Silos of Man

Chapter 8 - The Last Supper

I actually feel butterflies in my stomach as I go to answer the door to our guests.  It's been too long since we've enjoyed her family's company and I think I actually miss them.  How cute.  I roll my eyes at myself as I open the door.  Her parents were the ones to arrive first.  I find them standing on our door mat, holding each other's hand on the inside of their corporal-unit, and a plate of something each on the outside of it, while beaming two lovely smiles.  Despite being almost seventy, they were both still beautiful.  Hannah released Tom's hand, and threw her now freed arm around me.  She smells so soft and I inhale her deeply with our embrace.  Thank you for her, I always think to myself when I see this woman. 

"Dan, darling how are you!?  How have you been?  We've missed you so much."  Her voice still sounds so much like Ryann's despite their life-stage difference.  It can actually be confusing over the phone.  Tom chimed in with, "We've heard you've been a busy bee!  What the hell is going on with the research.  We heard murmurings in our lab about yours having sent a result for confirmation.  I'm very excited to pick your brain tonight!"  Shit.  Baby pressure suddenly becomes welcome conversation.  Okay, let's dance.  "Well Tom, word's not in yet", I say with my best resigned, yet nonchalant smile.  The only detail they should know over in Section 28, about our application is that we're out for correlation confirmation, that's it.  The NWG's Science Councils like to keep research projects separate, so that one group's goals and plans to achieve them, aren't subliminally altered by the ideas of another.  They prefer each group do their own experiments and share every success, and important failures via the Global Scientific Information Platform.  Tom won't know that the results only take hours to verify.  Advantage – me.  "It's a crazy-complicated procedure that can take a lot of time, and as I'm sure you know, no-one wants a false lead to get out.  It makes things very messy." 

For a split second I feel analysed by Tom's stare and then I'm released with, "Makes sense, but you'll keep us posted, won't you?  Your group was making quite a bit of headway over here in Section 29.  People are feeling excited, and you're my inside source."  I glance over at Hannah, who chuckles as she looks down at her shoes and then quickly back up, shooting me a smile and a 'Just humour the old fart' wink.  "You'll be the first to know", I say with a warm, deferential smile. 

I'm seating them as Ryann comes rushing to meet us, still wiping her hands on a towel.  She throws her arms around her parents and plants a big kiss on each of their faces.  Hannah kisses Ryann in a shot-gun method, starting on the cheek just in front of her ear then down her neck a little, almost as though nuzzling her, and Ry's practically purring.  The exchange is only about four second long but filled with affection, and it warms me, just watching.  Placing an arm over each of their shoulders, Ryann turns to Tom and says, "So I was going to open with how I made your favourite diner," and then turning her head to Hannah, "And your favourite dessert, but what we're actually going to talk about is any intel you have on this guest that Blake is bringing tonight."  She giggles her contagious giggle. 

Tom chuckles and advises us that it is still very new, like only a couple of weeks old, and while it is odd to be meeting the family so early, they had been scheduled to go to a Domestic Union Ceremony tonight, as kind of joke-date set-up by mutual friends, and then it got cancelled.  Ouch!  When Blake then got Ryann's invite to tonight, she figured she'd suggest a substitute joke-date, really as a gauge to the interest she was garnering, and the invite was accepted.  Hannah added that they also know that our mystery guest works in a lab too, just not medical, is twenty-five years old, and moved from a sector at least five away, alone and before the age of majority, which means that family ties are questionable.

"So, Blake's mysterious date works in a lab too?  Category Three, then?", probes Ryann with her gorgeous wide smile.  "Probably – not yet confirmed", Hannah replies with a giggle.  Man, that giggle is so much like hers, it freaks me out a little.  "Okay, so we'll be able to relate about life in a lab, which will set the tone for the easy conversation, then we'll move in to see what the long distance move was about and get the skinny on family ties.  Piece of cake!  Speaking of which, we have des petits gateau du chocolate et citron, pour toi ma mama!"  Hannah giggles again as she beams with pride at Ryann, and says, "Oooh, your French is stellar!  Nice pronunciation!"  Ryann grew-up in Sector 5, so French was one of her least spoken and lightest learned languages out of the mandatory five, but she's a crazy-fast learner, so when she relocated to this sector and realized that French was more helpful to her than German, she collected some resources and taught herself impeccable French, both written and spoken.