" "P'nyssa." "P'nyssa. Brieanna Flanders would not let me kill myself, or have you all forgotten that little incident in Pendor's recent past? I'm not about to sit around and let you try the same stunt, for equally stupid reasons." She stared out the window to her right, looking out over the ocean. "When your father kicks you out of the house, what do your brothers and sisters think of you?" "Depends on the individuals. Look, Nyss, to be honest, I don't understand why we argue over something as stupid as paper." "Because you're disorganized. I can't work with that kind of disorganization. Your notes are a perfect example. I mean, how am I supposed to know that the genecode for enzyme 5054 starts in the green notebook, but you scribbled the RNA code for it on the flap of the red notebook?" "You're not. I get ideas at random, and they go onto the nearest notebook or surface, not necessarily the best place for them." I paused, and said, "Did you really want to kill yourself?" She looked away and said, in a small voice, "Yes." "Still want to?" "No." "What's the difference?" "I changed my mind. That's all. Look, if this is over, I'd like to go." "If you want." She took that as a 'yes,' rose and headed for the door. I walked behind her and as the door opened I said, "Nyss..." She turned. I don't know why, don't ask me, but as she did I was filled with this crazy idea. We weren't far enough apart to be social, weren't close enough to be intimate: dangerous space. I had two choices: back off or advance. The first was unacceptable, so I took two steps towards her, backed her up against the hallway wall and pressed my lips to hers. She struggled for a few seconds, then I released her, backed away into that dangerous space again. She looked at me, her expression impossible to read, then turned and ran for the SDisk. There was a flash and she vanished. The next day I spent cleaning up Alpha and, much to my surprise, having Halloran and Dave hypertext everything I'd ever written. |