Priya Echo's Adventure - Part 3

CHAPTER 12 - ERIC TALKS TO A FRIEND

Behind the glass of a hockey game, a conversation more intriguing than the war dance on the other side was afoot. Eric leaned over to his brother’s roommate Maurice, who had asked a rather frank question, “Um, yeah, going well”, then slurped a bit of root beer for good measure. “Really, what’s her deal?” he shot back, focused, perceptive, without questioning the interference from the other team. Eric coyly shrugged his shoulders, smiling in that dumb way when you are rewarded by your parents but they won’t tell you the reason, “It’s been a rough start, but I like her a lot”. Maurice burst out laughing and craned over to grip both of his shoulders at once for a good pinch, “Stop trying to figure them out, bro”. Eric recovered, throwing a handful of popcorn at the screen for good measure as the rivals scored a goal. For a second, he thought about just letting it go. It would probably be useless to talk about someone his friend had never even met. And really, how could that someone understand … but it was just something he needed to get off his chest. Eric compared the options before making his decision, “Tell me about it. We went out to Jacksons … you know the place”. “That high class joint?”, Maurice whistled at the price, then smirked in the knowing way a man does to recognize another’s plight. “Have you seen Nadine, you know, the hot one? She convinced me to buy her a dress from Yellow Summer, but she didn’t react the way I thought she would. I don’t know, maybe she’s been in that lab too long or something. Try buying a dress for a girl that isn’t materialistic” he chronicled, rambling emotionally. That evening had certainly been an interesting test. Impulsively he glanced down at the gift bag by his chair again, sizing it up. Fashionably literate people milled about a classical interior with a modern open-air twist. Yuppies and wannabes dotted the bar, many relegating their attention to the virgin classical emanating from the stage. A waiter that actually cared daintily illustrated the appetizers to a beefy woman draped somewhat in fur. Lights limping on thin strings were timed to dim and brighten at just the right times for the eye to adjust to feel out the shapes of humanity. He took a look at the bag once more, gauging a reaction, not noticing her arrival. Priya’s presence leaped into his awareness. She was wearing a lab coat, one with a few stains from their date from last week. Taking into consideration their conference she had straightened her hair, knowing that was the preference of boys. Eric followed the girl’s plan to the letter, waiting till after desert to subject the real world to hypothesis. “Geez, that was a really good flan” Priya noted, quietly patting her lips with a white napkin. His heart beat blood into effervescence. Reacting with swiftness, he picked up the bag and laid it on the table, “So I found this at a shop near the university, I thought you would like it”. Conscious of his effort, she spurned the desire to play with the curious handfuls of tissue paper as she pulled the contents from the bag. Like the lab coat it was white, but a thousand times more beautiful. Priya’s eyes tinted with interest, observing the scope of it like a spectacular powerpoint slide, “Where did you find me?”. “I found you at the pharmacy, don’t you remember?” he immediately reacted, not expecting the modification or his voice to carry that particular sentence. The girl smiled as she looked away from the gift and back towards his keen, handsome face. “Eric, don’t be silly. I found you” she replied. The memory washed over him as the blur of the game endured. What she had meant from that still didn’t make sense, but she was happy, which was all that mattered. “Damn, you’ve got it made” Maurice grunted as he stole a buttery first full of popcorn. Eric took the comment in stride, folding the past back into the past, because that’s where it belongs … like origami, “Uh huh, so what’s the deal with your cousin’s new gig”.

CHAPTER 13 - HANCOCK RICHARDS

“Do you know if there are any details?” Priya asked Felicia the next day whilst slurping from a juice box in the cafeteria. “I have to admit the record is silent on that point. That’s pretty much everything I know” her friend articulated contritely. Nearby, the maintenance man Hancock Richards was mopping the floor, and stood to listen. “Talking about that are you … hehe … you’re much too young to remember those times”. “If you’re from that generation, you must have lived through it. Did you see him?” Priya enquired. Resting his hands on the tip of the pole, he furrowed his brow as if to remember, “Yup … I sure did. Saw him on the telly. He looks like a guy that just walked out of a bowling alley in full uniform, you know, the kind of douchebag that thinks he would look good dressed up as a pirate, only he’s the most powerful guy in the universe”. “Blimey. … are you pulling our leg?” Felicia blurted out. “Excuse my friend … Do you remember anything about that time before the loan was returned?” Priya asked, and under the table she stepped on Felicia’s foot to quiet her down. “The only thing would be I remember sitting on a bench with my daddy. He was reading the newspaper in the park and ignoring everything as usual. He loved to read the newspaper in the morning. Nearby there were chickens pecking on breadcrumbs. Then a chicken flew onto his lap with a tortilla in its beak and rolled up into it. Then it became a chicken enchilada and he ate it. After that I noticed that around the four corners of the park were walls with the background painted on them that I thought was just the background a moment ago, and we walked out one of the doors, and he told me that was one of his favorite restaurants, but I didn’t really understand what he meant till much later”. “Priya … I think this guy is trying to butter you up” Felicia whispered. “Must have been one of the virtual reality rooms back then. I’ve heard of that as well, how silly” Priya said, vindicating the storyteller, and he walked away, mopping the other end of the cafeteria.

CHAPTER 14 - PROFESSOR HOOK’S BIRTHDAY PARTY

It seemed like a prudent use of time, and so Hook cleaned his apartment three times over until it was entirely spotless. Earlier that day he completed his official duties. Neat stacks of paper lay on his desk. Satisfied, he reclined back onto the couch and adjusted his glasses when all of the sudden the doorbell rang. He wasn’t expecting company. A summer sweater was all he had on to entertain. Luckily, as he opened the door it was no other than Priya and the girls. Nadine, Felicia and Dominique to be specific. A delightful cake ringed with candles.“Happy Birthday!” Priya bellowed. They all walked in and … it was clean as fuck. Almost like her apartment, but better, and with a vague smell of vanilla. Priya gave him her best happy-to-see-you smile and please-reinstate-my-funding eye blinks. Felicia came with a green Chinese dress borrowed from her aunt. Dominique was in a long bodied gray coat with big buttons with a sliver of a white dress shirt. And Nadine had accidentally put on something too red and sexy for the occasion with long dangling earrings. With four versus one, they easily put him in his place, which just happened to be in a chair at the table in front of a birthday cake. Hook was confuddled at the tradition, as he normally went to the library for a good rental on his birthday. Priya leaned in close and he smelled like a warm bran muffin freshly drawn from the oven at a shelf of some café that is slowly going out of business. The remainder of the quarters had remarkable upkeep. From the windows slipped nice ambient light whose consolation could not be ignored. Priya turned her cheek, knowing the moment needed no entourage. “Well old buddy … what do you wish for?” she prodded. Hook stared deep into the nostalgia of the candle light. The question lingered on his tongue for some minutes. From audacious youth his temperament had smoothed. Academia worked him to the bone but restored him every day with fertile thoughts. Coffees every day of such assortment of flavors. And the perennial meetings with faculty that marked the passage of time. He had no complaints. Lightheartedly, Hook turned and brushed the inquiry aside, “Actually, I have everything I want. By that I mean … I have you wonderful girls to make my day”. Priya stepped back at the assertion. Its vigorous thrust assailed her usual apathy. Clinging to the emotion, she cupped her mouth and turned back at the others. Restraint was no longer an option. The onslaught of it made them dewy eyed. A partial faint moved the ladies to embrace one another in fast motions. Concessions of friendship. A long overdue exchange. Nadine looked on, weak for a second. There he was. The cake and its phosphorescence brushing his face like a hearth. Felicia held her arm, as new sensations came, enough to engulf her humanity. Dominique felt the beat of a song but it was akin to emotion. Through the window cars rolled past, ready to move students from home to university. Soon they would don shirts without holes and jeer at each other in the cafeteria. Homebound, their parents would yawn more than usual. They would pick up a hobby, like painting. But the rush continued. Cars cast in primary colors since that was the acceptable thing to do. The winds that day made them aerodynamic. But in the apartment the cross examination was not complete. Priya ran around the table and sat on the other chair facing her beautiful bureaucrat. She slammed both palms onto the maple wood, “Come on Hook, are you going to sit there and not ask for anything? Try to think”. Hook began the long process of decision making. Sundry thoughts flocked deep within the hollows of his soul. Gears twisted. Steam rose. Men in chains slammed hammers against railroad tracks. Priya looked to the others who were dumbfounded. She got up and leaned over the table gracefully. Her back arched, she stuck one elbow on the maple and let the other push against her cheek. Now she was locked with him. A starting contest unlike the world had ever seen. It was not for sport. It was the maternal thing to do. But as the time dwindled on the clock, and the educator, normally insatiate for knowledge fiddled on, quietly she could not help herself. Hook would think for hours. Preoccupied. Confined in a riddle that was meant to be an easy chore. Ironic pleasure slowly marched across Priya’s face. Sly humor. It would be redundant to articulate. A delinquent smile fanned across her face as the pressure mounted. Dominique tried not to laugh. Felicia considered breaking the stalemate. Power hungry Nadine leaned in, wanting an answer. Irregardless, his mind labored on. In Priya’s chest she could feel the weight as ideas for very funny and very bad things that were possible to say. Like thuds. Hook sat there; his inability goofy in the furthest extent. Waves of it bashed against the lab-girl. But in the contest Priya knew she had to claim ascendancy. Her eyes narrowed. Her posture strong like a statue. “A cucumber sandwich, '' Hook replied. Without missing a beat Priya raised her other arm and snapped her fingers, directed to the girls, “cucumber sandwich”. Felicia went to the refrigerator. Inside was a serendipitous vegetable tray. Around it, pungent smells of a sheep’s milk cheese. The second in command closed the door. Nadine went and got the bread and took down a cutting board. Dominique just sort of waited and helped with the project management, such as the organizing and making certain that its deliverables were on time and within scope. And she chose the white cream cheese. With a clack the plate hit the maple and slid towards its person. Nadine backed up three feet. An auspicious participant no longer. She noticed that he did not have the usual gray in his tufts. As he munched, Priya waited for the inevitable critique of cucumber sandwich. Enigma to the others, she had echoed Hook with the name of the refreshment. In unity they felt his appetite. Those tufts wagged with joy. “Do you want anything else?” Priya submitted as he wiped thick cream cheese from his mustache with the back of his hand. Hook would tend to his business, flailing his arms with the delight of bread and cucumber. Still, she stood firm. It was victory or nothing. Finally, he stopped and was trapped helplessly in her gaze, “Hummus”. Not missing a beat, the lab-girl answered in kind. Its repetition pure and kind. It's copying a thing of envy. Its iteration a thing of seamless song. Priya lifted her head just so. The words departing in good sequence, “Hummus”.

CHAPTER 15 - THE ECHO GAME

The girls were not so accustomed to a hard push in the small of their back. Priya weaved them through the square, past secluded buildings. Leading them to their destination. Her fingers thrust in deep. “It’s like a knife!” Felicia squealed. But Priya didn’t budge. Her countenance beamed in harmony with the thought. The day had a special design. And so, she poked them mercilessly, ushering them forward. At a higher elevation, the clouds were delightful and plump. A day meant for picnics. Their eyes tied in blindfolds; the girls witnessed none of it. They were busy dealing with Priya’s antics. Lonely, unsung university buildings lined their path. The windows were smeared gray from weathering. Within those walls stood empty rooms with forgotten pamphlets. But Priya redirected them from that effigy of academia. Along its width a creek caked with mud met a rather anticlimactic end on dry ground. Still, the humble clouds queued in the air. Boundless like spring cotton. From the night before the last raindrop descended onto the handsome earth. Priya had gathered them all regardless of fleeting time. Nadine gasped as her hair and nails were an unmitigated disaster. Dominique stuck out her arms sideways, pretending to be an airplane until the scientist was forced to nudge her away from that misadventure. Still, she led them onward. Pieces of brick tumbled down an incline of a dilapidated building like kids riding down a slide. Another had windows in excess. Its neighbor was wider than usual and drafted in a circular architecture. This was it. Priya quickly untied the three of them. Dominique spun around to face her. “Are you kidding me?” she ridiculed. The auditorium rose above them like a monument to obscurity. It's dark portals begging for light. “This place is old news … is this like, funny or something?” Dominique tossed up her hands, exaggerating her displeasure in graphic detail. Felicia looked Priya up and down, wondering if she actually was a robot and whether there was a glitch in the system. Yet all systems were operating smoothly and the aforementioned android booped Dominique in her nose with an outstretched finger to shut her loudmouth up. Priya had worn a new lab coat just for the occasion, and she wasn’t going to give this up. “It’s the perfect place for a game. I made it up. It’s called the echo game” the lab girl revealed, profuse with inexplicable joy. Nadine pivoted on her heels, “You mean like your name?”, she gathered. “Exactly!”, Now Priya’s cheeks were rounded and filled with wonderful things to share with all of them. But the game was afoot and so she ran inside and waited for their company. As the girls wandered in, they couldn’t help but notice the columns at great intervals, arrayed in vague garments of dust. Felicia paused with charming meekness at the scary stuff. Arms close to her chest. Nadine looked up. There was a second floor sporting a balcony. Up ahead was Priya, with a gallant expression on her face. In her presence, the surrounding darkness attained new life. Beautiful like the silence at dawn. Nadine was simultaneously enraptured and at wits end trying to figure her out. “Alright friends, here’s the game. This whole auditorium is so big that its walls will let the sound reverberate off of them, making echo’s. That’s why it’s the perfect place for a game of tag” she began. “I think you mean hide and seek,” Felicia offered. Priya nodded her head in affirmation and hid the suspicious smile from her face. “It’s so funky in here that the game will last an hour” Nadine tended. “Oh, I’ve got something else up my sleeve,” their friend boasted. Sharp reflexes awoke, and the lab girl ran towards the wall, and bounced off of it onto the second floor. “Wow, that was amazing!” hollered Felicia, thinking that it was simply an athletic jump from the wall to the balcony. And with that the game was set in motion. Dominique spent much of the ensuing time daintily prancing over curling shadows and unkempt floorboards from the shipwreck of a floor after Felicia. “Ah!” she whimpered, unforgiving of the former friend who had bested her at tag. In the distance, Nadine’s voice trailed behind as she weaved around the columns sowing fine reverberations like bait. It was irresistible. Despite exhaustion, Dominique fed her heart with courage. Her feet barely brushed the ground, except to pursue what had to be acquired. A swift deer, darting behind immemorial columns. The Latina snarled as she neared the heels of her prey. A wily plunge behind a tall column was not enough. Dominique tapped the shoulder. Nadine wept from the sting of injustice. The Latina giggled in her face, knowing she had become her teacher, if only for a second. By that time Priya had arrived on the scene. Dominique grit her teeth. Now there was one. Likewise, the game renewed, invigorated with the lifeblood of the chase. Priya was not so fast as Nadine, the girl thought. Her white lab coat flapped like a sail sprayed with saltwater, its craft advancing towards dancing waves. Then, through some fault of the dimness, she lost her. Behind, Nadine and Felicia huddled for warmth. Draped in black, the auditorium’s precedence gripped them. Hushed memories of academia and its endless appraisals swirled around. It's austerity. It's cruel discipline. Nadine looked hazily at the scene. In her dream-state, the bones of academics shook in the foundation of the auditorium, knowing they had studied to their heart's content. But then with furtive glance the Latina spied her. That pleasantly nerdy voice. Dominique leapt into action, seeking her across the breadth of the room. The auditorium was inaugurated long ago, but its dust made shifting what was plain to the eye. Like a plucky runaway Priya zigzagged through the place, escaping her pursuer. The game was going well. The lab-girl began to smile partially when a fit of laughter descended, slowing her down. “Newbie!” Dominique called. Priya ringed around a certain column, and her pursuer knew just what she would do. “Can you hear me!” rung out, multiplying, obscuring the source. “I’m too good for that to work” Dominique insisted under her breath. Greedily she crept forward, the prey within grasp. Undeterred, longing for the body. She ringed the column like the sun in its unearthly station and … NOTHING. Where was she? Another clone of the scientist’s words navigated her away, across the stretches of the room to another place. Yet it likewise ended empty handed. The process continued, sending her in vain around columns, dizzying her senses. It would continue like that for an hour. The two others would join in, and they would do their best. They would split and reunite, searching the recesses. They would find only shadow. A smiling Priya alighted on the grass outside, her form materializing. “Not bad for a first round” she surmised, rubbing her hands together in glee. She took a moment to stare at the other derelicts. Squirrels casually skipped along the tops of buildings, like knights of the realm guarding turrets. It was going to be a fun day.

CHAPTER 16 - PRIYA AND NADINE AT THE BANK

“What do you mean there’s nothing to be concerned about!” Nadine slapped the counter as the bank teller tried to lessen the tension. “There has to be a good explanation for this, mam. Please stay calm” the teller promised half-heartedly. “Can you even see what’s going on! Those aren’t my withdrawals, and they’re happening every hour on the hour. I don’t make electronic withdrawals for those amounts” she gesticulated wildly as Priya looked at the ledger, seeing the palpable regularity of the debits. One hundred units every hour, to the second. “There’s a hacker taking all of my junk! Make it stop right now before I lose my shit!” Nadine ejaculated. The teller tried several things to no avail, and then retreated in terror as she witnessed the intervals shorten to every ten minutes. “Um, let me go grab the manager, be right back” the teller offered, skulking away. Sweat began to glisten on her forehead, and she pushed her hand to her temple as the account continued its descent, “…. Oh no, everything is spinning!” Nadine whimpered. Priya grabbed her by the shoulders and took her to the center of the room, where the desks were. “Don’t worry, I’ve got your back” she said and raised a hand to snap her fingers, then led her friend back to the counter when they both had returned. The teller looked at the screen, squinting and moderately confused, “The last digit of the account number, which was a 1 changed to a 2, how could that have happened? It looks like a random glitch, but it’s closed out the hacker’s ability”. “We’ll take good care of this mam and file claims on your behalf” the manager assured her, and they both left the branch, cutting across the area where the ATM’s stood. About ten steps out, Nadine realized what had occurred, and stopped dead in her tracks, “Newbie … your magic!”. “You must be famished”, Priya said as she touched the ATM machine, and it turned into a food dispenser and opened up, providing a fish taco. “How is that even mathematically possible?” she gasped, then bit into the delicious tortilla. A digital smiley face played across the screen and winked as she took the first bite. “Shhhh” the scientist replied, pressing her finger to Nadine’s lips, “I’ll let you know on the ride home, and while we’re at it, I'll tell you a little bit about Euclidean Husbandry as well”.

Chapter end