DUALITY /#Wattys 2021

Chapter 21

It had been cold enough across the Wall in the Confederation, but northern Mannaz felt much colder. After hearing Ridley's story, Dr. Popish wanted to fly her to his lab for testing, and Ridley agreed.

She would have asked him if he hadn't asked her. The very idea that she had been exposed to a substance that might have affected her love and care for her infant was too horrible for her not to want to find out what damage had been done, and whether or not it could be reversed.

The King arranged for a small private aircraft. Ridley would never forget the interior of this private plane. Thick carpet, wide, soft armchairs with footrests. Ridley noticed a handsome, rich smell and remarked, "These seats even smell good!"

Popish smiled at her. "Fine leather, from the looks of it."

Worry pricked at her the entire trip, but still she marveled at watching tiny different-colored squares of farmland pass under them like a homemade checkerboard, houses and roads like toys, and clouds like fog they flew right through. During her escape from the Guildhall, Ridley had been much too preoccupied to even notice how Midgarde looked from high above, but Boston looked incredible from the air. Old-style buildings mingled with new ultratall skyscrapers, a metropolis that stretched for miles.

Ridley hadn't even been to Midgarde more than three times and those bustling streets still made her feel lost, jostled and alone. How much more intimidating the hospital building was that Dr. Popish led her into. The twisting, winding corridors and the press of hurrying people in crisp uniforms stretched on like a city all in themselves. She followed Popish for what seemed like miles, until they reached a quieter area of skinny white hallways and many closed doors. Popish told her this was his laboratory space, and led her into a large bright room full of huge, gleaming metal machinery. People about her age sat behind computers, speaking instructions, manipulating holograms in the air, or typing on old-fashioned keyboards. These were Popish's graduate students, and they were very friendly as they led her through the strangest day of her life.

Ridley had seen computers before, during her travels as an elite gymnast, but since no one in Holstonia could afford one, she had never had occasion to use one other than the standard-issue, stripped-down models the non-Guild student gymnasts got in the Confederation school. The graduate students showed her what to do, and she played games on one inside a small cubicle. Machinery hummed behind the walls while transparent, sparkling, varicolored beams reached from the walls and ceiling to touch her head. Ridley could see the beams, but she couldn't feel them, then or during the lying-down portion of the exam, which she spent on a comfortable cot in a different cubicle.

Afterward, she sat with a female graduate student who asked her a battery of questions. After an hour of that, at last, she was done.

Dr. Popish asked her whether she would rather eat dinner somewhere in the city and then board the plane back, or eat dinner on the plane. "No, I just want to get back," Ridley said. "I'll just eat when I get home."

"Nonsense," said Popish, his hazel eyes twinkling at her. "You've never been to Boston. Let me treat you to a nice dinner. You can tell your mom about it when you get home."

Ridley hesitated. She felt so overwhelmed by the day.

"Come on," said Popish. "It's been a long day and you haven't had lunch, and I know you must be hungry."

"Well, actually, I am," Ridley admitted. Popish walked her to a restaurant down the street from the hospital, a nicer place than Ridley had ever been in, not counting Devane's suite of offices. She tried an indescribably delicious crab dish. Ridley had never had crab, and the baked potato, dripping with butter, and the asparagus salad that came with it, made a meal she would truly never forget. And the chocolate dessert afterwards! It was almost as big as her whole meal, and she asked to have some of it wrapped up to take back and share with her mother. Popish asked her so many questions while they ate, about growing up in Holstonia and her life there, the scouting process that allowed her to train in gymnastics, and what it was like to travel around the world. He had traveled, too, lecturing, and had done graduate work in England. On the flight home, she felt as if she had made a new friend.