you anything to do that will overwhelm you. Also, you might be asked to get some stuff from the lab. Vijay and Leila will be in there, and they’ll give you what you need. You can bring it to my office, as that will be unlocked.
I’ll see you later today.
-Donnie
Now this was something interesting. Not only did she get a little note from him, he wanted to give more details about their project. If she didn’t know any better, it seemed like he had developed a thing for her. All she wondered was, why? She thought she was pretty, but was that reason enough for him to want to tell her all of his secrets? It would make more sense if he told someone that knew him well, or was as smart as he is. Then again, judging from what she had read, there weren’t many people willing to listen to him. So far, all he had done was tell her about his plans, and now wanted to share more. There was no harm in that, right?
As she tried to focus on the files, she thought back on what Donnie had mentioned yesterday. There were so many worlds that she wanted to see. What would life be like had 9/11 not happened? What kind of life would she have if her ancestors had never come to America? What if no wars had ever been fought? Those were the things that scared her when she thought about bending time. Sure, it would be nice if wars had never taken so many lives, but that didn’t mean that things would be better. For all she knew, the whole world would be in chaos because of it.
She spent the first couple of hours filing the papers until the IT guy came to hook her up. As he worked there, she ran a few of the errands that Pam had written down for her. They involved going to the lab and getting Donnie’s papers from the counter. At first, she was a little nervous, but there was already a man and woman in there, so the nerves disappeared. She carefully opened the door and caught their attention.
“Oh, hi!” the woman waved at her. “You must be Olivia Mendoza. Dr. Vaughn told us about you.”
“Um, yeah, that’s me.” She nodded, getting a good look at them. They both had dark hair and eyes, but his complexion was darker than hers. “Do you guys work with Donnie?”
The man looked a little confused until it hit him. “Oh, you mean Dr. Vaughn! Yes, we’re in here to make sure that the stuff in the lab is okay. I’m Vijay, and that’s Leila. Has anyone shown you around this place?”
“Oh, I already saw everything yesterday,” she said. “I’m just here to get Dr. Vaughn’s papers. They said they would be on the counter.”
“Right! I put them over here.” Leila handed her a giant book on anthropology. “The papers are inside.”
“Thanks.” She took them out and looked at the cover of the anthropology book. “Huh, I took an anthropology class a few years ago. It was pretty interesting. I had no idea that anyone here was interested in it, too.”
“Oh, those are Dr. Vaughn’s books. He’s been into anthropology ever since he decided to make his latest creation,” Vijay explained. “He went and checked out a lot of anthropology books from the library. I guess they still weren’t enough, because he asked us to go to the library and get some more. I asked him why he was so interested in it, and he just said it had to do with his new project. He still hasn’t told us much about it.”
This was a surprise. “He didn’t tell you?”
“Well, we know it has something to do with bending time and space,” Leila shrugged. “Dr. Vaughn usually doesn’t spill his secrets until he’s ready to. When I asked him about his interest in anthropology, he said he was very interested in how mankind came to be. Then I asked what he meant, and he said I’d find out in due time.”
“Weird.” Olivia murmured. “How long have you guys been working here?”
“It’s about two years for me, and three for V over there.” She nodded towards Vijay, who was bringing over more papers for me. “We don’t really talk to Dr. Vaughn much, but he’s pretty harmless. He tends to keep to himself, but he’s never rude.”
“Yeah, I just figured he was shy.” Olivia said, taking the papers. “He must be