Abby shook her head. She couldn't believe this was happening to her. First, the bombshell laid by her boyfriend Craig (she supposed she should refer to him as her "ex-boyfriend" from now on) that he had been seeing someone on the side. And now she was trapped within a sculpture she was supposed to be protecting.
When she left the apartment after Craig's revelation, her mind was filled with questions. Why did he cheat on her? Was she not woman enough for him? Didn't she give him everything he asked for? Many of her friends had told her she was making a mistake when she revealed she was moving in with Craig. They were shocked to learn a few months later that she had been cooking, cleaning and generally keeping house for him after her daily beat as security guard at the Guggenheim. But she had done all these things gladly, for she thought it was what a woman should do.
How was she to know he would tell her one day as she was leaving the house that he wanted her to move out? And when she had asked why, he had hemmed and hawed and finally revealed that he had been porking one of their colleagues, and an OLDER woman at that.
"What is wrong with me?" She had asked herself as she took the subway to work. She stared at her reflection in the windows. She was in the prime of her life, and it showed. Her blonde hair was swept back into a ponytail to make her look a little more forbidding and severe, but that still did not hide the fact that she was an attractive 25-year-old. Her body was not voluptuous but it was taut and firm. Her belly was flat, so much so that it made her pubis look more pronounced -- Craig had laughed at that and said it looked like she had a penis when she was in her panties -- but her butt was round and she could hardly be said to have a manly figure.
Yet, Craig had left her for pudgy little Brenda, who didn't have her long legs and perky tits. Yes, Brenda, who was older than even Craig... he said he preferred a more experienced woman, and there was nothing wrong with her. It was just, "well, dammit, Abby, you've still got a bit of growing up to do!"
She had asked if it had anything to do with her repeated refusal to accede to his requests for "kinky sex". He had denied it, and refused to listen any further, even when she allowed that she would be willing to try oral sex, but not anal. That was... nasty, she said. He had laughed and said he wasn't breaking up with her because of the sex... he just found her a little too immature for him.
All the way to work, Abby and fretted over Craig's real reasons for splitting with her. She couldn't believe that he would be interested in Brenda... compared to Abby, she was positively matronly. And she knew how sexual Craig was, so it was hard for her to accept that he preferred someone else to her. Abby, who had had to beat off advances from the opposite (and some from the same) sex since she was 13!
By the time she walked through the doors at the museum, she had focused on what was most pressing for her. After moving in with Craig, she had given up her apartment. Now, he was giving her only 2 weeks to move out. She couldn't see how she could find herself alternative accommodation at such short notice.
When she reported to the chief, she realized that this would turn out to be a really bad day. She had drawn the zombie duty, which was an eight-hour shift at the storage facility in the basement. Nobody liked going down there, not least because there was nothing to see or do, but it was no place for goofing off, since the place was monitored by cameras and the guard on duty had to hand the tapes over to the next guard at the end of the shift. The next guard would then review the tapes and then tape them over, unless some incident occurred during the previous shift.
Getting sent to storage was often seen as punishment, and Abby knew just why she had drawn the duty -- she had just last week turned down a lumbering (and rather lame) attempt at a pass from the chief. He hadn't been too overt, of course -- there were enough sexual harassment cases in the security community to prevent that -- but he had tried his luck. Now she knew she was going to draw this duty until another sweet young thing turned the chief down.
She had shuddered involuntarily when she stepped into the storage room. It was not a particularly cold or imposing place, but because it was so quiet, lighting was kept to a minimum. Given the kind of objets d'art they stored here, the shadows thrown onto the floors and walls were haunting, to say the least. Although Abby was no agnostic, she didn't subscribe to a particular religion, but looking around at the place made her wish she had someone to pray to.
"Brrrr..." she said out loud, and was a little surprised to have her exclamation echoed back to her. "I know," said Dana, the pretty redhead she was replacing. The chief certainly knew how to pick his women. "It's damned cold in here, but it's much warmer down where the exhibits are."
The room was pretty much empty today, most of the exhibits having been moved out for a themed exhibition in the main hall. Just a few sheeted pieces, and one ghastly white piece in the centre of the room. She checked the manifesto and saw that it was titled "pleasure in the machine", by an anonymous artist.
After Dana had handed over the tape and left, she switched on all the lights that were available, taking note of the burned out ones. It wasn't part of her job, but at least it gave her something to do.
Something caught the corner of her eye. "Curious," she said out loud, and jumped again as the word came back at her. This echoing would take some getting used to. The lights focused on the main piece seemed to be working a little better than the rest. In fact, she would have sworn she saw little sparkles on the curved surfaces of the sculpture.
She walked closer, keeping her eyes on the artwork. It seemed to glow and pulse, almost as if it was alive. She couldn't see how it represented pleasure or machines, and she knew it wasn't because of her lack of appreciation of modern sculpture -- it had too many smooth curves to look like a machine, and there was very little anthropomorphic about it, unless there was something about the centerpiece, which was enclosed within what looked like walls of undulating arms or tentacles. She couldn't see what made up the centre of the thing from where she was standing.
Reaching out, she touched it, and withdrew her hand immediately. It had the smooth texture of stone, but if it was, it was a material unknown to her. It seemed to be warm and a little moist too.