The gemstone spun and swayed at the end of the golden chain, facets glittering in Nancy's vision as she watched. It was like she could see dozens of tiny little rainbow gleams at each of the gem's many, many corners, and they all moved in their own infinitely complex and intricate orbit as she watched. Her eyes followed the motion of the gem as it swayed back and forth, but it never seemed to move quite enough that she needed to follow it with her whole head. She could just let her head stay quite still, and let her eyes follow the motion. That was nice.
Eventually, Nancy spoke. "It's...very pretty, ma'am, but..." she said to the woman holding the stone. Nancy was surprised at how difficult it was to break the silence. And it was silence, she realized. Nobody else in the room was speaking at anything above a whisper. They weren't going over to eat any of the pizzas she'd delivered; they weren't even talking amongst themselves. She could see out of the corner of her eye that all the men and women in the room were just watching her watch the gem.
The realization distracted her from finishing her sentence. The woman took the opportunity to speak. "Yes," she said. "It is very pretty as you watch it spin, watch it gently sway. It draws you in, doesn't it, Nancy, just draws in your whole attention, your whole focus." Nancy was momentarily amazed that the woman seemed to know her name, before remembering she had on her nametag. "You just focus everything in on the stone, all your attention, all your thoughts, just watching the stone and nothing else matters, Nancy. Nothing else matters but watching the stone, just watch the stone. Nothing else matters. Watch the stone. Nothing else matters. Watch the stone. Nothing else matters."
She kept saying that, repeating it over and over again, and Nancy lost track of how many times she said it. But the stone did seem to be drawing her eyes to it. It was so pretty. Dark red, wine-red. The same color as the woman's dress. Between the fancy dress and the big house and the large order, Nancy was actually kind of hoping for a big tip at the end of this. So it was worth humoring this woman for a few minutes by watching the stone while she waited for her husband to go grab the cash.
...a few minutes? It seemed to Nancy like it might have been longer than that, now. Time seemed to be doing funny things. She didn't feel like she'd been standing here long at all, and yet she felt like she'd been watching the gem forever. The woman was still talking, Nancy realized. Still repeating herself, over and over and over again. It deepened the strange timelessness of the moment. Nancy couldn't be sure if she'd said those words ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times. She felt briefly disorientated, like she'd been standing there watching the sparkling gem and listening to the soothing words all her life, and everything else was just a dream she'd had.
But she realized she must have been standing here for a while. Maybe not forever, but long enough that the woman's husband should be back by now. She opened her mouth to speak, but the woman just kept talking, and Nancy felt like it would be rude to interrupt. She just kept listening, waiting for a pause in their conversation before she voiced her concerns.
The gemstone seemed to grow larger in her field of vision now, and even though Nancy was dimly aware that the woman was moving it closer, bringing it higher so that Nancy had to look up to see it, the illusion of the stone drawing her in felt so complete and perfect that Nancy felt like she was the one moving. The sensation of moving while standing still made Nancy feel momentarily dizzy, and her eyelids fluttered for a moment while she swayed slightly on her feet.
The woman was still speaking, and Nancy knew she'd have to interrupt soon. She still wasn't sure how much time had passed, and although she was aware of the existence of her watch, it seemed like an impossible effort now to look away from the gem to see how long she'd been standing there. "Um..." she finally managed to blurt out, vaguely aware of a tiny trickle of drool at the corner of her mouth.
"Yes, dear?" the woman asked. Even though she was no longer saying it, Nancy felt like she could still hear the voice repeating, 'Watch the stone. Nothing else matters.' It was like it had been burned into her thoughts now, the same way that staring at a bright light for a long period of time left afterimages on your retina. The words just seemed to echo endlessly inside her head, making it an effort to call any other words to mind.
"I...your husband..." Nancy felt like her brain wasn't working properly, like she'd just pulled an all-nighter or something. Every time she tried to think about...about anything, the stone would gleam and glitter and her mind would just go still and smooth as the rainbow flickers of light spun and swayed. "How much, um...longer, ma'am..."
"Just a few more minutes, dear. Just keep watching the stone while we wait. Keep drifting into the beautiful swaying motion of the stone."