s right! Not a single temperature fluctuation occurred on the outside of the bowl regardless of what was inside it!” He confirmed Kennedi’s facts.
“Can I take this with me?” Rosie asked, a little bit like a kid on Christmas.
“Of course!” Kennedi told her. “Let me wrap it up for you.” Kennedi took the bowl from Rosie and walked around behind the reception desk. She leaned down and pulled some tissue paper from one of the drawers and proceeded to wrap the bowl. When she was done, she handed the bowl back to Rosie.
“I’ll get this into testing immediately!” Rosie told her. “You are a genius!”
“I might be, I haven’t actually taken the test,” Kennedi replied. This time it only took her a split second to realize that she had taken what Rosie said out of context. She started laughing at herself and shrugged her shoulders. She turned to me and smiled. “Are you ready to look around?”
“Yes, since Samuel is not going to tell me about his trips to Vegas,” I replied, teasing him.
“Maybe one day, when I feel you are mature enough to hear it!” Samuel retorted, wagging a finger at me.
“Girls,” I said to Rosie and Ellie. “Are you going to take the tour with me?”
“Yes,” they replied in unison.
“I can’t wait to see the new plates!” Ellie said enthusiastically. Kennedi turned and started walking us around the studio. The walls were a sort of optical illusion. From the door of the studio, they looked flat. As you were walking up to them, they began to look as though there were shelves attached to them. When you actually reached the wall, it became apparent that the shelves were actually recessed into the wall. Each shelf had a small strip of track lights that were controlled by a dimmer switch remote.
The first set of shelves that we approached were lined with all different colors of nano-glass plates. Some were round, others were pentagonal, and there were even some square ones. The most unusual was one of the pentagons. It was completely flat and missing the slightly ascending edge that most had. A small ring of glass was attached on the back to raise it up off whatever surface it was sitting on. The glass it was made out of was an opaque blue and had shades a white and gray throughout it. When the plate was moved, it looked like a sky with clouds floating across it.
“That one is really impressive,” I told Kennedi. I picked it up to examine it, but Ellie took it out of my hands.
“This is it!” she nearly yelled. “Clark, don’t you think these would look perfect in Belavi?” She and Bev had chosen a modern industrial look with country chic accessories as the décor for the restaurant. The main colors were black, silver, and stark white. The place would look absolutely magnificent with the décor.
“I don’t know that you will find anything more perfect,” I answered her. She looked at Kennedi and held the plate up.
“Can you do an entire restaurant set like this?” she asked tentatively. Kennedi walked around and stood behind Ellie. She propped her chin on Ellie’s shoulder and started nodding, which made Ellie’s shoulder go up and down.
“Yep!” she told her. “It may take me a little while, but I can do it!” she squeaked. Ellie took her head to lean against Kennedi’s.
“Thank you!” she told her. Ke
nnedi lifted her head off Ellie’s shoulder and clapped. “Clark! I need a stand for the crystal ball I’m giving to Reina! I’ll go get it. You have to tell me what you think!” Kennedi bounced away to the other side of the room to retrieve the stand. When she returned, she handed it to me. It was very simple, with three legs attached to a circle. The color was a perfect match to the red that could be seen when looking into the ball.
“That is going to match it perfectly!” I complimented her.
“I can’t wait to give it to her!” Kennedi took the stand from me and was about to return it when she paused. “Speaking of Reina, did any of you notice her tail twitching recently?”
I took a moment to try to remember the last time I noticed Reina’s tail. “No. Why do you ask?”
Before Kennedi replied, she looked to Ellie and Rosie. Ellie was shaking her head, but Rosie had a worried expression on her face.
“I haven’t seen her tail twitch, but I did notice something that worried me a little bit the other day,” Rosie started. “When we were all at Belavi, talking about what to do with the letter from Floyd Monarch, she started emitting an unusual energy suddenly. At first, I didn’t know that it was coming from her, but when I hugged her goodbye, I could definitely tell.”
“What kind of energy was it?” Kennedi asked her.
“It is not one like I have felt from a CG before. Part of it almost felt like sparks. You know, like when you have a system getting ready to fire up for the first time?” Rosie answered her. Ellie’s eyes widened a little bit.
“Sparks aren’t normal for an established CG,” she commented. “Did you ask her about it?” Kennedi lowered her head for a moment.
“I have not. I saw it for the first time this morning when I was talking with Macy. I guess Macy had seen it before but said it was new. She hasn’t asked her about it either. I’m really starting to worry,” Kennedi spoke softly. I reached forward and took Kennedi by the chin and lifted her head.
“Don’t go worrying yourself until we have some answers. I will talk to her myself, if you’d like,” I told her.
“And I would talk to her soon,” Ellie chimed in. “The last time I had weird stuff going on, it was a full-on glitch that turned out to be a virus trying to data-mine our lives. Remember? I would recommend not waiting.” Ellie was not one to be overdramatic, so I knew that she was very serious about her recommendation.
“Okay, I will ask her the next time I see her,” I assured the three of them. “Has she been acting unusual?” All three girls shook their heads.
“Not at all,” Rosie said. “That is part of what is strange. I even asked her if she was all right when I felt it, and she didn’t really know what I was talking about and said that she was fine.”
“I’ll take care of it. Hopefully, it is just something small that none of us have thought of,” I replied more confidently than I felt. CG systems were not built to do anything randomly. If Reina was sparking, or whatever it was Rosie felt, I very seriously doubted that the cause would be benign.
“Thank you,” Kennedi said to me. “I just want to be okay. She is such a sweet and helpful girl.”
Ellie put her arm around Kennedi and squeezed her. “She’ll be just fine, I’m sure. Even if something is wrong, we all know Clark can fix it!”
Kennedi smiled and leaned into Ellie’s hug for a brief moment. Then she pulled away, grabbed Ellie and me by the hands, and started leading us away.
“Come on, Rosie! You too!” Kennedi called behind her to make sure Rosie knew to follow. She proceeded to tour us around the rest of the studio. She had a special story for each and every art piece she had created. Samuel would chime in every now and then on the pieces that the two of them collaborated on. I knew that Kennedi was a talented artist, and very creative, but seeing her most recent work made me respect her as a creator even more. When our tour was over, the four of us went back to the reception desk to say goodbye to Samuel before we left.
“I had better see you well before the next show!” Samuel scolded me. I chuckled at him.
“You’ve got it,” I replied. “You take it easy and don’t let Kennedi boss you around too much!”
“Ah, hell! I boss her around just as much as she does me! It works!” Samuel laughed. The girls hugged him goodbye, and the four of us left the studio. Ellie and Rosie took their leave to return to Belavi. Kennedi and I climbed in my 4Runner and headed to VGS. I looked over at her as I drove.
“Your level of skill with nano-glass is amazing, Kennedi,” I said to her. “And your talent for being creative is off the charts. I promise I will never wait that long to go see your work again as long as you promise not to be so humble about your progress!” She glanced over at me and smiled shyly.
“Thank you, Clark. That means a lot. I will tell you about my progress more if it will make you happy,” she responded softly.
“It will,” I confirmed. I winked at her, and she leaned over to give me a quick kiss. After she sat back, her expression turned serious.
“What are our next steps with Omnicorp?” she asked me.
“We are waiting to hear from Brody Woodin about a date for mediation regarding the glass sales. Beyond that, we are hoping that Clint can get the saliva and analysis completed and be successful with his experiments before we lose our chance to prove we have an alternate way to sell CGs without interfering with Omnicorp’s patent,” I informed her.
“That is a lot of waiting,” Kennedi joked. She was absolutely correct. There was plenty that could be accomplished while we did, however.
The burning question was how long we would be waiting.
18
As it turned out, five days was how long we would have to wait. Theo and I were finishing up the final details on the horse corral when I heard somebody in the distance calling my name. I looked around and finally saw Krysta running towards us from the direction of my house. While cat girls were very fast runners, I didn’t have the opportunity to see them do it very often. It was a graceful process to watch. When Krysta reached us, she stopped dead and put her hands on her hips.
“What on earth are you two doing over here?” she demanded to know. I gestured to the corral behind me and shrugged. “Neither one of you has a phone on you?” I couldn’t tell whether she was upset or worried.
“Don’t need a phone to dig a post hole,” Theo piped up. He leaned on his shovel and smiled at Krysta.
“Isn’t anybody inside the house? Where is Kennedi? Bev?” The urgency in her voice kept growing.
“Krysta, what is so important? Kennedi and Bev are out looking for horses to put in this thing,” I hooked a thumb to point behind me at the corral.
“Leah has been trying to reach you. She has tried everywhere. Clint called her, and she says that she needs to talk to you as soon as yesterday!” Krysta nearly shouted. “What if he has come up with some way for you to use the saliva?” Her irritated demeanor instantly faded, and she started bouncing around excitedly.
Theo stood up from a shovel, and he and I looked at each other. All three of us started heading towards the house. Theo and I were peeling our gloves and boots off on our way. When we got inside, Theo and I each headed for our phones. Sure enough, both of us had multiple missed calls from Charlie, Leah, and Kennedi.
“I’ll try Leah directly,” I told Theo. I dialed Leah’s number, and she picked up on the first ring.
“What the hell, Clark!” was how she answered the phone. Leah was not one to swear very often.
“Theo and I were building the corral. Our phones were inside,” I offered a quick explanation. “What is going on? Krysta said that you got a call from Clint?”
“Yes!” Leah yelled into the phone.
“Well, what did he say?” I spat out.
“That he needs to talk to us right away. He is on the way here right now!” she told me.
“Where is here, Leah?” I had never heard her so jazzed up.
“UFT offices,” she shot back. “How long until
you can get here?
“Twenty minutes.” That would give Theo and I each five minutes to shower, and ten to get to her office.
“Hurry up!” Leah hung up the phone. I toss my phone on the dining room table on my way to the bathroom. Theo was standing in the living room, just getting off his call to Bev. He gave me a surprised look.
“Mind if I jump in your shower?” I asked him. I knew the answer was yes, but I still always offered up the question as a courtesy.
“You’ve got five minutes. I told Bev we would be at Leah’s offices in twenty minutes,” he called me as I walked down the hallway.
“Great minds think alike!” I hollered back.
“This great mind is going to sit right here and wait on you slow gentleman!” Krysta joked, walking into the living room.
Nineteen minutes later, Theo, Krysta, and I walked through the door to UsForThem. Clint, Charlie, Leah, and Rosie were seated around the coffee table just to the right of the entryway. They looked up at us when we walked in.
“I swear, don’t ever get a pregnant wife, Clark! You would miss your child being born to dig up a post hole!” Leah told me as we walked over and took seats next to them. While her voice sounded serious, I could tell that she was half-joking by the slight grin she had. I leaned across the coffee table and shook Clint’s hand.
“I really hope that I am happy to see you today,” I told him lightheartedly. There was a heaviness to the air, and I did not feel the need to add to it by automatically assuming the news he brought was bad.
“I am not saying a word until everybody is here!” Clint insisted. Two minutes later, Bev and Kennedi showed up. Once they were seated, Clint found himself with eight pairs of eyes on him.
