Chapter 5

The next day, I heard a horn, and it was Betty. I kissed my mother goodbye and got in the car.

Before I could ask a question, we had traveled to and parked in a car lot. Our usual sedan pulled up next to us as the gentleman who had been walking towards us came within earshot.

“All righty then, now let me get this straight. You want me to let you park, somewhere ... on my car lot, every day for a whole dollar a day?”

“Yes, that is correct, Sir,” our chauffer said to him. “Here is over three months in advance. If anything were to happen to the car, this young lady would get her pick of the cars ... for no charge whatsoever? Do you understand me, Mr. Shelby?

The old man saw the new smaller sized hundred-dollar bill with the portrait of Benjamin Franklin that had only been out for about a decade. Mr. Shelby snatched it from his hand, rubbed his fingers over it, then said, putting out his right hand, “You sir, have got a deal.”

That was some nice deal I thought, helping Betty in her ‘traditional’ side of the back seat. I got in on my side and for the first time, we managed to sit close to one another, with her head on my shoulder. I was both nervous and proud.

We knew when, so I got out our masks putting them on. There was a guffaw from the front seat when he noticed we had them on ahead of time.

Betty whispered in my ear, “I could think of a number of games we could play with these masks on, don’t you?”

‘Wow, ‘ I said to myself, gulping loudly.

If it hadn’t been for his darn rearview mirror, I would have kissed her ... right there in the back seat of that car.

We arrived, with a day of this behind us. As we walked in, we saw all we had requested,

One case of tissue
Complete calendars going back to 1909
All the schoolbooks we had requested
The scientific dictionary, it wasn’t terribly large.

The complete equipment inventory of our lab with both pictures and instructions.

Betty picked up the Chemistry Book and went right to reading it.

“Apparently, you’ve received everything you requested,” Mr. Evans said with a chuckle.

“Oh, yes sir,” she said turning to him.

“How about you Connor?” he said.

“Yes sir, it is quite amazing. Are we limited to only being here during weekdays?”

“That is what was assumed when we set this program up. ‘Code Yellow’ isn’t currently staffed for the weekend. You would need to get along without it for the short term at least.”

“With all we have here now,” Betty said. “We wouldn’t have to have them here, would we Connor?”

I wasn’t sure what she was implying, if she was implying anything at all. At least, I hoped not.

“Our school is out for the year in two more weeks. Couldn’t we tell everybody we had the offer to go to summer camp and actually leave our homes and stay here all summer, Connor?” Betty said looking at me with a look of hope.

“There are showers in the bathrooms, but what do we realistically do about sleeping arrangements, Mr. Evans?” I asked, breaking from Betty’s stare and looking at Mr. Evans instead.

She walked over and took my hand and I was scared where I stood. He was looking us over, and then said, “How about an army cot for you Mr. Williams ... and a single bed for Miss Lemon. The US Government doesn’t typically equip laboratories with teenagers; much less give them a place to ... luxuriate, as it were. If you can give an adequate reason to your parents, this may be doable. You do understand the expectations of propriety, both of you?”

“Yes sir,” we both were quick to say.

“Do not assume it’s going to happen,” he said leaving us alone.

After Mr. Evans left, the first thing Betty did ... was look at the ticker to see if we missed anything interesting, but nothing terribly much happened since the night before.

“Code Yellow,” she said.

“Yes, Miss Lemon?”

The woman’s voice was back.

“Does the Ticker Tape tell us what is going on in the countries currently about to go to war?”

“By, ‘About to go to war, ‘ which countries do you mean, Miss Lemon?”

“Japan, the USSR, Italy, France, Britain and Germany.”

“Miss Lemon, how are you aware of whom is going to War?”