As Peter came up to the door of the lab he could hear Dalona softly singing as she worked.

"Come step inside my mind"

"Come step inside my mind"

"I'd give everything"

"To be myself again"

"But I need your eyes to see...."

"Good morning Dalona."

She looked up quickly from the hood with a startle. Immediately she had a smile that covered her entire face.

"Good morning Peter. How are you doing?"

"Fine. How is it coming on the fungus that came up on the rye? Are we going to have any witch hunts?"

It was amazing to Peter that she could keep a smile and yet look surprised at the same time. "What do you mean about witch hunts?"

"Never mind. I was just trying to be funny."

"Have you confirmed its identity?" Peter asked.

"Yes, it's a...."

Peter stopped her abruptly. "Before you go on I need you to write up your findings and bring it to my office."

"Can I expect you in thirty minutes?"

"I'll try." She said with a puppy dog pout, likely for Peter to permit her more time.

And she needed the extra time.

She stood at the door carrying a big smile and the report.

"Come in. Tell me what you found."

"It is Claviceps purpurea."

"Just as I expected, ergot. Tell me how you confirmed it."

As she described what she did he watched her face. Three years of looking at her he still was amazed. She kept a smile the entire time on her face. It was not just a lip smile but a smile that wrapped together the entire face. Her smile and eyes were so alluring that there was no wonder that she had so many men after her. Hers was a face that could launch a thousand ships to do her bidding.

He sighed.

"Is there something wrong with my report?"

"No. I was just thinking of what could have happened if our inspector did not notice the ergot."

That was a good save Peter thought. The truth was if he did not have a wife of 20 years that he did love, and of course the little problem of over 20 year age difference, he would ask her out. But he could not keep from watching her face, her smile, and her eyes.

Dalona finished her report.

She just sat there.

"Well, I would say that there would not be any doubt what we have."

At times he did not know what to do with her quietness. He was certain her boyfriends did most of the talking.

"What of witch hunts?" She asked.

Now this caught him by surprise. She was straight out asking something without a flirtatious smile and glance downward that would summon anything she asked for. Further the question was without the submissive flirtatiousness. She had a smile but it was different as well as the look in her eyes was a harder look.

"I was referring to the Salem witch hunt. Surely you have read about it or seen a PBS documentary?"

"No, I must have missed that."

Was that sarcasm in her voice that he heard? He must not have been observing her as well as he thought. Maybe he was just getting tired.

"You can find it on the internet under ergot or the 'Salem witch hunt.' Someone had looked for a scientific explanation of the witch hunt and found in all likelihood that it was connected to an ergot infestation of the barley. The entire hunt was a result of a hallucinogen.

She turned to the door. "If that is all I have work to do." And she walked out.

Peter did not know what to think about what just happened. It was not like her. It was like he just had two different people in his office.

He got up and looked out his door after her. She was humming that same song he heard her singing earlier. "What were the words," he wondered to himself. But he did not have time to worry about it. He had work to do.

Latter in the day he was passing the lab again and thought to look in on Dalona. She was all smiles and her flirtatious glances again. He wondered if he had done something to get her angry. That did not feel right. He had a terrible temper and she got in the way of his venting it out before. She got so upset that she was about to cry before he apologized. The woman in his office has a hardness, even a harshness in her face and voice.

For the next few weeks he kept a watch on her, from a distance. This was not his usual watching her out of the corner of his eye because he found her attractive. No. The sudden change in his office worried him. Was she under too much stress? Maybe she had been upset over one of her boyfriends.

How many boyfriends were there now? He sort of remembered last week that she said that she was dating only two or three men now, he could not remember which it was. She did not get upset during their conversation. Of course he had been walking on eggshells. In fact she seemed her old self. She was such a cheerful person to be around.

She was not in her lab. That was too bad he thought. But he needed to check with her on a sample that she was testing. He looked up the information and located the sample.

Behind the sample were several dozen plates of the same thing. "What are these for?" He whispered to himself as he pulled out the sample he was looking for.

She came into the lab while he was looking at the growth on the plate.

He looked up to see that she was all smiles and greeted him cheerfully.

"I came in to check on that sample we got from Monroe."

Her facial expression lost its friendliness. She looked over to where the sample came from.

"Is there a problem," she asked with a hint of challenge.

"No, no. You were out so I thought I would take a look myself. I miss not working the bench."

"I have not had time to get back to this sample to give you a report. If I had known that you were anxious to get it I would have made it a priority."

"No problem. I’ll just wait for you to get to it."

He started for the door but turned back to Dalona. She was putting the plate back in the cabinet. He paused, about to ask about the other plates but decided against it.

Late that same day he went to her lab to drop off some papers and decided to take a look at the plates he had seen earlier. They were gone. Didn’t he see Dalona carrying a box to her car?

Peter was an amateur pilot. He had just landed and was taxiing to the hanger when he thought he saw Dalona talking with a crop dusting pilot.

After stopping his plane he walked back to where he saw her but she was gone.

"Excuse me," he said to the pilot she had been talking with. "Was that Dalona Castleton you were talking with a few minutes ago?"

"No man. She called herself DeDe."

DeDe, maybe that was Dalona’s sister. But he remembered her telling him she was an only child. Maybe she had a doppelganger.

"She looked just like someone that worked for me."

The pilot just shrugged and went back to working on his engine.

Monday Dalona came in with a loaf of bread for him. It was some rye bread. She thought he might like some. He thanked her for it, but he really could not stand rye. He thought that he might be allergic to it the way he feels after eating some.

She told him that she was making the bread for her boyfriends and thought to share it with him since she ended up with three loaves.

On his way home he saw a man by the intersection with a sign offering to work for food. He gave him the loaf.

Latter in the week heard in the news that some homeless man had gone berserk in a food line. The man was reported to yell that the cook was trying to poison him. He ran into the kitchen, injured a couple of the volunteers and then killed himself.

That afternoon he saw Dalona walking to her car. He saw that one of her boyfriends was in the parking lot. Peter did not pay any more attention until he heard yelling. He looked out and they were having an argument. He could not hear clearly enough to know what they were feuding about. But after a few minutes Tom, or was it Jim, drove off, burning rubber on the parking lot.

Dalona had a place next to a park that he liked walking through. Once or twice she would see him from her apartment or the roof and call down to him. She invited him up for a visit but he did not think it a good idea. People at work loved to talk. What would they make of it if he visited anyone after work, especially Dalona.

Saturday morning he was out on his walk. As he passed by her building he heard yelling and screaming. He looked up to see two men fighting on the roof. Wasn’t one of them Tom, or was that Jim? He recognized that it was Dalona screaming.

He rushed for the building but stopped when he noticed that the two men were on the edge of the roof trying to strangle each other. There was another scream and he saw the two of them fall off the building.

Running to them he found that both were dead. Looking up he saw Dalona.

The police came and credited their deaths to accidental. Their fall was the consequence of their fighting over Dalona.

When the police left he found Dalona on the roof. He tried to comfort her. But what could you say to someone who just say both of the men she was dating fall to their deaths.

He just put his hand on her shoulder and told her to call him if there was anything she need and to take a few days off from work. She did not answer.

As he walked off he heard her softly singing that tune again.

"Come step inside my mind"

"Come step inside my mind"

"I'd give everything"

"To be myself again"

"But I need your eyes to see...."

He paused to listen to her and watch her standing there, looking down to where they had fallen.

As he listened he reflected again on what he saw. When he saw them fall off the roof did he see her grabbing for them? Or was she pushing them?

© 2002

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