The man in the dark double-breasted suit smiles charmingly and says "It's certainly cold enough now. William Levine,." he adds, introducing himself.
Kitty nods. "Very true... at least we are not standing in the downpour." She searches her kaki pant pockets for something and comes up empty handed. She tries to pull back her brown hair as much as possible, arranges her dog tags around her neck because they seem to be sticking to her skin, and plays with the sleeve of her shirt. She holds our her hand in gesture. "I am Kitty. Nice to meet you, sir".
"Good to meet you too, Kitty," William answers. "I'm just sure I'll be the last one called out of this dreadful place - at least it's got a roof, though."
As the wall section comes to an abrupt close, Sam is shaken from his state of astute confusion brought on by the arrival of Marda. In a vain attempt to stop the inevitable, he lurches for the "doorway", breaking free of Marda's grasp in a very ungentle manner. He pounds his fist several times on the doorway. "Let me in damnit! I'm Samuel Dart! You forgot me!"
He then turns, facing Marda -- whatever pleasantries his face once contained have been washed away. "Look what you've done!" he yells. "Who the hell are you anyway?!?"
At "Tata's" remonstances, the child's face turns from its usual near-pallor to a shade of bright crimson. Averting her eyes, she mutters a soft "Imi pare," and starts sniffling. She then enters into about ten seconds of in-depth consultation with her ratty stuffed animal, then turns back to Sam.
The traces of remorse have practically vanished from her face to be
replaced with a kind of petulant confusion. Her answer comes in English
thickly peppered with Eastern European intonations, but it is English nonetheless.
"I'm Marda. And this," she adds, thrusting the hapless bear into
Sam's personal space, "is Teddy."
She turns and departs once again. The door begins to swing shut.
Levine seems surprised at... something. Not obvious what. He walks briskly for the door - it seems to be a habitual pace for him. (Of course, when he came -into- the room, it was as a shivering nervous wreck, so it's hard to say.)
At the calling of her name, Marda begins looking back and forth between Sam and the C&I agent - to the former with pleading eyes and the latter with a series of quick glances and shivers. After behaving for half a minute as if the two were involved in some invisible tennis match, she eventually turns back to Sam, states "Sorry, I have to go" directly at his feet, and sullenly retreats through the doors with a marked lack of enthusiasm.
Once again the door slams shut, barely missing Marda as she scampers
through. Sam and Kitty remain, cooling their heels in the waiting
room.
Kitty chuckles at Sams comment.. "I'm sure if I was not to be processed they would have gotten rid of me a long time ago... probally made an example of me too. All in due time... All in due time." Kitty looks to the door. "Er, Sam... dont you think she's a little young for you?" Kitty then walks over to the area where the door is supposed be and studies it.
The door unexpectedly swings open once again, nearly clobbering Kitty as the moves to examine it. Instead of the woman, however, the dapper form of Dinesh Rajpal enters the room, clipboard in hand. "Ms Kaila Mc... ohmydear!" he exclaims, looking at Sam still in the waiting room. "What are you doing still here?" his lilting indian accent carries real concern. "You should be in your interview by now. Goodness gracious, this is certainly troubling!"
Kitty rubs her face, thanking God that she didn't get hit. "We were just waiting for our names to be called, sir. Is there some reason we are being put on hold?"
Dinesh Rajpal consults his clipboard. "Mr. Dart, you should have been called to your interview now. There has apparently been some sort of mistake." Rajpal turns back towards the office beyond the door. "One moment please, I will check..."
At that moment the elevator door opens, disgorging a large, soaking wet man in casual dress who begins unloading post-modernist chairs.
When Rajpal leaves, Sam Dart follows behind him. The area beyond the waiting room has the look that eventually develops in any large but underfunded bureaucracy - men and women in tan C&I uniforms sit at desks separated by flimsy partitions, working at computer terminals, sorting papers,writing, talking on the telephone, or just eating donuts. The walls and ceiling are the exact same bone color of the waiting room, but lots of inexpensive office furniture lends the room a cheap and tawdry look anyway. The various workers have the half-dazed, half-annoyed look of longtime bureaucratic underlings, and ignore the procession utterly, completely absorbed in their tiny self-important worlds. Very few of the desks are actually occupied, though the place must be an absolute madhouse during regular working hours. Security is surprisingly tight, with at least a half-dozen members of the Ever Benevolent Peace Force standing over by the coffee machine slurping java and munching donuts.
When Sam walks through the door, the entire place becomes suddenly quiet in the way that red-neck bars do in the movies when someone with long hair walks in. Heads in the room rotate as if on gimbals to focus on Sam.
Dinesh, noticing the change turns back and spots Sam. His voice sounds amazingly loud in what is otherwise almost total silence. "Sir, please to be waiting in the waiting room while I straighten out this matter. It will only be a moment, and I believe I will be having this matter cleared up." Dinesh is clearly flustered by the difficulty, and his grammar is suffering for it. He makes tiny shooing motions with his clipboard, as if trying to herd Sam back through the doors.
Seeing that Sam doesn't appear to be prepared to budge, Dinesh sighs the sort of sigh that only the those who are both virtuous and put upon because of it can sigh. Job likely sighed in just such a manner.
"Very well, sir, I shall see what I can do. Both of you, please be following me." He looks beyond the two to the man unloading the chairs. "Sir, I am afraid you are being too late. You can return the chairs to maintenance please. Also, if you would be so kind as to notify a clean-up crew to come up here, there is much water on the floor. Thank you!" the last seems genuinely sincere and very appreciative.
Dinesh holds the door open, and motions the others through. Kitty returns her chair to the large man and smiles. "Can't win 'em all the time, ey?" She does an about face while sighing and heads for the door.
"Well this is an interesting turn of events," Sam remarks, mostly to himself. He then procedes to walk through the door which Dinesh holds open.
"Hey, dude, it's your paahty," replies the giant of a man exiting the elevator. "So, if you wanna play musical chairs, you can do it right here 'cause this is where these things are stayin'." Towering over the young lady who has just spoken to him, the big soaking 7'1" of a man says, "and daahling, I didn't even know I was in the game, never mind not winning 'em all !" And then in his heavy Boston accent he says to Rajpal, "Lead the way, little man. This is one game I'm gonna get in on from the staaht."
The waiting room is left empty.
To Be Continued...