Amoeba (The Experiments) (38 page)

The sound of running water and Jake’s brushing of his teeth were like an alarm clock to Cal. She’d lay there on her side, pretending to be asleep, not moving, listening to him finish up, the last sound of the coffee pot growing louder. She knew what was coming, a routine that happened more so lately. She’d hear his boots against the floor, listen to him pour his coffee, then feel the blast of morning air hit her as he left to go work out. And Cal listened to the routine just as she predicted in her head. The clunk-clunk of his boots moving to the pot, liquid pouring against the ceramic mug, the gasp of his first coffee drink, and then the clunk-clunk again. Only this time there was no blast of cooler air. There was the feel of a hand on her hip, the smell of mint toothpaste, and the sensation of Jake’s breath near her ear.

“Cal
,” he whispered. “Cal, would you like to go out with me this morning?”

Cal’s eyes widened and she grinned. And so unlike herself, she shocked even Jake by flinging off the covers and jumping from bed. “Yes.” She spoke with excitement pulling her hair fr
om her eyes. “I would love to. Thank you. Thanks, Jake.” She raced to the bathroom sliding to a stop at the door. “I’ll be ready in a second.” She started to shut the door. “Don’t leave without me.”

“I won’t.”

“Thanks.” Cal shut the door and reopened in again. “Don’t go. I won’t be long. Wait for me.”

“Cal. I will. Don’t worry.” Jake smiled when the door shut. And even though for some odd reason he didn’t think she needed it, Jake poured Cal a cup of coffee anyway.

Greg truly hated being woken up before it was time. But there were two other things that aided in his aggravation as he stormed his way down to the control room. One was being told on the in-house line that there was something he should know and it should be told in person, and two was, knowing full well that Doctor-I get up at the crack of dawn because I go to bed at eight-Jefferson, had arrived and was sitting right there. To Greg, having Dr. Jefferson around when things went bad was like making a forewarned mistake right in front of your parents. You get that snide ‘I told you so’ look without any words.

Groggy, messy
, and needing his caffeine, Greg stormed into the control room. “This better be good, and Barb why are you on duty, where’s Lyle?”

“He went out last night and I had nothing better to do
,” Barb stated as she sat next to Dr. Jefferson.

Dr. Jefferson looked up
at the un-businesslike Greg. “Morning.”

“Morning
,” Greg grumbled. “Barb, what’s going on?”

Before Barb answered
, she leaned and whispered to Dr. Jefferson, “Bet me he didn’t have his coffee yet. Oh boy.” She raised her eyes to Greg. “Okay, here it is. Jake and Cal made up.”

“They what?” Greg’s voice raised some.

“They made up,” Barb reiterated. “This morning he woke her up, poured her coffee, and bubbly Cal walked out of the room
with
Jake.”

“There is no way
,” Greg argued. “I was up till two in the morning. They didn’t speak. She was high and passed out. What in the world are you talking about, made up? When would it have all gone down? It couldn’t have.”

“It did,” Barb stated.

“Shit!” Greg’s hand tossed out. “This can’t happen yet, not for at least two or three weeks.”

Dr. Jefferson looked up. “Why two or three weeks
?”

Greg shook his head. “Figuratively speaking. Shit.” He tossed his head in anger. “How did it happen?” He began to rant
fast and furiously. “This isn’t supposed to happen.” He pointed to the screen. “No indication. No talking. No nothing. The man’s wife cheated on him, for Christ’s sake. One week. One week is all it’s been, and he’s talking to her? Nobody forgives a cheating spouse in one week. Nobody! What the fuck
is
Jake, a goddamn saint or something? What the hell is wrong with him?”

Dr
. Jefferson hid is smooth smile. He quietly enjoyed seeing the mild mannered Greg - for lack of a better term in his mind - lose it. “Greg,” Dr. Jefferson spoke passively. “I know you have secondary plans, possibly third.”

“I do. But that is not the point. Next week we have an investors meeting. In two weeks I fully plan on blasting open the mental phase
while
moving on. Plans are already in motion, and those plans definitely don’t include those two
making
up.”

“Greg
,.” Dr. Jefferson calmly tried again. “Sometimes things just don’t go as we plan on these experiments. We figure them out, or at least we think we do, down to the most minuscule detail, but people surprise us. And when things don’t work out, we should calmly admit defeat.”

“Admit defeat?” Greg raised his eyebrows. “Oh
, I don’t think so.” He reached for the phone, first tapping Barb on the shoulder. “Cue up the tape from this morning. I want to watch it myself.” Greg dialed the phone with a disturbed look on his face. “Stan?” Greg’s eyes moved to the monitor screen. “Remember what we discussed about ‘what ifs’ when it came to Cal and Jake. Yes, exactly. Well, I need you to move on it right now. Seize the opportunity because we have one. Thanks.” Greg hung up the phone.

Dr. Jefferson, watching Greg, folded his hands. “You do realize any pushing of this infidelity issue will surely indicate our involvement to some point.”

Greg lifted his hand. “Doesn’t matter, because Jake and Cal, they’re only human. And we’re gonna hit them, hit them, and hit them again.” Greg moved to the tape that played. “I want this team . . . broke.”

The workout was a quiet one. Not too many words were spoken. If words were spoken, they were about what they were doing. But that was fine to Cal. She was with Jake, and it was a start. Sweaty, and wanting to get cleaned up, she walked with him, a two foot distance apart, through the unity circle.

“Nice job with the wall today
,” Jake told her as they neared the porch.

“Thanks.”

“Um . . . showers. You first or me?”

Cal stopped walking. “Why don’t you go first. I think I’ll hit the
dining room for breakfast.”

Jake paused in his reach for their door. “You don’t want to have breakfast with me?”

Cal smiled and moved to the bungalow. “I’d love to have breakfast with you. Thanks.”

Returning the smile, Jake opened the door. Cal stepped inside first and then he followed. “Cal. I’ll jump in real fast.”

“Okay.” Cal moved to her dresser.

“Then we can . . .” Jake stopped cold before the bed.

“What was that?” Cal turned to face him and saw him staring down. “Jake?” She stepped to him. “What’s the . . .” Immediately Cal’s stomach churned. Spread across the bed were multitudes of photographs, all of her and Billy making love.

Jake looked from the pictures to Cal
, his face expressionless. He ran his hand down his face and turned to the bed again. As soon as his hand hit his chin he heard the slamming of the door. He spun to see Cal gone. “Cal.” He charged to the door, flung it open, and ran out. He looked to the left and to the right, but he didn’t see her. Knowing the only way she could disappear that fast was to run behind the bungalow, Jake went that way. Still no Cal. Before going after her, Jake went back to the bungalow.

Cal’s breaths were heavy, loud, and filled with the sounds of emotions, most of which were anger. She stopped running when she hit the beach, pacing in outraged circles, kicking the sand with her feet as she kept her hands on her hips. She closed her eyes tightly, threw back her head and grunted out a scream of what she felt. It somehow was buried in the crashing waves.

But his voice was not. Larry Kale. “I take you two found the pictures
,” he yelled out.

Cal immediately spun around to see him walking to her on the beach. “What?” She huffed out.

“How do you think they got in your room? Quite the . . . “ He snickered. “Spread. Caldwell I guess dropped them off for me. You know, I especially like the one . . .” Larry moved closer to her. “That’s why I left it on top. I especially like the one where his head is buried between your legs.”

On his final words, Cal
, in a fit of rage, charged forward leaping her body at him.

Rounding the bend over the grade, Jake immediately saw them
, Larry and Cal entangled in a brawl that consisted of fists tossing, legs kicking, and both of them being thrown and leaping back up at each other. Jake, holding the stack of photographs in his hand, raced down to the beach as fast as he could. “Knock it off!” He dropped the pictures as he made his way to them just as Larry dove for Cal. They landed in a roll with Larry on top. Jake biting his bottom lip, face angry, barged to them, gripped hold of Larry and tossed him back far and high as if he were nothing. Cal jumped up, and started after Larry, and Jake grabbed hold of Cal from behind, wrapping his arms around her and holding her raging body back. “I said knock it off!” With one arm securing a feisty Cal, Jake aimed a point at Larry who stumbled to get up. “And you! If I
ever
see you touch my wife again, whether she can kick your ass or not, I will lay you out. You got that? And you won’t get up!” Jake dragged Cal as he walked backwards. She fought him. “Cal!” He pulled her harder and further back, “Calm down!”

Cal, with all of her emotions released from Jake’s hold, grunt
ed out in a high sound as she pulled from him covering her face and keeping her back to him.

“We need to talk. Look at me.” Jake seeing the laying pictures, snatched them up then walked up behind her.

“Jake, I can’t . . .”

“Look at me Cal.”

“I can’t!” She screamed, her arms shooting up as her head shook. “I can’t face you!”

Jake moved to her. “Then face this.” He shoved the pictures around in front of her. She pushed them away. “Cal.”

“No.”

“Cal! Look . . .” He saw her head turned from them and from around her back he braced her chin, forcing her head up and in the direction where his other hand held the photos.

Her eyes were tightly closed as her body shook.

Jake walked around to in front of her. “No surprises Cal. No surprises!” His voice was emotionally. “
That
is why I asked you to tell me everything. These pictures are exactly why I wanted to know everything. No surprises to me!” Jake’s face was red as he spoke, and it grew more red when Cal kept turning her head. “You can’t face me. That’s all well and fine. You will when you get past this. So pull your ass together, get your shit straight, and face this!” he ordered as he shoved the pictures in her arms. “Because I have! And if I can, so can you.” Without saying another word, watching Cal grip the wrinkled pictures, Jake walked away.

^^^^

All Rickie wanted was a Pop Tart. One of those strawberry ones with the pink icing and crunchy square sprinkles on top. After buzzing himself in the front secured gate, he did what he usually did, headed to Stan’s lab. But there was no Stan. He asked everyone he saw, and he got the same response, that Stan was working on something in the lower lab. No one but Stan or Ollie had access to the goodie room. So Rickie, really wanting that Pop Tart, headed to the lower labs. He hated going down there because that meant he had to pass the Wes Craven door. But Rickie, telling himself, ‘dude, it’s only a movie,’ moved by that metal door fast, and raced down the corridor.

He thought he heard that noise about half way down and it caused Rickie to stop and snicker. Moaning. Pleasure moans seeping into the hall made Rickie wonder if someone was getting a little bit of lab counter action. Knowing if he wanted to bust someone with a loud ‘Ha!’ in the middle of doing the deed, he had to sneak
, and Rickie did the rest of the way down the hall, zooming in on the moans.

“O
kay, stop,” Stan’s voice said.

Busted! Rickie thought
, and raised his arms like a criminal, turning around and not seeing Stan. “Huh?” He scratched his head.

“Back it up
,” Stan said again.

Rickie took step backwards.

“That’s good right there. Play it.” Stan instructed.

Rickie was so confused until he heard the moans again
, and then he realized what Stan was doing. Stan was digging on a porno flick. Sneaking ahead to the door the sounds came from Rickie, froze when he peeked in. Stan and Ollie sat at a table a television before them, and on that screen were Cal and Billy. Just as Rickie was about to rush in there and blast them, possibly going Monster, he didn’t. And when he realized what they were doing, he moved out of sight.

“Time.” Stan grabbed the clipboard.

“Total first drink to finish, one hour forty nine minutes,” Ollie said.

“First drink to kiss.”

“Seventeen minutes.”

“Second?” Stan asked recording what Ollie told him.

“Twelve.”

“And we have ten minutes after third drink. How long again from first drink to . . . where was it that we said it hit?”

“Um . . .” Ollie reached for the tape player rewinding the tape. He viewed Cal lifting off Billy’s shirt. “Right here. This is where I say check out the looks in their eyes. They’re gone.”

Stan grinned. “Bingo. Fifteen minutes exactly post first drink. Right in the time frame expected.” He set down the clipboard. “We’ll tell Haynes, it definitely was in the Jack. It
was timed too perfect to be anything else.”

“Wanna take a break before we analyze what caused the turning point of the drug
?”

“Yeah.” Stan stretched. “This is getting on my nerves.”

Clenching his fist like a little excited kid, before they took their break from the room, Rickie was racing down the hall.

^^^^

Billy grinned, arms folded, standing with Lou in the dining room. He stared down to the little sheets of paper Lou showed him. “And you drew these?” He asked Lou.

“Political cartoons. What do you think
?”

“Really good.”

“You think when we get back you can show my work to some of those higher ups where you work?” Lou asked.

“I don’t see why not. I mean . . .” Billy slowed
his speaking when he saw Larry walk into the room. Larry stared at Billy. “I mean, they’re good. I wouldn’t show them if . . .” He noticed Larry, determinedly walking closer. “I wouldn’t show them if they weren’t.” Billy’s fingers released the picture and looked up to Larry who was right there. The second he looked up, Billy was greeted with a right fist slamming hard into the side of his face.

Lou stepped back when he watched Larry dive on a downed Billy. He scratched his head wondering who Billy could have possibly slept with that
affected Larry. Holding off to see what happened before he stepped in, Lou moved out of the way when Billy slid back first, all the way down a table clearing it, rolling off the end and onto the floor. Billy had to catch his thoughts, and shake his head from the surprise. When he saw Larry coming again, Billy gathered his strength, lifted up and rammed head first into Larry’s gut sending him back and crashing into a wall. Holding onto Billy as he held onto him, Larry spun to his right, lifted up his knee with force and nailed Billy in the jaw. Billy’s head and body flung up and back, and he slammed into the wall. And in his bouncing step forward, fist tightly clenched, Billy swung out with all he had, catching a piece of Larry’s cheek.

Cal didn’t want to do it but she had to. She had to let Billy know the forces against them. Clenching the pictures and knowing Billy was in the dining room, she heard the crashing of glass as she opened the door. “Oh my God.” Cal rushed in seeing Billy on top of Larry on a table. Both men then rolled onto the floor in their fight. Cal ran through the kitchen door to the stove, grabbing a frying pan, and ran out the other door thinking the entire time how ‘now’ was not the time she needed to speak to Billy. She raced over to the two men, waiting for the opportunity, and when she saw it, totally pissed off, she hauled back the pan and careened it down with a force stopping the fight when she smashed Larry in the head.

When the bong of the pan sounded out
, Larry lifted his head seemingly un-fazed. Then his eyes rolled, his head bobbed, and he rolled from Billy onto the floor.

Billy
, surprised, looked up at Cal. “Cal, what are you doing?” He stood up from the floor.

“I hate him.” She glared down to Larry who was being closely examined by a snickering Lou. “And now I hate him even more. He gave these to Jake.” She handed Billy the photographs and walked away.

A lump formed in Billy’s throat when his eyes peered down to the pictures. “Oh God.” He spoke softly.

“Hmm.” He heard Lou’s voice. “Not bad.”