Across The Years (Camren)

3: A new job

"Yes"

"What's your major? Please tell me it's not physics, mathematics or history."

This was the strangest interview I've ever had. He didn't seem menacing, but just odd. "I'm majoring in Theatre, with a minor in writing."

He then leaned in and gave me a very suspicious look. "Stephen Hawking didn't send you didn't he? He's always spying on me."

I searched my mind for who that was and came up empty. "Who's Stephen Hawking?"

"What's your name?"

"It's Lauren. Lauren Jauregui."

He then smiled and extended his hand. "Well Lauren. You're hired. The pay is 300 pounds every two weeks. The working conditions are messy, I may call you at odd time's and have you do odd things. But thanks to an arrangement, meals are included. Courtesy of the Chinese restaurant two doors down. We have an arrangement. There are two rules at present."

"What are they?"

The door in the back has a hallway. You will find the bathrooms there. But at the end of the hallway is another door. There is some very dangerous equipment in there. Until I say so, you must stay out. Second rule is that you must not discuss what you see or do here. Deal?"

I'm going to regret this. "Sure." I said as I shook his hand.

He handed me a wad of pound notes. "Great. Your first task is to get me a new socket wrench. Since my last one melted. When you come back, I need you to search through the boxes in the room and find something for me."

"What's that?"

"A book called, Linear equations of Particle physics by D. Schneider."

It was then I realized that there were no less than 20 boxes of books all stacked around the room. "One socket wrench coming up."

He said goodbye and I headed out. I used my phone to find a hardware store nearby and started to walk. About half way into my 20 minute walk to the hardware store, I suddenly realized something. This part of London is where Jack the Ripper once stalked his victims.

"So cool. I must find time to see the murder sites."

I returned about an hour after I left, with a new socket wrench in hand. Sikowitz wasn't in the bathrooms or the front room so I knocked on the door in the back.

It suddenly opened an inch and a eye appeared in the gap. "Were you followed? Perhaps by an older looking gentleman in a wheel chair. He doesn't move and speaks in a mechanical voice."

Lauren slowly shook her head and held out the wrench. "No. I have your wrench, though."

The door opened slightly. Sikowitz then reached out and snatched the wrench. "Thank you. Let me know when you find the book. With that he slammed the door shut.

I spent the next two hours looking for the book he was searching for. He had boxes of electronic parts, technical papers, and science books. Though I noticed that most of the books related to physics and several of them seemed to have something to do with wormholes.

I had heard that wormholes were supposed to be little holes in space that would take you from point a to point b, allowing you to bypass millions of miles in normal space. That was pretty much all I knew.

I eventually found the book and gave it to Sikowitz. He spent almost the entire time in his lab, only occasionally coming out to see how I was doing. I would occasionally hear him, making noise in the back room and once or twice the lights dimmed as I heard a loud humming sound.