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“YOU CALLED Ivory a Chauffeur,” I said to Mom. “What is Ray?”
“A useless child with a propensity for computer games and who does well on tests, so it would seem,” grumbled Valcas. “Ms. Winston, unless there’s a better explanation for why this boy should accompany us, I must continue to voice my misgivings.”
Dark brown eyes flickered back and forth between me and Valcas. Eventually they rested on me.
“A brain is a useful weapon,” Mom said. “Ray is a newly certified Detail Technician. He doesn’t operate vehicles like Ivory, but he’s highly skilled at memorizing names, places, facial features and even conversations.”
Mom pressed another button. “Pay close attention.”
I stared at the white wall, watching. A young woman stood before a mirror in a white wedding gown, surrounded by six bridesmaids and the mother of the bride-to-be. The recording ran for approximately fifteen minutes, enough time for me to grow bored with the female banter and emotion, the tears, praises and criticisms of each dress tried on and discarded. Eventually, the view of the screen shifted slightly to reveal a thin blond youth sitting in a corner, watching the entire scene.
The recording flickered briefly and then began again with Ray seated at a desk facing the camera. His face and shoulders were relaxed, but his dark blue eyes were alert.
Mom’s voice sounded through the speakers, although she did not appear on-screen. “Ray, thank you for being with us here today. The examination won’t last long. You will receive a single instruction.”
Ray pressed his elbows on the desktop and then rested his chin on clasped hands.
“Let’s begin,” Mom said. “Earlier you observed a bridal fitting at the Clubhouse Plaza. Please tell me everything you remember from that event.”
Ray placed his hands on the desktop, slouched slightly in his seat, and then looked intently into the camera.
“The room,” he said, “was octagonal in shape, with two mirrors looking out of each light blue wall—hex code ADD8E6—a strange color for a fitting room in a bridal shop.”
I blinked and looked over at Valcas. “He doesn’t sound that young,” I said. Ray’s voice was deep and gritty. It reminded me of the raspy voice of a musician singing a rock ballad.
Valcas shrugged and shook his head.
I turned my attention back to Ray, who had moved on to describing what sounded like the carpeting. “Wall-to-wall Pearl frieze—FDEEF4, specked with Sand—C2B280. The bride-to-be, Ashley, had golden-brown skin—not hex code EAC117 Golden Brown, but something more like Copper.” He narrowed his eyes and nodded. “B87333.”
Ray went on to describe Ashley’s dark hair, height, and approximate weight, as well as a variety of mannerisms that sounded about right, but that I doubted I would have recalled on my own had he not just reminded me of them. Then he detailed the appearances and mannerisms of each of the bridesmaids, the mother of the bride-to-be and the overwhelmed bridal attendant.
I nodded along with Ray as he spoke. His descriptions were spot-on. His ability to remember names and faces was amazing.
Ray paused. Then, to my further amazement, he listed—with careful precision—every single dress the bride modeled that day, including the style, material, exact shade and texture. I sunk in my seat. Even though I was impressed by Ray’s talent, I had to admit that his descriptions were getting boring, like a narration of specifications from a catalog.
Just as I was beginning to wonder whether Ray was more robot-calculator than person, he smiled, reminding me of how he’d appeared earlier that morning in the Hearing Chamber.
“Personally,” he said, “I thought the fifth dress—the fishtailed one with the brocade lace overlay in FEFCFF Milk White—looked best.”
I grinned and tried to smother a chuckle with a cough. The last thing I needed was Valcas thinking that I was laughing at Ray. I’d already decided that I liked Ray. The more I learned about him, the more I wanted him to be part of our search team. And, the more I wondered what his infraction could have been.
Ray cleared his throat and asked for a glass of water. While we waited for backstage Mom to accommodate him, I checked my watch, a TSTA gift I’d received along with my assignment. Fifteen minutes had gone by.
I ran my fingers along the letters engraved around the watch face. Above the time, it said Everywhere. Below, Everywhen. It was a beautiful piece of jewelry, but the watch face was digital and operated like a Smartphone. That bothered me, of course, self-proclaimed anti-tech that I was...or at least used to be. Meeting Valcas and Edgar, and learning how to use the travel glasses, had changed everything.
A finger swipe to the left changed the time zone. There were time zones for all of the major cities on Earth, the world where I grew up—places like New York City, London, Dubai and Tokyo. What interested me more were the places I’d never heard of, from worlds I’d never seen before: Quantaa, Alvendine and Cloptush, to name a few. I wondered whether there was a special time zone for the Halls’ White Tower. When I tapped the center of the watch face, the screen flickered and then displayed Inter-world Central Time. I wasn’t sure how useful it would be, but I was grateful to have the watch. I hoped it would help keep me from getting lost.
I looked back up at the projection where Ray was now sipping from a glass of water. He tilted his head back and drained the rest of the glass with a huge gulp, then wiped his lips with the back of his hand. “Thanks,” he said as he stared at the empty glass.
Valcas shifted in his seat and lightly tapped the table with his fingers.
Ray looked up from his empty glass and directed his attention back to the camera, his dark blue eyes searching through it and beyond. He took a deep breath, and then, in a voice less raspy, weirdly feminine, and much perkier than his own deep baritone, he said, “Let me get you set up in here. You, Missus Gorgeous Mother of the Bride-to-Be, please sit down right here, and I’ll take your coat. Ashley is in the dressing room with Kayla. Please, everyone else, rest here while I bring back additional styles so that we can find The One.”
My jaw dropped.
For the next fifteen minutes, Ray recited every single word spoken by everyone who had been in and out of the fitting room—Ashley, Ashley’s mom, Kayla and the other bridesmaids, and Anna, the perky attendant. He imitated the inflections and phrasing of each of the women perfectly.
From time to time I stole a glance at Valcas, wondering whether he was impressed now. He watched without any additional fidgeting or objections. As per his usual, his face was blank, showing no sign of emotion.
Mom looked at me and smiled.
When Ray finished his reenactment, he looked back down at the glass that he still held in his hand. He closed his eyelids halfway, set down the glass and placed his hand over his mouth, smothering a yawn. He stretched out his arms, making fists over his head.
“Thank you, Ms. Winston. That’s all I remember.”
“Thank you, Ray. Your examination is complete. I will now turn off the camera.”
The screen went blank.
Mom clicked off the projector and turned to Valcas with a questioning look.
“Where is Ray from?” I asked.
“He’s like us. He’s from Earth.”
“Well then, impressive,” Valcas said. “The boy has an extraordinary ability to recall and reenact events that he has just witnessed. Bravo.” Valcas frowned, clearly still not convinced that Ray would be a suitable companion.
Mom smiled. “Yes, that alone certainly would be impressive. But, Ray had not just witnessed the event. I recorded him at the bridal fitting a year and a half prior to the examination.”