39 Portal Mortals (1/2)
Tyrone arrived first.”Don't tell Phyllis I took lunch early,” he said. He pulled a paper-wrapped package from his belt-bag.
Nelda barely heard him, snatching an offered sandwich. It was slightly warm,but that could be from cooking or from Tyrone's body heat.She devoured it like a ravenous hamster, her cheeks bulging with food.
”I hope you like grilled cheese,” Tyrone added. ”I don't think anyone will notice I went early.I don't think anyone notices me very much.Especially not Phyllis.”
[The fate of worlds is in my hands, but I'm stuck in a soap opera.]
Nelda managed to swallow her mouthful.”I guess you're not her type.”She continued to inhale the sandwich.
”I'm not saying that I… I mean.Is it that obvious?”
Nelda shrugged.
”I know she's not interested.It not, I know ita a bullshot thing men say, but I did find out she's a lesbian.Which is not to say that if she was not a lesbian, she would be interested in me anyway.But she is. I mean, isn't.”
Nelda nodded vaguely.
”It was the HR guy who told me,” Tyrone rambled. ”He said how she ticked two diversity boxes at once, which is kinda a shitty thing for an HR person to say anyway, even without outing her. Oh shit, and maybe I shouldn't be telling you, but then it's not something... hell. I never feel like I know what to do.”
Nelda swallowed the last crumbs and immediately started to hiccup.
”Yeah – hic – well, adulting is hard – hic.You're doing – hic – good.”
[That sounded dumb.]
Tyrone actually seemed pleased with her platitudes.”My decision now is whether it would be better for me to stay here or go to…”
”The – hic – people there call it M – hic --irth, Mirth.”
”Go to Mirth.You'd have to admit it sounds like fun.” He grinned.
Nelda made a 'so-so' gesture with her hand.
”If I stay here I can use the technology I developed to an effective level.But it is almost certain that the prof and I will be on turn controlled by greater forces.Forces that will almost inevitably be—”
”Hic – Evil.”
Tyrone frowned.”I don't know about evil.They are simply controlled by priorities and expediencies that are not necessarily… moral.It's not that they are evil.”
”It's also not that they're – hic – not evil.”
”And given how you describe Mirth.If I go there most of what I know, the technologies that I have built my life around do not and effectively cannot exist there.”
Nelda shrugged.For all she knew, a city of cyber-minotaurs lived in a spaceship orbiting Mirth.But if this all came from Angry Brenda's brain… well, she wasn't a fan of contemporary or sci-fi. [Or me.]
”Oh,”Tyrone pulled a can of coke from his bag.
Nelda grabbed that in a way that was probably also not polite, but he didn't seem to notice.