Kim looked up into Kinnard’s face. He raised his eyebrows provocatively.
“Is that a proposition?” Kim asked.
“It could be,” Kinnard said evasively.
Kim thought for a moment. “Maybe we should see how we feel about each other after a ski season.”
Kinnard chuckled. “I like your new sense of humor,” he said. “You can now joke about things that I know are important to you. You’ve really changed.”
“I hope so,” she said. “It was long overdue.” She gestured up at Elizabeth’s portrait. “I have my ancestor to thank for making me see the need and giving me the courage. It’s not easy breaking old patterns. I only hope I can maintain this new me, and I hope you can live with it.”
“I’m loving it so far,” he said. “I feel less like I’m walking on eggshells when we’re together. I mean, I don’t have to guess continually how you are feeling.”
“I’m amazed but thankful that something good has come out of such an awful episode,” she said. “The real irony for me is that I finally had the courage to tell my father what I think of him.”
“Why is that ironic?” he asked. “I’d say it’s perfectly in keeping with your new ability to communicate what’s on your mind.”
“The irony is not that I did it,” she said. “It’s because of the result. A week after the conversation that turned very nasty on his part he phoned me, and now we seem to be enjoying the beginnings of a meaningful relationship.”
“That’s wonderful,” Kinnard said. “Just like with us.”
“Yup,” Kim said. “Just like with us.”
She reached up and put her good arm around his neck and hugged him. He reciprocated with equal ardor. Friday, May 19, 1995
Kim paused and looked up at the façade of the newly constructed brick building she was about to enter. Above the door set into the brick was a long white marble plaque on which was carved in low relief: ‘omni pharmaceuticals’. She was not sure how she felt about the fact the company was still in business in light of all that had happened. Yet she understood that with all his money tied up in the venture, Stanton was not about to let it simply die.
Kim opened the door and entered. At a reception desk she left her name. After waiting for a few minutes a pleasant, conservatively dressed woman appeared, to escort her up to the door of one of the company’s labs.
“When you’ve finished your visit do you think you will be able to find your way out without difficulty?” the woman asked.
Kim assured her she could and thanked her. After the woman left, Kim turned to the lab door and entered.
From Stanton’s description, Kim knew what to expect. The door that she’d just passed through did not take her into the lab. It took her into an anteroom. The common wall with the lab itself was glass from desk height to the ceiling. In front of the glass were several chairs. On the wall below the glass were a communications unit and a brass-handled door that resembled an after-hours bank drop.
Beyond the glass was a modern, state-of-the-art biomedical laboratory that bore an uncanny resemblance to the lab in the stables building in the compound.
Following Stanton’s instructions, Kim sat in the chair and pressed the red “call” button on the communications console. Inside the lab she saw two figures stand up from behind a lab bench where they had been busy working. Seeing Kim, they started over.
Kim immediately felt a wave of sympathy for the pair. She never would have recognized them. It was Edward and Gloria. Both were tremendously disfigured from their burns. They were essentially hairless. Both were also facing more cosmetic surgery. They walked stiffly and pushed “keep open” IVs in front of them with hands that had lost fingers.
When they spoke their voices were hoarse whispers. They thanked Kim for coming and expressed their disappointment that they were unable to show her around the lab that had been specifically designed with their handicaps in mind.
After a pause in the conversation, Kim asked them how they were getting along healthwise.