Escape

"Perfect. I want to keep working while these ideas our floating around in my head."

The hug may have been pushed out of the front of his mind, but in the back of his head it played over and over, as Jimmy's subconscious mind realized that in that hug, under the frumpy exterior, there was a very unfrumpy interior.

Jimmy's subconscious mind wasn't the only one who was delving on that moment. That night, Lindsey's subconscious mind extended the nude self-examination for an almost undetectable second, for reasons other than hygiene and health.

The next incident was almost as innocuous, but our subconscious minds make connections that our conscious minds willfully ignore.

Next week was spring break, and since all her final projects at school were done, Lindsey spent all day every day with Jimmy. Lindsey's Mom came over by surprise with lunch and found the two discussing ancient and present day Aramaic. The two never even noticed her, and any fears she had were laid to rest (Although she did subconsciously put into her daughter's mind the message that she (Lindsey's Mom) would not be coming over to Jimmy's house anymore by fixing two boxed lunches every morning thereafter, with the instructions that Lindsey and Jimmy take a least five minutes to eat).

That afternoon, Lindsey put her glasses on the desk and rubbed her eyes. At home, she didn't go through the illusion that she needed the glasses and thus didn't wear them. She forgot to put them back on as she continued reading/translating and Jimmy immediately noticed it when he looked up.

"Ms. Dunham, don't you find that...well, a bit difficult to read without your glasses?"

"There...um...stage props, Dr. O'Brien." Jimmy wasn't sure, but he would swear a faint blush appeared on Lindsey's cheeks. "My mother insists that I wear them away from home. They give me a headache at times." Lindsey started to place them back on.

"Err, um, well, if you are more comfortable not wearing them while we do our work, then your secret is safe with me."

Lindsey froze for a second, and then set them down. While she was pretending to read through the paper in front of her, she was mentally marveling at this tiny act of secret rebellion.

Jimmy was trying to pay attention to a conversation he was having on the internet, but his subconscious kept on sending stealthy images of just how beautiful Lindsey's unadorned face was, and just how nice that body of hers felt when he briefly hugged her.

And that night Lindsey's self-examination might have lasted just a second longer.

And then the deluge came.

- - -

That morning the skies were dark with the threat of rain, and after donning her normal attire, Lindsey put on rain suit, rain hat, goulashes and had an umbrella just to walk to the car. The drive to Jimmy's house was uneventful, but as she got out of her car a Fate-driven gust of wind reversed her umbrella and sent her rain hat flying. She caught it and put it back into place, holding it to her head as she rushed to the porch. The gust and a quick increase of the intensity of rain had done their work, though. From the neck down, she was dry as a bone. However, her hair was a sopping mess.

As she came in the door, Jimmy looked up from the desk and held up a finger. "Wait right there, Ms. Dunham." He quickly disappeared and returned with two towels in hand. Lindsey had already discarded her raingear and, taking a towel, attempted to dry it without undoing the bun.

"Ms. Dunham, I don't mean to take an undue interest, but it might be easier to dry your hair if you take a few pins out first. I assure you I will make no mention of this to your mother."

Lindsey paused for a second, and then silently nodded. Jimmy laid the dry towel on the table in the foyer and then disappeared again. Lindsey put her glasses on the towel and then began shaking her hair out as she took out the pins. Jimmy came back in with a brush as Lindsey was leaning over, her hair in front of her. Jimmy was taken aback for a second by its length, its fullness, is lustriousness. He quickly looked away as she leaned back up. "Here you go, Ms. Dunham, and when you're done, please join me in the study." Lindsey gave a quick nod as she once again marveled at the situation she was in, brushing her hair out until she was satisfied. The light yellow sweater was a bit damp, though, and with a quick leap of her heart, she put it on the coat rack, still feeling fortified in a dark blue long sleeved blouse buttoned up to her neck.

Jimmy was almost slack jawed as Lindsey entered the room, her gorgeous face framed by dark hair, brown eyes that he could catch a hint of sparkle in, framed in that perfect olive skin. He averted his gaze as she settled down across from him.

Lindsey had felt his gaze, though, but tried to pretend she hadn't. It created a...warmness...in her that was both frightening and...inviting? Like him, though, she pretended nothing had happened and buried herself in her work.

And then Lindsey's mother, of all people, took a hand in stepping things up a notch.

Lindsey's mother was raising her daughter to be a prim and proper young lady, with the emphasis on prim. In addition, she was raising her to be frugal. Take the very blouse that Lindsey was wearing, for instance. She had bought it for Lindsey at a second hand store. The material was good, but the top three buttons had needed resewing. If Lindsey herself had done it, the job would have been thorough and efficient. Nothing save perhaps tiny explosives on the buttons would have knocked them off. If Lindsey had sown them on. Lindsey's mother however, more than occasionally lacked her daughter's follow through.

Under normal circumstances, that wouldn't have made a difference. But the gust of wind had saturated the threads. Water dropping from her hair saturated it more. And as the threads dried, they became more brittle. So that the first time she bent over and picked up a dropped paper from the floor, the buttons came off...pop, pop, pop..and fell silently and unnoticed to the floor.

In a normal situation this wouldn't have mattered. The blouse only opened up enough to exposed the hollow of her throat, with the unintended cleavage peak only if she leaned over the table, for instance. But Lindsey NEVER gave cleavage peaks, unintended or otherwise. Most people never expected that Lindsey had cleavage to peak at. Jimmy found out just then as Lindsey, unaware of her lost buttons, leaned over to grab a paper halfway between them.

Jimmy looked up just then and found himself staring down the front of Lindsey's blouse and looking at a very impressive cleavage. The dark, warm flawless skin of her breasts was the most inviting sight he had ever seen, and it took a force of will to drag his eyes from the vision. He realized Lindsey must not have noticed that her top buttons were undone, and as soon as she did, she would (to Jimmy's dismay) go and correct the situation immediately.

It was at that instance that Lindsey did realize that not only was the top of her blouse undone, but that Jimmy was taking a keen interest in this face. Inside she froze, though outside she retook her seat and seemed unaware of her situation. Her heart was going a million miles an hour. She knew she should excuse herself and go to the bathroom to fix the damage. And while she was at it, redo her sweater and fix her hair, which were both dry enough to restore to their proper places. But a part of her was...well, fascinated and intrigued that Jimmy took a peak down her blouse and wanted to repeat the experience. But she wanted to do it an undetectable way. The opportunity presented itself when she ran across something that she wanted to correlate with another photocopy. She leaned over the table, found the paper and stayed leaned over while out of the corner of her eye she saw Jimmy take another sidelong peak at her cleavage. She stayed in that position for a few seconds, and then pretending to be satisfied that it was indeed the document she was looking for, and returned to her seat.

Thinking that this was definitely enough, she was about to excuse herself when the fax machine made a tiny beep.

"What's that, Dr. O'Brien?"

Happy to have his mind distracted from these peeks at Lindsey's body that he KNEW would be unwanted, he turned to the machine. "It's a document from a friend of mine at Cambridge." Jimmy walked over to the machine and tore off the fax as Lindsey joined him, leaning into him. The experience was a bit disconcerting, as Jimmy could distinctly feel her breast brushing against his arm, and the recent sight of those marvelous orbs made the experience further...disarming.

"I, um, think, Ms. Dunham, that perhaps we might examine this better if---"

At that moment a lightning bolt struck outside as the storm knocked the power out, the inside of the house pitched into darkness. The Lindsey who started the school year would have reacted to the storm nonchalantly, perhaps casually suggesting that candles might be useful while she produced a flashlight, having efficiently planned beforehand. The one so close to Jimmy, however, was being introduced to those giddy school girl hormones and hadn't gotten her sea legs yet. Plus, a part of her mind remembered being in Jimmy's arms and had decided that was a warm, safe and pleasurable place to be, even if the rest of her mind hadn't caught on to that fact. Jimmy also remembered holding her, and had decided that it was also a warm and pleasurable experience. The two came into each others arms instinctively, and just held each other as the rain continued pouring hard outside.

After what seemed an eternity but was only a couple of second, the part of Lindsey's mind that usually controlled things decided stepping back away from this embrace was the right thing to do. And then she froze. She felt Jimmy's hand stroking her hair, running his fingers through it, as he cradled her head against what she discovered was a very nicely muscled chest. He then stepped back as he cradled her face in a pair of very strong hands. She stared silently as he leaned forward and gave her very first kiss, a light one, silently seeking approval. He leaned back and she could feel his thumbs tracing her cheeks, and then one finger brushed across her lips, down her chin, tracing her throat to its hollow. She had no idea where that finger was going, how she could stop it, or if she even wanted to stop it.

At that moment the lights came back on.

Jimmy and Lindsey instantly stepped away from each other, breathing heavily, trying to thing of something, anything to say, to disavow the minutes in the dark and the awkwardness afterwards.

And in walked the Mighty Quinn.

- - -

About the time that the emerging Roman Republic had backstabbed the Celts and the Celts were on their way to Rome to demonstrate to the Romans that in the history of bad ideas, backstabbing your Celtic allies was in the top ten, there lived, in a small fishing village off the Northwestern Coast of Modern day Ireland, a wizard by the name of Quinn. Actually, he had a longer name than that, but being an easy going type of wizard, he preferred being called Quinn. Now, being a fairly powerful type of wizard who had survived the destruction of Atlantis, the local druids, bards, nobleman, fisherman, warriors and everyone else were very keen on keeping the Mighty Quinn an easy going kind of wizard, and so were willing to call Quinn anything Quinn wanted to be called. Quinn had even taught the local bards a song to play every time he walked into the local tavern:

"Come on out,

come on in,

you've not seen nothing like the Mighty Quinn.

Come on out,

Come on in.

When Quinn the Atlantean gets here,

Everybody's going to jump for joy."

Predictably, when Quinn the basically easy going wizard got there, everyone jumped for joy. When it was that easy to keep an easy going wizard easy going, you didn't cut corners.

As Wizards went, Quinn was alright. He kept the barbarians at bay, the local bay full of fish, and the local forest full of game. True, he took a local virgin for dalliance once every two or three years, but always returned them unharmed and a pouch of gold to boot. Which was leagues better than what the local nobles did when they went dallying. All in all, if you had to have a wizard in the neighborhood, you could do worse than the self-professed easy going Mighty Quinn. There was just one thing you did not mess with that belonged to Quinn. His true love. His great passion.

His Garden.

Now, as you can imagine, Quinn, being a wizard, could have populated his garden with the most exotic flora known to mankind.

But being the easy going kind of wizard that he was, Quinn preferred just potatoes and cabbage.

Now, all kinds of animals loved that cabbage. Quinn considered lots of remedies. Walls of fire. Ice swords of eternal vigilance. But being the easy kind of wizard that he was, and not really wanting to blast innocent animals into their basic component molecules without due cause, he chose instead a nonviolent method.

He shrunk them. Move them to a safe distance. And then canceled the spell. Shrunken animals tended not to repeat their mistakes.

Local boys, though, who assume a basically easy going wizard can't be as powerful as their parents inform them he is, will keep on coming back until caught. Quinn adjusted the spell so that it would shrink everything a human trespasser was wearing except his shoes and stockings. Quinn would then take the miscreant boy in hand (literally in hand, as the spell would shrink the person cast upon to 2/21st of their original size. Quinn used 2/21 as it had been a very fashionable fraction in Atlantis prior to its destruction.) to the boy's parents, and lead them to back to the garden where the boys shoes and stockings awaited them. He kept the shoes full size to prove to the parents that he, the Mighty Quinn, was not a malicious wizard who shrunk children for pure spite, but was an easy going wizard who was simply trying to protect his simple garden. To prove he was an easy going wizard, he would restore the boy in question to full size and gently admonish the parents to keep the feisty but redeemable lad under better supervision. The parents would hastily agree to do so as they dragged their children back home. The parents would then gently admonish the erring lad not to risk bringing down the wizard's wrath down on them, a fate to be avoided no matter how easy going the wizard in question. The gentle admonishment applied to the boy by his parents usually left him unable to sit for a week.

Now, if there was anything that made the wizard less than easy going, it was his son Quid. Regardless of what job Quid was apprenticed to, he failed in such a miserable way that Quinn was usually forced to make huge reparations. Finally Quid was given the job of guarding Quinn's garden. The job was simple. Quid wrote the spell out phonetically and designed it so it could not be used on either Quid or Quinn, that the reversal spell was on the opposite side of the scroll, and to keep mischief at bay, only someone related to Quinn could use the scroll. To anyone else, it was but a blank piece of paper.

It was fool proof. Sadly, it was not Quid proof.

Quid accidentally caught the paper on fire. Quinn replaced it. Quid accidentally lost the paper in the water. Quinn replaced it. Quid accidentally wrapped a fish in the paper. Quinn replaced it. Quid accidentally wiped his---

Well, finally Quinn created a scroll that was for all basic purposes indestructible, and Quid had finally found his spot in life.

Until he walked into his father's lab and saw a red button. The last sight on this earth Quinn saw was his son pushing the red button and asking, "Hey Dad, what does this do?"

Everything in the lab, and for that matter, in the surround 1/4 mile was destroyed. Everything except the shrinking spell. Which should have been useless as it would appear blank to anyone not blood related to Quinn. And Quid was his only blood relative.

Only known blood relative that is. Quinn did love his dalliances. And wizard sperm isn't like normal sperm, no matter how easy going the wizard.

Normally, if a man hasn't had "relations" with a woman for two years, it's a safe bet that he isn't the father of a child born to her two years after he has had "relations" with her. But one of the local innkeeper's daughters, nine months after her wedding to the chief stable hand, had a baby that by all accounts should have been the head horse handler.

OK, you really don't want me to go into the mechanics of delayed wizardly impregnations, do you? Good

Well, a daughter was born, who in due course had three sons and a daughter, and so on and so forth.

Meanwhile, folks were touchy about having anything to do with the blasted remains of a wizardly estate, no matter how easy going the wizard was. The indestructible scroll made its haphazard way out to sea and into various hands, none knowing what they truly possessed. Occasionally the scroll took matters into its own "hands", disappearing from lock boxes, safes, you name it, and appearing in other hands.

Until the scroll found itself in a FedEx box shipped to one Genghis James Khan, who through a twisty lineage could unknowingly trace his ancestry back to the Mighty Quinn.

And Fate dealt her third and final trump card. As James and Lindsey backed awkwardly away from each other, Lindsey stumbled into the table, knocking the flattened scroll, hidden in a stack of photocopies onto the floor with an audible thud. James and Lindsey, happy for the distraction, both turned to it on the floor.

- - -

"That's odd," Jimmy said picking up the parchment. "Those are Phoenician characters and I'm sure I've should have seen this when were unloading the rest of documents." Jimmy waved it around. "And what kind of material is this? Must be synthetic material of some type. Light as a feather but won't bend."

Lindsey looked at the parchment and then at Dr. O'Brien. "What symbols?"

"Don't worry, Ms. Dunham, as remarkable as your linguistic skills are, I don't expect you to recognize Phoenician."

"Seriously, Dr. O'Brien, I don't see anything at all. It's blank."

Jimmy waved it in front of her. "You seriously don't see the characters at all? Nothing?"

Lindsey shook her head emphatically. Jimmy hastily dropped the parchment on the desk. "A joke, I suppose. A poor one at that. Coated with a hallucinogenic. But why would I hallucinate Phoenician letters?" Jimmy walked around the desk, studying the parchment. "Not hallucinating anything else, by what I can determine. And the oddest thing."

Lindsey bent over the parchment, careful not to come to close to it. "What is it you're seeing?"

"This...document, Ms. Dunham. It's not spelling out words. It's spelling out pronunciation of syllables. Why would I dream that?"

"Maybe we should get you to a hospital, Dr. O'Brien." Her stance now placed her on the opposite side of the parchment from Jimmy.

"In a second, Ms. Dunham. You know, I smoked hashish once, in a small village in Pakistan, in the Territories. I can assure you nothing like this has ever happened to me."

Lindsey was getting agitated. "Dr. O'Brien, please, we need to get you to the emergency room."

Jimmy found himself sounding out the syllables, trying to make sense of this hallucination. And in a flash, Lindsey was gone.

Jimmy found himself looking around. "Ms. Dunham, are you here? Ms. Dunham?" Jimmy held himself perfectly still, assuming the hallucination was going into overdrive.

Lindsey found herself in a difference predicament. She was in a leather bin of some type, a large scratchy woolen blanket almost swallowing her. "Dr.O'Brien! Dr. O'Brien! Help me!"