Les is Moor

Alessandra wasn't sure if she'd made the right choice, uprooting her whole family and moving them to the Pawlmoor Estates. This first week had been the worst. Tes had locked herself in her room, refusing to come out. Harland was overdoing it with the store, trying to get set up so he could take some time off to help the family settle into their new home. 

The twins seemed all right, which was a small relief. Although, after they met their first friends, they became a little hard to pin down. Luckily, the beauty of Pawlmoor was that all the parents there would keep an eye on the kids. Professor Pawlmoor had even given her phones for each family member. In a worst-case scenario, she could just text any one of them. That took some getting used to. Cell plans for a family of five were usually pretty extravagant. Before Pawlmoor, it just wasn't in the family budget.

Everything had changed so quickly. Yet, she was determined to make the best of their new situation. Les just had to survive the day at work before she could get her family in order. She wasn't quite sure how she was going to accomplish her goals, but she was resolute. 

She'd stopped home at lunch. First things first, she tried checking on Tes. She knocked and waited for a response. Nothing. After trying to get her daughter to open the door on her own, she decided to try the handle. Locked. She could use her key to open it, but she was worried it would incense Tes even further. Grab a bite and head back to work, she thought to herself then went down to the kitchen. 

She immediately noticed the door to the basement was open. Interesting! Maybe Tes wasn't ignoring her. Maybe she decided to take a better look around. Good. Les was fine with letting her daughter settle in at her own pace. This was her eldest child's first year out of high school. Her whole world changed too fast after graduation. Les understood how difficult the world could seem to a teenaged mind.

She made a sandwich as quietly as she could. If Tes was downstairs, she didn't want her to know someone had come home and caught her checking her new environment out. This estate is so rich with surprises! Why take the adventure away? She stuffed the BLT in her mouth, pulled out her keys, locked the door. She made her way back to the labs.

No sooner had she sat at her desk her phone beeped. *New Message* She noted while trying to organize the file folders that had been placed in the centre of her escritoire. *Click* She tapped the message. 

From: Royal Pawlmoor

Hello Alessandra, can you please meet me in my lab before you leave today. Thank you much! Royal

Oh great, she thought. Why put it off? She decided to go right then and there. She straightened the pile of files, grabbed her purse then left her office. Professor Pawlmoor's lab was in the lowest depths of the building. It lent the impression that Professor was a sort of mad scientist, even though he seems pretty close to normal from what she could tell. 

She approached the big, steel doors. To the right is an access pad and an eye scanner. She stepped up to it, unsure which to try first. Just looking at the pad seemed to have activated the eye scanner. Suddenly the door opened to her without any further hesitation. She peeked in.

"Come in Les, please. I'm over here, by the radax composite disseminator. Have you seen this bad boy yet?" He waved her over from the corner of the lab. He was standing in front of a table with a machine of some sort on top of it. On the other side of the table lay what looked like a ruby, seemingly forgotten, as the Professor focused his attention between the disseminator and his guest. She approached.

"No, sir," she said politely. She hadn't seen anything like this new fangled thingy, let alone heard of a radax composite disseminator. She looked it over with curiosity. "It's going to help me send out messages to our team! I just finished it. I plan to test it this evening. The rest of the staff is fully aware of it, but since you're our newest teammate, I wanted to make sure you were on board. I also need a small sample from you to make sure it's keyed properly." He certainly looked very pleased with himself but one word stuck out at her. Sample. "What kind of sample? What exactly does this thing do, sir," she inquired. Her stomach did a small summersault.

"Oh! Yes, of course. Apologies, Les, and please call me Royal. We are equals. Besides, Professor is merely a title, not a description of how I see myself. Just an accreditation. So, what was I talking about," he said looking a bit lost. She smiled. "The machine, si... Er, Royal." She pointed to the device on the table.

He happily clapped his hands at the reminder and picked up his train of thought. "That's the ticket! So, as I was saying, this little fella is going to help me contact everyone on the team, in real-time, without any devices required. Not so much as a chip! Isn't that amazing?"

"Yes, absolutely," she said brightly. It was an intriguing idea, but she wasn't certain what his meaning was just yet. "How does it work?"

"Well, as I said, I need a sample from everyone who'll be involved. Oh, please, don't look so concerned, Les. Just some saliva on a swab. Nothing more," as he said this he handed her a long q-tip. He smiled reassuringly. "Okay," he said slowly as he watched her hesitation.

"Ah, so maybe you'll feel better once you know what I plan to do with it?" He smiled and took a deep breath. "I plan to put that sample in here," he pointed at a circular little opening on the side of the device. "It will then activate an X wave to key into your mental frequency. When I want to speak with anyone on the team, I shall activate this device which will begin a pulse sequence. X-wave pulses can have superluminal phase and group velocity, which will allow everyone in the group to think directly to one another or to everyone, like a conference call. I intend on testing it tonight! With your acquiescence, of course."

She thought about it for a moment. Not only was it a sound theory she had read about before, but it was immensely alluring in the potential it granted. The idea of being able to think to anyone you choose, well, that was an empowering acquisition to imagine. She stuck the swab in her mouth, got a heavy sample, then handed it to Royal. He took it with a pleased expression and placed the end into the aperture.

After a moment, the apparatus gave a small beep. Little lights began to flash. "Oh, you might want to sit down in that chair behind you. This may cause some dizziness." No sooner had he finished, Les began to sway, her eyes rolling upwards and back.

"Oh my," he sighed and rushed to her side. He guided her slack form into the chair as gentlemanly as possible. Then he retrieved a bottle of water and placed it on the side table next the chair. He leaned against the table with the mechanical box atop of it. He'd had to go through this with a few team members. He thought to himself, I really should find a better process. Sigh. He looked at his watch. After over ten minutes passed, he stood up straight, put his hand to his chin in thought, then went over to the radax box. 

Still 'processing' the lights denoted. Well, we can't rush the process, he thought. Just then he heard her gasp. Looking over, her face was in a pose of surprise. Her mouth and eyes wide. It startled him so greatly he rushed over to her. "Are you all right, Les?"

Without a word, she grabbed the water, opened it, then drank half down in three gulps. "Wow!" She bolted up, still wide-eyed. "WOW!"

"Wow? Les? It was just supposed to open a link, not take you down. Are you all right?"

"Yeah! I am... I... I feel awesome! Thanks for asking!" She felt invigorated, full of energy, able to accomplish anything. Now Royal presented a stunned look. "Well, I guess it works," he said in awe. 

Suddenly, they both heard questions like a murmuring static. "What's that? Do you hear someone talking, Royal," she looked around for the source of the noise. "I do, but it's inside my head. It's not coming from any speaker. This is what the radax does." He closed his eyes, putting all his attention to the voices. "Oh, that's much better. Les, try closing your eyes and listening closely. I think you should be able to hear the rest of the team. I believe we startled them. We weren't expecting a test until this evening. Ah well, all in the name of progress, eh?" Seeing his eyes still closed, she followed suit.

Suddenly, without being drawn to look for a source, the voices began to become more clear. It sounded like the rolling conversations you hear at most company functions. But there was no picture for reference of whose voice may belong to whom.

As the Professor said, most of them wanted to know if this was an unexpected radax test. You could almost hear a collective sigh as the Professor explained what happened. Les listened intently, feeling a bit out of the loop. This was the first real experiment being done here that she had seen or been a part of. She would have liked to come in more prepared, though. 

She opened her eyes as she realized everyone had just heard those thoughts. Embarrassed, she went back to the chair and sat down, trying very deliberately not to think at all. She was relieved when no one said anything disparaging. They all started offering ways in which they could relate. A discussion began on what they may need to tweak to provide a sense of privacy for each participant. They made her feel better just by shifting the focus of the conversation to something they all seemed to have concerns about.

Eventually someone mentioned the time then the 'mind meeting' began to disperse. "Professor, how do we, I don't know, disconnect? I'm not sure what I'm doing." She still felt a sense of connection, even if thoughts were no longer pressing into her head.

"Well," he said then took a moment to ponder. "I just focus on the room, in all honesty. It seems to draw me back here. But that's definitely something the team will have to address. Now, let's get you home! If it's all right with you, I would love to take you." 

He extended his elbow. She took it awkwardly and they left the lab. He was happy to make the conversation as they made their way to the back lawn where several golf carts were kept. He got in the driver's side while she climbed in next to him. The carts all had keys in the ignition. A perk of the premises.

As Royal turned it on, he looked over his right shoulder and put the cart in reverse. With a jerk, the little buggy hopped backward, the motion spilling something small and hard from the Professor's pocket. Les jumped out and grabbed the ruby that had been in the lab. 

As she touched it, the world spun. She saw every colour of the spectrum like a kaleidoscope spinning before her eyes. She could hear all her teammates again, only they didn't seem to acknowledge her.

If she thought of one person specifically, her view would shift to them and she could see everything going on around them. She immediately felt uncomfortable, as if spying on her associates. She dropped the crystal and the world returned.

Using her jacket, she picked it up without actually touching it. "What was that, Les," he asked as he took the stone from her gawky grasp. He looked down at the crystal. "Did something happen when you touched this gem, Les," he sounded a little excited.

"I," she started. "I," she tried again. "Colours, all the colours I could ever imagine and then some," she said wistfully. "I also saw some of our associates." She blushed and looked at the ground. Ashamed for spying, even if she hadn't intended to. "I could see them and their surroundings. But they didn't seem to see me."

"Wonderous!" He put the ruby into an inside pocket. "You should have told me you're empathic. I usually ask," he said happily.

She got back into the cart. He maneuvered towards her home. "Oh, well, I didn't think anyone would believe me. They never have in the past." She felt a sense of relief wash over her. Her whole life she had felt ostracized if she spoke of her gift. She was grateful enough to be open with her family, who each were talented in their own way.

They pulled up and she got out. "Well, I'll leave you to your thoughts and your family, Les. If you need anything, even just to talk, you know how to reach me," he winked. "Oh, and just think of me, specifically, okay?" She nodded and went to the foot of the porch stair. She waved as he pulled away.

She sat on the porch for a bit to process the afternoon. She had to convince Tes of how amazing this place is. They can all be open and safe. That's new. She felt a new sense of self-empowerment. There was something insider her beginning to flower and blossom.

She closed her eyes and felt all the flowers and the trees around her. It felt amazing. She tried to feel the house but couldn't. However, she realized at that moment that she could feel her family inside. 

She stood. She would save this for another day. Today, she'd listen to how their day went. Maybe Tes would open up. Once she processed this whole radax experience, then she would tell them about it. She wasn't completely sure if she was allowed to talk with her family about this. She would have to ask the Professor.

As she went in, she found her family sitting around the dinner table. Tes was bringing plates of food out of the kitchen, smiling ear to ear. "Just wait until I tell you what happened today," she exclaimed. "But first, sit down so I can tell you guys how sorry I am." 

This place didn't just transform her, she could see that now. She could see it welcoming all her loved ones. This was the best beginning she could have hoped for. She felt it was sure to be the adventure of a lifetime. How many other people get to say that about their work?