Two years later...
"Miss Pearl?"
"Yes?"
"It is ten o'clock. We can start the interviews."
"Thank you Marie, could you get the first one in."
...
"Good Morning."
"Good Morning. It is a pleasure to meet you."
"Thank you and your name is?"
"Elizabeth Comstock."
"So Elizabeth Comstock... you are applying for the open position as a French teacher, starting next term?"
"Yes, I am."
"St. George's all-girls school is in dire need of a new teacher, since our last one suddenly quit her job to be able to move to the U.S. and make a living there. Even though... we only take people with the right skills and the right mindset to educate our precious girls."
"I understand."
"Ok, then let's start with the first question. What makes you think that you are fitting for our position, Miss Comstock?"
"I lived the last two years in Paris as a professional translator - First privately hired, later as an official translator for the U.S. Embassy."
"That is quite impressive. Second question: "...
Elizabeth was tired. For more than one hour, Miss Pearl asked her questions about her educational and private background. That woman seemed eager to explore her whole life. The bad thing was that it was mostly made up. Nobody would believe anything about Rapture or Columbia or that she was officially more than 60 years old. These were these unexplainable things that usually kept her from interacting too much with other people. Luckily the time spend in Paris was the truth and could be confirmed by actual documents.
Right now she was simply sitting next to the school building and enjoying the sun in the schoolyard. St. George was a beautiful school and looked more like a castle than an actual teaching facility. It was build in 1452 and became a school 30 years ago, after the owner couldn't afford it anymore and sold the whole estate to the town.
Elizabeth heard of the job interviews some time ago and was still be able to apply for it. It was interesting, but Elizabeth only wanted to get over with it. What did Robert and Rosalind think when they told her to be here? There was nothing here. She scouted the town for a month and everybody just seemed to be normal, except the little girls, who were totally adorable in their red and green school uniforms. At this time, they were already in class.
"Not so fast! Stop it, Sally! You forgot your lunch!"
"I am late! Hurry up!"
From the entrance of the schoolyard came a little girl and a man running. They both seemed exhausted and stopped right in front of the building.
"I said stop Sally! You made me run with you the whole way. I have to be at work by now."
"You forgot to wake me up and today we are going to present our class project. I don't want to be late."
"I did wake you up, but you kept falling asleep. No reading after 11pm anymore. You need sleep. Here is your lunch."
"Thanks dad."
Elizabeth witnessed the whole scene and couldn't bring herself not to smile. Both of them hadn't notice her, up until that point, but the girl suddenly turned to her. She looked a lot like...
Sally.
It was definitely Sally. Elizabeth went through hell to get her to a safe place and even though Sally was older now, Elizabeth recognized her immediately. But if that was Sally, the man next to her was... She remembered again.
Sally shortly looked at Elizabeth and then moved on to the school building. Elizabeth looked after her till Sally opened the door and got inside.
"I am sorry, but are you ok?"
"..."
Elizabeth hadn't realized that the man stood right in front of her. She must have been distracted by Sally.
"... Ah yes. Yes. I am okay. Thank you for asking."
"But aren't you crying?"
"Am I?"
Elizabeth touched her face and her fingers were wet. When did she start crying?
"It seems, I am. But you don't need to worry. I am actually quite happy right now."
"That is good... oh I am sorry for my rudeness. I am Jack, Jack Ryan."
Elizabeth stood up.
"It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Elizabeth Comstock. I am applying here for the open position as a French teacher."
"I hope you get the job."
"Thank you. It is a wonderful school. It would be great if I could teach here."
"I know. All of my girls are attending this school. It is not cheap but they always smile when they come back home."
"All?"
"It seems you are not from this town."
"No..."
"I am somewhat famous here. All of my five daughters are attending this school at the same time. The other four arrived here on time, but Sally tends to oversleep. Buying groceries with 5 daughters - all of them wearing the towns most prestige school's uniform - makes you somewhat of an attraction."
"I can imagine your wife is as happy as the children are."
"I am not married."
"..."
"Oh... don't worry. I am not a widower. I got into some weird circumstances and decided to adopt my girls. They were all orphans, but I could not leave them alone. Since then, I never married. Raising five girls keeps you pretty occupied."
"Yeah... Rapture took a toll on all of us."
"What did you say?"
