Riley’s smile grew more dazzling, more beautiful, and thus more mysterious. There was something uncanny about her. It was almost as if she were a shining angelic impersonation of herself. She didn’t seem right somehow. It felt to the others as if a more beautiful persona had replaced her. She seemed possessed and taken over in some sublimely sinister way. It made most of them uneasy – uneasy with themselves, as if beholding one of the most peculiar mysteries of all, the miracle of self-transformation. For Riley seemed indeed transformed, as if the light of an odd revelation fairly hovered at the back of her head. And yet there she was, the same as ever. It was spooky.
Riley, looking briefly out of the window, her eyes returning, settling on Jute’s for a silky moment, then on Sam’s, then squarely on Jim’s, then turning misty, nostalgic, forgetful, dreamy, said:
‘I disappeared. Vaporised. Was abducted by aliens. Vanished into thin air. Disappeared into a pinpoint of light. Was possessed by an idea. Taken over. Locked in a brilliant space. Devoured by God. Released. Overcome.’
‘You’re talking gibberish,’ said Sam.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, still smiling, like a harlequin’s assistant. ‘Do you want the truth?’
‘Yes,’ came voices, almost in chorus.
Riley looked around, and for the first time seemed embarrassed.
‘I don’t know where I went. I blanked out and vanished and I feel wonderful. It’s like I’ve been in a most wonderful dream.’
‘What was the dream?’
Riley stared at Lao for a while.
‘I can’t say yet. It’s so recent and so strange. It’s probably of no importance. What I mean is that I can hardly remember. Was I gone for long?’
‘Only for a couple of micro-seconds,’ said Jim mockingly. ‘You weren’t missed at all. In fact, aren’t you supposed to be doing something?’
Riley snapped out of her stupor, her beautiful stupor, suddenly. Her smile vanished, her light disappeared. Her dazzle dimmed. And her alert work persona took over. She became instantly efficient, alert, quick, and eager. Soon she was darting from camera case to camera, cleaning, preparing, loading, engrossed, like a printer’s assistant. And about her every movement, her stoic and cheerful efficiency, and the absence of that angelic expression, about her now there hung the mystery of where she went, and where she had been.