Anna huddled on the ground, shivering with… she wasn't sure. Withdrawal, maybe? After all, she had stopped taking the pills today, mainly because they made her feel clouded. Now, she wished that she hadn't been so rash. After all, she still felt clouded; the difference was that the cumulonimbi in her mind now seemed scary and dangerous, charged with the lightning of things she couldn't remember.
She wanted to call Elaine, but she felt as though once she stood up, she would sway and sink into the floor. Pausing for a moment to question that idea, she realized that she was crying.
A blond man walked into the room. Recognizing him, she made an effort to smile, but the intended gesture came out as a grimace. He was a colleague of hers, a talented young engineer. He stared at her for an eternal minute, unsure of what to do.
"Call my husband," she whispered. "He'll know what to do." The youth started to object, then thought better of it and left.
Twenty minutes later, Mark followed the man back into the room. He was asking for the reason for his presence. After all, non-engineers weren't allowed in this area and-
He stopped short, ending his query mid-sentence. Recovering himself, he advanced towards his wife. "Anna," he said soothingly. "It's all right. How about we get you home and I cook dinner, OK?" He continued to mumble calm things as he wrapped his arm around the sobbing woman and lifted her to her feet. Anna gratefully clung to him, ignoring, for the moment, his inquisitive, frightened glances at the machinery around them.
…
Anna was curled up on the couch, covered by a blanket and digging through a carton of cookie-dough ice cream with a spoon. She could hear Mark washing dishes in the kitchen. The sink turned off and Mark reentered the room, his footsteps muffled by his stockings. He sat down in the chair across from her and watched her for a moment, smiling softly.
Finally, he broke the silence. "Do you want to talk about it? I mean, I'd understand if you didn't, but…" He trailed off awkwardly.
"I… I'm not really sure. I hadn't taken my pill today. It makes me a little unfocused. Anyway, I've felt kind of sick and weird all day, and then, when I was working, someone mentioned Aviva and I-I-"
"You what?" His eyes had hardened and she felt a twinge of… something.
"I just started crying. I don't know why." There was another silence, more awkward than the last.
"I've stopped seeing Aviva. I don't know why, but it seemed… wrong, somehow." She smiled a little.
"Come here." As soon as he got within reach, she pulled him close to her and kissed his forehead. He chuckled and leaned back in his chair.
"Anna?"
"Yes, Mark?"
"I was just wondering… what were those machines doing there?"
"I'm not allowed to tell you." She grinned cheekily, but Mark's thoughtful frown only deepened.
"Anna, this is important." There was a slight warning note in his voice. She figured that she might as well tell him.
"We build them. I don't know why."
"You don't know?!" He rose to his feet, growing more agitated by the second. "How could you not know, or even be curious, or-"
"Mark! Settle down! What are you so afraid of?"
He looked at her as if she had lost her mind. "What am I afraid of? What if they're stockpiling for another war? Who knows who we'll be fighting if we need that many tanks, and were those bombs?!"
"Mark, sweetie, what are you talking about? Tanks? Bombs? War? You're making things up!" Her expression softened into one of gentle concern. "I can see that you're a little frightened by this afternoon. Maybe you should go lie down."
"Anna, what are you… ? What have they done to you?" The realization that she genuinely didn't know what he was saying felt like a tray of ice cubes dumped down his collar.
"They? There's no 'they.'" A note of irritation crept into her voice. "You're just being paranoid. Now come on. You should get some rest." She smiled gently and patted his knee. He wordlessly got up and accompanied her to bed.
