Hidden Abnormality

9. Sweet Memory

Chapter Nine

  Jaz texted me around eight to ask if I was ever going to come home. I had been on complete autopilot mode the entire time I was working on design structures. I had a little sister to get back to. When I had arrived back at my apartment she looked at me expectantly.

  "What do you want, brat?" I pat her blonde head as I walked past her to the kitchen.

  She crossed her arms like a bossy five-year-old. "You know what."

  I shrugged and opened the fridge. After blankly staring inside it for a minute, I shut it again. "You want to know about dinner?"

  "I already ate," she scoffed.

  Twirling around to look at the short human, I pouted. "You ate without your brother?"

  "You left a thirteen-year-old at home alone for hours?"

  "You ate dinner without your brother?" I repeated.

  "You forgot about me?"

  I pointed my finger at her. "Hey! I never forgot about you. I got caught up in work, that's all."

  "I took your money and bought a pizza," she deadpanned, "I hid the slices leftover in the second drawer. I at least had the decency to save you some slices."

  I opened the fridge once again and ruffled through the second drawer. Well enough, they were there. Grabbing the Ziploc bag, I still pouted at her. "You stole my money and ate without me?"

  She shoved me out of the way and grabbed the gallon of milk. "Stop looking at me like that. I didn't kill your puppy."

  I complained some more, but she merely ignored me by pouring a glass of milk. Huffing, I started to ignore her as well. Two could play this game. However, she was the only other person to spend my time with in this small apartment.

  "What were you working on?" she asked quietly, her glass in front of her face.

  I eyed her skeptically. "A new design. One with grooves throughout the entire thing. But not enough that it could easily fall apart. They're mostly subtle, but there are the ones that matter that have to be deeper." I gestured with my hands while speaking.

  Jaz watched as my hands dropped when I finished speaking. "A puzzle with needless dents?"

  "I said grooves. Otherwise, yes, basically. The person who I'll be giving it to had once before paused with a small groove I made to make the pieces slide smoothly. I'm hoping they'll get sidetracked if they think all these new grooves have a purpose when they don't."

  "That's cruel."

  "That's making a living, Jazzy. You wouldn't want me to get fired, would you?"

  She shrugged. "Maybe then you would have bring-your-person to work day and you could show me around the workplace."

  Sighing, I looked at the cold pizza in my hands. "You know I would do that if I could. As you mentioned before, I work for the government. And the government doesn't smile upon bringing people who have no business being there."

  "If you were a janitor at the White House I'm sure I could go."

  "I'm sorry that I'm not a janitor, sis," I laughed.

  Jaz set down her milk to cross her arms. "Why can't you bring me? All you do is make puzzles for people, right?"

  "Well," I stretched out the word for as long as her glare would let me. "I make puzzles that watch their brain development. If it takes them forever to do a simple puzzle, then they shouldn't be taking certain courses that the people I work with have them do. If they can do some of the hardest puzzles I've made, then they can do almost every course we have."

  "And how does that make it not feasible for me to go?"

  "Because it's still the government. In a building owned by the government," I stated, taking a bite of the slice in my hand.

  She played with her glass. "So who is the person you'll be giving the cruel puzzle to?"

  I stared at her while I chewed. When I finally swallowed, I answered. "That's confidential."

  Jazzy frowned. "What are we? In a television show? Where's your theme music?"

  Rolling my eyes, I walked out of the kitchen. "I still have to work on the puzzle. Which means I'll be working in my room. With my slices of pizza. Don't feel bad I'm not eating with you," I called back to her. "I would, but someone decided she was too good for me."

  I heard her scoff as I walked into my bedroom. Cracking my door, I searched for my laptop. There wasn't much I had left to do. Most of it was completed back at my office.

  There were few tweaks I would still have to make for the model but I was still pretty confident that it would stall 12z for a moment. It would be a great feeling to finally see that my work has paid off. That there was finally something she couldn't zip through.

  Until then, I was stuck in a dark room with cold slices of pizza. As the night went on it got darker in my room. Jazzy came to turn on my light and say goodnight. She walked in and hugged me before leaving me alone.

  I checked the time. It wasn't too late. I'm almost surprised she didn't take advantage of me being busy and stayed up late. However, I should have known. I should have known she was a responsible thirteen-year-old.

  Finishing up a few things and adding notes for tomorrow, I closed my laptop. The only thing I would gain from staying up late into the night to finish the puzzle was a finished design that still needed to be crafted. An almost finished design was good enough for tonight.

  The last thing to cross my mind before sleep took over was a memory of Jazabelle when she was little. Before everything all went to shit. She was barely three and sitting in the sand of a beach. She didn't know what to do with it. I sat beside her and built a crumbly castle with her. When it was finished, and barely staying up by itself, she clapped her hands and said all done.

  I had started to laugh and she began to giggle. Until someone ran by us and smashed it with their foot. Instead of crying, Jaz smiled. She touched my hand and babbled words I couldn't understand. Instead of being upset, I smiled with her. I set her in my lap and started to make a new one. A better one.

  It was a comforting thought as sleep swept over me. I missed her smile. Her genuine and happy smile. Maybe I could do something to make her happy; to make her smile again.