Infinity Device (Prologue)

    By Barker Tree

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Prologue

“Hey Tom,” I said breathlessly, plumping into a chair. “Sorry I’m a little late. The traffic...”

“Uh-huh. There was dry-cleaning – a fire…” Tom said good-naturedly. He got up and gave me a sweet but awkward kiss on the cheek. “I knew you wouldn’t miss Chinese night. I mean… the company…”

“You wish,” I said, laughing. “You’re just lucky I’m a creature of such inertia. At this point, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do anything else on a Thursday night.”

I looked around us. We were entirely alone in a dingy American-Chinese joint, and the waiters were as stone-faced as gargoyles. Maybe they wanted us to leave.

“What do you want?” one asked me.

“Um, General Tsao’s,” I said, cringing at my basicness. “And… an egg roll. No, two.” Tom smirked at me. I had been texting him just this morning about getting serious about clamping down on my weight after my depressing monthly weighing, on the hyper-precise scale at the lab next to ours. I was right at that point, in age and life, where things could get overboard, real fast…

“So how’s the dissertation coming?” Tom asked. “The glamorous world of orbital mechanics? Still dominating progress?”

“Progress is my bitch,” I said, impressed with myself. “Professor Rogers and Professor Cornish looked it over today. They said it had potential! Coming from them, that means a lot.”

We ate in silence for a while.

“So uh, Sarah’s not in tonight…” I said, using my best leading voice. It was kind of quavery.

“Sarah?” he said frowning. “What, is she at another biology conference?"

“I guess I meant, uh, that maybe you could be coming over tonight?”

He looked pained.

“I wish I could – but I have an absolutely stratospheric amount of data to pour through tonight. No time to waste on fun.”

Just time to waste on Chinese food, I thought, suddenly miserable, my heart cold and embarrassed. Sometimes life just felt… isolating.

He didn’t pick up on the cues. Did my face even have cues? I thought to myself dully. He just checked his phone – with his fat wrists! – I thought unfairly, and he laughed at a text. Not knowing what else to do, I picked up my own phone. I could see myself in the reflection. There I was. Madeleine – rocketing through time on a lonely sleigh. I felt like crying.
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