MY SECRET LIFE
Chapter 3

 

Before anything else, I apologized to her for the misunderstanding from the previous day.

She had been recruited by Mr. Evans as well and was told she was going to be an assistant to a very smart young man.

With a very big smile on her face, she surmised I was the young man. We talked all the way to wherever it was we were heading.

A voice from the front said, “Please put on the mask you will find in the holder in front of you?”

A mask? Very cool! I helped Betty with hers. We began again, and I could tell we had dropped to a lower elevation, not just once, but three more times. There was no place I could think of we had gone to within Lafayette’s city limits.

We were instructed to remove our masks and bring our things with us. It looked underground, but I saw what looked like steel and concrete everywhere I looked.

“Where are...”

“No questions,” the voice of Mr. Evans said, startling us coming up from behind. “Follow me!”

Our nameless driver peeled back, probably to the sedan to keep it so clean.

I took a few of Betty’s books to lighten her load. She quietly thanked me as we got on an elevator and went down an unknown number of floors. Nervous, she took my hand.

“Here we are,” Mr. Evans said as the doors opened to a gleaming white and silver laboratory twice the size of my entire house. I saw many pieces of equipment I had only ever seen in books and a few movies before.

Still holding her hand, I walked over to a ticker–tape, a methodology for getting information across long distances. It was slowly ticking off, and Betty looked at it saying, “These aren’t symbols ... these are complete words and sentences. How do you do that?”

“Don’t worry, Miss Lemon. Everything is safe to use; we promise that. Please take a look around and ask any questions you may have, and then the work can begin.”

We did, this time, I took her hand, and we saw an alphabetical list of the ninety known chemical elements, with the newest one, formerly called eka-caesium, but now referred to as Francium with an atomic number of 87.

There were also many locked glass cabinets, with coded labels on the contents. There was the largest microscope I ever saw, with hundreds of glass slides for everyday use.

The ticker just went crazy, so we briskly walked over to it, and it said, “THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF AN IMPORTANT EVENT,” then it slowed down again.

“Did you just do that, Mr. Evans?” Betty asked him.

“Very intuitive, yes I did. When something happens, it is your job, Miss Lemon, to report it to your team leader, Mr. Williams. It will have, in what we call real-time, from around the world, many important things you need to know about.”

“Do you have something, in particular, you want us to start on?” I asked.

“No ... not especially, unless you want some direction?”

“Are there cameras, watching us?” Betty asked looking around.

“Everywhere, except the restrooms, which are over this way,” he said going counter-clockwise.

“I feel like a five-year-old on Christmas morning,” I said. “One thing that crossed my mind last night, Mr. Evans. Since we won’t get any official credit for what we do down here, are we, at least, going to make some money for our families, while we are doing this pure research?”

“Oh, I never did tell you about the money, did I -- Sorry?” he said. “This discussion is what we call around here, ‘protected.’ Do you understand me?”

“Anyway?” Betty said sounding interested.

“Each week, you individually make $10,000, but if you can create or improve an existing technology, or chemical process, that week Mr. Williams will make $35,000 and Miss Lemon will make $20,000 ... how does that sound?”

“Speaking for Miss Lemon for a moment, Mr. Evans, I believe that we should have matching salaries throughout this period. I see no reason she couldn’t just as easily ‘improve an existing’ technology?”

“Thank you, Connor, but I can speak for myself,” she said.

“It is clear that while I am older, Connor is smarter. I recommend whoever makes the improvement should get the $35,000, and the other would make the $20,000 ... that would generate more competition that typically breeds a higher productivity.”

“I agree with that,” I said almost immediately. “However, if we were to find and discover a whole new element for the chemical elements list, couldn’t more money be involved?”

“Sounds good to me,” Mr. Evans said. “If you need anything, simply say, ‘Code Yellow, ‘ and someone will immediately get on the open speaker to address your particular need at the moment from anywhere in the facility. Good luck to both of you.”


After he had left, our first discussion was wondering aloud what they were telling our schools right about now, and our parents. Betty suggested we split up and look around to become inspired for a project of some kind. For that much money, we needed to show our worth around this place.

1n 1939, the cost of a new house was only about $4,000 and a year’s wage typically under $2,000. It appeared that our government had money to burn and to motivate us. I know I liked that kind of motivation.

Something rather amazing about the room was that I didn’t have to talk loud for her to hear me clearly. They must have included some new technology in the walls to this thirty-foot tall, two-hundred-foot wide oblong-styled room we were in so esoteric and also comfortable looking.

I was by the ticker tape and found a large box with previous days in it. I pulled it out going back a month and started looking it over.

“Betty, come here, please?”

She came over to me saying, “That’s my job, Connor.”

“Why don’t we not argue and just say whoever is closest when it goes off can go to it and read to the other? I like reading out loud ... especially to pretty girls.”

 
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