Christmas story 1 of 12

Today I walked to work for a team meeting, took two hours. Played football for an hour in the evening. I continue to be not very good at football and I've hurt my ankle, but it was fun and I hope we do it regularly.
We got beaten 5-0 by people who are more used to running around and kicking balls in the right places.

So here's the first of my 12 stories, set on the number 12 bus I get regularly. They are not in chronological order so you may have to think a little :)
13th one on Christmas Day, despite me saying first of my 12.
Tsk.


"Hello?"

"Hello...?"

It was her voicemail. I didn't know whether to leave a message or not. It was hard enough getting on the bus and showing the driver my pass without thinking of a good message to leave.

I was just sitting down when the message ended and I shivered, I wondered if the window was open or something, but I decided to leave a message anyway.

"Hi, it's Laura, I'm wondering where you are, I waited for you but I'm guessing I missed you. I've just been round town but I've got to head home now. Give me a call when you get this so I know what time you're coming round tonight. Bye!"

I looked around the bus as I pondered what had happened to her. There was a woman with her baby, she was laughing at something, I guess she was entertaining the kid. Just behind me was a weird looking guy who seemed to be muttering to himself.

I decided to ring around and see what had happened to Rebecca, it wasn't like her to disappear.

I rang Barry first.

"Hi, have you heard from Rebecca at all?"

"No, not seen her since lunch."

"Really?"

"Yeah. She went off to deal with some sort of containment leak then I had to go and deal with project arturis again."

"Again? I thought they'd sorted that out?"

"Nah, it's still giving off that interdimensional goop."

"I'm fairly sure goop isn't the scientific name for it."

"It is. Me and Gavin defined it last Thursday. That's the handy thing about discovering something, you can name it what you like."

"Until your performance review."

"Nothing to worry about there, Simon's not due back planetside for another four months."

"Lucky you. Well I'm going to see if anyone else has seen her. Do you have Hubert's number?"

"Hubert? He doesn't speak to girls."

"He does if you're nice to him and I am."

"Ok then, but you can only contact him through pathic-phone, epsilon sigma phi."

"Cheers, see you next week. Bye"

It's pretty weird to work in special research, even weirder to get the bus when you work for it. But I figure it keeps me grounded, with the crazy stuff I see every day it's good to know there are normal people out there.

The odd guy that muttered to himself had gone and a businessman had got on instead. He was chatting really loudly on his mobile; "So we'll ship out ten thou of them? That's great. Should see some real turn around on sales."

I don't get why people have to talk so loud. It seems the less important their actual work is, the louder they get. I once did a study on it and created a mathematical model to show that. Pan dimensinal computers really helped me out.

Speaking of computers, I'd best call Hubert. I swicthed my Nokia to the telepathic mode and dialled.

It helped to keep the phone by my ear to give the illusion of actually speaking through the phone. I've learned just sitting on the bus thinking looks a bit odd.

Hi Hubert.

Oh hi Laura.

How are you?

Not too bad really. I'm thinking of going for an upgrade soon.

You sure? You already have more processing power than you know what to do with.

Yeah, but those Intel guys are catching up with me.

Fair enough. Have you seen Rebecca?

Yes.

I sighed, Hubert could be very literal if he didn't feel like being helpful.

Have you seen her today since lunch?

No.

Ok. Sorry to have bothered you.

You didn't bother me don't worry.

I won't, bye.

I sighed, another dead end, I was starting to worry about Rebecca, who knows what had happened to her. But it was time to get off the bus as I was nearly home. I pressed the button to stop the bus just as my phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hi, it's Rebecca. Did you want me?"

"Rebecca! Good to hear from you, where've you been? I've been worried."

"Oh, I got caught in a stasis bubble, would've been stuck there all night if the cleaner hadn't spotted me. We still on for tonight?"

The bus had stopped and I headed to the door.

"Yeah, I've got some plans for my hair, I hope you're prepared to experiment..."

I stepped off the bus and headed home.