Flash friday 3-28-14 purely decorative in Flash Friday

“Sir?”

“Ah, Jean, have a seat young lady.”

“Am I in trouble sir?”

“No, no --- please” he gestured with his hand to the hard wood chair, cherry perhaps, waxed, finished and polished by time.

“I wanted to talk to you about your test …”

“Which one? Am I in trouble sir?”

“Why would you be in trouble child?”

“This is where kids who are in trouble go, sir, to your office. Your name is a threat sir.”

He frowned, almost a feminine pout, and then smiled. A practiced gesture, jean thought, like an actor, setting up a change of heart.

“Yes, well … Essay question in applied sociology, seems …”

“Which one?”

He paused. He’s slowing me down, jean thought, I interrupted him. Maybe he’s suspicious.

“’All applicants must submit to a full cavity search upon passing in or out of the metal detectors. If Company X was still concerned about corporate espionage which other detection method might be applied’ that was the question …”

Jean sat still. He knew she knew the question. He knew the question before she had seen it. He’s setting up … whatever this is.

“Most of the kids came up with sodium pentothal, suggesting the potential threats memorized information and that said information was stored in conscious memory banks.”

She smiled and nodded as though pleased with the ingenuity of her classmates.

“You did not.”

Jean realized the empty air between them was supposed to be filled by her.

“Sir, I suggested genetic markers. If the concern is on entrance and exit, well …”

He held his finger to his lips and made a vague gesture around the room, he used his other hand to cup around his ear. He slid a tacky piece of flash paper towards her ‘I’m offering you a job’ it said and he snapped his forefinger and thumb and the paper flashed in to a small puff of white smoke.

Jean pointed to her chest and then to her head, trying to convey ‘I’ll think about it’. He nodded. On her next blood test her marker will tell her bosses ‘I’m in.’