NORBAC 11

I was astonished by Mayko's condo. She had photo voltaic panels on her roof, which angled perfectly to catch the light. Recessed areas contained windmills that produced electricity and where most people have rain gutters, she had a water system channeling snowmelt into her plumbing. I stood with my mouth open, staring at what she had created.

"Wait until you see the bathroom, Maura—digesting toilet and all." I turned and beamed at Rachel.

"Hi. This is amazing! Wait a minute—a digesting toilet like the ones originally designed by Ram Bux Shing? Is the methane gas recycled?" Mayko nodded. I dropped my luggage where I stood. "I am officially bowled over. How did you keep your pipes from bursting?"

"Oh no, Mayko is really enthused about that, and by really enthused, I mean an hour, minimum." Rachel made a face.

Mayko laughed., "Hey, I'm just proud of my cousin, Tony. He invented my roof runoff, snowmelt system and it is genius."

Mayko took a deep breath, and I braced myself. Mayko Tran never met a statistic she didn't love quoting.

"This system can alternate from rainwater to snowmelt catchment at the turn of this knob. Snow packs will generally provide 3% to 4% water which runs through a gravity fed line to a filtration system. Antibacterial and anti-fungal chemicals are added and the water is stored in a large cold water tank, triple-insulated., and can be moved as needed into a normal household water heater. Since urban spaces absorb such a small percentage of rain water, and snowmelt in the spring, they ordinarily add to spring flooding if we don't use more catchment systems, especially as there are increasing..."

My eyes were growing heavy, and I was finally understanding Jane's complaints about my love of statistics. I lost track somewhere between the formulas for the impact of each home snowmelt and rainwater catchment system on spring flooding in Canada compared to Sweden, and their role in restoring groundwater. Mayko was still talking when I felt my head jerk. Had I actually fallen asleep standing up? I hadn't done that since I was an intern.

"Mayko, snap out of it, your guest is asleep on her feet—literally."

Mayko blinked, came out of her trance and reddened. "Ooops. Let's get you into bed. Come on."

I followed her down the hall.

"The bathroom is in here.", she pointed and kept walking. By now I was dragging my luggage and myself. "Here is your room. It's kind of my personal cave, so it's a bit cluttered.

Books covered every available surface , along with three computers sharing a single large screen. Stuffed into a corner was the object of my desire—a single bed.

Clean sheets were neatly folded on top. Mayko took one glance at me, shoved some books onto the floor and gestured toward the newly empty chair.

"Rest. I'll make the bed. You won't get hospital corners, but it will be clean."

I closed my eyes, just resting them.

"Maura. The bed is made. I'll leave you to it, okay?"

I opened my eyes. The shock of the clutter ran through me. But I was so tired, I just crawled into bed after kicking my shoes off.

By the time I opened my eyes, it was light outside and the sun was shining on the snow. No one else was up yet, so I enjoyed the shower and dressed for work, then, because I couldn't stand it another second, I tackled Mayko's personal cave. If there didn't seem to be a common theme to the book piles, I shelved them. Otherwise, I stuck my personal cards in where books had been left open, and stacked them in piles according to whatever it looked as if Mayko was researching. I was nearly finished when I heard voices.

"Coffee...need coffee now..." Rachel sounded like a zombie from a bad movie Jane once talked me into watching. I went into the kitchen.

"Hey, you're alive again.", chirruped Mayko.

"Thank you for all of your help yesterday. I had no idea how tired I was."

Rachel was drinking coffee, when Mayko glanced over at me and squealed, "Oh my God, He proposed! You're engaged!"

I couldn't help but wave my left hand. It was a very pretty ring. Rachel's eyes widened.

"That woke me up. It's quite a rock."

"His daughter picked it out. She has exquisit taste."

"I knew you were in for an exciting week..." then Mayko clapped one hand over her mouth.

"Nice going, chatty Kathy."

"May...ko. Did you know Jack was going to propose? Have you been talking to him?" I wasn't angry, but I was starting to wonder about a few things.

"He called for you, and you were in Ottawa, so I took a message, and, I was, um, curious—so we got talking? and then whenever he called we'd talk for a while? So, when he called and told me he wanted to propose and asked me to help get you to Boston...Ummm, the rest is history?"

Rachel poked Mayko in her ribs. "That BC accent is lose again."

I couldn't help myself, Mayko looked and sounded like a child caught eating cookies before dinner. I laughed, while Mayko looked relieved.

"So we're okay?"

"Yes, of course. So, you talked David into giving me a week in Boston?"

"Yes, and he grumped and huffed and puffed, but finally gave in."

"Thanks for doing that. And you told Rachel?"

"No, I overheard her trying to persuade David."

Just then I glanced at my watch, "Shouldn't we head into work?"

TBC