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A Place In This World (Collector of Rarities x Nobodysangel)

She looked up, blinking a little in surprise. It'd been considered very impolite (and a little ill advised) to ask too many questions of the other kids in the Facility, and most people at the shelter kept to themselves. The staff tended to not get too involved with people that stayed there, and aside from Ms. Nichols she didn't really have anyone she talked to. Before the Facility, she hadn't really had many friends and tended to keep to herself even more then. Kids could be really mean, and after they'd started putting her in the special education classes she had tended to withdraw even further. So when he offered to let her ask questions about him, she wasn't sure exactly where to start.

"Did...you grow up in Boston? What is it like there? How did you like MIT? It's a very good school from what I've heard." She didn't want to ask anything too personal or impolite. She'd never been incredibly comfortable with people in person. She'd always been tall for her age, a gangly, awkward thing with messy brown hair and eyes too big for her face, all knees and elbows. It hadn't gotten better in school either; complete turmoil and upheaval could roll off of her like water off a duck's back one day, and the slightest change in routine could send her into a meltdown the next. She had never gotten very good at reading people, of being able to tell when they were upset or if she was prodding too much. And the last thing she wanted to do was upset or insult Desmond.
 
"I actually grew up in Harvard," explained Desmond, "which is just outside of Boston. Harvard's a fun place: especially Harvard Square. There are all sorts of great restaurants and shops and you can regularly find street performers of all sorts there. Boston's a very nice city; I think the oldest in America, although I never studied history too closely, so I can't be sure. There are plenty of historical sites you can visit, you've got the Franklin Park Zoo and the Aquarium where they put on shows with seals. Oh! And there's the Museum of Fine Arts, too! It's not just art, you know, although that's a part of it. They've got some lovely historical exhibits as well. There's an entire section dedicated to samurai swords and armor: I always loved those as a kid."

He took a sip of his root beer, finishing off the soda as he did.

"MIT was... well, it was great and it was something of a nightmare at the same time," he said, smiling as he set his cup down. "Now, don't think I'm ungrateful: I wouldn't have given up my time at MIT for the world, but it was hard. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a smart guy: I skipped two grades before going to college and was the youngest guy in my class. I couldn't legally drink until half-way through my senior year. It's a little intimidating being a seventeen year-old in college when pretty much everyone else is a year or two ahead of you. I still hadn't entirely grown out of my high school awkwardness and I'd been thrust into one of the most prestigious schools in the country. So, rather than going out and making friends, I spent my first year with my head in a book. It was really only in the second year when I came out of my shell. It was small things at first: I went to study groups, which got me dragged into a few different clubs, which got me involved in club activities, et cetera. So, by the time I finished my senior year, I had a great group of friends and a lot of fond memories." His smile faded. "Unfortunately, most of them were from out of state and a few of them were from out of the country, so most of them went back home. We still use Facebook and Skype to keep in touch, but I kind of miss having the old crew around. I feel kind of pathetic sometimes: I mean, it's only been a month and I miss them already. It's a bit quick for that, don't you think?"
 
Ris listened, quietly sipping her fruit punch as he talked about growing up in Harvard. Until she'd come to New York, she'd never really been anywhere aside from school and church. It had sort of been a necessity; her parents had other kids to worry about and simply hadn't been prepared to deal with a 'special needs' child. She'd tried not to be trouble when she was old enough to understand things, but even so, she wished that she could have done things like that. She smiled a little as he started talking about MIT, and she found herself wondering what it would have been like to go to school and be in actual classes with other people, not just usernames on a message board. He got to meet new people, who didn't just assume that she was a bad kid because of where she was.

That had been the hardest part. She'd been in the Facility for five years, and in that time, there would always be new officers, new administrative people, new residents who would assume that she must be some awful person to be locked up in there for so long. She'd never tried to explain why she was there, and no one that knew wanted to discuss it. It was weird, terribly strange. Her parents had thought she was possessed after that whole incident with the school play (first time she'd ever been asked to do something in front of other people and naturally she mucked it up) and it hadn't been more than a few days that she'd been in some home for 'disturbed children' before they'd moved her to the Facility. The Facility wasn't bad, she supposed. Not really, all things considered. But the other kids there had done bad things, really bad things. Some had gotten involved with drugs, some had stolen cars, others had gotten into fights and some had even hurt people really bad. She just turned into vapor when she got nervous. But she was the one locked up in solitary most of the time. It didn't seem fair, and she didn't understand. She still didn't understand but she tried her best not to think about it anymore. When she'd turned 18, they couldn't keep her. She didn't have any sort of criminal record or anything and hadn't ever been deemed a danger to anyone. Her parents couldn't petition to keep her locked up any longer and so here she was.

She shook her head a little as he asked if it was a bit soon for him to be missing his friends. "I don't think it's too quick. You saw them every day, got to spend time with them and talk to them and stuff. A whole month? I'd probably be missing them a lot sooner than that." She said, looking sadly at her now empty cup of fruit punch. "I need more drink."
 
Desmond smiled at Ris as he shook his cup, allowing her to hear the straw scraping around inside the empty container. "Let's go together this time," he said, offering her his hand.

He stood up and walked with Ris, doing his best to position himself between her and the others. It made him a bit angry that people didn't stare as much when he was moving with Ris; like it was suddenly okay for her to be there when she was with a "normal" person, but she became unwelcom the moment she tried to do something on her own. He refilled his cup along with her and their number was called as they were about to head back to their table.

"Think you can carry the drinks while I carry the pizza?" asked Desmond. "If we leave now, we can probably have time to eat and then see the penguins get fed."

Desmond wanted to see the zoo, but he also wanted to get out of the pizza parlor: he wanted to get Ris into a place where she felt much more comfortable. He was glad that she was opening up a bit and hoped that she'd open up even more when she was in her element. And, hopefully, she'd be open to accepting his job offer. His boss might find it a little strange that she had no resume, but he could easily allay most of his concerns by buying Ris some new clothes and getting her a haircut. There was also the issue of finding her a place to stay, but he could always let her stay in his apartment while she looked for a place of her own.
 
She didn't feel nearly so nervous with him beside her, which made sense after all. From a purely academic standpoint. Humans were social creatures. On a subconscious level she supposed that people by themselves, people not like the norm on some level tended to bother other people. It was the same herd instinct that led animals to shun the weak and sickly members of the herd, and often times those that were alone were viewed as the weak, sickly ones in this human herd. It wasn't their fault, she reminded herself. It was biological imperative, nothing for her to condemn them for. It was nature, and there was no fighting nature. She held on to Desmond's hand as they made their way up to the soda fountain, filling her cup up once more very carefully to precisely one eighth of an inch from the rim, allowing her to place the plastic travel lid on the cup and not run the risk of any splashing up against the lid while still ensuring maximum drink fullness.

She glanced up at him as he mentioned that the number called was theirs, and asked if she could hold the drinks. She nodded, taking his root beer in hand as well and following him obediently up to the counter, getting their pizza and following him out the door. Naturally she wanted to hurry, her legs long enough to keep close step with his strides. After all, she loved watching the baby penguins be fed, the chicks so fat and fuzzy and cute that she just wanted to grab and hug them all. Of course, that'd be disastrous, given how fragile chicks are and the protection instinct of the parents and such. Still, the idea of hugging a baby penguin was fairly high on her list of things she wanted to do some day. Along with raising otters in her bathtub. That one she granted was a bit unlikely, considering that she didn't have a bathtub of her own at present and wasn't sure when or if she'd be getting one. After all, it wasn't as if she could precisely start applying for jobs and all. Few employers would even consider her for any sort of position given her background and lack of credentials, schooling or experience, and fewer still would bother to work around her eccentricities. The classes at MIT were mostly just because she was voraciously curious and wanted something to pass the time; she never expected to use anything she learned at a job or anything.

"How are we going to get there, Desmond? Are we taking the subway? I have a MetroCard for myself but..." She hesitated a moment, and placed his drink carefully on top of hers, reaching into her pocket and taking out her own MetroCard. It was a bit of a juggle, but she managed to slip the card out of its plastic sleeve, along with an old MetroCard from last month. Barely a blink had passed before the old MetroCard had become an exact duplicate of the new one and she held up the two cards and smiled. "I have a spare if you want to use it." It wasn't preciesly lying, she reasoned to herself. After all, why would anyone not assume that she really just had an extra? It wasn't like particle transmutation was the first thing that popped in mind to anyone anyway.
 
"Well, we could take the train or we could use my car to get there," he said. "I'm parked nearby and it's not quite rush hour, so we should be able to drive there without too much trouble. We can get a start on the pizza while we're driving and then finish it up at the park. Sound good?"

He lead Ris to his car and placed the pizza on the hood while he unlocked the door. Desmond drove a dingy green Ford Escort. While the car was well-maintained, it was obvious that he'd bought it from a used car lot: the seats were comfortable, but old and it smelled like one of the previous owners might have been a smoker. Desmond reached over and unlocked the door for Ris and waited for her to buckle in before sticking the pizza on her lap.

"I hereby dub you the pizza holder," he said, smiling playfully. "It is your solemn duty to hold the pizza during our ride and to hand me a slice during red lights."

With that, he started the car, causing "I'm Gonna Be" by The Proclaimers to start playing over the stereo. Desmond smile sheepishly and turned off the music. "Sorry," he mumbled. "Something I was listening to on the ride over here. Do you know the way to the zoo or should I fire up the GPS?"
 
Most of Ris's travel was done by public transport; riding in a private vehicle had very few good memories for her. Being taken to the meetings after her 'incident' to have her future discussed by people who seemed to alternate between hating and fearing her, being driven to the Facility, being drive away from the Facility... Every bad life transition she'd ever gone through had begun with a car ride, and she was a bit nervous about starting up another road trip, even a short one, with the baggage it entailed in the past. Still, she couldn't imagine anything bad happening; Desmond was her friend, and even if she was still a little shy around him (okay, a lot shy) she wasn't afraid of him.

Settling into the seat, she winced a bit as the music started blaring right off, her hands shaking just a bit as she held the pizza. Sudden, loud noises shattered her nerves, and she did her best to smile as he smiled at her, gripping the pizza box in a white knuckled grasp. "I...do know the way to the zoo, yes. But I only know the way by bus or by foot. There are one way streets and all so you might need to use the GPS to be certain we obey traffic rules." She said, her voice faintly strained as she glanced towards him. It would be nice, really. She would enjoy this, really. She just had to convince herself of that.
 
Desmond nodded and reached across Ris's lap to pull the GPS from the glove box, but paused as it started up. "Are you alright?" he asked. "I mean, I can get why you'd be nervous: you're in a car with a stranger, but I promise that I'm just going to take you to the zoo." He paused, considering what he'd just said. "Okay, I know that just made me sound more crazy, but I'm not, I promise." He thought for a moment, then pulled his cellphone from his pocket and set it on top of the pizza box.

"I'll tell you what," he said. "If it looks like I'm taking you somewhere other than where the GPS is pointing us, you can call the police. Just promise me you'll give me a chance to find my way again if I get lost, alright?" The GPS finished booting up. "So... do you know the zoo's street number?"
 
She looked down at the GPS, then at him, biting her lip a little as she glanced towards him. "I'm not...I'm not scared of you. You're my friend. I don't think you're going to hurt me or anything and I could stop you anyway if you tried." She looked down at the pizza, warm on her lap then glanced out the window, considering this a moment. "2300 Southern Boulevard. At this time of day, accounting for traffic, it shouldn't take more than ten minutes to get there." She turned to look at him, opening the box and carefully taking a piece of pizza from his side of the box and handed it to him carefully. "We haven't started yet, but technically we're still at a stop, so here."
 
Desmond chuckled and took the slice of pizza in one hand while he used the other to enter the address. He ate quickly, taking large bites, and had consumed half of the slice by the time the route had been calculated. Desmond was the envy of most of his friends: he was able to eat anything he wanted in as large a quantity as he pleased without ruining his athletic physique. Many of his friends marveled at how he kept himself in shape when none of them had observed him going to the gym, but he'd explained it away by saying that he exercised during breaks in his homework. Sometimes, he even did.

He placed the pizza slice back in the box, making sure that it didn't touch Ris's half of the pizza as he set the GPS on the dashboard and put the car into drive. It was a simple enough drive, but they hit a few stoplights, allowing Desmond to finish off his slice of pizza before they arrived at the zoo. Luck was on their side, as there was a parking spot open right across from the zoo. Desmond put the car into park and filled up the meter with quarters, giving them two hours before they had to come back.

"You know the zoo better than I do," he said with a smile, ducking back inside the car to pluck their drinks from the cup holders. "Why don't you show me to your favorite spot so we can sit down and eat?"
 
Ris didn't want to eat in the car. If Desmond wanted to, that was his choice, as it was his car. But she didn't want to risk dropping food on his floor or anything of that nature; it would be terribly impolite of her if she were to make a mess in his car. So she sat quietly through the drive, her eyes focused on the pizza box and phone in front of her. She truly wasn't afraid of Desmond; why should she be when she could essentially disperse her molecules into a puddle, or a vapor, or make her molecules so tightly packed that even a wrecking ball hitting her would do more damage to itself than to her? She wasn't afraid of anything a person could physically do to her in the least. She was more afraid of the looks and smirks, the whispers under their breath and giggles behind cupped hands at her patched clothes, her shaggy, unkempt hair. The contemptuous looks that other people sent her way cut worse than any knife ever would.

Other homeless people knew those looks, knew that censure that other people felt when they looked at them. But Ris got it worse sometimes, at least in her opinion. After all, wandering aimlessly carrying all of her earthly possessions in a duffel bag and wearing cheap, faded castoff clothes was almost the unofficial uniform of the transient in this city; the only thing was that she was young, appeared to be healthy, didn't gibber to herself or carry on conversations with pigeons (where anyone could see her) and until she began to talk, or unles someone knew what to look for, the average person could only think of unpleasant reasons why she might be homeless. Perhaps she was a drug addict, some thought. Still others might have considered her to be lazy, unwilling to work to get herself back up on her feet. Others would assume she was a criminal. A few probably realized she wasn't exactly normal mentally, but no one would have ever guessed that she'd been locked up in a home for disturbed children because her reaction to stress in the form of forgetting her lines for a school play had her losing control of her molecular bonds in front of fifteen hundred parents, teachers and students.

When they arrived at the zoo, she nodded and turned, carrying the pizza and making her way down the path towards the front gate. "Let's go on the Wild Asia Monorail. We can ride around and see the animals while we eat. It's usually quiet this time of day." Apparently she was a regular, enough so that the person at the gate just had to see her face and the slightest flash of her ID card and waved her on through. Desmond however was informed that the one day Total Experience price was $34 dollars, but they cut him a break and gave him the online discount since he was with Ris. Stepping inside, she smiled brightly. "C'mon. The next monorail starts soon so we'll need to hurry if we're going to make it."
 
Desmond smiled at the woman at the gate: it was good to see that Ris had a few friends, or at least people who weren't openly derisive towards her, though he felt like her potential was wasted with online classes and stays in the homeless shelter. He could tell why she'd have trouble getting a job, particularly since the attitudes towards anyone with the slightest hint of autism tended to be either scornful or patronizing, but even so, he could think of several professors in his college who would have killed to have her help them with research. Hell, the entire reason he'd come out to New York was so that he could get her to be his research assistant. He had no idea of what lay in Ris's past, but, quite frankly, he didn't care: she was brilliant and he wanted to help her.

He paid in cash, the online discount exhausting his remaining cash, and followed Ris to the monorail. He had to hurry a bit to keep up with her: he was unused to dealing with people his size, so he was unused to Ris's quicker pace after a lifetime of slowing down to let others keep up with him. Once on the monorail, he handed Ris her fruit punch and asked for another slice of pizza as the ride started up.

"I've never been here before," he said, "so why don't you show me your favorite exhibits? I'm sure they're all great, but I want to know which ones you like best."
 
She glanced at him a moment and considered this, then nodded. "Alright. Well, I like the monorail because it goes through all the different habitats. You get to see the asian elephants and rhinoceroses, and it goes along the river, so we get to see all of the waterfowl. And the baby elephants are really cute rolling in the mud." She smiled a little and pointed at the signposts ahead. "The Butterfly Garden is nice too. I like going there and just sitting and reading. If you sit very still, the butterflies come and land on you. Sometimes on the weekends, especially on the nice, sunny days, I just go and spend hours there. Ohh, and the aquarium! I'm always there for the baby penguin feedings on the weekend. I used to go more before I found out about the online classes and all." She smiled brightly, hurrying along the walkways through the zoo to the monorail station. Showing her pass and nudging him to show his, they climbed aboard one of the monorail cars and settled in facing the rear so that they could see both sides without having to crane their necks so much.

"Ohh! And we can go on the camel rides when we get off the monorail, if we have time! Everyone says camels are mean and spit, but they're really nice. Well, they still spit, but they don't mean anything by it. And it feels funny when you ride them, because they walk like the ocean, so you feel like a little boat. They call camels the ships of the desert but I'm not sure if the term came about because of how much trade was done by camel caravan in the desert or because of the oceany, seasick feeling that you get riding them sometimes. Ohh! And then it's not far to the tramway, which takes you all the way through the park and to the aquatic bird house, with the penguins." Once they were settled into their seats, before the monorail started, she took a piece of pizza, smiling a little and taking her first bite.

And ohh, it was heavenly.

She barely remembered that he was there as she began to devour the pizza, taking intermittent sips from her fruit punch as she waited happily for the monorail to start, propping her feet up on the railing on the back of the monorail car, smiling over at Desmond as if she'd just remembered to notice him. "We're going to have fun, yeah? And I'll treat you to dinner if you want. It's only fair, since you bought lunch."
 
Desmond beamed as he watched Ris talk animatedly about her favorite exhibits. The girl was downright adorable when she was in a good mood. He was happy when she started eating: he hoped that the extra calories from the pizza would help her fill out a bit and give her a more healthy appearance. The more she talked about the zoo, the more he wanted to see everything; the Franklin Park Zoo had never had camel rides and it was nice to have the aquarium in the same place as the rest of the zoo. The only real similarity was the butterfly garden, though he had no idea what the gardens here looked like.

While Ris devoured her half of the pizza, Desmond reached in and ate a few slices of his half, still eating quickly, but not as ravenously as Ris did. "What do you mean we're "going to" have fun?" he asked, grinning. "I'm having fun already." Desmond finished off the last slice of his pizza just as the ride started moving, taking them through the various exhibits. He had to admit, the zoo was gorgeous; there was a huge variety in the habitats and each of the animals looked like they were enjoying themselves with the exception of the large cats, who always looked lazy and bored to Desmond. As the ride went on, though, Desmond began to get nervous again. He wanted to ask Ris to come and work for him, but it never seemed to be the right moment. He didn't know if there wasn't an opening or if he was just too scared to take it, but every time he considered asking, he always come up with a reason not to. As the ride reached the half-way point, he decided to just ask and get it over with, hoping that this wasn't the wrong decision.

"Hey, Ris?" he asked, doing his best to keep his tone calm. "Do you want a job?"

Immediately he regretted asking her; "Hey, do you want a job?" was the best he could come up with? He couldn't have made the question any more formally or presented it like he really wanted her to take it? Just "Hey, do you want a job?" Who made a job offer like that?
 
She looked at him a moment as he asked if she wanted a job. Of course, Ris didn't really put the pieces together to assume he was asking her in anything except a conversational sense, not making the leap of logic to assume that he was asking her if she would like a job that he was offering to her. "Of course. It would be so much easier not having to live in the shelter and being able to make my own money. I have to admit, not finishing the eighth grade doesn't look good on resumes or job applications though. I've done all of the reading and coursework to get my GED of course, but I haven't been able to afford to pay for the testing yet."

She put on a smile quickly, not wanting him to think that she was ungrateful or anything. "It won't take long to get the fee together, especially since I don't have to actually attend the classes. It won't take too long if I'm very frugal." She looked out over the side of the monorail and smiled, pointing out the elephants standing in the water and spraying each other with their long trunks. "I wonder how they keep from inhaling the water when they suck it up their nose? I'll have to look into that at some point." She said absently, taking another piece of pizza and devouring it hungrily.

She consulted her Strawberry Shortcake watch once more, carefully calculating times in her head. They had time for the camel rides after the monorail providing the line wasn't too long. The tramway wasn't far away at all from the camel rides, so they could reach the aquatic bird house fairly quickly. Then they could go to the butterfly garden afterwards; it was always so pretty in the afternoons when the sun was warm and the butterflies were particularly friendly and active.
 
Desmond was about to clarify when Ris asked about the elephant's nose. For some reason, his mind immediately diverted to answering her question rather than telling her that he wanted to offer her a job. No, that was a lie: he knew the exact reason why he wanted to answer her question rather than make the job offer. It was because he was afraid that she'd reject him. Even so, even knowing why he was avoiding the issue and acknowledging that he was skirting around the topic, when he opened his mouth, he found himself talking about elephants.

"I think it works kind of like a straw," he said, making an educated guess. "If both ends are open, the liquid can move freely, but if you close off one end, there's no way that air can fill the vacuum left in the liquid's wake, so the liquid is trapped. So, if the elephants close off the entrance to their trunks when they suck in liquid, it's trapped in there until the entrance opens again. Furthermore, they can probably still breath through their mouths while there's liquid in their trunks, but I got my major in human anatomy, not animal anatomy, so I can't be sure."

Desmond was silent for a while. He watched the animals, but he soon became furious with himself. Why hadn't he pressed her about the job? Now was the perfect time to ask her, and if he put it off, he might never get the chance to ask her. Eventually, his frustration with himself became so great that he could feel a shift in his body. Not wanting to make a scene, he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, acting like he was staving off a headache, and focused on keeping himself together. He was nervous enough about Ris rejecting him as he was, but he didn't want to scare her off with one of his episodes. He hadn't had an episode for five years and he'd become very effective at preventing them, but he needed to be sure now more than ever that he kept his cool. When he opened his eyes again, he resolved to ask Ris again, this time being more specific in his intentions. He took a deep breath, let it out and turned to Ris once more.

"Ris," he said, once more doing his best to sound like he was talking conversationally, "when I asked if you wanted a job, I didn't mean in a hypothetical sense. You see, after I graduated from MIT, I was offered a position in a lab and I was told that I could select my own lab assistant. Before I knew who you really were, when you were just text on a monitor, I decided that I'd come down to New York to make you a job offer. I had my doubts when I first met you, but after spending the afternoon with you and getting to know you a bit, I think that you and I are a good match. You're brilliant, you're clever and, most importantly, we get along. I know you don't even have a GED yet, but we've got plenty of time to get that taken care of: the job doesn't start for another two months and it's my choice who my assistant is. You mind would be wasted bagging groceries, Ris; I want to see what you can do when you're in a lab."
 
She listened as he explained the function of the elephant's nose, nodding and folding her arms on the metal railing of the monorail car, watching the herd with a smile. That seemed to make the most sense. Adaptive anatomy made sense, after all. There was a certain logic to it, especially considering the areas that elephants were native to. Evolution in response to environmental factors wasn't unusual, but it was fascinating to her. Eventually she sat back, pulling her heels up onto the bench as she hugged her knees to her chest, glancing over at Desmond a moment. He seemed...irritated by something. Was it something she'd done? Should she apologize? It seemed very counterintuitive for her to apologize for whatever infraction she'd committed that she knew next to nothing of but to be fair, her social skills weren't exactly top shelf.

She watched him quietly from the corner of her eye as he pinched the bridge of his nose and she turned to watch the passing scenery, not wanting to hound or hassle him while he wasn't feeling good. She hoped she wasn't the cause of his headache. She was 'trying', she'd been told even though she honestly tried not to be. After a few moments, he seemed to be feeling more himself and that was a good thing. She stayed quiet, letting him get himself in order before she spoke up. But then again, he beat her to the punch and what he had to say surprised her. Her, working in a lab as a lab assistant? She blinked a little in surprise, her eyes widening as she considered what he was saying. She had only really ever figured she would take the classes online for her own edification, nothing as far as a job or preparation for a career. She stared at him a moment, unsure what to say. Finally, she spoke up, her voice small and a little uncertain.

"Is...is that allowed? I don't have a...I don't have my GED at all yet. I haven't taken any classes except the ones online. Are you sure that you want me to work with you? I don't...have any money, I don't have anywhere to live. I've never been in an actual lab, what if I break things?" She didn't want to sound as if she didn't want to do it; rather, she dreamed of the chance to work at the things she'd read about and pored over so lovingly. But what if she caused trouble? What if his boss was angry at him for hiring a mentally disabled, uneducated homeless girl to be his lab assistant? "Wouldn't someone get mad at you for giving me a job?"
 
"You won't have to worry about breaking anything for a while," said Desmond. "For the most part, our work will be theoretical: the company that hired me wants to develop prosthetics that actually interface with the brain rather than simply being a piece of plastic that looks like a limb. Our job is to come up with ideas on how to interface a mechanical limb with the human nervous system and make sure that the body doesn't reject it. It's not going to be that much different from what we were doing in class; the only real differences is that we aren't going to be online and we won't have a teacher there to answer our questions. We'll be given some preliminary research to read over and we'll basically be expanding from there.

"And I think that this is a good idea, Ris: you only have an eighth grade education, but you got into some fairly advanced online courses without any trouble. You understand most material after only one read through and I was learning from you most of the time, so I think you're a good fit. Like I said, we've got a couple of months before the job starts, so we can get you your GED at the very least as well as some new clothes. You can stay with me for a while; I've been looking for a roommate."

Desmond paused. There was one detail he hadn't shared with Ris and he wasn't sure if she'd figured it out yet. "Umm... there's one more thing: the job's in Boston, so you'd have to come back with me. I'm going to be in town for a few days, so you've got some time to think it over, but I'd really like you to take the job."
 
She listened to him, not saying a word, her eyes getting bigger and bigger. A job, a new city, a place to live, new clothes... she felt her world tilting with everything he said. And what a job it was! Making prosthetics that could function as actual real limbs! People could actually have their limbs back, not have to go through life compensating for having nothing more than a lump of shaped plastic strapped to their body! And...and he wanted her to do this with him! She swallowed hard, bowing her head quickly and resting her head on her knees, her body starting to sway slightly as she tried to force her overwhelmed mind to work in a linear pattern again. It was so much to take in, so many unbelievable things at one time that she just couldn't process it.

Slowly, her breathing began to regulate, her heart moved back into a more survivable rhythm and she was able to lift her head without getting a bit dizzy. Slowly, she turned to look at Desmond a moment, swallowing hard, her face pale, except for the two bright red splotches on her cheeks where she had selectively flushed from the excitement. "You...I...I can live with you? And have a bed? In a bedroom? And I can work?" She said, a nervous, hopeful little note in her voice, as if she was afraid to ask the questions because she must have, MUST have misunderstood him. He couldn't possibly be really offering her a wonderful new life.
 
Desmond felt nearly sick with worry as Ris curled up in a little ball. Had he given her too much too soon? She said that she wanted a job, but had he thrown her into the deep end before she'd properly learned how to swim? Should he reach out and comfort her? Should he rescind the offer if it would make her more comfortable? No, that wasn't the right thing to do; he didn't want to get her hopes up just to dash them. What was he thinking?

He let out a sigh of relief when Ris raised her head once more, obviously excited about his offer. He smiled back at her, glad that she wanted to take him up on his offer. "Yes, you can live with me," he said. "I've been looking for a roommate, actually: I got an apartment with a friend of mine from school, but he got a really good job offer in Seattle and had to leave a few weeks after we signed the lease. He's still paying for the next year, but I've got an empty bedroom that you can take. He left his bed, so you can have that one and you can stay with me for as long as you want. And yes, you can work with me; technically, I'd be your boss, so it's up to me who I hire. We'll get you your GED and maybe a few recommendations from the teachers at MIT and that should be enough to please my boss."

He paused for a moment, taking in the excited look on Ris's face. He'd love to get her settled into the apartment as soon as possible, but he needed to know if there was anything he needed to clear up before she left. "Is there anyone I need to talk to before you get ready to leave for Boston?" he asked. "Do I need to get Ms. Nichols or anyone to sign anything?"
 
Ris pondered these things a moment, chewing her lip pensively as she considered what he said. A place to stay, with a bed already in it! And it was sure to be an actual real bed, not the cots that the shelter set up. And she'd have a kitchen, a place that she could actually cook for herself too! And a job, a job where she got to work with Desmond, who was very smart and had probably already sussed out a good few of her...eccentricities. And it was already paid for, not that she would mind paying her own share once she started making money. That brought a smile to her face. Her own money. She'd be able to buy things for herself, things that she'd always wanted to have. She blinked a moment, looking up at him and frowning slightly. "They don't mind pets, do they? I mean, I do have Franco, I can't just leave him with Ms. Nichols, she might think that I didn't like him!"

She blinked, looking around her at the zoo that they were currently riding through, her face falling a little. "And...I'll have to leave here." She didn't like being homeless, but at the same time, the city had become her home of a sort. And she would miss Ms. Nichols very much. And she wouldn't get to come see the baby penguins get fed. She wouldn't get to hide in the Bronx library anymore. She'd be in a new city, with new people. "I... Ms. Nichols would have to file the paperwork to get me a...a new caseworker there in Boston." She said, her voice, quiet and blinking quickly. "She wouldn't...wouldn't be my caseworker anymore." Why did it feel like, as soon as she had a new life beckoning, that everything she'd loved about her old life would go away?
 
"Well, the landlord allows fish," said Desmond, "but I'm sure that I could talk with him to make an exception for a turtle since he's living in an aquarium anyways. And you don't have to say goodbye to Ms. Nichols: I could set you two up on Skype on my laptop so you can keep in touch. Besides, Boston's a great city: I'm sure you'll love it when you get settled in. We'll get you a new library card and look into passes for the Franklin Park Zoo and the Boston Aquarium, so you can still see all of the different animals. It'll be different, but different isn't always bad. And we'll get you a few new outfits and a haircut so that people don't stare at you so much: you'll have a fresh start."

Desmond paused, nervous that he might be pressuring Ris a bit too much. "Look, all I'm asking is that you think about it, okay?" he said. "I'll be in town for a week or so, so you've got time to make your decision. We can meet up at the library again, if that's what you'd prefer, or I could let you stay in my motel room if you'd like a more comfortable place to sleep while you think it over. You're very talented, Ris, and I'd hate to see that go to waste."
 
She felt a bit relieved; he didn't expect her to answer right away. Of course she wanted the job, the new start, but the idea of leaving behind things that had become so comfortable and familiar to her was...well, patently terrifying. She'd never dealt well with changes; her response to them had largely been either outright ignoring the changes or working herself into a quietly hysterical state of trembling mental breakdown. Desmond was her friend and he was offering her a wonderful opportunity. Even so, she felt her stomach knotting up at the thought of so much upheaval in her life. He offered to let her stay at his hotel with him, and she was surprised. She hadn't thought he would be staying in the city so long. Still, that was fairly nice, she'd get to spend more time with him and decide what she wanted to do. Her weekly meeting with Ms. Nichols was tomorrow so she could ask her about what she thought of Desmond's offer.

The monorail was pulling back into the station and she regretted that they'd talked about such worrisome things the whole trip rather than just enjoyed the animals, especially if this was going to be one of her last times in the zoo. She glanced over at Desmond a moment and nodded, smiling a little weakly. "I...would like to see your hotel. I bet it's nice. Does it have cartoons?" She wasn't sure about staying the night; still, the shelter could use the extra bed to give to someone else but she did hate to impose. "Let's go on the camel ride, and then we can take the tram to go see the baby penguins." She'd think about other things later, but for now she at least wanted to enjoy her day out with him.
 
Desmond nodded and followed Ris out of the monorail. "It's just a motel, really," said Desmond. "Not exactly the most high-class place, but it's got a TV, a reasonably soft bed and a place to park my car, so I can't complain. I'm not sure about cartoons, but the TV has basic cable, so it might have Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon or something. If not, I brought my laptop with me, so we could just use the internet to watch cartoons; I've got a few I could suggest."

Desmond followed Ris to the camel rides. He was a little intimidated by the animals, to tell the truth: he'd only ever seen pictures or videos of camels, so he wasn't prepared for how big they were in real life. Still, Ris had said that they were friendly, so he did his best to approach them calmly. He let Ris go first and watched carefully as she mounted her camel before attempting it, rather clumsily, himself.
 
The camels were quite intimidating, unless one was used to them, which by this time, Ris was. She showed her pass to the handler, who didn't really need to see it by this point in time, and clambered up onto the camel's back like she'd been doing it all her life. She grinned brightly and turned back to watch Desmond, calling out encouragement as he tried to seat himself on the camel's saddle. "You're doing fine, just mind her ears. See, she's awfully nice!" The camel seemed to be a very docile sort, no doubt used to school children and such climbing up and down on her back several times a day, and waited very patiently for Desmond to get himself situated. When he was ready, she grinned and nudged the camel forward, the camels following a set path around a large fenced in ring, past several exhibits.

It was a definite swaying motion to it, and Ris seemed to be old hat enough at it to not be holding the saddle bar in a death grip and instead was petting and talking in a quiet, hushed tone to the camel, whose ears flicked back as if listening intently. The attendant holding the camel's lead rope for Desmond shook his head and smiled at Desmond. "She's named every one of them, you know. You're on Othello, just in case you were wondering. She's on Ariel. She explained to us once why she named them each of those things, and about the plays that each name came from. It's nice to see her bringing a friend this time. It's usually just her." Then he was leading the camel away from the mounting platform and along the route as Ris's camel went ahead of them.

The ride didn't last too long, but then given the fact that there were a good number of people waiting for a turn, it made sense. When they'd finally reached the end, Ris had already dismounted and was busy petting and talking to her camel still, almost as if she were having a very one-sided conversation with it. The camel, Ariel apparently, seemed unperturbed and nuzzled her face. After saying her goodbyes, she hurried over to the side to wait for Desmond, hoping he had enjoyed himself. Othello was a big, lovely old fellow and an excellent choice for a first timer, especially a nervous one.
 
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