Whisper

Chapter 6

Dr. Kadea was taking his sweet time.

Or that's what Mateo thought, but Clarise now knew that Dr. Kadea was on the other side of the camera with a small team of other researchers. The camera, or cameras, in her room were hardly watched seeing how she was the least active project compared to the others, but today - of all days - her cameras were being watched closely.

"So-" Mateo slowly sat back down, still watching Clarise, "Do you like dogs?"

Thrown off by Mateo's question she raised her head and raised her brow. Does she like dogs? Dogs are cute, most of them are at least. Clarise never had a good experience with dogs. Her neighbors had 2 chihuahuas who were loud and scary and always frightened little Clarise.

Mateo was hopeful for her response, but soon grew concerned when her face when blank. He could also see the gears turning in her head. "Uh Clarise?" He waved in front of her eyes.

Blinking rapidly she focused on Mateo, trying to rack her brain to figure out if she liked dogs. Her mom always wanted a dog, a samoyed to be precise. But her dad hated dog hair, or any hair that sticks to his clothes, ironic.

I do like dogs.

She finally concluded, and Mateo smiled at her response, shifting slightly to pull out his cell phone. It wasn't against any rules to show Clarise his phone, or at least it wasn't explicitly told to him. He pressed a few buttons and and turned the phone around to show Clarise a photo of him with two dogs sitting in his lap as he sat in very green grass. Both the dogs were licking his face, and he was smiling so brightly in the camera.

"These are my pups, Duke and Tiger," Mateo turned the screen back to him, smiling fondly at the picture, "They are mutts, but the doc says they have mainly pit-bull genes. The grey one is Duke and the tan one is Tiger."

Pups? Clarise pondered for a moment. Those dogs were 2 and 2.5 years old respectively, both adult dogs. Why call them pups?

"I adopted them last year," Mateo tucked his phone back in his pocket, "I was originally just going to adopt Duke, but the shelter people told me that the two came to the shelter together, so it was appropriate that they left together."

They are not puppies?

No. "Nope," Mateo let out a breathless laugh, "But they act like puppies."

How so?

Du- "Duke is really clingy to me and his older brother, and is too energetic all day. Tiger is a bit more tame, but like to grab onto everything and chew it up. Lost so many good pairs of shoes to him."

Clarise had never been interrupted before, and her mouth still moved along to a similar answer, but she didn't mind listening to Mateo talk about his dogs. It felt good to have a semblance of a normal conversation. She found her lips tilted slightly in what could be described as a smile, matching ever so slightly to the more natural smile worn by Mateo.

"Clarise," Dr. Kadea's voice cut through the pleasant atmosphere that used to be in the room. Mateo took that as his cue to get up and stand guard, a little disappointed that he couldn't talk to her more. Dr. Kadea had handed her a little mic that connected to his tablet, ready to record her response. "Clarise how do you feel?"

My neck and shoulders are tender and my jaw is stiff. My teeth feel a bit sore as well but my tongue is fully healed. My legs and arms are also a bit tender, and I feel tired.

If Dr. Kadea asked her this when she was little, she would've give him a full anatomy lesson filled with terms that Dr. Kadea didn't even know, but she's gotten better at getting straight to the point. Years of questioning and conditioning allowed her to be the perfect summarizer. Dr. Kadea had noticed, she's always told the objective fact, never really inputting her own opinion.

"Clarise, how do you feel? Emotionally?" He quickly added that last part, something he's done before and it seemed to always throw her off, but today he was hoping for a different result.

Tired.

She answered pretty immediately, not even blinking or hesitating. Finally something different. She usually thought, debated, calculated every thought. How did she feel? What emotion is she supposed to feel?

But today was a strange day and it was so draining for her, thus she immediately knew what she was feeling.

Dr. Kadea was secretly so excited. To have her acting differently that usual could be a break through for their research. Perhaps the irregularities in her behavior to different people could help them write the perfect program that can predict the future to the utmost accuracy.

"What do you think of Mateo?" Dr. Kadea had left the door wide open, allowing for Mateo to hear everything. And as soon as he heard his name, his sole focus was what she was going to say.

Mateo Alaverez, 22 years old. Born May 14th, 20XX. His parents were Manuel Alaverez and Sophia Mary Lopez. His legal guardian is Rio Alaverez, relation: uncle, elder brother to his father. Currently employed by BEYOND, but previously worked under Henry Olivers as a body guard.

"Well - yes," Dr. Kadea sat down, leaning forward slightly in anticipation, "What is your opinion of him?"

Opinion? Clarise furrowed her brows. They hardly ask for her opinion. Years of just getting her simple response and finally they want her opinion?

He's nice.

Slightly disappointed by her response, Dr. Kadea nodded to himself. What did he expect? Some sort of confession? A declaration of interest? He was so used to Clarise giving detailed responses that he was looking for an in-depth look into her mind.

"I think we are done for today," Dr. Kadea stood, his depressed demeanor not going unnoticed, "You're dinner should be arriving soon."

Clarise had lost her appetite since this morning, but just blankly nodded at him. Dr. Kadea usually was cheery and was always fascinated by her, but today he seemed defeated.

She watched him leave the room, getting a peak at Mateo who waved at her just as the door shut, his handing still waving through the small window before he turned around and resumed guarding.

Today was a weird day.

But a good day.