Argent Glass

Chapter 4 - Escape - Jordan

"I almost..." He snatched his hands into the water. "Got one!"

Jinho waded to Jordan and she cupped her hands. He poured the water and the crayfish into them, then took her hands in his. She pulled her hands away so he could not feel them trembling and let the water through her fingers. She held the crayfish up for a closer look.

"It'll die if you don't keep it in the water," he told her.

She leaned forward between her knees. Water spilled over the lip of her fingers until it covered the crayfish. Jinho poked at it with his finger, and it crept around on her palm. She opened her hands and let it go floating to the bottom of the pool where it quickly disappeared.

Jinho climbed onto the ledge beside her and pushed his glasses up.

"You need new spectacles. You should put that on your wish list for Sergeant Landon."

"What's wrong with these? I can see perfectly." He picked at chips in the fractured rock, tossing them into the water where they made little plip sounds before they sank from sight.

Jordan let it go.

"Uh! To go shopping in a real mall and eat a real cheeseburger from a real fast food place and dance at a real school dance." She lay back on the ledge and cocked her head to the side to watch Jinho reach into his pocket. He pulled out a small clear cup and dipped it into the water. She could see stuff floating in the water when he lifted it close to his face and peered into it.

"What are all those vials of water for?" Jordan pointed a slender foot in his direction as he screwed a lid on. "You get water every time we come out here."

"I'm sampling the water to test the changes in ammonia and nitrates. I want to get a baseline of contaminants in this environment to see if there are seasonal fluctuations. Since the helidrome is supposed to be completely contained, there shouldn't be any changes due to our presence here in the mountain. Seasonally, though, more or less rain might show changes. The algae filter the contaminants through a process of colonization and detoxification. I try to get a bit of alga in the cup with the water so I can look at it in the lab. Once I have a good baseline, I can monitor for the next ten or twenty years–"

"Why did I ask again? You can't possibly be two years younger than me. You talk like you're fifty."

"Admit it. You're fascinated by how intelligent I am."

"Sure. I wish I could be as smart as you and lecture everyone every time my mouth opened." Jinho frowned and she splashed him lightly. "Don't be mad."

Jinho turned his back to her. She swirled the water with her toes and chewed her lip trying to think of something to say to repair the damage. "Sorry."

He ignored her and she sat quietly until she couldn't take his silence any longer. "Ten years? Your canary won't last that long."

"Close. And if I'm lucky, I'll get to stay here that long too. I can do independent research and earn a college degree without ever leaving, and then get a job in the labs." He waded closer and set the vial down beside her.

Jordan picked the vial up, shook it, and watched the water swirl around inside. "College will be different, you know."

"What?"

"College. It will be different than middle school. People are more accepting." She stopped swinging her feet and looked at him. "You can be as smart as you want in college and nobody thinks twice about it. You‒"

"You've got it all wrong."

Jordan frowned. "What?"

"I wasn't bullied for being smart. Smart people aren't bullied, they're ignored."