VIII
After a surprisingly tasty dinner, Nick settled more comfortably on the metal bench in the canteen, watching the servers work with the trays and the kitchen staff cleaning the kitchen fixtures behind the glass partition.
Dinner had gone off in an excellent tone, without the slightest rush or crowd.
Mirela had organized dinner service in intervals of three hundred people to avoid a crush.
Each round had about twenty minutes allotted for the meal and about five minutes for setup, and her team managed to feed all the shelter's residents in three and a half hours.
Nick admired the team's coordination. You could see they had experience feeding a mass of hungry people.
They'd probably gained that experience somewhere in the big seaside hotels or on some cruise ship.
He sighed. He wondered what had become of those hotels, whether there were still floating cities somewhere on the sea.
He assumed there were, and that they would sail until their supplies ran out, trying to stay ahead of the ever-present radiation, or until the seas froze over in the new ice age brought on by the nuclear ash in the planet's stratosphere.
At this moment the most important thing to him was that he had the pleasant taste of pasta in his mouth and that his stomach was filled with the warmth of the just-eaten meal.
He almost longed to sprawl out on the metal bench, fold his arms under his head, and fall into the sleep of the just. But then a voice startled him.
"May I?" Irena stood beside his little bench.
With a smile he replied: "Of course, for a girl like you room must be found in this crowd."
He looked around the empty room and noticed only one server entering the kitchen, carrying a tall column of trays.
Irena laughed and settled beside him. Even as she sat, Nick noticed the girl had a refreshing scent and had changed her clothes.
She wore a short bluish spring dress with a pattern that harmoniously accentuated the curves of her body.
Her blonde hair she'd braided into two plaits, all secured with blue ribbons that kept her hair in order.
She also had a fresh layer of makeup on her face, while an understated lipstick graced her full lips.
Her natural lashes didn't require much effort, because they were full and even.
They gave the girl that mischievous look of a girl from an anime cartoon.
The tastefully applied makeup completed her elongated face with prominent cheekbones.
She seemed regal, or at least like a princess, as she wore that gorgeous dress.
You could see she'd made an effort to look her best, which somewhat embarrassed him, because he hadn't even changed or showered — he reeked of sweat.
He wondered where all that clothing came from that the girls had managed to find so they could constantly change.
She took out from somewhere a bottle of expensive wine, which she set on the metal table in front of them.
"The advantages of being on a date with a girl from the warehouse." She smiled charmingly, showing off a row of even, pearly teeth.
"Oh, Irena…" Nick was almost speechless. "You're gorgeous," he blurted out sincerely.
You could see the compliment pleased her, and she flushed like a little girl. Nick took the bottle of wine without taking his eyes off the girl. His earlier statement about a clear head was now completely irrelevant.
"Oh, ?lahtina. And five years old, good choice," he praised the girl, still not taking his eyes off her.
"Just the first bottle I ran into up there. I'm not much of a wine drinker," she explained, blushing.
"Then it's lucky you chose the right year. That fruity taste… I'm really glad you managed to find such quality wine." Nick expertly turned the bottle in his hands.
"Oh, there are a few boxes up there full of wine and spirits. This one seemed somehow appropriate for a first date."
Nick looked at her playfully. "First date? You think there'll be more?" he asked her.
"Let's hope so, if you don't get drunk in the process," she took up the game.
"It takes me a lot more than one bottle to get drunk, though looking at your figure," he obviously sized her up, "I'm already slightly intoxicated."
Irena laughed at such obvious flirting, but it pleased her. She looked around the empty room.
"We don't have glasses," she noticed.
"Sometimes glasses aren't needed, come." Nick straightened and offered the girl his hand.
"Where to?" she was curious.
"I know a place where we could have a little privacy."
"Really?" Irena took the offered hand and rose from the bench. "Where is it?"
"Not far." Nick headed toward the exit. "Just one floor above this one."
"In the laboratory?" Irena didn't consider the laboratory a romantic place, and there were always people in it.
"You'll see. By the way, did I already say you're gorgeous tonight?" Nick was practically devouring her with his eyes.
"You did, but it's always nice to hear it again." She smiled coquettishly.
"I adore your dress, and what you did with your hair is wow," he didn't skimp on compliments as he led her by the hand through the corridors and then to the staircase.
Irena relaxed in his presence. He poured a feeling of security into the cup of her vanity.
She knew he was sincere, because she really had made an effort to look her best, and she'd also spent quite a while with the girls discussing what to wear for a first date.
She was glad she'd gotten it right. Nick had meanwhile brought her to the fifth floor and, instead of turning toward the laboratory, went on toward the empty clinic.
He stopped only for a moment to grab a blanket and a portable lamp of the kind miners use in mines.
Then with a sure step he led the girl through the cave where the new construction had already left visible scars.
The skeletons of the construction of the large gardens were clearly visible, and they had to maneuver past stacked sacks of compost and all sorts of material laid across the whole floor of the cave.
Someone had turned off the light, symbolically marking the end of the workday, and now the whole cave was bathed in the dull red light of the primary lighting.
In its unfinished state it resembled a battlefield more than the planned construction of something on which the lives of thousands of people depended.
Nick moved with sure steps through all that rubble, stopping here and there to help the girl cross a pile of material or a heap of soil.
The noise and the splashing sound of running water grew stronger as they approached the stream that cut the cave in half.
Just before they reached the water, Nick turned toward a dark niche in the stone wall and stopped for a moment in front of it, switching on the lamp he'd been holding.
Then he whispered to the girl, who had stopped beside him, out of breath:
"Close your eyes."
Irena obeyed, closed her eyes, and then felt his hand gently tug her, and she began stepping cautiously in the direction Nick gently pulled her. He quietly encouraged her:
"Slowly, just straight ahead and be careful, there are uneven spots on the floor, so you don't trip."
The girl, guided by his words, obediently walked until she felt his sure touch leave her, and in panic she opened her eyes.
She was stunned. The faint light of the lamp carelessly placed on a rock reflected off a million tiny crystals within the stone of the small room, hollowed into the rock of the cave.
Wherever she looked she saw some new pattern or design of light that, in combination with the shadows, created a magical impression of something unseen.
Nick knew this small niche full of crystals would delight the girl, and he was overjoyed when he noticed her spreading her arms and beginning to spin around the room, following the beat of some inaudible melody.
She looked utterly charming as she danced like that, completely captivated by the play of light and shadow, so that he paused for a moment with the blanket in his hand just to watch that scene.
Suddenly he dropped the blanket onto the cold stone of the cave floor, rose, and approached the girl, who still, spinning gently, danced along with the play of light on the crystals in the stone walls.
He took her around the waist and joined her dance in the slow beats of the inaudible music.
The girl accepted his grip, pressed her body against his, and swayed her hips, making him take up her movement and dance.
He then pressed her more tightly against himself, felt the firmness of her backside against his groin, and her seductive caress drew the first signs of life between his hips.
The girl rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes in the dance.
He gently kissed her neck like a breath of wind, at which she visibly shivered.
Irena raised her arms and gently held his head, thus insisting on more kisses along the whole length of her neck.
Nick accepted and gently kissed her neck, then pulled back for a second and nibbled her earlobe.
The girl let out an excited sigh, her chest trembling with convulsive excitement as Nick nibbled her ear.
He squeezed her with one arm around the waist, pressing her backside against his groin while with the other hand he gently massaged her breasts through the fabric of the light dress she wore.
The girl breathed with excitement in his arms, demanding more touches, more kisses, but then Nick pulled away.
"You're gorgeous," Nick whispered to her and gently kissed her.
The girl felt new shivers of excitement in her body and accepted the kiss.
The crystals woven into the stone of the cave soon witnessed the restless play of bodies before them, while the granite on the ceiling indifferently watched two people sharing tenderness and their bodies on the cold rock that until then had known only the restless murmur of water and the
millennia-long touch of stone dust.
All that time the faint light from the lamp, carelessly set on the floor, played its restless game of light and shadow with the crystals woven into the walls of the cave, from which now came only sighs and the occasional cry of two people.
DAY 0 0 5