Betsy
- 2 years ago
- 30
- 0
It was approaching lunchtime when Betsy stepped into Sally’s darkened laboratory. The only sources of light were the fish tanks, and the base of the microscope. It was enough light to see by once the eyes became adjusted to the low level, but that always took a moment upon entering.
The soft burble of the aquariums running provided a background noise that one noticed initially upon arriving in the room, but which faded from awareness after a few minutes.
The effect of the darkness and soft noises, combined to give the room a feeling of calm tranquility. It was much like that found in an old church, rather than the dark and forbidding feel one might expect. It was a room well suited for the young woman who worked in it.
A large lab bench occupied the center of the room. Sally was bent over a microscope examining the tissue taken from one of her fish. There was an open research notebook on the table next to the precision instrument. A pen lay across the page.
“Ah, there you are,” Sally muttered while her hand moved to the base of the microscope.
The click of a digital photograph being taken sounded loud in the quiet of the room. An image showed up on the screen of the laptop computer on her desk. She reached out without looking and grabbed the pen. With the barest of glances at the lab notebook, she made an entry documenting the picture that had been taken.
Betsy walked over to the desk to examine the picture. Her eyes picked out a few details from it, but she knew that Sally would see a lot more in the picture than she would. There was another click from behind, and a new picture showed up on the screen. This was at a greater magnification and more details were observable.
Sally looked up from her work and said, “It’s lunchtime already?”
“Yes,” Betsy said listlessly.
“I guess I was so into my work that the time just flew by. I had no idea that it was getting that late,” Sally said.
“Take your time. I’m not really hungry,” Betsy said going over to one of the fish tanks to watch the fish swim around.
Sally froze and turned to study Betsy. Not once in the entire time she had know Betsy, had the young woman ever professed to not being hungry.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing.”
“There’s definitely something the matter. Spill it,” Sally said.
Betsy said, “I spent the past couple of evenings over at Sanders’ house.”
“That’s great,” Sally said.
“I spent most of time talking with his mother,” Betsy said.
“That doesn’t sound so great.”
Betsy said, “I think she’s more interested in marrying me, than Sanders is.”
“She swings that way?” Sally asked, rather surprised that a woman with two sons was actually a lesbian.
“No, silly. She’s dating Neil Roberts,” Betsy said.
Sally thought about it for a moment before realizing what Betsy was saying. She slumped in her chair, knowing that Betsy had to be pretty down. She knew that Betsy had been hoping that Sanders was the one for her.
“You’re saying he’s not interested in you.”
“That’s right,” Betsy said.
“Did he say anything to you?”
“It’s more like what he hasn’t said to me,” Betsy said.
“What do you mean?”
“He’s never asked me out on a date.”
Sally felt there was one little flaw in that statement. Betsy was spending nearly every evening over at his house at his invitation. The fact that he was inviting her over had to mean something.
She said, “He invites you over to his place every night.”
“Me ... and everyone else.”
There was always a crowd at Sanders’ place. It wasn’t a rowdy crowd and no one actually got drunk. They weren’t even very loud although occasionally someone might shout something to someone else. The neighbors didn’t seem to mind. In fact, a good number of people who dropped by, were the neighbors.
People came, then left after spending a half an hour to an hour visiting with Sanders. Some showed up with beer that they left behind, after having one of the cold ones from the ice chest. Others grabbed a beer from the ice chest and chatted until they finished drinking it. No one stayed long, just enough to be sociable.
There was even a path worn in the carpet inside the house, leading from the door to the bathroom. People even joked about it as Betsy had discovered when she had needed to visit the facilities on one of her first visits.
Sally said, “At least you get a chance to talk with him, don’t you?”
“Not really,” Betsy said.
“How can you not talk to him, if you’re over there every night?” Sally asked incredulously.
Betsy answered, “I spend all of my time there seated between him and his mother. For every hour that I talk to his mother, I spend five minutes talking with him. He’s always talking with the other people who drop by. It seems like fifty people drop in, every night.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Sally said.
“There’s not much to say,” Betsy said, “Let’s go to lunch.”
“Where do you want to go?” Sally asked getting out of her chair.
“I don’t care. I’m not really very hungry,” Betsy said.
“You’ve really got it bad, don’t you?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Betsy said.
“Be that way,” Sally said. Knowing she would get a rise out of Betsy, she added, “Since you don’t care where we eat, how about fish tacos?”
“Don’t be revolting! Fish tacos? How dare they call that fish dish a taco? That’s like saying a cherry blintz is an enchilada,” Betsy said with her face twisted in disgust.
The one thing that Betsy missed more than anything from Arizona was Mexican food. She would have killed to have one enchilada dinner at Maria’s. Just thinking about it, she could taste the frijoles, the tacos, the rice, and the cheese enchiladas.
“No tacos?”
“No tacos,” Betsy said.
“How about soup and sandwiches?”
“I guess that would be okay,” Betsy said.
“Give me a minute to put away my samples,” Sally said.
“Sure,” Betsy replied knowing that Sally would be busy for several minutes.
Sally took the sample from the microscope and placed the glass slide into a box designed specifically for holding samples of that size. The box was placed into a freezer atop the plastic box that held the fish from which the sample had been taken. Freezing the sample would prevent the tissue from decomposing. This would allow her to revisit the sample should she find a need for it in the future.
She went over to the laptop and made sure the pictures she had taken were saved and backed up. That afternoon would be spent marking up copies of the pictures with notes identifying interesting features that she had observed. It was all part of the disciplined life of a biologist – the care and feeding of the subjects, the management and protection of the samples, the recording and archiving of data, the analysis of data, and the painful process of interpreting the results to form a cohesive theory.
Finally Sally slipped off her white lab coat, and hung it on a coat stand by the door.
“I’m ready.”
“Let’s go,” Betsy said.
The women left the lab. They walked side by side out of the building. Sally noticed that Betsy wasn’t moving as quickly as usual.
Betsy said, “I’m kind of jealous. You’re already collecting data and I’m still putting my laboratory together.”
It seemed to Betsy that a lot of her life was in stasis. It had taken a lot of time to purchase the tugboat, restore it to an operational state, and then turn it into a floating laboratory. They were still installing equipment and it would be another month before it was ready for use. That would put her at the beginning of her research. She would still have to spend time collecting data, which in her case would mean tagging sharks, taking samples from each one, and then tracking their movement.
“You’ll be out on your boat before you know it,” Sally said.
Betsy said, “I know. It’s just that I feel like I’m not progressing in anything I want to accomplish.”
In addition to not having a boyfriend and not having completed her lab, progress on fixing her home to her satisfaction had come to a standstill. The work on the security center/office, at home, hadn’t even been started. Gary, Stacy, Charlie, and the architect were gridlocked on what the building should look like. Gary and Stacy were only interested in the security features of the building, while Charlie was focused on providing a professional business environment. The architect was struggling to achieve an esthetic balance with the landscape, the existing structure on the property, and the functional purpose of the building.
She was half tempted to fire the architect who didn’t seem to understand that a security center needed to be secure. He kept giving them plans with glass exteriors to take advantage of the views and to reflect the architecture of her home. He felt like a few structurally strong interior spaces made the building secure enough. Gary was so frustrated that he was halfway tempted to take the architect to a training session where attackers learned how to go through walls rather than doors.
“Sure you are,” Sally said.
“Where am I making progress?” Betsy asked.
The question stumped Sally for a moment while she tried to think of some area where things were going well.
“Your businesses are doing well,” Sally said.
“That’s true,” Betsy said.
The motel had been partially restored. It was now at a point where it could accept paying guests. The lobby had been refurbished so that it wasn’t an outright embarrassment. Six of the guest rooms were in condition to be rented. The landscaping company had done a pretty good job of removing the weeds and putting down sod. Flowers would have to wait until the construction was finished. They were waiting to repave the parking lot until after the rest of the work was completed.
With regard to the true purpose of the motel, Candice had done a good job of implementing the plans Stacy had created for the safe rooms. Tony Thomas and his family were currently living there with Stacy in the room next door. The only problem with the safe rooms that had cropped up was a lack of things to keep young boys from getting bored. Stacy was busy trying to rectify that situation.
Candice’s living quarters had been fixed up nicely although she had not yet decorated it with much more than the barest of furnishings. It was a source of pride on her part that she was going to pay for all of the furniture out of her paycheck rather than let Betsy front the money. Betsy understood that.
The water filtration company was in the process of delivering a system to the aquarium and had a tentative order for a second one. A lot of people in the business were waiting to see how well it performed before committing to the new technology. Betsy had known that would be the case so she wasn’t bothered by the lack of orders.
Jake was busy meeting with the leadership of a town in Honduras about the possible use of their filtration system for the local water. He had read in the newspaper of a number of deaths in the area that had been a result of people drinking contaminated water. There was a very good possibility that this sales call could open the door to the selling the filtration system to small towns around the world. Everyone was excited about the future.
Knowing there was one thing that could cheer up Betsy, Sally said, “If you want, we can go to another performance.”
“That would be nice,” Betsy said starting to sound cheerful. “Maybe we can go to a symphony.”
“Let’s do it. We’ll see what’s available and get tickets to whatever we like best,” Sally said.
“That’s a great idea,” Betsy said.
The little luncheonette had a number of brochures for the arts and the local entertainment paper. They spent the lunch going over available performances. There were performances at all levels of polish – local amateur theaters, nationally recognized artists who were making bar appearances, university productions, and full professional performances. They could watch plays, operas, jazz, and rock bands. Then there were the ‘art’ films being shown in high brow specialty cinemas, and on campus.
By the time they finished lunch, it had been decided that they would go to a local jazz club to listen to a performance in a women in jazz series. Neither knew what to expect, but they were going to approach it as an adventure.
The decision to go to a live performance had cheered Betsy significantly. It was to the point where she had basically forgotten the source of her earlier discontent. She was in a good mood when she jogged over to Sander’s house for an evening visit. Turning onto the street where Sanders lived, she spotted Cat waving to her. She jogged over and slowed to a walk for the last few steps.
“Hi, Betsy. How are you doing?” Cat asked.
“Okay,” Betsy answered.
Cat gestured to the house behind her and said, “Would you like to have a cup of tea?”
“Tea? You’re not drinking beer, tonight?” Betsy asked.
“I drink beer with the guys; but I enjoy a nice cup of hot tea, occasionally,” Cat replied.
Betsy said, “I like tea.”
The two women went into the house. Cat had a nice wood box filled with a large selection of teas that she had recently received as a present. They discussed the various flavors and each selected one to try. They treated it almost as if they were trying to pick out just the right piece of chocolate to try in a box of mixed chocolates. Betsy picked the White Ginger Pear while Cat went with the Flora.
It wasn’t long before the two women had a cup of hot tea in front of them. Betsy tasted hers and said, “This is a delightful tea. I would have expected the ginger to overpower everything else, but it provides just a delicate hint of ginger.”
“I’m rather pleased with this one. I would never have thought of combining hibiscus, cinnamon, and licorice,” Cat said.
Betsy took another sip of her tea trying to decide if a little sugar would improve it or ruin it. The flavors were so well balanced that she decided the sugar would lessen it.
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In the process of selling the idea of their filtration system, Jake and John Widmeir had made two interesting discoveries. The first was that Betsy Carter had almost limitless energy. They had been told that, but seeing was believing. She could keep going long after everyone else collapsed from exhaustion. There had been one funny little incident in which a cocksure kid had thought he could keep up with her, in the workout room of the hotel. She had walked out bubbly and full of energy,...
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Head buried in her closet, Betsy was tossing clothes out left and right. Charlie and Alice were standing at the door watching her. They were a little amused by her behavior. Alice said, “I do believe that Betsy is in a tizzy.” “Tizzy? Yes, she does look like a person in a tizzy,” Charlie said. “It could be a dither,” Alice said. “No. It’s definitely a tizzy, not a dither,” Charlie said. “I wonder why she’s in a tizzy?” Betsy growled and then muttered, “I’ll show them a tizzy.” “I have...
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The modern person, who has lived a significant percentage of their life in a digital economy, can not imagine what life would be like without checks, credit cards, debit cards, and online banking. Mortgages, rent, utilities, and insurance are paid with check or by electronic transfer. Large purchases and consumer goods are paid with credit cards, or checks. Plastic is not reserved only for big items. People will whip out a credit or debit card to pay for a five dollar lunch, or a cup of...
With Sally away on her honeymoon, Betsy was at loose ends. After Chuck’s kidnapping, she just didn’t want to take off for the ocean for a week at a time. At this point, it wasn’t necessary. She had all of the biological data necessary for her dissertation. All that was missing was sufficient tracking data to support her arguments and time would take care of that. She didn’t need to tag any more sharks since she had already tagged far more of them than was necessary for her dissertation. For...
Ling said, “You look like hell.” “I’ve been around your daughter for a couple of days,” Gary replied pointedly. He tried to count the days, but they all ran into a blur of move and move and move. He had never been so tired in his life. Trying to keep up with Betsy was a constant effort. She was always in motion and that required him to always be in motion. The normal human being wasn’t built for that level of activity. “You should get some rest,” Kelly said. Gary pointed at Ling and said,...
In what has to be one of the greatest plays on words of all time, Mark Twain wrote: ‘Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.’ “This can’t possibly be happening. It’s impossible. I just won’t accept it.” Everyone has observed denial at work. Everyone has experienced denial for him or her self. Denial is a universal experience. One can deny it, but that denial rather proves the point. Denial is an unavoidable consequence of how the human mind works. The human mind makes gross generalizations...
In the short time she had worked for Betsy, life for Charlie had been interesting. Still unable to get around with any kind of ease, Charlie was more than happy to sit behind the desk and take care of the hundreds of little things, that had been ignored by Betsy. She’d been stunned to discover that Betsy hadn’t even bothered to open a local bank account. She had been shocked one day, to discover a past due statement buried with the stack of mail that had accumulated over a couple of weeks....
Betsy was pacing around outside the construction site. The site engineer (Stan Kubrick) and one of the foremen (Jim Franklin) were there with her, wondering why she had literally dragged them away from their homes. Chuck was standing under a palm, enjoying the shade, while George was nervously licking his lips. A man wandered by and stared at the group for a second. Finally, he approached and said, “Hey, Jim!” “Hello, Kirk.” “What are you doing here?” Kirk asked. He had been working on...
Betsy stood in front of the little stand that was selling meat. The stand had once been a little souvenir hut that had sold glitzy trinkets to tourists. It had a fake grass roof, giving it a kind of hokey appearance that tourists expected of a tropical island. She wondered where it had come from, but wasn’t interested enough to ask. A bird flew overhead and landed upon a branch of a nearby bush. She turned to look at it. It was a red crested cardinal. Like many of the more common birds on...
Betsy skipped down the hallway pausing to read the sign on each door. The other students in the hallway would move over to the other side to avoid getting hit by the jump rope. She stopped in front of one of the doors and read the name off the nameplate aloud, “Sally Tilton.” She stepped back nearly hitting a student with her jump rope and read the sign on the door aloud, “Keep out.” She stopped swinging the rope around, but kept up the jumping motion while knocking on the door. She called...
Betsy paced the floor, criss-crossing the living room in her house. Fortunately, the house was built with a wide open spacial style that allowed her a lot of room to move. If the room had been a bit smaller, she would have been bouncing off the walls ... literally, not figuratively. Not for the first time since returning to the house that morning, she asked, “Where is he?” “I don’t know,” Charlie answered without having to ask who he was. “Why isn’t Gary here?” “He had to go to the...
With the destruction of the economy, a number of things had changed in the world. One, which almost no one would even think about, was the disappearance of certain specialty shops, of which bridal stores were a good example. There just wasn’t a place to buy what had become a traditional wedding gown. What few dresses had remained on the shelves of stores at the time of the collapse had long since disappeared. Young couples getting married now tended to wear nice dresses and suits. The new...
The desert stretches from horizon to horizon, existing in both time and space. One man gazes upon it and sees paradise. Another man gazes upon the same scene and only sees desolation. One desert, two men, and three entirely different worlds. It is not a mystery why people argue and bicker over nearly everything. If two people can’t agree on something as vast and as timeless as a desert, why should it be a surprise if they can’t agree on much of anything? The variations in preferences of even...
Charlie was wheeled out of the hospital in a wheelchair. As with a lot of patients, she had argued that it wasn’t necessary, except that it was. Her prosthetic was packed away in her luggage, which Betsy was carrying. Either the infection had been a little more aggressive than she had thought, or she had really been a lot more tired than she had felt. She was so weak that she was afraid that she might not be able to use the crutches she’d been given. Once they were outside, Betsy handed the...
Tight-lipped, Ed stared at the man. Talking with him was a constant assault on his truth sense. The longer he talked, the worse the lies got. It was as if one lie emboldened the next. Ed said, “She was drugged.” “The test results were lost,” the man said with a smirk. Ed’s truth sense stabbed him in the brain upon hearing the lie. He said, “Quit lying.” “I’m not lying. They were lost.” “She was drugged, and you know it!” Ed shouted. The man replied, “She chewed his arm off and beat him...
Chuck wandered over to the security center and office building construction site, searching for Gary. The building was still a long ways from finished, but he could imagine what it would look like when it would be completed. The foundation was in place, the framing was complete, and some of the exterior walls had been added. Chuck found Gary inspecting the building. Gary was checking to make sure that nothing that didn’t belong had been added to the walls. There were folks who would be...
Chuck was seated in the backyard passing the time by watching a couple of birds working together in building a nest. Watching them build a structure for the results of their mating reminded him that he was going to be married soon. He was looking forward to the event without the kind of nervousness that plagued many grooms. There was only one downside – he wished his parents were still alive to see him get married. He wished his parents could have met Betsy. He was sure they would have loved...
Sally walked into the room thinking that she had made a horrible mistake. There were a lot of people, none of whom she recognized, moving around. She grabbed Gary’s arm to prevent being separated from him. Betsy had disappeared somewhere into the heart of the party. It was a typical frat party – a lot of testosterone driven young men, scantily dressed young women, too much booze, not enough light; and loud music, which made talking impossible. The air had the lingering hint of a sickly sweet...
The sound of waves crashing along the beach provided a background noise that Betsy found particularly relaxing. She was sitting tailor fashion on the beach, looking out across the ocean at the distant horizon. This was about as calm as Betsy could appear to act. It truly was an appearance of calm rather than true calm. She was digging two holes. She was excavating one hole with each hand, and using the sand in the other hand to fill it in again. The strength required to shove her hands into...
By the morning after the altercation with Kyle, the swelling in Carl’s face had reduced to the point where he could see again. His nose was still tender, but most of the pain was gone. It was hard to believe that Kyle had been able to hurt him so badly, with just two punches. He’d been beaten up a few times in high school, but that had been nothing compared to the previous day. He had awakened that morning to find Betsy, wearing a knee-length skirt and white blouse, seated in a chair reading...
Ling, pulling Cal behind her by his ear, followed Millie and Melvin out of the plane. Betsy was inside with Kelly and the rescuers planning how to free the two men trapped in the chairs. Jimmy was over by the fire piling branches on it after getting it restarted. Ed was with him giving him pointers on the care and management of a good campfire. Ling threw Cal to the ground. Looking at Millie, she asked, “What’s the story with him?” “He’s an asshole,” Millie answered. “I figured that much...
“I agree. I will see what I can do to convince a certain young man to become a caretaker.” Harry stood behind the young man watching him. Unable to keep silent any longer, Harry said, “You’re talking to a mongoose.” “I know,” the young man answered. “They don’t talk back,” Harry said making reference to the weird one sided conversation he’d been listening to. “You don’t know that. In fact, she’s quite talkative,” the young man said while rising from his kneeling position to face...