Shaking Off the Dust (10 page)

“Shimodo, what do you think you’re doing?”

“I knocked and called for you several times. I worried when you didn’t answer me. You’ve been having a lot of episodes of poor heath. I needed to make sure you were all right.” He had his back to me now.

“You know I’m deaf in one ear, and with the water jets on, I didn’t hear you. I appreciate your concern and all, but may I finish my bath?”

“Yes, of course. I’m going to pick up something for breakfast. I shouldn’t be long.”

He stared into the foggy mirror over the sink. “Sorry, Hannah.”

“Right.”

I rinsed and stood, drying off before I stepped out of the tub. That’s when I noticed that the mirror was not completely fogged over. I stared at my reflection, shaking my head. I was five foot three of pale white skin, with a generous bosom that was still surprisingly pert. I didn’t have a sculpted abdomen or well-defined upper arms. My scale showed ten pounds over what was recommended for my height and it was evident in the softness of my body. I suspect he was not impressed. I know I wasn’t.

I did my hair and makeup. Not for the boys, but for Carl. I decided I’d flirt with him again today. It would stave off the tedium of the tests. When I went into the living room, Tom was on the floor stretched out on some pillows.

“You never told me your friend was a pervert.”

He raised his eyebrows. “That dog won’t hunt, Hannah. You can say that about most any other man I know, including me. But Takeshi isn’t that way. He’s the most considerate man I know. He adores

woman and wouldn’t do something disrespectful. His mother raised a gentleman.”

“He had a lot of respect for my bare breasts in the bath today.”

He jumped up, leering at my chest. “You know I can be mighty respectful too.”

“Men.” I tried to gracefully fold my legs down to the floor. “This isn’t working for me.”

“Oh it definitely takes getting used to.” Tom fell back on to the floor next to me.

I checked my watch. It was already nine o’clock and the next round of testing was at ten. I was getting impatient and hungry, when I heard the front door lock turn and the door opened. I expected to see Shimodo, but instead a young man of obvious Asian descent came into the room. He stopped inside the door, staring at me.

“That’s Nico, Takeshi’s cousin. He goes to the university, premed. He’s been taking care of the house and fish tanks while Takeshi’s been gone.” Tom was a fount of knowledge.

“Is my cousin here?” the young man asked. It was strange how both he and Shimodo had similar, deep voices. Nico had the same black hair, but the similarity stopped there. He was perhaps five-seven, flat nose and square jaw, none of Shimodo’s delicate features.

“No. I’m expecting him back anytime though. In fact, I thought you were him.” I stood up. “Hi, you must be Nico. My name’s Hannah.”

He appeared shocked that I’d know who he was. “Are you Takeshi’s girlfriend?”

I shook my head. “I’m his latest guinea pig.”

Shimodo came into the room as I spoke.

“Speak of the devil.” I smiled and nodded towards Nico. “Look, Shimodo, Nico just got here.”

“I see that you at least told her your name, Nico. That’s a first.” Shimodo set down some bags on the table.

“No, I didn’t. She knew who I was.” He lifted one eyebrow.

“Yes, the voices in my head spoke to me,” I mumbled.

Shimodo tried to frown, but started laughing. His cousin watched us with interest. “I wish you’d stop telling people you’re my guinea pig.” He gracefully slid down in front of the table, beckoning both his cousin and I to join him there.

“It’s okay, Shimodo. I’ve come to terms with being your personal lab rat. As long as you feed me and take me out of my cage at regular intervals, I will endure it.”

He opened several bags and offered me a large piece of crusty bread, still steaming from the oven. I snatched it from his hand before he could change his mind. He tore off a piece for himself and offered the rest to his cousin. From the other bag, he pulled out cups.

“For this one occasion, I picked you up a decaf coffee. Nico, I didn’t know you’d be here, so you’ll need to see what’s in the fridge to drink.”

Nico headed to the kitchen.

“And bring napkins and butter,” I yelled after him. I raised my eyebrows at Shimodo and took a big sip of coffee and sighed.

Nico came out of the kitchen with cream cheese, butter, dried fruit and nuts. We feasted for the next half-hour. I savored my coffee, letting Tom’s tirade at his disgust in not being able to eat with us roll over me. He enjoyed his tirades, and he always found a subject on which to begin one. Shimodo watched me, and his cousin watched us both.

“Are you from around here, Hannah?” Nico asked.

“No, I’m from Indiana, in a galaxy far, far away.”

He grinned at me. “She’s different. Not like your research associates.” His gaze was on Shimodo. There was a long silence before he spoke again. “Are you finished with Tom’s affairs?”

“No,” Shimodo said.

I stood. “I’m going to freshen up. I won’t be long.” I returned ten minutes later and his cousin was gone.

Shimodo walked out of his room with a laptop briefcase. “Are you ready?”

I nodded and followed him. The neighborhood was lovely. The trees were turning orange and dark shades of green and purple. It looked like an old residential street, no wandering students here. The drive to the university was made in a comfortable silence.

He pulled into a campus parking lot. I watched a parade of students walk to the buildings. A group of three young women paused and watched as he got out of the car.

“I see his fan club. I wonder what they’d say if I leaned in and kissed him,” I said quietly to Tom. I’d do it to see the reaction of the three girls who couldn’t take their eyes off us.

“I’d pay money to see that,” Tom encouraged. “Two of them are second-year medical students in his class. He often complains about them throwing themselves in his way whenever possible.”

“Really?” I remembered the kiss from the other night. This was as good an excuse as any to mash lips with the man. I was going to consider it a perk for my participation.

Shimodo walked to my side of the car, opened the door and helped me out with a question in his eyes.

“What, really?”

I leaned into him and laid my slightly open mouth against his and kissed him. I waited for him to push me away, but he didn’t. He kissed me back, like he would kiss me forever, lips soft and sweet. He pulled me closer as his tongue tasted my lips. The chemistry was there as strong as ever for me. My body started to respond. I was the one who pushed away from him. I had a stupid grin on my face.

He smiled, touching a finger to my lips. “Anytime, Hannah. If that’s Tom’s doing, I encourage him to

continue. I am glad to see you are flirting with someone other than Carl.”

“Does he kiss as well as you?” I tried for a humorous note, although my body was still humming. My heart had begun to speed up during the kiss.

“I wouldn’t know and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t find out.”

The three girls came towards us and Shimodo sighed. The tall blonde one sniffed.

“Professor Shimodo, are you back? Will you be teaching today?” she asked.

“No, I’m afraid not, and I’m in a rush. We are running late this morning.”

I’d worked in the emergency room a long time and you see and hear a lot of outrageous things. Keeping my face quite bland, I said, “You didn’t seem to mind.”

He laughed. “No, I didn’t.”

The girls’ facial expressions became glacial.

Shimodo saw the look and took my elbow, pointing me in the direction we needed to go. We were still within hearing distance when one of the girls declared, “She’s way too old and fat for him.”

I’d been having fun, enjoying my time with Shimodo until that moment. My expression stayed bland, but it stung like a slap in the face. The little bitch spoke the truth. I wasn’t a young girl. At thirty-two, overweight, deaf in one ear and now on heart meds, he was way beyond my touch. It certainly brought it all back into perspective for me. I’d forgotten that I was the guinea pig. I wouldn’t again.

Shimodo glanced at me. “They were jealous, Hannah.”

“I know. That’s why I kissed you. Tom encouraged me, but I was trying to see if I could make them jealous.” I looked over at Tom. He watched his friend like he didn’t know him.

“Well done, Tom,” Shimodo whispered.

I didn’t say anything else as we walked through the campus to an antiquated building and took stairways to a basement. After several corridors, we reached a door that read
Neuro Science Lab
.

I walked through the door to face eight sets of eyes all turned towards me. They were young and wearing lab coats, except for one elderly man who sat apart at a desk.

Shimodo looked around, frowning. “Carl, can I assume this is your doing?”

“I’m sorry, Professor Shimodo, but our work isn’t usually this exciting.” He waved at me.

I smiled, but really did feel like a lab experiment. I inched closer to Tom, who stood behind me, until I was passing through him.

“Ooh, that’s nice.” Tom moved farther into my body. “I wondered when I’d get my kiss.”

My face turned red. “Could you be pleasant to me just once, Tom?”

“I mentioned it was nice.”

“You are such a prick,” I muttered.

“Yes, that was the nice part.”

I stalked across the room to Carl and found a chair at a table. He came over and leaned into me. “Is Tom giving you any problems?”

Tom flicked him on his ear, like he was shadow boxing with his head.

“You tell me, Carl.”

I watched as Tom played tag with Carl for the next couple of minutes.

“Hannah.” Shimodo came right up behind me. “Hannah, are you listening to me?”

“I only ever half-listen to you, Shimodo. Tom’s using Carl’s head as a boxing bag.”

Everyone in the room watched us. One of the females in a lab coat spoke in her best professor mode.

“Perhaps you should listen more carefully to Professor Shimodo.”

I gave her my ER nurse stare. She gave it back without flinching.

“Hannah is deaf in her right ear. She was making a joke about only half-listening, Melissa,” Shimodo said.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. I didn’t know.” There was no apology in her voice.

Carl kept moving around the room, trying to get away from Tom’s batting at him.

Shimodo finally moved closer to the agitated Carl and intervened. “Tom, please leave Carl alone.”

I was tired of the crowd of eyes. “Tom, go around and tag them all. Let them understand why Carl’s weary of it now.”

“You tell Carl to keep his mouth shut from now on, then I might do as you ask.”

“Carl, apologize to Tom for telling everyone about this morning’s session or he refuses to do what I ask.” I begged him to comply by putting my hands in the shape of a prayer and mouthing “Please”.

“I’m sorry, Tom. I was excited,” Carl said.

Tom went first to Melissa. “She needs some manners.” He gripped her right ear.

Melissa glared at me and started rubbing her ear. “It’s cold.”

But Tom didn’t stop. I let it go another minute. I was kind of enjoying it.

“Tom, she gets the point. Sorry, Melissa. He commented on your poor manners.”

I looked over at Shimodo, who didn’t show any expression, but Carl was grinning. I suspected he didn’t like Melissa.

Tom went to each of them, touching them all in a different spot. He finally went to the older man and laid both his hands across both of his. By the time he’d finished there was awed silence.

During Tom’s demonstration, I moved to be closer to where Shimodo stood. “Did I ever tell you, Shimodo, that when he does touch, he feels prickling warmth as opposed to us, who feel cold? When we first came into the room, I was leaning against him. He liked it.”

“Sex talk in front of his coworkers, shame on you, Hannah.” Tom appeared directly in front of me and pressed into the front of my body. “Very nice.”

“Cut it out, Mecurio.” My breast had responded to the cold and I was furious.

Shimodo had an odd expression on his face. “No, you didn’t mention that before.” He turned to the others and in a louder voice said, “Let’s get to work. Break up into groups of two and three. Each group takes a different station. Carl will go over each testing station with Hannah.” Shimodo nodded at the older man and they went back to some offices. I could see them through the windows.

Carl took me to a room with a glass partition dividing it, where I was hooked to monitors and left alone on one side. One of them would hold up a card and I’d be asked the shape on the other side. Tom would yell the answer to me. We did a few test cards before Carl came back and wired me to a microphone.

“So is this a test of telepathy?” I asked.

“Yeah. We’ll be video recording the session. Of course, we know, at least I do, that you can communicate with a ghost.” Carl spoke in a confidential whisper. “You look very nice today, Hannah.”

I smiled. “Thanks, Carl. That’s sweet of you to say.”

Tom called out the shapes and I regurgitated it to the waiting researchers. One time I couldn’t hear him so he popped in front of me, yelling straight into my ear, but always the deaf one. I rolled my eyes at him, mumbling inappropriate comments. I assumed I got it all correct, but the members of the group conducting the test gave no indication one way or the other. We did pictures and numbers until my throat was dry.

I called for a break. Carl showed me to the bathroom, which was down several corridors. As I came back to the open door into their lab, I could hear them talking.

“I’m telling you, I finished teaching his class and two female students swear he was all over some older woman this morning in the parking lot.” It was a man’s voice.

A female replied. “Think it’s this Hannah he brought in today?”

There was a silence.

“I’d be all over her if she’d let me,” Carl said.

I smiled and notched up my opinion of him.

“She’s not his type. I’ve known Kim, his ex, and they are polar opposites. Besides, if it’s her, it’s probably because she can talk to his best friend. He was devastated when Tom died. Things won’t last once the emotional loss is confronted.” That was Melissa.