Waiting by Erin Dennington ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 52 Stella saw the look on Christina's face and tried to break the mood. "Yeah, I know, I am different from you all. If you stab me, I won�t bleed. I�m made of rice." Christina looked puzzled, so Stella quipped, "I'm Asian. Asian people eat rice all the time. It's just a joke. I'm still me." Stella dropped onto a chair next to Christina and wrapped her arms around herself. She looked around, taking in the contemporary, yet professional, decor, obviously searching for Davis. "He went to go call his wife," Christina said, not looking up from her papers. "Oh," Stella said, leaning back. She stretched her legs out in front of her; the only sign of her anxiety being her leg that would not stop bouncing. Davis entered the office at the same time that Bill and another man came through the waiting room door. Stella caught Bill's eye as he came in the room, thinking how cute he was, and she blushed. Here she was, in Dc for only a limited amount of time, and checking out the first cute guy to cross her path. She didn't berate herself too much when she realized that he was returning the attention. "He's what? 25? 26?" she thought to herself. "Not too bad, I guess, but Mom and Dad will kill me if they knew." Stifling those thoughts, she turned her full attention to Davis, who seemed to always capture her attention, whether she wanted that or not. She sensed that, deep inside of Davis, there lurked the answer to the events that were going on around her, spiraling out of control. She sensed that he held a clue to the mysterious events of the afternoon; his lack of amazement both when she'd called him and when he saw her arm strongly upheld this belief. "Right," the guy with Bill said. "Once again the women aren't helping out." He set a box down on the ground and sat down, taking his cue from Bill, who had also seated himself upon entering the room. Christina laughed, her cheeks a faint rosy hue. Stella wondered if she was attracted to this man, even though she was already married and had kids, but then decided it didn't matter. It was none of her business. "Well, now that all of you are here, we can watch the movie that Bill brought me before we do this interview of his," Davis said, striding across the room and popping in the video. Standing against the wall, he took in those assembled in front of him. Stella steadily met his gaze when he looked at her and she found that she was unable to look away. This time, a voice seemed to appear from out of nowhere and spoke to her. "Yes," it said, "you are the one and he will help you." Startled, she broke her gaze away from Davis and searched the room for the voice but found no one. She frowned, a little line marring her forehead, and sank deeper into the seat cushion. She sensed that Davis was still watching her, but an icy hand seemed to have reached into her very being to slowly squeeze her heart. She was too afraid to look up again and meet his gaze, so she turned her head towards the television instead, where everyone else's eyes were fastened. The cut-line appeared at the bottom of the screen. It read, "MIT, Boston, Massachusetts, May 31, 2000." Above those words they saw nothing but a black screen, but they could hear a buzzing sound. Marty jumped when a close-up image showed an insect, magnified thousands of times. They watched the screen in silence, the blue green light flickering on their faces. 12:47 - 11.18.02 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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