NaNoWriMo first week of Nov
Maggie stirred in her restless slumber. Edwin came to himself again, slightly dazed from his unexpected mind wanderings. He had been doing that a lot lately. Questioning his calling, his life purpose, wondering of the alchemy was worth a sick twin sister.
Maggie turned to him and opened her eyes slowly. Edwin straightened up in his chair. He didn’t think he made a noise. He looked around to see if he kicked something or moved something to make a noise. He didn’t want to disturb her!
Maggie smiled at him, a pale, wan smile. “You didn’t make a sound, dearheart.” She said simply.
Edwin looked back to her face. “Oh. Um. Good.” He didn’t know why he felt so ackward. He liked that she was smiling, though. She always smiled. He always looked blankly out onto the world, and that was only when he wasn’t frowning.
Maggie spoke again. “I knew when you came in the door. No, “ she stared, when Edwin drew in a breath for an apology for moving the door and making a noise. “no, you didn’t wake me up. I was just lying here, thinking, dozing, dreaming.” She trailed off.
“Oh. I didn’t know you were awake. I would have said something.”
“I know. I just wanted your presence, not your mouth.” She smiled again, strained this time. “I was thinking of colors.”
Edwin blinked. Of course she was. She was always thinking of colors and spectrums and clouds and art. She was more than an art teacher, she embodied art. And Edwin embodied science - both twins excelling at their chosen fields and diametrically opposite each other. Maggie always could bridge the gap between then, but Edwin never tried. He saw the connection that Maggie desired as hopeless and didn’t waste his time. Or hers, he thought.
“And you were thinking of all the changes in your little part of the world. In your brain and heart.” Maggie continued.
Edwin widened his eyes. “How did you…”
Maggie chucked quietly. “You could never hear me, could you? You were afraid of human contact, of human, messy, uncontrollable, random, and most of all unpredictable human contact. So much so that you could never hear me.”
Edwin shook his head. “You can’t ‘hear’ hear me, that’s impossible. But I don’t know how you do it, anyway.”
Maggie sighed. “Oh, you’re right in a way. I don’t ‘hear’ you in my brain, per say. What I do is see. I see your face, your body, your movements, your lack of movements, the look in your eyes and the look of your mouth. I can read you, better than a book, and I can ‘hear’ you in my brain. My brain interprets all that input and translates it into speech in my head.” Maggie shifted in her bed, looking and failing to find a better position. “It’s always been easier to call it, hearing you, or imply I’m reading your mind than explain it. But I see now that I should have explained it as soon as I realized what I was doing, unconsciously. It disappointed me, because mind reading sounds so cool, but the factors at work in my brain, that picks up all the minute of all a person’s presence, to know what is doing on with the other person, the way the brain can actually work with practice.”
Maggie paused, gasped for air. She was getting excited, talking about things that fascinated her. Edwin leap up to the edge of her bed.
“Are you okay? Do you need water or something?” Edwin looked around, disparately.
Maggie closed her eyes and regulated her breathing back to a bit of normalcy. “No, no, I’m,” pause, “just over doing it.”
“ I talk to much.” She said simply.
Edwin just looked down at her, incredulous look on his face. He took a small step back and threw his head back. And laughed. And laughed. So hard he cried.
Confused, but amused, Maggie smiled up at him.
Edwin started to regulate his breathing too. “Haah, hee. Oh, good Lord, is that the understatement of the millennia!”
“Glad to amuse you, dear. “ Maggie said, smirking. She continued. ‘Now, as I was saying..”
Edwin interrupted her. “Yeah, saying.” He turned partway around, pulled his chair to him and sat down. “What happened to the quiet, uh, contemplation?”
“I felt like taking. And freaking you out again by ‘reading your mind’. Like that isn’t a short read.” She reminded him of more simple days gone by, of teasing each others intellectual gifts and playful insults. A trait, Edwin realized, that was passed down to her daughter Miriam and her de facto daughter Amanda.
He never got it. Never understood how that was a loving thing to do.
“But you never wanted to try” said Maggie.
Edwin just looked at her. He thought, loudly to himself, “Can you hear me now?” He couldn’t help himself, he smiled in challenge.
“Yes, I can here you know, you goof. And yes, it is a loving thing to do. Not hard, not with cruel truth, but in love. And you never got it. And I’m sorry about that.”
Edwin half smiled. “Yeah, well. I managed.”
“Managed to get yourself in this glorious Tower of yours.”
“Heh, yeah,” Edwin agreed, looking around the room. Even he could feel the chill of the room, what the colors felt like. Maybe he was picking up some of Maggie’s expressions, but he could feel the sadness that this pale color generated. He always thought, if and when he ever actually thought about color, that blue was a clean, clear color. Like the sky. The blue sky. He liked the clear and simple color. But this blue on the walls wasn’t right. It looked flat. Maybe dead.
Edwin blinked again, looked at his sister.
“Yeah, could you do something about that? The color of the walls? I mean, I like blue and all but this just looks drained. Like I feel. Blah.”
Edwin nodded. “ Yes, yes of course. We can. I can. I know that I can even find a psych to approve it, why paint these rooms this depressing color…” he stopped. “Heh, I’m doing it too, I suppose. Reading your body language and expressions.”
Maggie smiled again. “You always could. You never let yourself.”
=========
Thomas snuck a vial of blood from Maggie, right under the nurse’s nose. Didn’t hurt that the nurse was rather cute. Even though he was in a committed relationship didn’t mean he couldn’t admire the scenery, his dad always said. Of course, come to think about it, right after he would say that, Dad would be conked in the head by his mother.
No Calledon woman would take that kind of nonsense. But, they also knew their husbands.
Thomas had taken a drop of blood from the vial and dabbed it under his microscope. He had to wait for the electron microscope, and for that he had to prepare fake test samples to view for people to see him working with, before he could get Maggie’s blood underneath the scope.
But he wanted a peek.
He looked down into the scope. He saw a few of the tiniest black specs that he had ever seen that were still moving. In fact, they may have just been a blur and he could only see the after image of the tiny robots.
He smiled down the scope. Robots were the term that was coined early in the 1900s, or late 1800s, to mean an a worker, a laboriously working worker. Wow, that’s an epic history fail, he amused. He couldn’t remember what sci-fi play or what that was. But, in any case, tiny robots.
He couldn’t wait for the electron microscope much longer. He destroyed the slide, re-labeled the veil to something innocuous, and started preparing some tomato crop slides.
==========
Madeline came in his lab a few minutes later.
“How are you doing today? You got the stuff you need?” she asked brightly.
“Yep, honey, I’ve got all the love I need. “
She stepped the rest of the way to him, embraced him. He scooted her off his right arm and still held on with his left. He kissed the side of her head. She leaned into his side and looked down.
“What’s that?” She asked.
“A microscope. Ow.”
Thomas thought that Madeline would make a great Calledon woman. She already didn’t take his crap and gave it right back. Physically, if need be. Also, with desire if need me.
She rolled her eyes. “Ha. Got some love there, too, didn’t ya?” She looked at him briefly, and back down to the scope.
“Yep.” He said simply.
He couldn’t believe the simplicity of her suggestion that, to hide from any sensors or bugs that they could not disengage without suspicion, to refer anything having to do with Maggie with the word “love.” It fit. It fit Maggie to a T, also, since everyone else knew they were in love, a bit of gratuitous use of the word wouldn’t bat much of an eyelash. Besides, they were both creative with the word. You could make it mean almost anything anyway, such as an short English word overburdened with too much meaning.
Of course, they did have Greek to fall back on if need be. But there doesn’t seem to be the need, yet. Not until they are deeper into this mystery of the nanites and what they were doing and what, specifically, they were doing to Maggie.
“Do you see any love today?” Asked Madeline.
Thomas smiled, “Besides on your face? No, not yet.” He bent his head and nuzzled under her ear. “Waiting for Electro” calling that piece of equipment by it’s pet name. Trite and obvious, it was still cute.
Madeline giggled, not an uncommon reaction to neck nuzzling. “Well, let me know later how it goes. I would love to take you to lunch.”
“You would, eh?” Thomas was tired. He didn’t quite knew what she meant by that.
Madeline laughed. “Just lunch, dear, we haven’t got any more time for more. “ She grinned at that.
Thomas smiled. Oh, okay. “Let me get these slides ready for Electro, then I will come find you.”
Madeline said, “Gotcha” and turned to leave his lab.
“Oh,” she half twisted around.” How’s Friday looking?” She was asking about the testing that will happen two days hence, the testing that will fully reveal what the nanites were doing in Maggie’s body. Were the computers ready to sync up to give Team Maggie the results of that testing?
“Friday is looking good, “answered Thomas.
“Good.” She replied and left his lab.
Maggie turned to him and opened her eyes slowly. Edwin straightened up in his chair. He didn’t think he made a noise. He looked around to see if he kicked something or moved something to make a noise. He didn’t want to disturb her!
Maggie smiled at him, a pale, wan smile. “You didn’t make a sound, dearheart.” She said simply.
Edwin looked back to her face. “Oh. Um. Good.” He didn’t know why he felt so ackward. He liked that she was smiling, though. She always smiled. He always looked blankly out onto the world, and that was only when he wasn’t frowning.
Maggie spoke again. “I knew when you came in the door. No, “ she stared, when Edwin drew in a breath for an apology for moving the door and making a noise. “no, you didn’t wake me up. I was just lying here, thinking, dozing, dreaming.” She trailed off.
“Oh. I didn’t know you were awake. I would have said something.”
“I know. I just wanted your presence, not your mouth.” She smiled again, strained this time. “I was thinking of colors.”
Edwin blinked. Of course she was. She was always thinking of colors and spectrums and clouds and art. She was more than an art teacher, she embodied art. And Edwin embodied science - both twins excelling at their chosen fields and diametrically opposite each other. Maggie always could bridge the gap between then, but Edwin never tried. He saw the connection that Maggie desired as hopeless and didn’t waste his time. Or hers, he thought.
“And you were thinking of all the changes in your little part of the world. In your brain and heart.” Maggie continued.
Edwin widened his eyes. “How did you…”
Maggie chucked quietly. “You could never hear me, could you? You were afraid of human contact, of human, messy, uncontrollable, random, and most of all unpredictable human contact. So much so that you could never hear me.”
Edwin shook his head. “You can’t ‘hear’ hear me, that’s impossible. But I don’t know how you do it, anyway.”
Maggie sighed. “Oh, you’re right in a way. I don’t ‘hear’ you in my brain, per say. What I do is see. I see your face, your body, your movements, your lack of movements, the look in your eyes and the look of your mouth. I can read you, better than a book, and I can ‘hear’ you in my brain. My brain interprets all that input and translates it into speech in my head.” Maggie shifted in her bed, looking and failing to find a better position. “It’s always been easier to call it, hearing you, or imply I’m reading your mind than explain it. But I see now that I should have explained it as soon as I realized what I was doing, unconsciously. It disappointed me, because mind reading sounds so cool, but the factors at work in my brain, that picks up all the minute of all a person’s presence, to know what is doing on with the other person, the way the brain can actually work with practice.”
Maggie paused, gasped for air. She was getting excited, talking about things that fascinated her. Edwin leap up to the edge of her bed.
“Are you okay? Do you need water or something?” Edwin looked around, disparately.
Maggie closed her eyes and regulated her breathing back to a bit of normalcy. “No, no, I’m,” pause, “just over doing it.”
“ I talk to much.” She said simply.
Edwin just looked down at her, incredulous look on his face. He took a small step back and threw his head back. And laughed. And laughed. So hard he cried.
Confused, but amused, Maggie smiled up at him.
Edwin started to regulate his breathing too. “Haah, hee. Oh, good Lord, is that the understatement of the millennia!”
“Glad to amuse you, dear. “ Maggie said, smirking. She continued. ‘Now, as I was saying..”
Edwin interrupted her. “Yeah, saying.” He turned partway around, pulled his chair to him and sat down. “What happened to the quiet, uh, contemplation?”
“I felt like taking. And freaking you out again by ‘reading your mind’. Like that isn’t a short read.” She reminded him of more simple days gone by, of teasing each others intellectual gifts and playful insults. A trait, Edwin realized, that was passed down to her daughter Miriam and her de facto daughter Amanda.
He never got it. Never understood how that was a loving thing to do.
“But you never wanted to try” said Maggie.
Edwin just looked at her. He thought, loudly to himself, “Can you hear me now?” He couldn’t help himself, he smiled in challenge.
“Yes, I can here you know, you goof. And yes, it is a loving thing to do. Not hard, not with cruel truth, but in love. And you never got it. And I’m sorry about that.”
Edwin half smiled. “Yeah, well. I managed.”
“Managed to get yourself in this glorious Tower of yours.”
“Heh, yeah,” Edwin agreed, looking around the room. Even he could feel the chill of the room, what the colors felt like. Maybe he was picking up some of Maggie’s expressions, but he could feel the sadness that this pale color generated. He always thought, if and when he ever actually thought about color, that blue was a clean, clear color. Like the sky. The blue sky. He liked the clear and simple color. But this blue on the walls wasn’t right. It looked flat. Maybe dead.
Edwin blinked again, looked at his sister.
“Yeah, could you do something about that? The color of the walls? I mean, I like blue and all but this just looks drained. Like I feel. Blah.”
Edwin nodded. “ Yes, yes of course. We can. I can. I know that I can even find a psych to approve it, why paint these rooms this depressing color…” he stopped. “Heh, I’m doing it too, I suppose. Reading your body language and expressions.”
Maggie smiled again. “You always could. You never let yourself.”
=========
Thomas snuck a vial of blood from Maggie, right under the nurse’s nose. Didn’t hurt that the nurse was rather cute. Even though he was in a committed relationship didn’t mean he couldn’t admire the scenery, his dad always said. Of course, come to think about it, right after he would say that, Dad would be conked in the head by his mother.
No Calledon woman would take that kind of nonsense. But, they also knew their husbands.
Thomas had taken a drop of blood from the vial and dabbed it under his microscope. He had to wait for the electron microscope, and for that he had to prepare fake test samples to view for people to see him working with, before he could get Maggie’s blood underneath the scope.
But he wanted a peek.
He looked down into the scope. He saw a few of the tiniest black specs that he had ever seen that were still moving. In fact, they may have just been a blur and he could only see the after image of the tiny robots.
He smiled down the scope. Robots were the term that was coined early in the 1900s, or late 1800s, to mean an a worker, a laboriously working worker. Wow, that’s an epic history fail, he amused. He couldn’t remember what sci-fi play or what that was. But, in any case, tiny robots.
He couldn’t wait for the electron microscope much longer. He destroyed the slide, re-labeled the veil to something innocuous, and started preparing some tomato crop slides.
==========
Madeline came in his lab a few minutes later.
“How are you doing today? You got the stuff you need?” she asked brightly.
“Yep, honey, I’ve got all the love I need. “
She stepped the rest of the way to him, embraced him. He scooted her off his right arm and still held on with his left. He kissed the side of her head. She leaned into his side and looked down.
“What’s that?” She asked.
“A microscope. Ow.”
Thomas thought that Madeline would make a great Calledon woman. She already didn’t take his crap and gave it right back. Physically, if need be. Also, with desire if need me.
She rolled her eyes. “Ha. Got some love there, too, didn’t ya?” She looked at him briefly, and back down to the scope.
“Yep.” He said simply.
He couldn’t believe the simplicity of her suggestion that, to hide from any sensors or bugs that they could not disengage without suspicion, to refer anything having to do with Maggie with the word “love.” It fit. It fit Maggie to a T, also, since everyone else knew they were in love, a bit of gratuitous use of the word wouldn’t bat much of an eyelash. Besides, they were both creative with the word. You could make it mean almost anything anyway, such as an short English word overburdened with too much meaning.
Of course, they did have Greek to fall back on if need be. But there doesn’t seem to be the need, yet. Not until they are deeper into this mystery of the nanites and what they were doing and what, specifically, they were doing to Maggie.
“Do you see any love today?” Asked Madeline.
Thomas smiled, “Besides on your face? No, not yet.” He bent his head and nuzzled under her ear. “Waiting for Electro” calling that piece of equipment by it’s pet name. Trite and obvious, it was still cute.
Madeline giggled, not an uncommon reaction to neck nuzzling. “Well, let me know later how it goes. I would love to take you to lunch.”
“You would, eh?” Thomas was tired. He didn’t quite knew what she meant by that.
Madeline laughed. “Just lunch, dear, we haven’t got any more time for more. “ She grinned at that.
Thomas smiled. Oh, okay. “Let me get these slides ready for Electro, then I will come find you.”
Madeline said, “Gotcha” and turned to leave his lab.
“Oh,” she half twisted around.” How’s Friday looking?” She was asking about the testing that will happen two days hence, the testing that will fully reveal what the nanites were doing in Maggie’s body. Were the computers ready to sync up to give Team Maggie the results of that testing?
“Friday is looking good, “answered Thomas.
“Good.” She replied and left his lab.