Learning to Live LAVA

I pause, feeling the emotions within me collide in a storm front that may end in tears. Neesa looks at me expectantly. Big Ogre looks down at his rough hands as if my answer does not concern him. I am not fooled by his ploy. I can see that he has his head tilted just enough to see me out of the corner of his eye.

"What do I have to do?" I ask.

"Just say yes and trust me," Neesa responds.

"Yes then," I say grudgingly.

"That doesn't sound very convincing or happy," Neesa says.

"I don't have a choice, do I?" Hostility wraps itself around every word, burning the air like hot coals.

"You do have a choice or I wouldn't ask. I just hoped..."

"We hoped," Big Ogre interrupts, "That you would want to be part of our family and make it a better one."

I feel my heart softening as the tenderness and sincerity of their words sinks in at last. Then tears flood my eyes. I can not speak. I am the child once again. And as a child, I feel that my actions will speak louder than my words. I reach out and wrap my arms around Neesa's neck. We are about the same height, but I feel as if I am reaching upward, still a small child, stretching beyond my limitations to reach her. She squeezes me gently for a moment before we are both engulfed in Big Ogre's tremendous hug.

Most of my anger dissipates in that embrace, but my pain is not quick to follow. The ache in my heart still shoots out its echo with each heartbeat as Neesa leads me toward one of the walls. As she steps toward the wall, a seam appears in the bricks. She presses her hand against the wall and a doorway opens. I follow her cautiously and look around the sterile room in which I find myself.

The walls are pristine white. A counter of polished white stone stands to one side. At the far side is a door over which a camera is conspicuously mounted. The door opens and a slender young man in a white lab coat steps through it. The door instantly closes again. Neesa takes my hand reassuringly in hers as the man approaches me. He produces a tiny laptop and what appears to be a chunky silver pen from his pocket. A cord stretches from the pen to the laptop. I watch in amazement as he types nimbly with one hand while holding the laptop in the other. I peer at the screen, but the active program is completely foreign to me.

"Look at the tip of my pen, dear," he says.

I can tell by the way that he addresses me that he is in on the secret of my age. I do as he says and look into the end of the pen. The center of it glows for a moment and then he pulls the pen away. He tilts the screen toward me and points to a small hole near base of the LCD screen, "Now say your name for me."

"Bellabooo?" I say softly.

"You're going to have to be a little louder than that I'm afraid."

"Bellabooo," I repeat much louder.

The fellow in the lab coat just shakes his head at me as an amused smile crosses his face. Using one hand, he disconnects the pen from the computer and puts it into his pocket. From another pocket, he produces a gel pad that is about the size of a piece of paper. He plugs the wire dangling from the end of the pad into the same port that he disconnected the pen from. I try to peer into his Poppinsesque pocket, but Neesa shakes her head at me. I look to Big Ogre to see his reaction to all of this and he just grins at me.

"I need you to put your hand on this," the technician says, indicating the gel pad.

"Why?" I say, suddenly curious about what I am committing myself to do.

"Well, this is how we provide you access to the clan house. As much as we love and trust our fellow superdudes, we do have to keep Decay from being able to sneak in. We use a variety of criteria to establish your identity. That information along with your security clearance allows you access to the places you need to get to. One of them is fingerprint and palm identification. You've seen Neesa use that already..." he trails off as I put my hand on the pad.

The gel is surprisingly cool to the touch. I find myself wondering how it works, but when I try to examine the pad more carefully, the technician is already detaching it and tucking it back away into his pocket. Then he is flashing me a smile. I almost expect him to hand me a sucker and pat me on the head for being such a "good girl".

"That will do. Thank you," he says instead, giving me a slight bow.

Then he turns to Neesa, "Well, you know what to do, but I recommend you take her to the library first. She is wanted there."

"Oh? Is she?" Neesa says, smiling at him.

"Indeed," he responds with a wink.

"Then I should take her there immediately."

"Why am I needed in the library? I have never even been here before. I don't want to study or read..." I interject.

The technician has already disappeared through the door he came out of. I prepare to follow him, but Neesa is leading me toward another wall. She places her hand on the wall and another door swings outward into a vast room. No one is in it at the moment, but it could easily accommodate hundreds of people. I barely have time to make note of the lava lamps giving a warm glow to the room and the retro orange of the couches before Neesa is leading me down another hallway

"This will be more fun than studying. Trust me."