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main | table of contents Copyright © 2003, S. Y. Affolee 17 Afternoon Both Bob and Quinn had come back to work the next day but by the afternoon, they had both convinced her to take the rest of the day off since she had been in charge of the archives and handled all the work herself the other day. With the extra time, Verity visited one of the old boutiques along Dorsum Road. Perhaps she would be able to find an affordable and acceptable costume to the Feasting Day party that Gammell had invited her to. The store was called “Hesters” and located closer to the main square and the market district than the Old Quarter. It was dimly lit, rendering all the mannequins modeling the displayed dresses in an eerie life-like quality. Verity walked among the white and silver bolts of fabric, occasionally brushing her hand against the satin and lace. The designs were not in the modern fashion which was tight in the bodice and puffy and voluminous at the waist. Instead, these older dresses were extremely frilly with lots of lace and ribbons and faux pearls. She didn’t care so much about fashion, but this obvious bias towards the popular fifty years ago made her hesitate. “May I help you?” The sales clerk was a small dark woman in a free-form turquoise robe. Her hair was covered in a turban in the same shade of turquoise. Her black eyes watched Verity. “I’m looking for a dress that will fit my budget,” said Verity. The clerk nodded. “And what kind of style would you prefer?” “It doesn’t matter to me, although I would like one that I…I would look acceptable in.” “Hm.” The woman raised her eyebrows until it disappeared underneath her turban. “You need something that will make you stand out. You need something that accents your attributes.” “What is that supposed to mean?” “I think I might have something that you might like. It’s nothing like these old things out in front. They’re to appeal to women thirty years your senior.” “Does this shop primarily cater toward the older woman then?” “It caters toward the older woman because mostly older women shop here. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t stock other things. Over here, it’s near the back.” The clerk led her toward the back of the store where the mannequins were replaced with blank faced dummies. The dresses here were not necessarily old, but they were definitely stranger. Some were made of fur. Others leather. And there was another one made entirely of silver sequins. The clerk pulled out a dress from a rack and held it up. “This one, I think, will do for you. If you’re going to one of those costume parties in the Old Quarter, there’s a mask that goes with this.” Something in the back of her mind told her that the clerk was right. “How much?” The clerk named a figure. “I’ll take it.” In the afternoon daylight, the lighthouse disappeared into the gray sky. The door opened a crack. There was nothing but a dark shadow behind. “Who’s there?” “It’s me, Verity.” Gammell threw the door open wide. “You’re early.” He was wearing a black turtleneck with black pants. He frowned slightly as he peered at the sky behind her. “Aren’t you supposed to be at work?” “I am at work.” He stepped aside to let her inside. “No, I mean at the archives.” “They made me take the day off.” “And you came straight here afterwards?” “No, I did a little shopping.” “Huh.” He closed the door and shoved up his sleeves. His couch was piled with various books on history, furniture, and price guides. On top of the stack was a pad of paper and a pen. He picked up the paper and pen. “Holiday shopping?” “Yes, but that’s not important.” “Not important? Every woman I’ve ever met loves to talk about shopping.” “I only talk about shopping if I’ve bought books.” Verity shrugged out of her coat and draped it over one of the couch arms. She rummaged around in the tote bag she had brought with her and pulled out a disc. “I have the database program.” He waved a hand toward his computer. “You can do what you will with it. I don’t know anything about that machine except to turn it on or off. I’ll just watch and see if I can learn anything.” “Well, these are your files that we are cataloguing.” She sat down at the desk and pushed the power button. The machine beeped and the internal drives began whirring as the computer booted up. Gammell wandered into the kitchen and then came back with a glass of water in his hand. “Why did you get a computer in the first place if you don’t know how to use it?” asked Verity. “I don’t know. I guess since everyone has one, I might as well get one myself.” “So you bought yourself a machine that’s been collecting dust all this while. Didn’t you bother to read the manual that came with this to familiarize yourself with it?” “I never read manuals.” Verity rolled her eyes. “Figures.” “You think I’m like every other man.” He voice was flat. Accusatory. She looked up at him, but then slid her gaze away from him to look at the screen. “I didn’t say that.” “You didn’t say it, but you thought it.” “You don’t know what I think.” The computer had finished booting up and she tapped a few keys to examine the system specifications. “But I can guess.” “Guessing is overrated.” She examined the memory and the processor type and nodded to herself. “Well, you have the latest model. I could probably install the database several times over and not make a significant dent on this machine’s performance. Someone must have advised you which computer to get.” She inserted the disc and didn’t have long to wait for the computer to recognize the new software. “Sure. I listened to the advice of the store clerk.” “I hope you didn’t get ripped off for it.” He told her the price that he had to pay for his computer system. She shook her head. “Lucky. This isn’t the latest model, but it’s hard to get this at that price even now. You must have met a really nice clerk.” She entered the commands for the program to begin installation. “This is really simple, actually. It pretty much installs itself. Then the program will appear here on the screen beside all these other programs. You just select it and start entering your data.” “It sounds simple, but I’m afraid you’ll have to show me exactly what you have to do. I get confused easily.” “All right, now I’m confused. You say you don’t read manuals, yet you want me to show you how to get this to work?” “I want to see how you’re supposed to operate the program. I don’t want to read about how you can theoretically work with it.” “Okay. That makes sense. Sort of.” The program finished installing and Verity took the disc out and placed it in its case. She left it on the desk. “I’m leaving this here in case something happens to the program and you need to reinstall it. So you open the program just by clicking on it. We’ll create your database like this.” She typed in some commands and then a screen opened asking if the user wanted to create a new file. “I think I can handle that,” said Gammell. “So do you have some records with you at the moment? I can enter the first one to show you how it’s done in case you want to put the files into the computer yourself.” He opened one of the drawers in the desk and pulled out a folder. His hand briefly touched hers when he placed the folder next to her. She felt the sharp tingling feeling, almost like when he was looking at her with his odd gaze. She wondered if he also felt that static electrical charge. Probably not. He was standing closer to her after giving her the file—his forearm almost brushing her shoulder. He did not appear to notice that anything was amiss. “The records in that folder are more recent. They’re from last month,” he said. “Fine. I’ll customize all of these fields for the new files. You can put down the customer name, price or commission, the item that was being purchased, and other miscellaneous information about the transaction.” She pulled out the first file and entered the information. “Remember to save it after you’re done. That’s a good habit to get into even though the program does prompt you to save before you close it. There are a lot of other interesting features in the database that you might want to fiddle with on your free time. You can sort the files in particular ways. You can search the files according to the different fields or comments. And a whole host of other things.” “I’ll look into that, although I’m afraid that you might have to show me eventually how to do that too.” He moved back to the couch with the books. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to get back to the bit of research I’m doing for Pelorus’s pet project about trying to snag that titanium mirror. I suppose you can start cataloguing since you’re already on the computer.” She nodded, feeling somewhat more relaxed that he was not so close to her.  |