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The instructions faded into the background, and theWelcomebutton emerged.
Carine sat on the edge of the bed and tapped the prompt.
While she waited, she messaged Clay.Almost feels like tapping my order into a kiosk at one of those understaffed fast food places.
Hush. Don’t ruin my experiment. And put your phone away. You’re a pro. I shouldn’t have to tell you that.
She pondered why it mattered at all that she was a so-called pro when the outer door groaned on its hinges.
Hurriedly, she zipped the phone into her purse and settled into a more relaxed posture on the bed’s edge. With the tablet awake and at the ready, she peered at the dense fabric screen, wondering if she’d be able to see the movement of the other party when they stepped out of the nook.
The door clicked shut.
She heard the snick of the simple lock being turned. She counted six footsteps atop the creaking floor, enough to clear the nook and be beyond the room’s entryway, she guessed. The fabric was too thick, and the lighting was ideally situated to create a complete deprivation of visual observation of the other side.
Like her, they probably needed a moment to get their bearings.
To ground herself in reality, she watched the tablet’s tiny clock and convinced her brain that time wasn’t moving slower than usual.
They moved after a minute, not toward her but seemingly toward the wall parallel to the entryway on the window side of the room.
Carine heard the distinctive slide of something hard across a surface.
The tablet atop the bookcase?
She waited for a message to appear on her end in the app, but instead of receiving instructions, she noted that the room became fifty percent darker.
They’d killed the light that’d been meant to draw their silhouette onto the screen. They must have been careful not to walk through the beam as they crossed the room.
A message finally floated onto the screen.
Your partner has requested you wear a blindfold and insert earplugs. See [ ] for supplies.
Carine made a mental note to tell Clay about his programming bug. She huffed.
Lucky for him, he has a generous test subject.
She figured out how to attach a reply to the system-generated note.
Okay, we see that part works. Now, can you see my outline through the screen? I’m being lit by the lamp behind the bed.
There was no response to that, except a redeployed request that she don blindfold and earplugs. They’d also figured out how to attach a countdown timer to the request that warned they’d be coming around.
She opened her mouth to tell them to wait but stopped because she realized they’d accomplished what they’d set out to do. The person on the other side could give Clay their impression of the screen, and they could both tell him about his dirty little app.
I could be home in time to see my show.
Realizing how very geriatric that thought was, she figured she was channeling Ms. Eunice, who had a similar fondness for predictable hour-long dramas.
The app window flashed orange, and a help bubble expanded at the edge.
No movement detected.
Your partner has made a request. If you need more time, note your requirement by tapping the More Time button. If you are preparing now, tap Ignore. If you need to reject the request, tap Not Tonight.
A system admin bubble popped up over that one.
YIKES. That’s a li’l invasive. It tells me when comments are unaddressed for too long. Need to tweak that. For now, just go ahead and do what they ask.
