Chapter 62: The Angry Expert

Nelly was fidgeting with the tools. Books laid open on the table around her. The same pencil was lodged in her tied-up hair. The pieces of paper on the table were as many as the books laid there, scribbled with drawings, numbers, notes and chemical equations.

She wore a pair of glasses with the hands-free magnifying glass piece clipped on one side. Her back was bent over as she focused on measuring a piece of junk she found in the workshop she deemed usable.

BANG! The door to the workshop burst open, making her jump, pushing the book at her side to the floor. Will stormed in without addressing her. She eyed him warily as he moved further into the space without really looking at her.

He marched to the shooting range in big strides. BANG! BANG! BANG! Three consecutive shots at the dummy. The shots hit the bullseye on three different spots on the dummy- the head, heart and stomach. BANG! BANG! Two more on its respective arms. BANG! BANG! Two more on its respective thighs.

Nelly jumped as each shot sounded. At the end of the seven perfect shots, she was squatting beside her workbench with her book on her lap as if she was protecting it. Her hands were clasped tightly on her ears as her whole body shrunk into a ball.

Will maintained his posture where his gun was still pointed towards the dummy, completely oblivious that he almost scared someone to death. His breathing was hard but the crease in between his brows eased up a little.

He stood there for almost a minute more before he slowly let his hand fall to the side, sliding his gun back to where it came from. He turned around, feeling much better. Only then did he see the head peeking at him from the side of the table.

The gun immediately came back up, pointed directly at the head. “Who’s there?”

Nelly immediately rolled back into her protective posture, hiding her whole body behind the bench. She was trembling so hard, she had to move a little away from the workbench in order not to vibrate it.

Will inched closer to the workbench. Slowly, he rounded the corner and came to face the figure behind it. Nelly burst into tears. “I’m.. I’m sorry! Please, please.. Please don’t kill me. I am.. I..” she started stuttering, her words incoherent. Will raised his brow at the sight in front of him. “You.. are you Nelly?”

Nelly stopped abruptly. She raised her head slowly and faced him. Her eyes were wide with fear and unshed tears. “Yes,” she whispered, unsure of the correct answer to the question that would trigger the gun in his hand.

“I’m sorry if I scared you,” Will said as he lowered his gun, took a look at it, and finally decided to put it away, “I won’t hurt you.”

Nelly let out a visible breath as the gun was out of her sight. “Um.. what are you working on?” Will eyed their surroundings, noting the mess of notes around them and the pieces of junk in the middle of the workbench.

“A.. medical equipment,” she replied carefully, still wary. “Oh.. ah..” Will felt the awkwardness of the situation, “why are you hiding behind the bench like that? Do you always work this way?”

Nelly felt like throwing the book in her hand at him. ‘Of course I’m here to hide myself from your outburst! Who knows when that thing in your hand will suddenly point to me?’ Of course, she didn’t dare to say the words out loud.

He was still watching her expectantly, waiting for her reply. “Um, I.. fell,” she said the first thing that came to her mind. The pencil slid from her hair and hit the floor with a heart-wrenching sound.

Will cleared his throat. He moved closer to her, prompting her to slide a little backwards, away from him. He bent a little, holding his hand out to her. She jumped a little before eyeing his hand warily, as if he was made of poison. “I don’t bite, you know.” She stared at his outstretched hand without moving. “You’re not going to continue staying down there, are you?”

Only then did she take his hand, letting him help her up to her feet. Once she’s steady, he takes a step away, maintaining a respectable distance between them. “You work here?” He looked around the workshop. “It’s been a long time since I stepped in here. It changed a lot.”

Nelly didn’t reply to his attempt of small talk. She stood to the side like a child who just stole a candy and an adult happened to walk into the room.

“The dummy can still be adjusted, though. It’s a lot better already. If we can make the targets move, then it will make shooting practice a lot better,” Will started commenting on the dummies he’d just made seven perfect shots on.

Nelly’s eyes darted towards the dummy at the far end of the room. “I remember seeing Sammy adjusting the dummy the last time I was here.”

Will’s eyes lit up at the mention. “Oh! Stacy made it? No wonder it’s so much better than the previous one,” he beamed with pride.

When he turned his attention back to the junk pieces, he raised a brow. “Do you have a blueprint? Or a sketch of what you’re making?”

Nelly jerked into action. She reached out to a book at the upper corner of her workspace, flipped to a page with a pink sticky bookmark and turned the book towards Will. “I’m trying to make this,” she pointed at a picture of medical equipment at the corner of a page full of paragraphs and paragraphs of words.

“Oh,” Will eyed the page, making no move to take the book from her. “There’s so many words,” he commented with a small laugh. “It’s alright. I’m simply curious. You do you, don’t mind me,” he waved dismissively.

Nelly retracted the book awkwardly. She placed it back to where it was and picked up the measurement tool she was using earlier.

Will watched as she continued her work from where she left due to his interruption. He remained quiet for almost fifteen minutes, watching her work hard on the measurements.

“I’m sorry for interrupting you,” he said finally, “I have a question. Shouldn’t you leave some space there?” Nelly blinked up at him. “What?”

“The interjection. Shouldn’t you leave some space there so that there’s more footing?” Nelly looked down at the items in her hand. “You mean here?”

“You want to shape them into this, right?” He pointed at the picture in the book she showed him earlier. “This is the piece over here, am I right?”

Nelly nodded. “And this is the piece that’s supposed to lay parallel to it. You should leave some space there. How else will you hold them together?”