ArchivedLogs:Maybe Do More

Maybe Do More
Dramatis Personae Dan, Mei	2013-05-23 Dan and Mei make dinner.
Location <NYC> 201 {Dan} - Sunrise Apartments
Mei has been busy using Dan's laptop and a note book she basically claimed as her own at the kitchen table. She has scribbled tons of stuff in the note book and keeps looking things up on the lap top. Most of it is written in Chinese and she does use the laptop in 'chinese mode', but carefully puts it back in English for Dan after each time she uses it. So she's sitting at the table with a glass of juice and looking rather focused on the papers she's spread out in front of her. She taps her lips with a pencil as she studies them. Clearly she has something she's working on but it looks a tad overly complicated. The sound of the key in the lock indicates the arrival of Dan back at the homestead, and he follows the ritual they've established. Once the lock is turned, he waits on the threshhold for admittance. The ex-soldier is in his security guard uniform, albeit rumpled and the tie stained with what appears to be mustard. In his arm, he has a brown paper bag full of groceries. There's even fresh green stuff poking out of the top. Because kids need vegetables, right? He shifts his weight as he stands there, and then kicks the door once. "Hey, kid, hurry the fuck up. I've had to piss for two stops!" Mei actually was headed to the door with baseball bat in hand when Dan kicks the door. The sound makes her jump but his voice makes her hurry. She undoes the last latch on this side of the door and opens it for him, "Sorry. Sorry!" She says as she tries to let Dan in quickly, glancing around the hall with bat in hand, while he enters, only to close it behind him once he does, and of course to lock it anew. She reaches up, basically offering to take the bag, "You go now, I take." She says, "I put away, you go..." She urges, trying to give Dan a clear path to the bathroom. "Oh, thank you baby Jesus," Dan says when the door opens, and he's all but SHOVING the bag at Mei as he moves past her. "I knew I shouldn't have had that coffee right before quitting time." He disappears into the bathroom, and it definitely /sounds/ like he was in need, since he doesn't -quite- get the door closed. Eventually, after a couple of minutes, there's a flush, and the sound of the sink running as Dan washes his hands. "What'd you do today, anyway?" he calls through the door, accompanied by the sound of fabric rustling. When he emerges, his shirt and tie are removed, clasped in one hand. "Gimme a minute to change, and I'll start dinner. You wanna wash the vegetables for me?" Then he's disappearing into his bedroom, the door closing to a small crack behind him. Mei basically took the time while Dan was in the bathroom to stack her papers to the side, and shut down the laptop. As he emerges from the bathroom she nods, "I wash." She confirms and starts to put the groceries away and wash the veggies as he goes into his room to change. She didn't answer the question about what she did today, perhaps waiting until Dan is actually in the room to try to talk to him, as she has enough trouble communicating at times as it is. Still, by the time Dan emerges he should find the groceries put away and veggies cleaned. "So, what did you do?" Dan re-emerges, dressed in jeans and a grey t-shirt that reads 'Old Soldiers Never Die' across the chest. He's barefoot as he pads to the counter, a paperback book in his hand. "Here," he says, tossing it at Mei, which reveals it to be a Berlitz Chinese to English dictionary. "I figured you were gettin' tired of talkin' like Tarzan, and I sure the fuck ain't no Cheetah, so I got you that." He opens the fridge, then, and pulls out a dish placed there in the morning. In it, chicken breasts marinate in a sauce that Dan made sure Mei didn't watch him prepare too closely. "There's tapes and shit, too, but that's fuckin' expensive," he says as he sets the dish on the counter and moves to get out the cutting board. Then he digging in a drawer for a knife. Mei catches the book and nods and gives a smile, "I make list. Need things. You get maybe?" She ventures, "Books. Other stuff. Need... do test. Do... hrm... do exper... experiment?" She ventures, trying to get that word right, as it doesn't translate well. "Watch TV, so no need tapes. But book good. Maybe get other books like on list?" She asks as she pulls a paper from the top of the stack of papers she set aside. "See?" She ventures as she holds up the very carefully written out list, a list of books including some rather technical things for chemistry, physics and the like. Then under that is a type of electronic scale used in science, and... a small list of elements: Lead, Carbon, Silver, and Titanium. Then there's a marking for distilled water as well. "You get? Maybe?" Dan nods. "I can get you some stuff, if you need it," he says, grabbing a head of romaine lettuce and beginning to chop at it. "I mean, it might take some time, because I ain't made of money, but I can probably get what you need." He turns as if he's going to ask what that might be, but then there's the list being held up, and he presses his lips together briefly. There /might/ be the slightest curl at one corner of his mouth. "You have too much free time,' he grunts, although it's not with any heat. He studies the list, narrowing his eyes at the tiny writing, and nods. "Okay. Leave it on my dresser, and I'll start looking on my way to work tomorrow." He wags a finger. "No blowing up the apartment," he says sternly. "It's a shithole, but it's home." Mei tilts her head then grins, "No blow up shithole. I live here too!" She notes cheerfully, "Just... test some things?" She tries to explain. "Try see how work." She adds as she puts the paper to the side for now and then moves up to help in the kitchen. "Make more gold, but no blow up things. Promise." She adds, "No blow up things yet, yes?" As if past performance might be promise of future results. As she helps out getting food ready and after a moment she asks, "You know? If people still look for Mei? People try find me? Still?" "What, you mean like seeing what all you can turn into gold?" Dan asks, pointing at the cabinet where the salad bowl resides. "That's cool. Just...small things, okay? I can't be hauling a forty-pound gold brick to Eddie or the cash for gold place -- they'd call the cops on me." He grins, and picks up a cucumber, whittling the skin from it before starting to slice it. "I don't know how soon I can get you silver or titanium, though. That stuff isn't just laying around down at the corner store." He wrinkles his nose at the question, holding his breath lightly. "No news is good news, kid," he says slowly, offering Mei a slice of cucumber. "I haven't /heard/ anything, but that doesn't mean that things have cooled off, y'know?" Mei nods, "Small stuff. Put on scale, measure. Then change, then put on scale again. See...." She shrugs, "See if change, how much? Check?" She shrugs again, "Small bits. Um, get silver coin at same place sell gold?" She suggests hopefully. She continues to work to help by setting the table and so on. There's a pause as she does that then she asks, as she glances over at Dan, "Dan? You... okay? You not mad at Mei? You no send Mei away, right? When... when lady friend come, you get very... um, upset. Mei got very worried." Dan finishes the salad in silence after the question, save for a small humming noise when it's asked. As he sets it aside, he presses his lips together tightly. "Yeah, we haven't really talked about that, have we?" He goes about setting the oven, then getting the small loaves of bread that were in the bag and splitting them down the middle. All this as he explains. "I was in the war, kid. The current one. And, while I was over there, a lot of bad shit happened to me. Shit that fucked with my head. And it still fucks with my head." He opens the fridge, pulling out a small clear tub of garlic butter. "I take medication for it, but with everything that's been going on, I got off my routine, and that fucked with takin' my meds like I should. An' when I don't do that, it fucks with my head and I freak out." The bread is tossed on a cookie sheet, and Dan begins spreading the butter on the loaves. "When I'm tired of you, kid, I'll tell you," he promises, licking a bit of butter from his thumb. "I'm not sending you anywhere, right now." He lifts his eyebrows. "Might send you to that school Alex was tellin' us about. If you want to go." Mei hmms thoughtfully then as she finishes getting things ready on her half of the dinner prep says, "I no go to school I have to stay at anymore. Too much like bad place. Too much like prison. But..." She hesitates, "Maybe Dan move near school? Sister and daughter move too? We all live there and Mei go to school at day, then come home after?" She says hopefully, clearly having this whole almost sitcom style happy life planned out in her head, involving Dan and some little house outside of town and a real life. Maybe she's been watching too much TV while Dan's been gone after all. Dan snorts something that could be a laugh, although he has the good grace not to smile and indicate it as such. Instead, he busies himself getting out a countertop electric grill and plugging it in. "Unplug the coffee machine," he says absently, and he opens the drawer to dig for a pair of tongs. "We'll have to play it by ear, kid," he says at last, offering a small smile. "I mean, yeah. I like havin' you around, and you can stay as long as you want, but movin' out of the city is tricky. I can't run a pub on the Lower East Side from the suburbs." He grins, then, to take any sting out of the words. "But we can talk about that with Alex," he says, opening the grill and checking that the plates are warming. "It's going to be summer break, anyway. You've got three months before we have to make any solid decisions." This last bit confuses Mei as she unplugs the coffee machine, "Break? No school in summer? Why no school in summer? I have school all year. That..." She trails off and shakes her head, clearly confused by the concept of taking 3 months off for school just because it is 'warm out' or something? She looks utterly confused and makes no attempt to hide /that/. "Yes, we talk with Alex. She talk to Dan, and you see. She maybe move in with you, in new place? Maybe? You drive to town, I drive to... um, no. I get ride to school?" She ventures, "Half way maybe? Between?" It is clear she does not like the idea of leaving Dan at this point and is doing some rather complex mental gymnastics to try to figure out how maybe to go to the school and still stay with/near Dan. "Kids in America don't go to school in the summer," Dan explains. "It has to do with when this country was new, and people had to figure out a way to have the kids get their education and still be available on the farms during the growing season." He wrinkles his nose, and gets lost in thought for a moment as he recalls just how he knows that little fact. Then his eyes crinkle warmly, and he shakes his head. "Alex and I ain't at 'livin' together' status, yet, kid," he says. "Besides, she lives up at that school during the week, usually. I don't know if she'd appreciate the commute to play the Cleavers." He grins, and opens the grill, using the tongs to place the chicken on it to sizzle. "But you need to calm down. Nobody's doin' nothin', remember?" He holds up his finger. "What was the plan we agreed on?" Mei takes a seat at the table and nods, "Just want you to be happy." She says, as she tilts her head and listens. "Maybe Alex move in cause we get place half way between school and city?" She keeps on that thread, but when asked about the plan she thinks then says, "Stay hidden until Shit not fucked?" She ventures, hoping she has the right 'plan' Dan was thinking of. "I stay here. I no get into trouble. See? I study every day, try to figure things out. You get books and stuff I might figure more out?" She offers, "Not sure, but.... no have chance to figure out before. Just make gold." Dan laughs as he finishes putting chicken on the grill and closes it. "Kid, you don't have to worry about making me happy," he says. "I'm the adult; it's my job to worry about /you/, not the other way around." And doesn't he just sound like a dad when he says that, moving to wash his hands in the sink. "You've been doing good about laying low," he agrees. "But you can't do it forever. We'll get it sorted. I'll track that Murphy fucker down and kick hi -- ah, ask him what's goin' on." He shakes his head, and folds his arms across his chest as he leans against the counter, facing Mei. "Wait. Do you think you could do more with your...?" he waggles fingers in the air. "Is /that/ what all those books are for?" Mei shrugs, "Dunno, but want to know /how/ it work. Shouldn't work." She frowns, then holds up a piece of paper, and crumples it up. "See paper? Paper is paper, yes? Paper only so heavy. But..." She smooths the paper out, "But if I turn to gold, paper now more heavy. Why? How? Where extra heavy come from? Paper no get smaller. Does Mei get lighter? Does extra heavy come from air? Need know how work. Maybe figure out new things about how work?" She pauses, then tilts her head, "More like what? You think maybe do more?" She clearly just was thinking of trying to figure out how it worked and how it violated the laws of conservation of mass, but now that Dan just planted the idea she looks lost in thought of possibilities. Dan stares, for a minute, at the question. "Um. I ain't a scientist, an' I'm pretty sure I've forgotten most of the chemistry I ever took, but I spent hours of detention time staring at the periodic table on the wall." He wrinkles his nose as he struggles with the memory. "You change shit to gold, right? Like, pure gold all the way through?" His brow furrows deeper. "Well, gold's heavy. If you're turnin' every bit of that piece of paper to gold, it's going to be heavy because of atomic weight or some shit." He shakes his head, reaching up to rub at his eyes. "I'll get your books," he promises, grabbing a couple of pot holders and cracking the oven to check on the bread. "And maybe some Bill Nye DVDs." Mei nods, "Yes, but..." She hesitates, looking for the right words, "No make or not make stuff. Only move stuff around. So where stuff come from? Where extra heavy come from? Um....." She shakes her head, not quite able to find the right words in English. "Not right. Break law. I know it break law, need know how it break so see how it work. Maybe more um, dangerous? More dangerous than think. But need test to find out." She tries to explain. Then she smiles, "Books good. Read lots, maybe find answer in books." She agrees as she sits at the table waiting eagerly for dinner. "Yeah, okay. This is beyond me," Dan says, holding up his hands in surrender. "I can't explain the laws of...I guess it's physics. So, books it is." He grins, and opens the oven then to extract the bread. "I won't ever tell you no to havin' books, kid. I'll find the ones you want, even if I have to order 'em online." He turns, and holds out his finger. "Do /not/ order anything online." The chicken seems done, and Dan uses the point of a knife to poke at it before he slides it onto a plate and carries to the table. "But we ain't talkin' about science durin' dinner," he says good-naturedly, offering a wink before he goes back for the bread and the salad. "'Cause I'm plannin' on havin' a beer, and studyin' ruins my buzz."