Chapter 6: The Annex

The second lab lived in an old brick building across the quad, with a freight elevator and a radiator that knocked.

My desk was outside Keith's office, under a window.

It had a real chair, a new monitor and a nameplate that said NESSA COLBY, COORDINATOR.

I turned the nameplate over in my hand twice.

Nobody had ever given me my own name on a desk before.

By ten I had found three double-booked rooms and a visiting speaker with no hotel.

By eleven I had fixed all of it.

Keith's four researchers kept stopping by to ask me things.

"Do you know where the extra projector cables are?"

"Second shelf, supply closet, behind the toner."

"Who do I call about the freezer alarm?"

"Me," I said. "Then facilities. I've already told them."

One of them, a woman with a long braid, looked at me with open gratitude.

"We've been wanting someone to ask," she said.

Keith watched all this from his doorway with a mug in his hand.

He didn't say a word, and he didn't hover.

He just looked pleased.

At noon the elevator dinged, and I knew who it was before the doors opened.

Calvin came out first with a potted fern, Lydia a step behind him in her camel coat.

"Dee!" he said, with huge warmth. "We came to see your new place."

"This floor is by appointment."

"Oh, come on." He laughed and looked around at the researchers.

"Look at this. A whole little office."

He picked up my nameplate and read it aloud. "Coordinator. That's adorable, Dee."

"Put it down."

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