The memory came back as it always did when I had a job interview. Little Nicola and me at eight years old sitting on her back porch talking about what we hoped we'd be doing in twenty or so years time. I was going to be a universal teacher, I'd already discovered I had a knack for it, and she was going to be a great scientist, something we both knew she could become quite easily.
"One day Dave, you'll work for me!" She had declared.
"Why would you need to employ a teacher?" I'd asked.
"I don't know. But I do know that one day we'll work together." She seemed most emphatic.
I shook myself. That had been thirty years ago, before we went to begin our separate careers, and although I believed Nicky was capable of many things, surely it was too late now. I was sat outside another office door waiting for yet another interview. I had become a teacher, but not the sort I had envisioned. Roles had changed and more and more teaching was being done by computer teachers. Just plug into the program and learn. There were still teaching posts available, but usually only until a local cyber-school was set up. I could have retrained, but I enjoyed the classroom, meeting the children face to face, watching them learn. So I went from post to post, never really settling, never getting to see the fruits of my teaching maturing. Every time I moved I recalled Nicky and her words and wondered how she was doing. There were other times too, like when I saw someone or something that reminded me of her. I had only seen her rarely since we had started our career paths, and not at all for the past fifteen or more years.
So now I was sat outside another office, waiting to see what I was being offered this time. Something new, they said, never been tried before, a new teaching program that needed some professional input. Not what I liked doing, putting myself out of a job, but the pay was good and it was the only post open for a teacher at the moment, so here I was, waiting once more.
Eventually the door to the office opened and I was ushered in.
"Hello, my name is Miss Palmer. I work for Professor MacMillan, and I'll be doing the interview." I was a bit surprised, she seemed so young, and familiar too, and to be entrusted with interviewing people for a major project; she must be good at her job.
She told me about the position. I would be the teacher for an experimental sort of cyber-lesson. Eventually all the children in the space stations around the earth, about sixty or seventy, would join together in a virtual classroom for two hours a day, but to start with there would only be twenty or so. I would be attempting to teach them about twentieth century trivia. It sounded a bit odd to me, until I realised it was more about teaching them life skills, how to get on with one another, something normal cyber-lessons could not do.
"Will I get to see the Professor?" I asked.
"Not today, but maybe in the future. I rarely see her myself."
"Her?"
"The Professor is a woman yes. Will that be a problem for you?"
"No. No, not at all. The job summary seemed to indicate otherwise I thought."
"Did it? I wrote that, perhaps I should check." She slipped on a pair of spectacles and made a note before slipping them off again. She must have seen the surprise on my face. "Yes, I know its old fashioned, but I like them."
"It's not that Miss Palmer. When you wear them you remind me of someone that's all."
"May I ask who?"
"A childhood friend." I shrugged. "She looked a bit like you back then. I haven't seen her for fifteen years though, so I don't know about now."
"Sounds like you still think of her though."
"Well, yes. We grew up together. Nicky made me teach her everything I learnt because we took different lessons. She made me realise I had a knack for imparting knowledge."
"Sounds a bit one-sided?"
"Not really. She led me into all sorts of adventures, and got me out of all the trouble she got us into." I shrugged. "For twenty or so years we were friends, we still would be if we met again." Miss Palmer smiled. "The last time we met fifteen years ago she gave me a gift, this ring shaped like a knotted string." I pulled out the battered old ring on the chain around my neck. "I wore it until it broke a few years ago, for luck. After it snapped my luck seemed to change and I lost touch with Nicky. It was like breaking it had broken our connection." I sighed. "A few weeks ago I had it made into this necklace and things began to change for the better."
Miss Palmer slipped on her spectacles again and looked long at the ring.
"You really believe it's lucky?"
"Maybe not as such, But it gives me more confidence." I shrugged. "I had nothing I could give her, so I took the ribbon from the box she'd given it to me in, split it, and tied the two halves around Nicky's wrist." I smiled at the memory, Miss Palmer smiled too. "I told her it was the best I could do, but that it showed we were tied together in some way." I tucked the ring away. "I hope she still remembers." I sighed.
"I'm sure she does." She sat back, unconsciously holding her wrist. "Now, is there anything you wish to ask about the post?" She asked with a grin.
"When can I start?" I returned her grin. A thought stuck me. "There is one thing. Could I see the classroom? Or the room that I'll be teaching in."
"Wait a moment, and I'll see." She pressed a com button on the desk and had a murmured conversation with someone, presumably the professor. She smiled again as she looked up at me. "Go out through the door, turn left down the corridor and go into the second door on the left. That is where the equipment has been set up."
"Is it running?"
"Professor MacMillan has it running a test."
"So I will get to meet her?"
"No. She is running it from the control room. You will not see her. She doesn't wish to meet anyone at the moment."
I shrugged and went to find the room. The professor seemed to be very secretive and her assistant slightly odd too.
The room had been empty except for a desk until I heard what I assumed was the professor say 'This will be your classroom' over the speaker system and suddenly it was full of desks and twice as big. All I could say was 'Wow!' As I wandered around looking at the holographic projection she told me a little more about how she saw the classes running. I was to start in a couple of weeks with a contract for the duration of the experiment, about three years. If the system proved to be successful this would be extended. I was happy about this, for once I would see how the pupils developed. I was also told I would have a small apartment in the complex the classroom was located in, and the project would be paying for it.
****
Now it was two days before the lessons were to start. For two weeks I had worked hard preparing the classes, using the research computers in the complex's library. I had looked so tired when I went into the office that Miss Palmer had suggested I go to the weekly party held in the leisure suite open to all residents. I had seen the sense in her idea at the time, but now I was unsure. I had never been a party person, that had been Nicky's domain. The time I had spent watching her dance, even giving in sometimes and attempting to dance with her! Now I was sitting watching others dancing and talking, and was feeling like an outsider, a familiar feeling I always got. I took out the ring and looked at it, wondering where Nicky was now. I had been using the computer to try and find her, but had run up against a dead end. About a week after our last contact she had just disappeared and I could find no further trace of her, not even a notice of her death. That had been around the time the ring broke too. I sighed, putting the ring back, and looked up. My eye was caught by one of the women dancing. As she danced it was like watching something else; sinewy, sensuous, sexy beyond belief. She was like a wild thing, but beautifully co-ordinated. Her movements were so like Nicky it was untrue. I couldn't stop looking at her for the next half an hour, even when some of the other residents came over and introduced themselves. The dancer eventually stopped and came over to me, sitting down at my side.
"Have you enjoyed watching my butt?" She asked, mopping her brow and grinning.
"What? No! Well, yes. But I wasn't staring at your bottom, it was more.... All of you actually."
She laughed.
"Honesty, I like that." She held her hand out. "I'm Chloe."
I took her hand and shook it.
