May 21st, 1908 - Arkham, Mass.

[gone_byebye]

There's been a wild flurry of activity at Franklin Place, the boarding house Ray took up residence in back in 1906. Nearly all of it's been on Ray's part. The Franklins, a couple in their fifties, have taken it all in stride. It's not as if the University's engineering professor, Dr. Pabodie, hasn't done equally strange things in his time- and he lives in the same house. In fact, he's assisted Ray in his experiments once or twice before Suzi's arrival.

Suzi's been the topic of discussion between the two men once or twice, if only because Dr. Pabodie was mildly surprised at first that a household that could turn out an engineering mind like Ray's could produce someone as distinctly un-scientific as Suzi. Then he found out about her knack for distance and spatial calculations, and promptly things were much better. (Dr. Pabodie has some odd ideas about genetics.) As for the other residents of the house, Dante Helcimer, the Frenchman down the hall, has never really been anything like well since Suzi's arrival. He's a jumpy sort of fellow who insists on vegetarian meals and leaves the table when the Franklins' cook produces a large roast or other visible, undeniable meat. For some reason, he tends to avoid Ray; Ray hasn't really objected.

All of this takes place when Ray isn't at work at the Library, of course. During those hours Ray's usually found a way to set Suzi up with books from the Library's standard collection. History, English, Languages and the like are on the first floor, but the Law Library's on the third, separated from Ray's office only by a room full of old charts and maps. It's amazing how many of the older books in any of those sections have been in need of repair, so Ray's been getting them for Suzi to read and fix at her leisure while he works.

Today the repairs are finished early, and the books that were done yesterday are ready to be re-shelved. Ray, however, is more or less up to his elbows in an extremely strange Greek illuminated manuscript full of forgotten Orthodox saints and highly unorthodox commentary on the New Testament.

Comments

[sime-channel.livejournal.com]

"Uh huh." In this case all her things means the clothing she was wearing when she got here, which she's had packed. There isn't any point in waiting, so, "I'll see you soon, Ray. Hurry home."

Then she bolts through the doorway, not waiting for him to answer. He'll be there a few seconds later, right?

[gone_byebye]

The light ripples, pulses, and brightens, and with a noise like a tiny clap of thunder Suzi is gone. Almost instantly, the light fades.

Ray leans back on his heels, adjusting his grip on his backpack strap. Five, four, three-

On the count of two the light suddenly flares unnaturally bright, cascading in ripples and waves from left to right. The blue component of its shimmer is replaced by an unhealthy green tint, shooting through the curtain of light like a sudden onset of inconceivably complicated roots, or veins. Where it touches the edges of the field the green crawls up onto the mechanism, casting its web over the metal and wood and glass with dizzying speed. The very device itself appears to ripple from the center outward, the air wavering like it had been struck by the heat of some poisonous sun.

Ray has just enough time to think Didn't this happen in the basement at Columbia? and throw up an arm to protect his eyes before the brightness sears through every part of the mechanism. With a horrible ZZZSCHLLURK noise, the web of green light-veins contracts all at once, and the machine falls apart into a million minuscule, unusable pieces.

"Ñìšdù," Ray breathes in Sumerian. "That's not good."