10,779 words and counting!

Well, after just four days, I have written 10,779 words! I'm a little ahead of schedule, but all the better! I'm having a great time writing this novel. Here is Chapter Two...enjoy!

PS...does anyone know how to fix the paragraph indent thing? To make it show up correctly?





Learning Curve
Chapter Two

Six months earlier

“Are you serious? You call that modern?” Alex gawked at Camden’s “archaic” cell phone as he pulled it out to make a call.
“Come on, give me a break, it’s only like two years old.” Camden tossed back at his young hired hand, defending his reliable devise.
“Yeah, two years in what kind of years? Dog years? So it’s like what, fourteen?” Alex continued to bash the phone as he pulled out his own to show Camden just what modern technology really looked like.
“Where do you even come up with this stuff?” Camden just laughed in response, eyeing the new phone that Alex had pulled delicately out of his pocket. “And I mean, look at your phone. Can you even squeeze that thing? It looks like a piece of paper that’s going to fall apart if you touch it with any kind of force.” He wasn’t so ready to accept Alex’s idea of modern just yet.
“Maybe if by piece of paper you mean piece of steel.” He smiled triumphantly at Camden as he dangled his shiny new phone in front of Camden’s face.
The phone was thin to be sure, maybe the thickness of five or six pieces of paper stacked together, and it stretched from the base of Alex’s wrist to the tip of his fingers. Each phone was apparently fitted to size, customized to each person’s preference and hand size, maximizing the user friendly applications and usage. According to the trusty cellular provider, SanTech.
Camden let a smile spread across his scruffy face and chuckled good naturedly. “Alex, you know that if I had one of those things it would end up in a million pieces in about two seconds.” He turned and started walking back to one of the horse stalls in the barn they were in. “Plus,” he continued, spinning back around towards Alex who had begun to follow, “No cell phone can stand against the vice grip from these puppies.” Camden lifted up his arms and flexed his biceps, which, truthfully, were a good size, and probably could do some damage to a phone if he put his mind to it. But Alex only laughed and shook his head, clearly realizing that Camden didn’t care if his phone was outdated or not.
Alex stretched his legs and quickened his pace to match Camden’s long stride as they continued on to their destination, a cluster of horse stalls at the back of the barn. He looked up at Camden’s face, always with a look of respect and a small bit of awe. Even though Alex was just a teenager, and bombarded with all of the pressures to be cool and rebel against all institutions of authority, he still looked up to Camden like a big brother, or even a father.
Camden was an easy man to get along with, gentle, yet firm. He knew how to lead, which was becoming desperately hard to find in anyone, man or woman these days. People just wanted to float along, avoid any conflict and just get by in life. Camden wasn’t afraid of facing conflict and meeting it head on. Maybe life on the farm had established this in his character, but whatever it was, it stuck and was a permanent fixture in Camden’s life.
He enjoyed hard work, and enjoyed sharing his passions and teaching others along the way even more, which is why he had hired Alex to work alongside of him. Camden didn’t have the pleasure of having any children yet, so Alex was the best choice to help him on the farm. Kids needed a good dose of hard work and learning skills these days.
Camden had met Alex through a friend, who knew that Alex was being passed through the foster care system. Alex had been rebellious in a few of his foster homes, and had proved to be a difficult case for most families until he settled in the country here in southern Michigan. He fought the change at first, like all the others, but his foster family had taken him to church with them, and it had worked on him. It calmed him down, and gentled his previously somewhat wild behavior. New characteristics began to surface, and his foster family began to see just what a hard worker Alex was, and how smart he was as well.
Camden had been heading into the harvest season a little over two years ago, and had expressed his need of farm hand help, met with Alex, and decided to hire him on the spot. It had been the talk of the town, that Camden, the stable, honest, hard working farmer, had hired a rebellious teenager that hailed originally from Detroit.
But Alex left them all eating their words and wishing they had been the first to hire him. He proved to be one of the best workers next to Camden. He had his moments, like all teens, and was prone to be addicted to and never without his phone, but he was picking up on Camden’s passion of hard work and manual labor.
“How are things at home, Alex?” Camden interjected the question while they raked at the hay bedding in the horse stalls.
“They’re good, I get to meet all of my foster family’s cousins and grandparents and stuff at Christmas this year.” He replied, not breaking any stride in his work, but a thread of excitement riding on his words, an excited anticipation.
“How about your dad? Heard from him lately?” Camden knew the question would be harder to answer, but he was truly curious.
Alex hesitated in his answer, and Camden could tell it would be difficult, but he wasn’t sure what exactly that meant.
“He’s sick. They told me a few days ago.”
“With what?”
“The wouldn’t tell me. They want me to go there… with that case worker… and explain it to me in person.” Alex treaded over the words with a leaden voice, and it was clear that he still didn’t think too highly of his father.
Camden couldn’t blame him though, Alex’s mother had died when he was only four, from a drug overdose, and his father hadn’t been any picture of perfection. He was constantly in and out of the house, different girlfriends, if you could even call them that, bouts of violence, and suspected gang and drug activity. Child Protection Services had finally pulled Alex out of their house when he was nine, operating off of a tip from one of his school teachers who had seen bruise marks on Alex’s arms. But by the time they acted, plenty of damage had been done to Alex, and he mimicked a lot of the bad behaviors he had seen from his father. He didn’t know anything different, any love, and value.
But thankfully, his current foster family had stuck with him and refused to give up on him, and their love was paying off. But Alex still felt the pain and the bitterness in his heart towards his father, and Camden could clearly sense it.
“Ah.” Was all Camden could muster as a reply, and the pair continued in their daily chores, moving about in thick silence. Each was occupied with their own thoughts, and enjoyed the chance to slow down and think.

About half an hour away from the farm house where Camden and Alex were working, I was busying myself at my own workplace. SanTech had been my employer for almost five years now, but I was still no closer to truly understanding technology as a whole than when I had first started. Which was ironic, considering I worked for one of the most innovative technology producers, which also happened to be the biggest cellular provider in the United States. But thankfully, my job didn’t involve a huge amount of technology, considering I was just the receptionist and secretary to one of the top engineers in the company.
I mastered the computer, phone, filing and operating systems that I was given for my job, and was highly competent in each of those areas, but beyond that, I had no interest in becoming familiar with the other aspects of technology that SanTech offered, and I would never dream of trying to actually become one of their lab technicians and work on producing the technology. That would be one job that would prove truly disastrous for SanTech and myself.
“Jenny, can I get those third quarter numbers?” My boss, Gene Harper, popped his head outside of his office door. I jumped slightly at the sudden break in silence, and my hand quickly flew up to the computer screen.
“Of course, Mr. Harper.” I tapped the smooth screen, shifting through files to find the correct one that Gene was looking for. I found the folder and file quick enough, and directed the computer to transfer the information to the Document Tablet that I pulled out from one of my desk drawers.
Document tablets were something I was still getting used to, and hadn’t quite decided on if I liked them or not. They were one of SanTech’s latest technology, and it was sweeping the nation like wildfire. Produced out of recycled water bottles that workers had extracted from landfills, as well as collected for cash- the document tablets (or DT’s, as they were being referred to by the public now) were a translucent, sort of white color. You never would have known or guessed that they were made from recycled water bottles. They were developed to replace the need for paper, and therefore save more trees and cut back on paper waste. You didn’t need a printer anymore, or any ink, so that cut out some expense as well.
I held the slim tablet in my hand and suddenly, the Document Tablet sprang to life, and the third quarter numbers appeared on the bright touch screen. Rising slowly from the office chair, stretching my back out and enjoying the chance to move for a few minutes, I walked to Gene’s office door and knocked out of habit before stepping in.
Gene kept his office a lot neater than most of the other engineers at SanTech. He was a strict minimalist, preferring clean cuts and raw, exposed angles. He was one of the best engineers and developers in his field, and was responsible for the majority of SanTech’s rise to success over the last ten years. But to look in his office, you wouldn’t suspect it. Gene was humble as a rule, and didn’t care much for the praise of others. He worked and developed technology because he loved it, and if something helpful and successful came out along the way, all the better- but that wasn’t his goal.
I walked across the cool, hard grey floor and stopped in front of Gene’s black metal desk. He was carefully studying the touch screen monitor embedding in the top of his desk, pouring over his current mathematical schemes, examining each formula meticulously. Probably important, whatever it was. I would never be able to tell what he was working on though. Math was never my strong suit. Gene paused after a few seconds and looked up, his eyes gleaming with the excitement he gleaned from working on new projects. He extended his hand and took the Document Tablet from mine.
“Thanks.” He extended his hand and quickly cast his eyes back down toward his desktop, holding the tablet in his hand for examination after he was done with whatever he was looking at now. It all looked very complicated and important, so I turned on my heels and headed back for my own desk to finish up my current project.
My current project was actually quite boring, and I found that it didn’t occupy my mind like I had hoped it would have. This new project was simply converting old documents that were intended for paper printing into new document files that could be instantly transferred to any one of our DT’s.
The other part of the project had been to gather up all of our paper records and filing systems and pack them together to be taken to a recycling plant, since we no longer had any need for those records. These paper records, along with all of SanTech Headquarters’ paper filing record systems, had been carted off at the end of last week. It had been a huge to-do, and I was extremely relieved to have the whole process finished. The office did look a little strange though, empty. Bare. But, it did cut back on all of the paper clutter I had to admit. Maybe there was something to these new Document Tablets.
As I aimlessly shifted through all of the old printing files on my touch screen monitor, my mind wandered over the events over the past five years, that had led me exactly to this point. Well, maybe not to this whole “sitting bored at a computer shifting files thing,” because that wasn’t so glamorous. But to where I was now in life. So much had changed, and it seemed like such a blur to me. It was hard to grasp, but I let my mind try to broach and tackle the subject as I continued to click through my mundane task.
Five years ago I had been sitting in a college classroom in bright, hot and eternally sunny Arizona. Boy what a difference in and of itself that was compared to now, as I sit in a chilled office in the middle of the fall season in southern Michigan.
I could clearly see myself, in that classroom, five years ago. It was in a large lecture hall at the University of Arizona, and I was sitting towards the back. The room was full, as usual, and most students were studiously taking notes as the professor delivered her lecture for the day. I couldn’t actually tell you what the lecture was on that day, something about education I’m sure, since that was my major. But that day, my attention was completely stolen by one person. Camden Michael Burke.
That day I had walked into class exhausted, ready to just put my head against the wall and pass out until the end of the lecture. April temperatures in Tucson had already been easily climbing to 100 degrees outside, and the heat definitely made me tired, along with my rigorous balancing act of working almost full time at a coffee shop while also trying to fit a full time school schedule in-between. It was a severe understatement to say that I was busy.
But a lot of people were in the same boat as I had been, working full time to help pay for the ridiculous cost of full time school. The push at the time was for high school graduates to hurry off to college to get a bachelor’s degree at least, in four years at most- which ended in a lot of students going deep into debt before they were barely over eighteen. Even classmates that I had known whose parents were well off and helped them pay for the majority of their school found it hard to come up with all of the cash to cover tuition, books, room and board, and every other fee the universities and colleges threw shamelessly at students.
I had made up my mind during my senior year in high school though- that I would buckle down, save up as much money as I could, and do as much school as I was able to while working, so that I could forgo taking out any kind of student loan. The sound of two hundred and forty month terms to pay back loans just gave me the creeps, and seemed like an eternity to me. So, I found a good, steady job at one of my favorite coffee shops in the Tucson-metro area, and saved every penny I could religiously.
I chuckled as I let my mind trace over that one memory, that one fateful day that ultimately was the cause for where I sat today. If I had known what a raucous Camden would cause in my life from that day forward, I might have skipped class and stayed home in favor of a nap. Maybe my life would have been calmer, more serene. Perhaps I would be sitting in some lawn chair right now, still soaking up the heat in Arizona, even in the middle of October. The memory was becoming crystal clear in my mind though right now, and I jumped into the seat of my mind’s eye, and let it wash over me, picturing every word and every detail.
My eyeslids felt so heavy today, why did it have to be so hot this early in the year? Wasn’t it supposed to be something like “April showers bring May flowers? Isn’t that what they taught us in elementary school to help us remember the change of seasons in their rightful places? I guess the inventors of that phrase had never been to Tucson, Arizona.
I glanced down at my slim, sleek cell phone, the touch screen display alerting me to the fact that it was 9:43am and that the temperature was 98 degrees outside. Brilliant. I groaned and let my head drop down into my folded arms, resting on the desk. Maybe a little nap before lecture started, or maybe even while lecture was going on, wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
My thoughts and inner groaning and griping were quickly interrupted by someone clearing their throat somewhere in the very near vicinity.
“Is anyone sitting here?” The voice wasn’t familiar. It was deep, almost rough, but still smooth and somehow kind. If a voice could be kind. The sound stirred something like the fluttering of butterflies in my stomach. I quickly lifted my head out of my arms and looked to my left to see who this mysterious guy was.
What I saw made the butterflies do even more tricks in my stomach, and that didn’t make me too happy. This was no “guy.” Or “boy.” He couldn’t be older than 23, I reasoned, around the same age as me, but he just had this certain sense about him. He was more of a man than any of the other immature guys I had seen goofing off around campus during my three year tenure here.
He was maybe just around six foot tall, and dark brown curly hair erupted from his head in sporadic waves. His eyes were what caught me though, they were the brightest shade of green I had every seen. I took all of this in in an embarrassing pause of a few seconds, but I had just been sitting there gawking at him I realized, without responding to his question. He looked amused, but puzzled still, wondering if the seat was open. Or maybe questioning his choice of seats, in favor of finding one by someone who didn’t gawk awkwardly at him by the simplest of questions.
He started to repeat his question to me again. “Is this-,” but I quickly cut him off, snapping out of my stupor, hoping I hadn’t made myself look too much of an idiot.
“No, go right ahead. Sorry. Just tired, and kind of out of it apparently.” I offered back, chuckling awkwardly as I slid my purse down closer to my side of the table to allow him room to spread his things out on the desk as well. He let out a bright, ringing laugh in response.
“No problem. The heat is a little crazy. I’m not really used to it. Where I come from, hot is like…well, not this. That’s for sure.” He laughed again, and I felt myself succumbing to that dumb gawking look again. I fought it back quickly and regained a normal face.
“Yeah, I’m from here and I’m still not used to it. Where do you come from?” I laughed awkwardly again, and realized that my question sounded odd. Like I was asking him if he was from another planet. Great. I’m really making a winning impression. Why did he have to look so unbelievable? Why did I falter in my ability to just have a simple conversation? I didn’t even know him. I corrected myself, laughing again. “Sorry, I mean, where are you from?”
I had been fumbling with the notebook on my desk and straightening my things, trying to avert my eyes and face, lest I be overcome with my “dumb-struck” face again. But I allowed myself to look up, eager for his response.
When I looked at him, he had already laid out his notebook and a pen, and was leaning back in his chair, arms folded across his chest. His arms were full and muscular, and he looked like he had seen his fair share of work. He was simply dressed, casual, yet still stylish. Simple had never looked so good, and the butterflies in my stomach agreed.
His bright green eyes met mine and I could have sworn my heart skipped a beat. How were they so bright? It just wasn’t fair. I didn’t stand a chance.
“Michigan.” He replied in his deep voice, smiling back at me.

I paused, lingering on the amusing memory. No, I didn’t stand a chance at all, I chuckled to myself, continuing to shift through the files on my computer screen. I let the memory wash over me again.

“Michigan, huh? What brought you out here?” The question slipped out before I could catch them, and I realized that that was probably a rhetorical question. Another silly slip up. He was here for school right? I rephrased my question. “I mean, what are you studying out here?”
“The agricultural program out here. I could have gone somewhere in the Midwest sure, but that’s no fun. The west was appealing to me, and the U of A had a decent agricultural program, despite being in the middle of the desert. So I came out here. Just wanted something different.” He replied, smiling back at me and politely passing over my apparent inability of phrasing questions. “I’m Camden.” He offered his hand out towards me. I shook it, noticing that his hands were rough, yet still smooth. It was an odd sensation. Clearly, I was right. He was used to hard work, and his hands displayed that prominently.
“Jenny.” I replied, drawing my hand back, hoping desperately that my face wasn’t bright red.
“So what are you studying here, Jenny?” Camden shifted in his chair to face me, making my heart beat faster than what it had before. I took a deep breath, trying to slow the pace. I then went on to tell him my story, maybe in a bit more length than was necessary, but he listened intently, which was different for me.
Usually during conversations with anyone these days, people got distracted, look around the room to avoid eye contact, or would constantly lift up their phones to reply to text messages. Camden didn’t do any of this, I didn’t even see a phone once during our conversation. He held my eyes in his brilliant, vivid green eyes the whole conversation. Which incidentally made my heart do these annoying flip flops and sent the butterflies in a frenzy more than once.
Our conversation carried on until the last possible moment before our professor called the lecture hall to her attention and made the starting announcements. It was hard for me to pull away from the conversation and concentrate on what she was saying. How had I not noticed Camden before? He was unlike anyone I had ever met before, and I was mesmerized. Not only was he attractive, his personality and how he carried himself and carried the conversation was so strange, yet so inviting to me. Camden’s personality pulled me in.
After our professor had delivered her announcements and launched into her power point aided lecture, Camden shifted his seat even closer to me and leaned over so his face was very near mine, and let a whisper escape his smiling lips.
“Do you actually get anything out of this class?” I could tell there was mischief hidden in his question, and I found myself stifling back a giggle as I turned to answer him in a hushed yet playful tone.
“On the rare occasion.” I noted truthfully, it hadn’t been a very eventful class.
“Want to ditch… get out of here?” He whispered in his deep voice again, and his green eyes glinted with excitement.
“What, like now?” I couldn’t hide my shock. I was of course bored by the class, but I hadn’t ever actually ever really even considered ditching a class before. I found myself torn in indecision.
“Yeah.” He said, throwing me a twisted smile. How could I say no to that face? I found myself actually surprised that I felt so comfortable and safe with him right away. I felt like I had known him forever, instead of just less than an hour.
After another moment’s hesitation, I finally made up my mind. “Alright.” A slow smile and roll of my eyes crossed over my face, and Camden lit up in response.
“Ok, here’s how we’re going to do this…”He whispered out of the corner of his mouth, telling me a deliberate plan on how to inconspicuously get out of the lecture hall without drawing too much attention to our absence.
“Have some experience in this, huh?” I shook my head in amusement at his elaborate scheme.
“A little, I guess. Ready?”
“Yeah.” I responded and waited for him to exit the room like he told me he would. I waited a few more minutes and followed as silently as I could.
Exiting the classroom in the middle of lecture wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. A few glances of suspicion were cast my way, but most people just ignored me as I passed. The lecture hall doors suddenly were before me, and I pushed into the crash car as silently as I could, and slipped out quickly through the crack.
Walking away from the door, I glanced around the hallway, searching for Camden. Suddenly, he sprang out from a side hall, almost giving me a heart attack. It took every ounce of control to stifle the startled scream that was waiting to erupt from my mouth.
“Geez! What are you trying to do, kill me?” I panted, trying to slow the rapid pace of my heart, clutching my hand to my chest.
“Sorry.” He smiled in amusement, and somehow I suspected he was anything but sorry. I just rolled my eyes and smiled back as good naturedly as I could in return.
“So, what are we going to do?” I posed the question, still trying to gain an even pace in my heart. His presence was making that hard again.
“I’ve got a few ideas.” Camden let that twisted, gentle yet subtly mischievous grin spread across his face again, and I knew that this was going to be a day I would always remember.

Yes, that indeed was a day that I would always remember. From that day forward, Camden and I became almost inseparable. We remained friends for a little over a year, though if it had been up to me, that stage wouldn’t have lasted that long, I knew that Camden was going to be it for me. But Camden was set on taking things slow. We finished out our senior year of college, and I knew Camden would be heading back to Michigan after he graduated. I made the decision to follow him, much to the dismay of my family, who knew that I was a proverbial desert rat. I knew what I wanted though, and I needed a change of pace, so I followed him to Michigan.
Finding a job proved to be an easier task than I thought it would be, after only a week of being in Michigan, a representative from SanTech effectively recruited me into the company family.
Camden finally asked me officially to be his girlfriend right before we embarked on our journey out east, and we dated for two more years before he asked me that question every girl longs to be asked. He asked for my hand in marriage after asking my father’s permission. Camden was “old fashioned” to many people, but I loved it. We set the date for six months later, and decided that we would hold the wedding back in Arizona where we met.
As I let all of Cam and my adventures surface to the shore of my mind, a smile spread across my face. He was such a good man, and I was extremely thankful for that day that I met him, and that I hadn’t stayed home to take a nap. It all seemed like a whirlwind fairy tale now that I looked back on it, but we truly had taken things slow, our “courtship,” as Camden had called it then, had spread itself over a span of three and a half years before we were Mr. and Mrs. Burke. Of course, we had our ups and downs like any and every couple, but Camden was commited and never let me give up. For that I was blessed. A lot of my classmates had been involved in much less successful relationships and marriages, and our marriage was one of the few strong and lasting ones.
We learned from the beginning that marriage was hard work, and we struggled but made it through the first year together. Camden, ever growing in patience for my sometimes hair brained ideas, and constant, insatiable curiosity, and me, learning to live with someone else, communicating and sharing my life with him.
Camden and I made a good team, and I loved him dearly for it. For being the leader I had always looked for, and being my pillar in life. Someone I could depend on and feel safe with, and always count on a bit of adventure and mischief every once in a while.
Suddenly, my day dreaming and flow of thoughts were interrupted by the telephone ringing to the right of me on the desk. I shot my hand to the side and picked up the wireless receiver. Landlines had been eliminated in most of the modern world a few years ago, with the invention of the wireless “home phone.” Like the Document Tablets, SanTech had been the leader behind developing their technology and executing the plan for acquisition.
All telephone poles, wires and land lines had been uprooted and recycled (into what, I don’t know), and the wireless home phones were made practically mandatory for people who still wished to have a permanent phone fixture in their home. I still didn’t truly understand this new aspect of technology. I felt like it was just a cell phone that you couldn’t carry around with you. Like shower gel in a hand soap dispenser. They both did the same job, but one of them was more expensive. On numerous occasions I felt like SanTech just wanted to take over all aspects of world technology, and this was just one of the items to check off of the list.
“Thank you for calling SanTech Headquarters. Gene Harper’s office, this is Jenny Burke. How may I help you?” I prattled off the greeting out of habit and second nature, not pausing for a second, the words gliding off my lips with my smooth, sweet secretary voice.
“Yeah, hi. I’ve been trying to find someone who has some kind of control in this place. I’m sick and tired of listening to a robot. I need some answers.” A disgruntled woman fumed on the other end of the line.
“Alright, ma’am, let me connect you to customer service, this line if for the office of Gene Harper.” Soothing my voice, I replied, trying to take the edge and bite off of her words and mood.
“Listen lady, I don’t care if it’s the Easter Bunny’s office. I need to speak with someone in charge. Now. I refuse to be put on hold with another ridiculous robot telling me to buy more SanTech products. The ones I have don’t even work right!” The woman was definitely unhappy, and I wasn’t too thrilled to deal with her.
I quickly tried to wrack my brain for ways to pass her off to some other office without her noticing. Fat chance. She launched into another tyrade without pausing for a breath or allowing me a response.
“If you think I’m going to buy another piece of junk from SanTech, you have another thing coming. I have a mind to sue you for the trouble you’ve caused me with the ones I have now!” I could almost smell the smoke from her anger and fuming coming through the wireless receiver.
“Ma’am, I really think that-” Interjecting while she took a breath wasn’t a good idea as it turned out.
“Don’t you ‘ma-am’ me!! How dare you! I’m trying to find some way to fix my dumb electronics, your supposed ‘indestructible’ technology. Well, none of it is working! Document Tablet, wireless home phone, cell phone, my computer and internet. It’s all out! And I can’t get anyone to care two pennies about it or figure out how to make it work! Now you get me the answers I need and replace everything that isn’t working or so help me I will come after SanTech for everything it’s worth!” She continued on her blazing lecture, barely pausing for a breath, and lacing almost every sentence with more than a few colorful, explicit words.
Sitting in my office chair, one arm folded over my stomach and the other holding the receiver to my ear, I was torn between yelling back at her, putting her in her place, and laughing at the ludicrous idea of her trying to sue SanTech. Did she even realize how big SanTech was? She wouldn’t even make a drop in the ocean, even if she did try to sue the company. I decided though that the option of yelling or laughing wouldn’t do anyone any good, so I finally hung up the phone, silencing her still ringing, shrill cries through the phone until the receiver rested on its docking station to charge.
When silence overtook my small office space again, I let out a slight laugh, struck again with the angry woman’s ridiculous idea of trying to sue SanTech. Some people really didn’t have any common sense.
“What was that awful noise a minute ago?” Gene had poked his head out of his office again, his face perplexed. I let out another laugh, louder this time.
“You heard that from inside your office?” I stammered out between laughs, which further confused his expression.
“What was it?” He pressed again.
“Some lady…on the phone. She was mad and decided to take out all of her anger on me apparently.” My laughing subsided and Gene let a look of disbelief wash over his eyes.
“That was a woman…on the phone? Wow. You might want to get your ear drums checked soon then, I’m sure everyone three floors within the vicinity could have heard that lady.” Gene paused, his face still covered with shock at the woman’s shrill voice. “What was she mad about?”
“Oh who really knows.” I swiveled my chair around to face Gene. “She was going on about how none of her SanTech stuff was working. That she had been on the phone with the recording for forever, that she didn’t want to buy anything else from SanTech ever again, blah, blah, blah.” I hashed out the details to my boss. His look became serious though when I mentioned that none of the woman’s SanTech products worked. I shrugged it off as Gene just being Gene. His expressions were often hard to read. I continued in my story, accounting for the most amusing part of the lady’s tirade.
“The best part was when she said that she was going to sue SanTech for everything we’re worth.” A laugh escaped my lips again, I just couldn’t believe that the woman had said that, and actually believed that she could successfully sue such a powerful company. I waited for Gene to laugh too, for his serious expression to lighten, even if for a fraction of a second. It didn’t and he pressed the issue that had brought the serious look to his eyes.
“She said her SanTech products weren’t working? Did she say which ones?” His eyes became dark and brooding, edged with what looked like a flash of fear. The look confused me and I wasn’t able to figure it out or shake the feeling that there was something else going on that he hadn’t told me.
“No, just that her stuff wasn’t working. Can you believe that she actually thinks she will be able to sue SanTech over this, though? That’s so ridiculous. Some people just don’t have any common sense, do they? What is this world coming to” I tried to take Gene’s mind off whatever was troubling him by distracting him with another train of thought. The troubled and fearful look remained set like stone in his grey eyes as he responded.
“What indeed is this world coming to.” With that, he quickly retreated back into his office, and that was that.
I couldn’t shake the mental image of his eyes from my mind though. They were burning into my brain like a foreboding thunderstorm building on the horizon.
What was Gene Harper, one of the most brilliant minds behind SanTech afraid of?