Chapter 2
"And so we're going out for dinner tomorrow night!" Dal finished, excitedly, sitting down at the kitchen table of his flat with a large bowl of rather oddly coloured noodles.
"I still can't believe you just walked up there and asked her out!" Amber replied, aghast, "You know, in some cultures, you could be shot for that!"
"Yes, Amber, I know," Dal said, with the tired air of one replying for the umpteenth time to a persistent child; then, shaking his head, he added, "I sometimes wonder if you picked the right modules to go along with that politics course!"
"Every good politician must be able to... to empathise with the beliefs and customs of other countries."
"And does every good politician need a good understanding of alternative medicine too?"
"Hey, you never know when that might come in handy! Health is one of the big issues in politics!"
"Just don't try and poison me with you amateur decoctions or whatever!"
Amber wrinkled her nose and raised her eyebrows at this as she watched Dal add his favoured tomato ketchup to his plate.
"I'm getting along really well in that course, I don't know why you don't trust me! Besides, I have a great lab partner and she really knows her stuff. She wouldn't let me poison my flatmate."
"Or anyone else, I hope!" Dal added, cheerfully stuffing the, rather unique, combination of food into his mouth.
"I swear: if this world disappeared tomorrow, as long as you had ketchup, you would eat anything!"
XXXX
"How's that programme doing?" Ved asked as Jack stepped over to the water fountain for a break.
They had been in the lab for most of the day, although they had been allowed an hour long break for lunch. It was a large lab for such a small group and, when Jack had asked if they were the only ones using it, he had been told that an IT class from another college would be sharing the lab with them. Further questions proved that the class in question were mostly journalism students in the middle of a project, whose only classes, for their IT module, had had to be moved to the Polytechnic College as their own lecturer had taken compassionate leave for two weeks. Satisfied with his investigative powers, Jack had returned to his computer and reported all this to Ved at the earliest opportunity.
"Getting there," Jack replied, taking a sip of the cold water the machine had produced, "It's fairly standard stuff, really: just time consuming!"
"I know what you mean!" Ved rolled his eyes, "I know we're just starting, but surely they could give us something more challenging than this!"
"The idea, my young friends, is not to challenge you," the group leader in charge of Jack and Ved's group cut in, "But to find out what you know, what your strengths are, and how fast you are."
The young man had spoken slowly and calmly, with the air of one who is used to leadership and command. Something about him, though, made Jack dislike him. He was of a tall, slim build with messy, dark hair, expressive eyes and a condescending turn to his, rather oversized, mouth. Seeing Jack's hesitancy, Ved stepped in to introduce the young man.
"Jack, this is a friend of my brother's, Ramsey MacDonald," Ved said as the group leader, who, so far, had done nothing more than shepherd them into a lab and give them their tasks, extended his hand, "But he prefers to be called Ram."
XXXX
"Oh, you are kidding me!" Ellie cried, drawing her sister through from the other room.
Ellie had insisted on spending the rest of the day indoors, unpacking and tidying up. Alice was well aware of her sister's transformation into the mud-shy city girl, but she let it go, reminding herself that Ellie was as often a hindrance as a help! Now she found her younger sister seated in front of her laptop, reading her e-mails and blowing on her newly painted nails. It was not the fist exclamation of disbelief to emanate from the small room now used as a study and Alice was certain it would not be the last.
"What's up?" Alice asked, out of habit and duty rather than any wish to actually know what new triviality was about to ruin her sister's life.
"They've allocated us to different colleges! I have to go to the Tech! It's because of that stupid computer course they made me take: the Tech is the only college with enough free computers to house our computer class while Doctor Gordon is away! Why couldn't they just give us a couple of weeks off! Now we have to share a room with a bunch of geeks!"
XXXX
Lex lay on his bed and sighed. He had been going over the events of the day. He really did owe Ryan so much: he was a true friend. When all other 'friends' had deserted him, Ryan had remained, steadfast and true. Now, when so much of the outer world had moved on around him, Ryan still remained, welcoming him back to reality and the outer world with open arms and almost brotherly friendship.
He remembered, with painful accuracy, the events of two years ago. It was at the rehearsal dinner for Ryan and Zandra's wedding. He could remember how happy everyone was and how beautiful Zandra had looked. He could remember the whole thing going swimmingly right up until he had got up to give his speech. He could remember the look on Ryan's face when the police had barged in and rushed right up to the top table, surrounding him as he began his Best Man's speech with the usual, clichéd phrases as if each word were a deadly weapon. That face, it's expression so tired and let down, was etched in his memory forever.
He pulled down the photo from the otherwise bare wall of his cell. It was a photo of Zandra. She was wearing a gorgeous light blue dress that accentuated all her good points and made her look beautiful. Lex smiled at it. The picture, unable to do anything else, smiled back. As Lex shifted his position on the thin, hard mattress, his fingers caught the other half of the picture, folded back and out of sight. With a guilty sigh, Lex glanced at the figure on the hidden half, then folded the photo back into it's usual state and stuck it, firmly, back onto the wall.
XXXX
"Honey, I'm home," Martin called, with forced cheerfulness for Brady's sake.
The only answer he received was the sound of distant laughter and giggling: his wife and his daughter. Presuming them to be playing in the lounge, he discarded his coat and briefcase and hurried through, relaxing at the thought of a happy, family evening. Halfway down the hall, however, he stopped, hearing a third voice added to the scene: Bray's.
Feeling the anger, which he so frequently fought to repress, boiling up inside him, Martin stormed down the hall corridor to the lounge. He stopped at the door, surveying the scene before him: there was a game of Twister in full swing, which Brady seemed to be winning while her mother teetered to and fro in a very unsteady position. At last, Trudy's balance gave way and she toppled over, much to the delight of her daughter, who had thus won the game.
What enraged Martin most, however, was not that his brother was there, playing the games he should have been playing with his wife and daughter, but rather Bray's reaction at this point. Bray had been sitting, cross legged on the floor, with his back to the lounge door, in charge of the spinner that dictated the moves of the game. When Trudy, forced into a precarious position, had lost her balance, she had fallen directly into her brother-in-law's lap. Bray had caught her impulsively and she now half sat, half lay, in his arms gazing up at him and giggling like a child. In turn, he gazed down at her, also laughing. Trudy's girlish giggles were suddenly cut off, however, by Brady's enthusiastic and excited cry of "Daddy!" as the child got up and ran to meet her father.