A Song of Change

Chapter 36
Labs:
I nodded my head as I clipped my identification card onto my dress before looking back up at Nole. He had his arm out for me, that same feline like quality to his facial expression. I gladly accepted his offer, looping my arm through his. This man had an almost magnetic feel to him, like just one smile from him could brighten my spirits.
"So Annabell dear, where should we head first? Do you want to head to our office first or the labs and supply rooms?" Nole said glancing down at me. "I guess we could head to the labs first," I suggested after seeing a sign posted to the wall with the directions to the labs. "Labs it is," Nole said pulling me along with him.
We walked further into the room and it seemed almost deserted to me. The walls were a plain, light brown and the floors a white marble that made an echoing click with every step. As we rounded a corner I noticed a large desk in the corner with a man who looked to be in his forties behind it. He sat in the chair behind the desk, his back so straight it hurt looking at him.
He looked like an ordinary man with brown hair combed back and green eyes but his expression placed him in a category other than normal. His lips were pressed tightly together giving him the look of having eaten something sour and his eyes were trained directly on us in an unnerving manner.
"Hello Josuah," Nole said looking right back at the man without a hint of discomfort, his brilliant smile never faltering, "I'm taking Mrs. Rosenfeld her on a tour of the building and our first stop is the labs. Now if you would be so kind as to let us through it would be much appreciated," Nole said in a sickly sweet tone.
The man's face never changed and I wouldn't know what to call the mumble of a reply, if you can even call it that, he made. His hands moved behind the desk and soon there was an opening sound, much like the noise of the front door. I turned my head to see an opening forming in the wall roughly about the size of an entryway.
Nole and I walked toward it, him calling his thanks over his shoulder to Joshua, moments before the opening closed behind us. We were now in a long corridor, the walls and floor matching the ones in the earliest room, with doors lining up the walls. They were all numbered and from what I saw the highest number was thirty.
"Come along Annabell," Nole said with a jerk of his head. I followed him about halfway down the hall when he spoke again. "Did you notice the lights above the doors?" I looked up and realised he was right there were several small lights that hung just above each door. Some where alight and others just hung there in their posts. "What are they for?" I asked looking back at Nole.
"Whenever a light is on it means that someone is working in there and when the light is off it means the room is free for the taking," he said with a small burst of laughter. "What kinds of work do they do?" I asked wishing to catch a glimpse into one of the rooms as we walked past them.
"A lot of things really. Some use the rooms to test theories for cures, medicines, prosthetics, and all of that sort. Others use it for privacy and some for group projects. Would you like to see one?" Nole asked after stopping in front of a door numbered twenty six. We were almost at the end of the hallway at this point.
"Yes!" I said nodding my head vigorously. A real laugh escaped him then and his eyes crinkled up at the edges while his smile grew wide, "I'm glad you feel that way because I have set it up so that you may watch a very good friend of mine work on one of her latest projects." "Thank you so much Mr. Tyler…" I started before I was cut off. "Ah ah ah, what did I say about that name," Nole teasingly waved his finger at me, "I may just have to cancel this whole thing if you keep calling me that dreadfully boring name." He rolled his eyes to top it off, laughing the whole time.
"Oh please, don't do that! I really, really want to see this. The closest I've ever gotten to real caregiving is lectures from my teachers," I said staring up at him. "Oh don't take me so seriously, I'm almost always going to be messing with you Annabell dear!" he said with that wide smile back in place, "Come on," he finished, turning back to door number twenty six and knocking on it.
The light that had been shining over the door blinked out when a woman with fair skin opened it. She had short, silvery hair that curled out at the ends and light blue eyes. "Nole," she said smiling brightly, "and you must be miss Annabell Rosenfeld. Nole said you two might be stopping by today. Please, please come in," the woman said cheerfully as she backed up from the entryway.
We walked into the fairly decent sized room. It had a sterile feel to it like any caregivers work area would. The walls and floor were a matching shade of white and there were long, rectangular lights hanging from the ceiling. A desk sat in one corner of the room with notes and charts covering all of its surface and a sink with antibacterial soap in the other corner.
A large glass cupboard hung in the middle of the wall with beakers, syringes, powders and liquids, a box of rubber gloves, and other such supplies. In the center of the room sat a metal table with four stools around it and a number of beakers sat atop of the table with substances inside of them. I was still looking around, wide eyed at everything in the room when a conversation started up.
"So Mrs. Rosenfeld, how are you likening everything so far?" the woman asked, turning her gaze on me. I looked back at her before replying, "I haven't see too much of the building itself but so far I like it here." "That's great!" she said smiling brightly. "So why not tell her what you're working on," Nole suggested after a silence had fallen over the room.
This brought a sparkle to the girl's eye as she walked over and grabbed a few papers from the cluttered desk. "Would you like to see miss Annabell?" She asked as she lay the papers on the table and took a seat at one of the stools. "Yes please," I said joining her. Maybe now all of this jumbled mess would make more sense. The woman went through all of her plans with me, showing me charts and notes she had made up to follow along with her experiment. "Oh so you're making up a medicine to help with eye impairment?" I asked to be sure I was correct.
"Precisely! I've seen so many patients come in and really their glasses are getting in the way of their work and contacts are not always an option for them. There is also laser eye surgery but too many patients are afraid of the laser," she looked so happy talking about her idea, "Its almost complete I just need to fit it into a pill size or into a liquid medicine. Then its the hard part. I have to find someone willing to try the medicine." A frown had found its way onto her face and her eyes looked sad as she said the last part.
And she was right. There are so many cases with caregivers coming up with new ideas and then making them real and then never really know if their hard work was a success. Its just so rare to find to find someone willing to try it, knowing that their are always risks. "I'm sure you will find someone," I said giving the woman what I hoped was a reassuring smile because I really didn't know if her chance would come. We both knew that what I was telling her was slim to none and yet she still put a smile back on her face, nodding her head at me.
"Oh Annabell dear, we really must be leaving now or we won't have time to finish the tour," Nole said appearing at my side. I nodded my head and followed him to the door before turning back to the woman, "Excuse me but I don't think I caught your name." "Oh my, I suppose you didn't," she said with a small laugh, "my name is Sondra Loss."

"Well it was nice meeting you Sondra Loss," I said with a slight nod of my head and a smile on my face. "And you too Annabell Rosenfeld," Sondra said in reply.