Chapter 6
Suspicious Minds

Leif was indeed. He had been silent during the exchange about the tape. He wondered that one of the others had not noticed the error. The video was a high quality color. The original was a low quality black and white. Even if it had been in color it still would have been low quality. Something was indeed strange where Toni Nelson was concerned.

That gave him an idea. When lunch rolled around he went by Toni's office. "Had lunch?" he asked with a pleasant expression.

"No," she seemed cautious.

"I was going just down the street. Care to join me?" she bit the end of her pen in thought before answering.

"I suppose," she nodded slipping into her coat.

When they had settled in and ordered their meals he turned his attention on her fully. He wanted to know what the oddity about her was. He had to know to satisfy his curiosity. "How did you know there was another tape in that safe? Placid didn't and I'm sure he searched it."

"I didn't," she replied, lifting her shoulder in a half shrug.

"What made you think I had the Johnson file the other day, when I knew I didn't?"

"Am I on trial Counselor?" she half teased, but he could see a cloud gathering on her brow.

"No," he shook his head as the waitress handed him a red basket filled with French fires and a hamburger. He unfolded his napkin and waited while Toni lifted the top of her bun and took off the pickles. "There's just something odd about you, Toni, and I'd like to know what it is."

"Odd?" she laughed. "What could be odd about me?"

"Strange things happen around you. Change pours out of vending machines, my papers appear where they shouldn't, a woman with no assets has the money to employ a lawyer for her son and…" he hesitated. "A low-quality black-and-white tape turns into a high-quality color tape."

"It was?" surprise flickered across her face. This was exactly the kind of reaction he wanted to get from her. He was sure now that she had something to do with the tape! She caught herself and continued, "It was. Maybe someone made a duplicate."

"Who? You? And if you did, how did you change the quality and the color?"

"It wasn't me!" she seemed flustered. She tossed her napkin down. "You don't seem to have much liking for me, Mr. Yahn, you seem to want to trap me into something, though I don't know what. And I'm just not hungry now." She rose, handed him the amount to pay for her meal and left.

When he arrived back at the office she was gone. She had signed out for the day. He sighed. His confrontation had not gone well. He wanted to know about her oddities, but strangely she had begun to grow on him as a friend he realized with suddenness. He was, in a way, drawn to her oddities, both in finding out about them and understanding her.

At home Toni threw off her shoes and purse. She felt a snowstorm of emotions and confusion swirling around her. Leif's questions had upset her and she felt terribly uncomfortable. How had she allowed herself to be so careless? It was not like her at all.

"I think I'll go lay down for a while," she told the empty room. "I'm just tired, that's all." She looked at her bed. It was comfortable, but, while she would hardly admit it, she had begun to feel a need and sense of security when close to her bottle. She still did not feel comfortable inside it, but on a couple of occasions she had spent the night inside of it, keeping the clear, glass stopper hidden in a jewelry box.

She blinked into her usually attire and looked at the frosted blue bottle. It was not the same blue, but it complemented the silk she wore. There were fluted edges along the wider bottom and little colored gemstones were set in the middle of each of them. There were carvings of vines and little flowers that were painted in pinks and purples like the colored pieces on her jacket.

With an impulsive decision she blinked and she turned into blue smoke that reappeared inside the bottle. The inside of the bottle was more ornate than the outside with a sparkling gold paint undercoat with navy blue lines at each crevasse where the flutes were. On either side of the blue line was an intricate pattern of pink gems with white painting around them. A navy blue cushioned couch formed a circle around the edge of the bottle. A small table where a lamp was located was in the middle and several old books and scrolls were kept in a neat little wooden box. Those were books and scrolls about genie laws.

With a yawn, Toni glanced up at the hole. She could easily see the ceiling of her apartment. She crawled onto the couch and was instantly asleep. In her state of confusion and fatigue she had forgotten that today was Muriel's day to clean.

An hour later the housekeeper arrived, unaware that Toni was home. She hummed as she went about her usual cleaning tasks. When she was dusting in the curtained off bedroom she noticed a glass knobbed object lying in an open jewelry box. "So that's where it is," she picked up the object and turned it over in her hand. She wondered what it was doing there instead of stopping up that blue bottle.

She took up the bottle and placed the stopper on it solidly. Satisfied that she had accomplished something, she continued to sweep the floors and clean them. Toni had felt the movement of her bottle in her slumber, but when she had peered up she had still seen daylight so she had fallen back into a deep sleep

The next morning Leif had arrived at work at his usual time and headed to Toni's office. He had not felt very good about himself that night. He had begun to feel that it was really none of his business what made Toni odd. None of the oddities had harmed anyone, so why should he be so cruel to her when it obviously upset her?

When he walked in it was empty. He returned to the main open area and found Darlene. "Have you seen Toni this morning?" he asked.

Darlene thought for a moment. "You know? I haven't. That's strange for her. Do you think she's sick?"

"I don't think she was feeling too well yesterday afternoon," he responded absently. For the rest of the morning, in between his work, he made a thorough investigation and found that she was not there, nor had she called in. It was very odd indeed.

He managed to get a hold of her personnel files and found her phone number. He called and got her answering machine.

In her bottle, Toni could hear the phone ringing. It sounded muffled and further away than usual. She yawned, still half asleep and blinked herself out. She was expecting herself to inmaterialize into blue smoke but…nothing happened. She stared down at her normal, solid self. She tried again, but to no avail. At first it did not occur to her what this meant. She thought something must have been wrong.

Then she remembered, and with remembrance her heart skipped a beat and her legs felt weak under the dead weight of her body. Her breathing quickened, her face began to flush, her heart raced, her thoughts jumbled together as she frantically tried to blink again and again. She stood in the middle of her bottle staring up at the hole where light still filtered through the glass stopper, her mouth hanging open in disbelief at what was happening to her.

It was impossible that this could happen. She had always been so careful. "Oh dear!" she cried out as she fell, wearily into her couch. The small space of her bottle began to grow smaller as panic filled her being. She got up and began pacing around the circle of her bottle bottom. She analyzed her options, but there were no options. She was totally and completely trapped inside her bottle, the object of her heritage.

"You have to stay calm," she tried to tell herself every time panic struck. She took deep breaths and tried to clear her mind. "Perhaps Glenda will pop by this afternoon," she thought aloud. But then again, what would make her think to check the bottle? She might assume that she were still at work, or had gone out for something.

Well, at least she could find solace in the fact that Glenda would not assume that she had gone out on a date. To the store perhaps, but that still did not help her chances of escaping the confines of her shrinking bottle.

Work. She had not thought about it until that moment. Surely someone there had noticed that she was not there at her usual time and she had not called in. They would know something was wrong and would contact her Aunt Carrie. That was her emergency contact. Perhaps it was someone from there who had just called.

Slowly, the hours droned by. Toni felt as if she would go crazy if she had to stay within the confines of the bottle much longer. Though she could not "smoke out" of her bottle she could turn herself into smoke and she had, investigating every crevasse small enough to fit through…but she was sealed within.

Every so often the phone rang again. She could hear it faintly. Finally, whoever was calling let the answering machine pick up. She strained trying to hear the voice.

"Toni? – pause – Toni? This is Leif. Where are you? I can't get you at home, or your cell number. I've tried to get a hold of Glenda, but I can't find KD and I've tried your emergency contact, but Carrie Gilford must not be at home. If you're there will you please pick up? – pause – Then when you get this message would you please call me at the office?"

She heard the beep of the machine as he hung up. She sighed as she sank into a plush, silky pillow. Her mind had gone over and over ways in which to release herself from her bottle, but there was no way in which to do it. She sincerely hoped that Leif kept trying to get in touch with her Aunt Carrie. If Aunt Carrie found out that she had not been to work all day and had not called anyone, she would know what was wrong. For that matter if her Uncle Buck or Gerald or Glenda found out.

She closed her eyes and her mind began to flash pictures in her imagination. She could just see Leif getting worried and calling the police. She could see them storming her apartment looking for her. She could see them finding the bottle and opening it and she having to become their servant.

Worse still, she saw Leif opening the bottle!

Her heart began to pound. She had to do something. She stood and began pacing the circle again. Waves of panic washed over her and she fought them off, but quickly they returned. Ideas popped into her head and were quickly discarded. Nothing she thought of was feasibly possible for her escape. Only someone from the outside opening her bottle could free her from her prison.

She only hoped that it would be a member of her family.

Finally, exhausted she sank into her couch and buried her face in her hands. She had to resign herself to whatever would happen. There was nothing more she could do to stop it. If only she had not been so foolish to pop into her bottle in the first place, or if she had hidden the glass cork better. So much could have been different!

(To Be Continued…)