Conversation · Volition

Get a grip, he thinks. At least do your personal stuff when I'm not here.

Quick! Say something professional.

"I was." She takes a sip. "It was the night before I saw you in the hallway -- and reminded you you're a police officer."

The date of your re-entry into the fossil record.

"It's one of the first things I remember doing in Elysium."

"Wow," she nods. "Elysium. You don't hear that term often."

She's a glib girl, but she liked the wording.

"Before you was only the room -- the sound of the motor vehicle. Steam in the bathroom. And darkness."

"Wow," she nods. "Mythopoetically adequate stuff."

"Yes. Before I emerged like paleolithic megafauna."

"Wow," she nods. "That's some creation myth stuff right there."

"Now that Kim isn't here -- let's talk about Sunday night."

"Ah yes." She pours herself some more coffee. "The night before I saw you in the hallway -- and reminded you you're a police officer."

"Something difficult?" She raises her eyebrows. "I've been through at least half a dozen difficult things -- which one do you mean?"

"Have you been raped?"

"It's a bit early in the morning for raped."

She sounds positively buoyant. Vivacious. Totally unbothered.

"And what does that mean? Were you..."

"Yeah..." She draws the word out. "I'm gonna go with not raped. I can't say that stuff about him."

"Tell them it's not my style. They'll have to, you know -- if they want to jazz up the charges -- they'll have to get someone more..." She searches for the word, then shrugs. "Rapeable."

It's all very organic -- her mannerisms, her movements. If she's acting, she's quite gifted.

By they she means the Hardie boys.

"Are you saying that you were asked to tell us you were assaulted?"

"Not explicitly, but I understood what they meant. It wouldn't hurt to spice things up a bit -- some assault and battery, sexual assault maybe. It was clear the latter would be spicier."

"You were asked to say you were assaulted? By the Hardie boys?"

"Actually it's already afternoon."

"Is it?" Squinting, she takes a look around. The spring sun is high in the sky; people pass below.

"It is afternoon." She looks into her coffee cup. "Time flies, man."

"So were you?"

"Yeah..." She draws out the word. "I'm gonna go with not raped. I don't wanna say that shit about him."

By him she must mean the victim.

"So you weren't?"

"It's not that early."

She looks around. The sun has risen over the sea; people are rushing to work below...

"It is -- it's murderously early. I'm amazed I'm awake. Why am I even awake?"

"Actually, it's evening, miss."

"Is it?" Squinting, she takes a look around. The sun sets in the sea; long shadows pass over the plaza below.

"It is evening." She looks into her coffee cup. "Time flies, man."

"Forget about it. I don't wanna talk about this shit."

Her face lights up with laughter. "I don't wanna talk about shit either! What shall we talk about instead?"

"Miss, were you sexually assaulted recently?"

"It's a bit early in the morning for raped, isn't it?"

"Were you sexually assaulted, miss?"

"By 'sexually assaulted' you mean 'raped'?" She takes a quick drag, unperturbed.

"Yes."

Nod.