soon she’d have something concrete to show him instead. Over time somewhere in the back of her mind she felt doubt but she turned the doubt to more work. Drive was the only thing that really mattered. Results would overcome all. She worked long and hard into the night and without David to check in on her she could work without having to stop for anything but basic living. That made the breakup a good thing, she thought. It would all be worth it, she thought and when she was done, she could show everyone what she had done David and Slade alike. Everyone would listen to her for once. Wouldn’t that be nice for a change? But the future is far and uncertain and only the present matters she had to remind herself. There was no room for error. None for failure. The stakes were just too high, yet in the back of her mind was the dreadful ringing of the mantra: “Life doesn’t work that way.” This was necessary, she thought. Sacrifice is obligatory to produce any sort of success, so this was necessary. She knew however, that the greedy hands of sacrifice were not obligated to point the way to a success. Just as the cruel hands of time are more than obliged to become intertwined in sacrifices’ grasp. Still, she refused to give up out of some obligatory fear of loss, or maybe fear of failure, loss of pride, or vehement denial of the fact that she had already failed. She had become inscrutable to others long ago and now she couldn’t even recognize herself. But, if she kept working towards the future, she’d never regret the past or loathe the present and if she did, failure was certain. So, what’s a person to do in this situation but to keep working toward the future, Christina asked herself.
28
And two months later she had finally done it, accomplished her goal. She sent the prototype to Dr.Slade who was more than happy to take her back at a much higher position in the lab than before, with a huge lump sum if she gave the lab some credit. She was finally set to unveil her accomplishment to the rest of the staff as well as some buyers interested in the technology. Finally, she could make the world a better place. The first thing she did after hearing the news wasn’t to get her house back, or her car or any one of the countless things she had lost over the ten months she had worked on the machine but to call David for lunch. “It’s nice to see you, outside especially.” He said when he saw her David’s tone was light, but his face had a stern air about it. When he sat, he sat up straight as if he was afraid of being comfortable and he stared at Christina with spirit of apprehension. Christina, however had a bright smile on her face, her hair neat and flowing down to her back and her bangs clipped out of her face. “What’s up?” “I did it - built the machine!” “And it works?” David raised an eyebrow. “Yes, it works, I tested it myself. I always knew it would work but using it like that it was - it was wow,” Her eyes lit up when she spoke, and she let out a little chuckle. “I mean can you even believe it?” “No.” Silence. Christina’s smile vanished and the light in her eyes dimmed as she set her eyes on the table. “Well um, Slade…he already examined it and uh I’m debuting it to the lab tomorrow. I thought you’d want to know first.” She looked at him dampened energy but didn’t get the response she had hoped for back.
