Infinite

Chapter 5- The Meaning Behind a Name

Houston, Texas, in Dr. Wilson's Office, on Thursday, September 19th, 2030 at 3:00 pm

Lucas

"I got one of the most wonderful emails over the weekend," Dr. Wilson begins as Rachel and I sit down on the plush sofa. He's smiling ear to ear as he pulls out his laptop and shows us the photo of us from the paintball competition. Rachel starts giggling next to me.

"I hope you won't mind, but I would love to print this out and frame it for my office. I've never had a couple win the competition before." Dr. Wilson's cheeks are beaming, adding patches of pink to his dark skin.

I know that Rachel would also love to have a copy of the photo.

He scrolls down in the email and starts showing us some action shots from the actual competition.

"It was a lot of fun!" Rachel responds. "We haven't done anything like that together in a long time, and I think we managed to communicate well and...reconnect," her voice trails off slightly at the end of her response.

I find myself grinning, remembering how we kissed. It had been so long since I had touched her that the moment felt almost magical.

Rachel and I go on and on about how we took out the different teams throughout the match. The conversation seems to last only a few minutes, but when I look at the clock on the wall, I see that it's already three-thirty. I wonder why he's letting us just talk about the competition during the session.

"How so?" Dr. Wilson continues. He must have something planned.

"Well, we had a tough time in the beginning because we were sort of distracted," Rachel plays with the rings on her fingers. "But, then we figured it out, and we won! Well, we officially got second." She's trying to shift the conversion back to the competition itself.

"Distracted? Like in this photo?" Dr. Wilson shows us a photo where I have my hands on Rachel's shoulders at the car. He definitely had a motive for letting us reminisce first.

The rust between the paint splatter looks almost golden in the sunlight. We stand out in our black gear, speckled with blobs of blue and purple paint.

"What was going on here?" he asks inquisitively. We were distracted in this photo, but not because of our conversation in the car.

"I told Rachel that I was moving to a different location that had more shelter but she didn't hear me," I answer quickly, not really wanting to talk about the real distraction. "I was apologizing to her because two teams flanked us and we were separated."

Dr. Wilson doesn't seem like he quite believes my answer.

"I see," he mutters as he writes a few things down in his binder before looking over at Rachel. "You look quite upset in this photo. Can you tell me why?"

Rachel shifts uncomfortably next to me as she clears her throat. She's sitting just a few inches away from me.

"Well, I didn't hear him tell me that he was moving so I thought that he just left me there," Rachel's voice is quieter than before. "I guess that it just reminded me of when he left for his mission without telling me."

I rub the back of my neck and look over at her. She doesn't look like she's going to cry, but her cheeks are flushed.

"Obviously it's not the same magnitude, so I don't know why I was so upset," she chuckles again and looks down at her heels.

"I see," Dr. Wilson says gently as he writes something down in his binder again. "And how did that make you feel, Rachel?"

She looks away from her shoes and over at the door for a moment before answering, "I was scared, I guess." She starts playing with the hem on her red skirt.