Entanglement: A Modern Frankenstein | Creation

2.1: Other Than Jealousy

Austin, Texas | May | Tristan

Tristan Tremblay was unsettled with Lexa, but he wasn't sure if he was angry at her lack of concern or jealous at her intensity of focus.

"The only virus I'm worried about catching is the one I get in a month because someone left a door open." Lexa waved a dismissive hand and looked back at her monitors.

Tristan shook his head, "Are you aware of any current events? It's like the first thing they talk about. It's weird. It's got everyone spooked because they've never seen it before."

A girlish, but tough, voice interjected, "Yeah, they're calling the victims 'Cube-sicles' because they freeze up from being in cubicles. Some woman is actively promoting it. She even created an ebook about how to prevent it. I hate her and love her at the same time."

"Half the cases weren't even in cubicles," Tristan said, pleased that someone bit on his conversation. He turned to face Nora in the corner on her beanbag.

Nora Livingstone was a mid-teenage girl experimenting with being Goth. She didn't have all the clothes and the make-up still wasn't quite right. Her parents—Lexa's parents—would still not condone it, so she only took advantage during her weekends with Lexa. She was finding more time to visit with Lexa these days. Nora once explained to Tristan that while she didn't like being surrounded by all the developers, she liked being in proximity. She said her parents saw Lexa as a great influence given that she had started a business and recently acquired a large first customer. Nora then laughed about the fact her parents didn't have the first clue about what crypto mining was or what Lexa's role in the process was, but they saw that Nora was engaged. Nora admitted that she was, but not always in the way her parents expected.

"Only two," Nora explained while presumably doing something else on her laptop, "and one of them was in an office with cubicles outside it and the other had a past job with cubicles. "

"All still in US?" Tristan asked the room, but Nora in particular.

"Five in the US, one in India—but a company owned by a US company—and one in Costa Rica," Nora stated, still facing into her laptop. "It's creating a ruckus for companies everywhere. Several are letting their employees work in conference rooms or work from home. Silly, really! What would cubicles have to do with a disease? I read one article about the potential impact on companies making cubicles."

Tristan added, "There's even a popular link going around about a whistleblower for a company making the fabric for the cubicles. This woman claims that they spray their material with a known carcinogen."

"Not a woman!" Nora said into her computer.

"What?" inquired Tristan.

"It's not a woman, necessarily. They don't say whether the whistleblower is a woman or not. You don't pay attention to the details, do you?"

"Who cares?" said Tristan with hands raised.

"Really, Nora?" said Lexa, indicating that despite her intense effort for the past few minutes, she had been listening. "Are you really going to call him out on that one detail?"

"Yeah," said Tristan, feeling odd comfort in Lexa defending him.

Lexa continued, "He comes in here spouting off about some big deal virus, which has only affected six people—"

"Seven," interrupted Nora.

"Seven freakin' people," Lexa said with emphasis, attempting to regain the edge her sister took from her. "Seven freakin' people in a month or so. Do you know how many people die of—"