Ohio

21 - The Club

What Do You Get When You Kiss a Guy?

You Get Enough Germs to Catch Pneumonia.
After You Do He'll Never Phone Ya.
I'll Never Fall in Love Again.
I'll Never Fall in Love Again.

Don't Tell Me What Is All About
'cause I've Been There and I'm Glad I'm Out,
Out of the Chains, the Chains That Bind You.
That Is Why I'm here to Remind You.

-- Bobbie Gentry (I'll Never Fall in Love Again)

=/\=

A few weeks passed, and things seemed quiet. Bringing in HD Avery was less painful than Carmen had initially feared. He arrived on the promised day and the only odd thing he had asked for was the ability to play music directly through his implanted Communicator, straight into his left ear, if he so wished. Carmen had conceded the point, as soon as she'd extracted a promise from him that he would pay attention when he needed to. He had agreed, and so she was optimistic that he would be relatively cooperative. Certainly, he couldn't be any less cooperative and off-the-charts distracted as Levi.

As for Levi, he was still pounding away at the decryption. And now he was working alone, for Carmen had made it clear that he and the other engineers would need to work a lot harder and faster to get the Flux Capacitor up and running. Deirdre, being a sensible person, had dropped other things in order to devote her time to retrofitting Fluxy. Plus, she had a new boyfriend, and wanted to spend her time with him. It was in her best interests to work hard all day so that she could go out most nights. Bruce Ishikawa was far more appealing than any old decryption.

But Levi had no such distractions. He worked and worked, sometimes through the night, often neglecting food and basic hygiene, all in the service of the almighty decryption. He and HD had barely said three words to one another, and finally Avery tracked him down, at least to be polite. He found Levi in the little courtyard garden, tapping away furiously, "Uh, whatcha doin'?" asked HD.

"Huh? Oh, uh, there's this secret message. It isn't all decrypted yet. I can't figure out, there's a part that's, it's like, there's six different symbols, but there are some others, close ones. It's subtle. And that's not even the paragraph I'm working on."

"Can I see?"

"Uh, okay."

HD took a look, "Your, um, your big paragraph with the six letters and the offshoots? Maybe they're, uh, maybe they're notes."

"Notes?"

"Sure, look, um, ba ba ba ba ba ba," he sang, voice going up slightly higher on the fourth note.

"So? I mean, we need the words."

"Well, sure," said HD, "But notes are letters; it's A through F."

"But there are these other variations."

"Hmm. Maybe they're sharps and flats, corresponding to more letters. And your second paragraph, the one you're pounding on? Maybe that first word, the one with six letters? Uh, maybe it's people."

Levi tried, "Nope. Deirdre's better at this," he admitted.

"Why isn't she working on this, then?"

"I dunno. She leaves early most of the time."

"I bet she's got better things to do than decrypt," HD said, "Hell, it's a Friday night. Everyone's single but Boris, right?"

"I dunno. I never noticed."

"We should be doin' the town."

"Uh, what town?"

"I dunno. Something fun," HD said, "We could go to Ariel, to my old club, see what happens when Marisol and Sheilagh get a little alcohol in 'em. Maybe even Otra, too, see what color those flowers turn, if yanno what I mean."