"What about you, Doc Sophie, too busy being Doc of the Director, no time for teaching either?"
“Actually,” Sophie smiled with perfect complaisance,
“I teach in the Wednesday First Aid classes. There’s a new cycle every quarter.”
In addition, she covered the Emergency Department of the ACME Medical Center on selected days and watched over a set of field-active agents, ensuring that they were maintained in good health and that all paperwork necessary for them to go forth on ACME business were kept in proper order.
The Director of Operations was not her only charge, although he was mandated as her most important. He had become more of a friend, of sorts.
All these, she deemed unnecessary to expound to her conversation partner as yet.
Leaning back onto a rolled towel, she tilted her head slightly towards Lee and balanced a bottle of sunscreen between her fingers.
“How long have you been surfing? You’re excellent at it.”
Lee made a face, not at the question but at the memory it evoked.
“Since I was six,” he replied, remembering when his brother first threw him into the water.
“We lived near the beach, so it was sink or surf.”
“Ah? Did you live nearby?”
“Not in San Francisco,” he took another swallow of beer,
“but I’ve been in California all my life.”
There was a pause as he looked at her,
“‘You grew up in France or something?”
She laughed light.
“No. No, not France,” she popped open the bottle in her hands.
“I grew up in Geneva. Switzerland.”
He was quiet at that, suddenly thinking that her response explained a lot.
“How did you come to join ACME?”
“I’ve read of your father’s work in the community. Has that ever tempted you?"
Lee looked at her for a second, holding her gaze.
“No,” he wanted to say something else, and vestiges of a scowl crossed his brow, but he kept his answer short,
“My two other brothers got that all covered.”
“Are you the youngest in your family?”
He ignored her question,
“You got siblings?”
She began to conscientiously dab sunscreen on her face.
“No,” his diversion intrigued her,
“there is only me.”
“Then, you’re lucky.”
“How?” she asked.
“I’d like to think I would have benefited from someone to play with and…” There was a thoughtful pause as she considered her words,
“Well--to fight and reconcile with. So much more can be learnt, don’t you think?”
“That’s one way of looking at it.” He made a small shrug,
“You want another beer?”
Sophie paused, sealing again the bottle of sunscreen she had finished with.
“Oh no, thank you,” she lightly tapped the rim of her tumbler of lemonade,
“I’m happy with this.” Stretching to sit up from her lazing position, she reached towards the insulated cool box before looking back at him,
“Do you want another…?”
He nodded and took the bottle she gave him, snapping free the metal bottle cap and drinking easily from it.
“I was the middle child,” he said, then,
“of three boys.”
She smiled,
“The peacemaker.”
“Something like that... more like troublemaker though,” his words were wry.
“You lived with both parents?”
Watching him, she thought the question peculiar.
“I lived with my mother until I finished basic education. Then, I moved here…” she hesitated to correct herself,
“to the East Coast… to be with my dad.”
“And here I thought you grew up all ski and sunshine...”
“Did you not live with both parents, too?”
His laugh came out slightly awkward.
“I grew up with both parents, but have lived with neither since I was sixteen.”
“Ah…” With markedly more empathy than mirth, she regarded him,
“And here I thought you grew up all surf and sunshine. Still, your parents must be glad to have such varied sons.”
“Sure,” he made no effort to hide the sarcasm in his words,
“they’re so proud.”
If Sophie had wished to ask Lee more of what his tone belied, there was no chance. From the corner of her vision, two familiar figures were making quick way through the sand: Ivy and Eugene. She stood up to gain a clearer look. They were carrying something with them, something very strange indeed...
