"Oh, but I already finished unpacking," Nora replied first without thinking, then she paused, bringing the hand holding the transponder up to her chin as she took the time to think. The transponder and the shock collar had been given to Nora for Boxcar's safety - it was to prevent him from running off and getting lost or hurt somewhere, or at least that's what Nora's bosses had told her. She felt she needed to take care of Boxcar, but she also needed to take care of the rest of the lodgers, and right now, her stomach rumbled and reminded her that she had a bigger priority.
"Actually," she said slowly as she worked up to the idea, and tossed the transponder to Ashley, who snagged it with a one-handed catch, "that's a good idea. I just remembered that we haven't had lunch yet, and if I start right now, it should be ready by the time everyone is done unpacking. Could you please find Boxcar and let him know we'll be having lunch soon? If you go in the rec room just around the corner of the bottom of these stairs, you should find the door that leads to the basement, and that should be where he is right now." She gave Ashley a thumbs-up. "I'm counting on you!"
To Samuel she added, "If you're free, you could either help me in the kitchen, or you could go with Ashley and help her find Boxcar. I think the mystery girl we picked up from the crash site will be fine for now."
With that said, Nora went to her room and retrieved a
white apron with an atomic symbol and the phrase, "Stand back, I'm going to try SCIENCE!" written across the front of it. She went down to the kitchen and, with a certain blushing delicacy, slipped out of her labcoat and hung it on the back of a chair in the kitchen, then she hurriedly whipped the apron on, visibly relaxing as she did so.
"Let's see," she said musingly to herself as she took a moment to locate the cooking utensils and pans, and take stock of the food in the fridge. The pantry and cupboards were examined with an exacting gaze augmented by Nora's glasses as she used them to rapidly catalog the available foodstuffs in a three-dimensional map in her Heads-Up Display. It took only a few moments to correlate the ingredients and plug them in to her cooking database to come up with several available meal options, then narrowed that list down to options that took less than a half-hour to put together. "Chicken fajitas it is," she muttered to herself as she collected the various implements and ingredients together that she needed, and then she got to work.
The truth of the matter was that, while Nora did not think of herself as housewife material, her eye for detail and creativity with a given set of variables lent itself extremely well to things like housework and cooking. And somehow, she seemed as confident in the kitchen as she did in the laboratory.
Soon, the sizzling of grilled chicken and tri-color peppers and other vegetables filled the kitchen, and their pleasant aroma combined with that of the saucy marinade Nora had just added when she thought she heard a loud engine outside, then she definitely heard the knock on the door, as well as a male voice she didn't recognize call out loudly enough she could hear it over the noise of her cooking. "Coming!" she shouted, and without hesitation, she covered the fajita mix and dashed to the front door and flung it open - and there on the covered porch were Amie, her hand outstretched toward the other person on the porch, a young man wearing a motorcycle helmet that Nora couldn't place by sight. But since she heard a man's voice from outside, and he had used the name Jaiden, which she recognized from the lodge occupant files, it was a matter of simple adrenaline-fueled deduction that caused her to say-
"Jaiden, right? Welcome to the lodge, I'm Nora Minder, this is the right place, yes she's right here, you and Lady Jane please come in I'm cooking lunch it'll be ready soon gottagetbacktothekitchenbyyye!" Nora's voice had accelerated enough that she was hardly leaving room between letters as she sprinted back to the kitchen in time to take the fajita mix off of the stove/grill combination oven before it scorched. She expertly doled it out into homemade tortillas already arranged on a serving platter, set the platter onto the main kitchen table, where handy disposable plates and utensils were already set up for use along with napkins, cups, and a tall pitcher of strawberry lemonade.
Nora took a brief moment to survey her handiwork, and nodded, pleased with the result. Yes, this would do.
She went to the doorway of the kitchen. "Lunch is ready!" she called out pleasantly.
Boxcar went as far as he dared by himself, convinced that he was going to receive a shock at any moment, but feeling an urge of overwhelming curiosity driving the wolf forward to the top of the stairs. This part of the lodge was very different from the rest, and clearly meant to be a secret...but from whom, and for what purpose?
The wolf continued down the steps, waiting for a warning noise from his collar to stop him dead in his tracks. Yet, he found he could continue onward, and he realized that Nora must be getting closer to him - and inadvertently giving him the range to keep going. If she was looking for him, it wouldn't take long for her to find this entrance that stayed open-
There was a creaking sound behind him, and he realized his mistake immediately. The hidden door was closing automatically! He whirled around and scrambled back up the steps and down the hallway, just in time for the door to slam shut right in front of his nose. The lights clicked out a moment later, and he was left in the dark.
Boxcar scrabbled around the door, trying to find the secret catch or button that would open the door from the inside...but soon enough, he realized there wasn't even enough light for his wolf eyes to adapt, and he barked and howled with the hope that someone would be able to hear him through the thick sliding door.
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