CHAPTER TWO

Frances found herself falling into the same holographic whorl she saw last night, and like a leap-fall, she was jolted out of bed. She got up and looked to her right. The watch laid there, no hologram nor any sound emanated from it. The time was 6:30 am, and she was expected at work by 8:00 am. It was at that moment she understood the whole process of getting her early to work. Though she was grateful to the boy for gifting her the watch, she felt the jolt was a bit too startling.

She got to work early even before Mr. Yamato arrived. She stayed at the counter reading a random book, while expecting Mr. Yamato to come at her with his draining instructions. An hour later Clarissa entered and told her that her dad wouldn't be coming to the store in a few days. He fell ill last night as a result of how he had overworked himself within the week. In addition, she didn't fail to blame Frances for it.

"Maybe he wouldn't have stressed his ass out if you hadn't allowed him do all the work each morning," she said.

Frances sighed and shook her head.

"Anyway, another win for me," Clarissa said.

"And I'm not guessing anything today," Frances said.

"You don't need to." She smiled. "Yesterday I went after that dude. He's quite nice. I took his contact, and we had a nice chat last night."

"Oh, that's a sure win for you," Frances said.

"You -- you don't seem bothered?" Clarissa asked in a low tone.

Frances snorted. "Maybe I forgot cry over that."

"Listen Frances, I'm trying to ship you both up. Actually, I expected to see a jealous expression on your face." She giggled. "You need a relationship just this once. I don't think I need it, a relationship with me wouldn't last a month, you know how it goes."

"Yeah, yeah," Frances said.

"See, I don't think he likes your attitude. You didn't even seek to know his name, after what he had gifted you?"

"It helped me get up early, and I'm grateful for that. I hope he comes around so I could give him a befitting thanks," Frances said.

As though he heard what they had been discussing, they saw the boy walk into the store. Frances was gripped by a brief andrenaline rush while Clarissa quickly ran at him, gushing over his looks, but his reaction told he didn't come for her. He only said a few friendly words to her and proceeded to the counter where Frances was.

"Looks the device came in handy," he said to her, grinning.

"I found it really pretty," Frances said. "Where did you get that?"

"I made it," he said.

"You made that?" Clarissa entered. "Alban, never knew you were such a genius."

"Oh, wow, Alban," Frances said under her breath.

"I have much more back home, you know," he said to Clarissa.

"Now, I would love to pay you a visit," Clarissa said.

"Maybe you both can," he made a sweeping gesture.

"No she can't," Clarissa said. "She works here, she just can't leave that way."

Frances looked at her in astonishment, but she didn't bother much, it could be another scheme to get her jealous.

"When would you be having a day off?" He asked Frances.

"I don't think I'd be having any," Frances said.

"You see, so it's just me," Clarissa said.

"Uhm, I guess this is something we'd fix. You could start with having my digits." He took out a card and wrote down his telephone line. "And I'm Alban." He winked.

Frances reluctantly took it.

"Hit you up at night," he said and left.

"You had better made out time to see his place," Clarissa silently said to her and went after Alban.

Back at home, before putting the watch to work, she and Alban had a good chat. She was surprised at how quickly she was knocked over by the feeling of a bond between them both. It was as though she had known him before, and he just had to give her a few more details about himself. He had a really interesting personality. She didn't forget to ask him what he did with a lot of horror books, and he told her something very spooky and weird. A feeling of fear instilled productive inspiration in him. But he told her he'd explain more of that to her when she comes around. That led to the issue of making out time to come see his collections and constructions. He told her she could lock up a bit early and join him to his place. At first she disagreed, but when she remembered that Mr. Yamato wouldn't be coming to the bookstore anytime soon she obliged.

7:00 pm was the time Frances was normally done for the day, but Alban came around 6:30 pm in a Chevrolet Silverado to pick her up.

"That's my dad's," Alban gestured at the car, when they were out of the bookstore, after seeing her expression of astonishment.

"He must be really liberal with you," she said.

"Dad and mom are currently making out in San Francisco, so I have it all to me," he said.

Frances chuckled. "Tell me you're not always this witty."

"Of course I am," he said, ushering her into the car.

Where he lived was a bit far from the bookstore -- a stately street along New Wick Drive. Looking at the windows, there were no lights in there, and Frances swallowed hard while they made it into the house.

"You live here alone?" Frances asked.

"I adjusted myself to it," he said.

"With horror books?"

He laughed and pushed the door open. He switched on the lights in the living room and she saw the beauty that laid within the house. What seemed to be emphasised on in terms of decorations were mostly wall paintings and frames pictures.

Frances walked in with him, seeing the thrilling nature paintings and abstract paintings that hung on the wall -- most of which had an undecipherable form. She also saw pictures of him and his parents. The looks of his dad struck her mostly, maybe because Alban looked alot like him, or maybe some other factor she couldn't grab.

"Now you're welcome," he said.

They took a seat and he spent time telling her alot about himself and his family. She seemed to be more interested in knowing why he loved horror books so much, but he chose to reserve that one until whe they're his 'collection room'. He told her that she'd learn more about it seeing than in hearing, and it sounded a bit eerie to her.

They had some snacks in the living room, and when they were done they proceeded to the collection room.

They met the room in a shade of cold blue lights. Frances saw ambiguous figures having alot of shadowy outlines and corners. He sensed she was getting uneasy and he put on the florescent lights. Things got clear and relaxing when he put on the lights. The room was kind of a gadget dump. She was very unfamiliar with the structures in it. The room seemed to be a dumping ground for failed prototypes. At one corner of the room, there was a compressor tank with thick copper wires coiled around it. Close to it was a lawn mower with rotary blades and cameras attached to it's engine. At another corner was a large wardrobe atop which unnamed devices stood. One arm of the wardrobe was open, and she could see protruding spikes with copper wires coiled around them. The walls themselves were decorated with framed Goyaesque paintings, horror movie characters, and spooky graffiti.

"This is it?" She made a sweeping gesture along the room. "You must have put a life into this."

He laughed. "Actually, most of the things here were constructed by dad. I'm only learning from him. We've got interests that uniquely inspire us. He's are books and pictures of nature. Mine are just -- I guess you know already."

"So why does he do all this? He's an engineer or something?" Frances asked.

"Well, kind of. He runs a virtual reality enterprise, quite large. Part of what gave him the initiative to be able to do all this. Though, he had always told me he just knew how to."

"And what's the essence of making these structures? All I see are complex fabrications."

"It began from his need to construct an EEG machine that could bring back his memory. He suffered amnesia some years ago."

"Oh, really? What caused it?"

"He really can't tell. He had tried and failed with his devices alot of times, so he just had to drop that and venture into other things -- EMPs, holograms, exotic experiments, etc."

"Interesting. I guess he was the one that made the Dream-Cold watch then."

"That was actually made by me. My dad really wanted me to do weird sciences like him. He placed a bet on one of the most sophisticated brands of the virtual reality sets if I came up with something quite out-the-box. I now own a pretty cool VR set cause of the watch."

"That's really awesome, I must say. Seems you're more fascinated by holograms, cause I loved what I saw the first night I used the watch."

"I read about holograms in one of my horror books. Doctor Feild-Fred made holograms of monsters and used it on juvenile patients with toothaches. It made them open up their mouths in a yell. " He laughed. "I made a lot of researches after that and dad got me the DIY kit -- lasers, lenses, mirrors, and some fine screens."

"And you perfected really fast, because that watch is one hell of a masterpiece," Frances said in admiration.

"I have another too, but trust me, you wouldn't like to use it," he said.

"A hologram of Freddy Kruger ripping a kid in half I guess," Frances said.

He laughed. "A kid tied to a tree and being tickled by slender hands."

"Please say less of that." Frances quivered.

"Okay, no horror talks tonight," he said.

"Maybe you could tell me about the EGG machine," Frances said.

"EEG you mean." He walked to the wardrobe and took out a bunch of wires with flat electrodes attached to them. "This was made from a DIY kit my dad bought during his days of trials and errors." He attached two of the electrodes on her forehead. "EEG stands for electroencephalogram. Mostly used in hospitals to monitor brain signals and anxiety stuffs. But my dad wanted to make one for himself with a special ingredient."

"Hope it wouldn't hurt," she said while he planted more of the electrodes in her scalp.

"This is just a demonstration, there's nothing passing through them for now." He kept attaching them to random places in her scalp while he talked softly to her.

She watched his lips while he talked, feeling the warmth of his breath. It got to a point where she couldn't hear the words he spoke, just nondescript sounds, due to what she saw while his face was close to hers, she was falling. He looked at her and noticed she had been removed from what he was saying, and he understood. Their eyes fixed on each other's, drawing their lips ever closer, until their lips locked in a warm, passionate kiss. She gripped his head, pressing him more tightly to her like her life depended on that ecstatic moment. They kissed for quite some time, but when Frances felt a frenzy coming she withdrew immediately. They stared at each other like they couldn't explain what just happened some seconds ago. It was sudden and like an exchange of an exotic energy. Their mouths were left hanging, unable to say a word.

"I -- I should go now," Frances said.

"Oh -- uhm." He looked down at his watch. "Yes you should. I'd drive you to your place."

They arrived a few meters away from her house, as instructed by her. She didn't want him to get too close so her mother wouldn't bombard her with questions, and, as well, she was really tired.

"Hope you had a good time," he said to her.

"I did," she said with a faltering smile.

"I'd love to see you some other time," he said.

"At the bookstore right?" She said.

"Uhm -- well, my parents would be returning in two days. Tell me you'd love to see them."

"Of course I would. Just that -- I'm a bit nervous."

"You don't have to. They're really cool. My dad's humor is all shades of cute, and mom spends most of her time upstairs. You'd love it, believe me."

"Friday it is then," Frances said.

"Sure thing!"

She got down and waved at him. He waved back and drove off.

Frances spent the rest of the night looking into the holographic watch, but instead of seeing just planets dancing she watched the kiss she shared with Alban. She could smile over it, but she restrained herself from doing so. She thought she couldn't just fall so easily like that, but there was nothing she could do about it -- she was gradually falling for him and she couldn't hold it any longer. She hadn't felt that way for a guy before since her eighteen-year stay on this side of the world. She felt he was really a nice guy, and she hoped things turned out well between them both.

As expected, her eyes began to weigh -- the star was already spiralling into the whorl. She turned to the other side, smiled, and shut her eyes.

Frances returned home from work the next day and met her mother sitting in the balcony before two well-packaged boxes stacked on each other.

"And you said there's nothing between you both get?" Olivia said when Frances arrived, her mouth hanging.

"What's this?" Frances asked.

"Alban really has an open mouth, just like your dad. He told me alot about you both after he dropped these, don't really know what's in there, come open it."

Frances felt a drooling weight on her while she went to sit with her mom. She hoped he hadn't told her what happened between them both last night. Of course Olivia knew she returned from his place last night, but Frances avoided talking about what had happened in his collection room.

"What did he tell you?"

"Alban is such a nice lad, he reminds me of Camil you know. He speaks in a calculative manner, and everything comes out just well."

"That -- doesn't answer my question," Frances said.

"Well. He just told me how smart and understanding you were at his place. He loved your enthusiasm for out-the-box ideas -- as he calls it." She chuckled.

Frances couldn't recall being enthusiastic over anything. She only asked questions and responded accordingly to things he showed and told her.

"That's all he told you?" Frances asked.

"As far as I could recall, or is there something else I need to know?" Olivia said.

"No! Not at all," Frances swiftly said.

"You hide alot of things from moma, you know. You need to be a bit open to me. I wouldn't bite," Olivia said.

"I could say, but you trivialize serious matters alot and it makes me kind of uneasy."

"No I don't," Olivia said. "Now, tell me your own side of the tale. I know there's more to the visit."

"That would be a tale for another day mom." She leaned to take the boxes. "And, the boxes, I'd open them later." She took them up feeling their weights.

She was about going in when Olivia said again. "And, he invited us to his mom's inauguration ceremony at the MIT. The kind of people you and I should be around."

"He didn't tell me that," Frances said. "You're coming?"

"No, I'm not. I don't like good things as much as you do," Olivia said with a sarcastic remark. "Now take that box in now and we start from tonight to rehearse courtesy."

"Ah, mom, I'm going to bed right now." She went inside.

"No you're not!" Olivia said, joining her inside.