The Originators

CHAPTER 13: A WEDDING TO REMEMBER (LAURA)

I.

In my mind the perfect day for a wedding is one that's overcast. This summer is moving into the humidity we should be experiencing now that I've deactivated the first booby trap. I watch clouds rolling in just when the Sun had ten more minutes to shine. I find I love it; I'm dark. I'm seething. It had not entirely colored my persona, but everyone knew something was off with me. They back away from me at the H20, Corp. when I leave my office for water. I can't stop drinking water; the blacker my mood, the thirstier I become.

"Hey, Laura, how's the second phase of the project going?" Frank asks. He crosses both hands over his groin. Hunching slightly, he gives a downward smile. His eyes twitch, focusing on the frayed, institutional carpet: brown, brown, and yes, you guessed it, more brown.

"Fine. Just fabulous Frank." I tilt my head at him; follow with, "What have you discovered today Frank? Any updates on the locations of the other four machines I need to shut down. Frankly, Frank, I would bet you have nothing to report, do you?" I wait.

Hands balled; I'm ready to charge.

"Oh, Laura, we should have an update shortly. Sorry to bother you."

"I'll bet you are 'sorry to bother.'"

I live for moments this summer when I can punish everyone I know for things that they have nothing to do with, because I can.

I hit rewind, and replay in real-time, where we were right after Merc had first joined us. How Chris and I didn't work out, how I had to attend a wedding today. How did it become so much more convoluted than I anticipated?

II.

I relive it all in an instant.

Back then, we were finally making a breakthrough, or at least I was. I was finally figuring out what exactly was drying up the planet at the same time it's drowning it. You might think the two conditions are mutually exclusive. Turns out they aren't

Our research team of Chris, Cass, Pluto, Victor, and yes, Frank, were moving in the right direction. Oh, we had added a new possible team member, Merc, who is officially a silent observer in his probationary phase. He's a young guy, currently an intern who can't yet participate in the conversation or contribute any ideas until I decide he can. I think he might be connected one of the biggest suits at H20. I could be wrong. Since we can use the help, who cares where this guy is from. I don't have time to run Merc through my mind; to take the time to figure out who he truly is. I'll do it later when I have access to my elderly consultants.

The others I know; they're all solid. I've run them through my tests. They passed.

Pluto was explaining his latest theory, detailing why our planet, and all of our efforts to fix it, were failing. He tends to move his arms, only from the elbows up, and flaps his hands either upwards or straight at you. I've gotten used to it, however occasionally I'd like to use a temporary image eraser on him as it's quite distracting. Fortunately, he has a melodious, deep voice, which distracts from his gruesome hand flapping.

"Let's move on this. We know right now the temperatures in the upper regions of the U.S., on the east and west coasts are rising. Geothermal shifting has caused this; thus I believe this event falls within the "aluminum tent theory."

Pluto scans the room to assess if we understand him. He must as he keeps going.

"Imagine you have a big saucepan on one of the burners on your stove. There's a tent of aluminum over whatever it is you are heating in the pan. Maybe it's a piece of chicken. You start frying it in the middle of the pan with some oil or something. You hear it sizzling but it's taking a while. It didn't happen right way, see. It turns out the right and left parts of the element are the hottest. Then it's really getting hot; so, what do you do to make sure the chicken is moist, tender; above all cooked, you lift the tent off and throw in some water. Returning the foil to its original position of course.