The Fourth Law

Chapter 9, Part 1

one year ago

Lily moved forward with her tray in the line at the hospital's cafeteria. Still in her first week as a nurse apprentice, everything was confusing and new. She paid using the script of the newly formed Republic and walked to a counter to get a knife and fork. Looking about the seating area, she saw neither anyone she remotely knew, nor anyone else in red scrubs. Sigh. Only a couple of tables were still unoccupied, so she made for one. She set her tray down just as someone else did.

"Oh, excuse me," the young man said. "Do you mind?"

"No, not at all!" Slightly flustered, she sat down diagonally from him. She made sure that her badge was turned so no one could easily read her name and quickly muttered a blessing for the lunch. She noted that the guy was already eating.

"You're a nurse trainee?" he suddenly asked around his sandwich. As she'd just taken a mouthful of noodles, she could only nod in reply.

"Apprentice," she said after swallowing. He looked to be about her age, maybe a little older. Short, dark hair and in pretty good condition. Cute, too! "Gray scrubs... that's pharmacy, right?"

He nodded. "I'm a tech." Well, dang. "Compounding, deliveries, that sort of thing. I'm Sean O'Rourke, by the way!" He reached over.

She took his hand. "Lily...uh...I'm Lily."

His eyes seemed to look a question, but he simply said, "Pleased to meet you." He returned to his food.

The rest of the meal was in silence. As bad as she wanted to talk to someone, it always seemed to her that they were thinking, 'oh, that's who you are.' She glanced over at him: he had written something down and was getting ready to leave!

"Uhh..." she started. He handed her a scrap of paper.

"Here's my number in the Pharmacy; if you need anything, give me a call! See ya."

As he took his tray off to the cleaning conveyor, she clutched at the paper like a winning lottery ticket.

It was a few days later, during one of the town's brownouts, that the Pyxis machine on their floor started acting up. A machine consisting of a series of drawers, it was their way to securely store medications. "Call the Pharmacy and get someone up here to fix that," the Lead Nurse said. "We've got meds to deliver in an hour!"

One of the few people with a cell phone, Lily took that and her piece of paper out. She punched in the number.

"Pharmacy; this is Sean." He spoke briskly.

"Oh, uh...hi!" What was she, fifteen? "This is Lily Ba... up on the Third Floor. Our Pyxis machine is not working."

"Be there in a few; thanks." She wondered if he remembered who she was.

She was walking back to the Nurses' Station when she noted him coming out of the stairwell. He badged into the Pyxis room. For no particular reason, she told herself, she went in, too.

He was leaning against the machine, reading a paperback. This is technical service, she thought. He looked up.

"Hey."

"Hey. Taking a break?" she asked somewhat sarcastically. As she did, the screen went black.

"Nope. Like most any computer, turning it off and back on fixes ninety percent of the problems. Thing is, the nurses just flick the power switch off then on. It takes a minute to completely power down." At which he reached around to the back of the machine and flicked it to 'on.'

"Oh. Sorry." She turned to go.

"Hey, Lily."

"You remember me?" she asked.

"Seriously? How many cute oriental girls are in red scrubs in Waxahachie?"

Her face couldn't blush, but she knew that her ears were burning. Cute! But...

He tapped the screen a few times and scanned his badge. "Yep! Back to normal! I'm off at three. You?"

"Ah, um, four today..."

"Let's see if anything's fresh at Mort's Café. You know that one?"

"Oh, sure," she replied. "It's on my way home."

"Cool, see ya!" He slid past her in the confined room, their scrubs just touching. The door closed.

'Cute!'

Even at six thirty in the evening, the late summer sun was bright in the sky. Lily walked her bike back home, feeling the warmth for the first time in... years? she thought.

The stop at Mort's turned into a long talk, then pizza (the sausage was fresh). They were both imports: he and his buddies were on Padre Island when the US economy collapsed. The other two went home to Colorado and vanished off the face of the Earth, Sean said. He decided to roll the dice and stay, "to build a new home," he'd said. She'd done that three times now. Since he'd worked as a PharmTech back at Pueblo State, he rattled around hospitals until he found work. When the nascent Republic defined 'Residents' as very separate than 'Citizens,' he'd joined the Field Forces. After twelve years' service, he'd be a Citizen.

She stopped walking her bike and almost let out a little 'squee!' at that. He looked so manly and cool! Her smile cracked. At least he'd never asked too much from her past. He thought the whole Japan-adventure was neat, but when she lightly skipped over times since Texas, he didn't push at all. Maybe, she thought, walking again, we're all damaged. And, she got to learn a new word: retro-culture.

Halfway through dinner, he'd looked at his watch. As it was odd enough for anyone of their generation to have a watch, she stared at it. An actual, wind-up, analog watch. He also said he'd no cell phone; the one at work was the hospital's. And at his flat – she'd had to explain what 'flat' meant – he had only on old CRT TV; no computer. Lily decided to say little about the digital watch she had linked to her smartphone, and quad-core desktop with three screens at her place.

"Retro-culture embraces the best of the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. So much since has just been 'panem et circenses,' distracting people from their duty." He'd said, unconsciously wandering onto her territory.

"And, what is duty?" She'd slyly asked, taking the last piece of pizza.

That he'd rested his chin in his hand to think of a good answer made her heart flutter. She answered her own question.

"Death is as light as a feather; duty is as heavy as a mountain." she'd said. He'd loved it. He was all fired-up to make that the motto of his 12th Regiment. She didn't think that Corporals had much say in things like that.

Walking out of Mort's, it was first, "see you tomorrow" then him squaring his shoulders and looking right at her.

"I really want to see you again tomorrow, Lily."

If she had tried to ride her bike, she'd have fallen off for giddiness.