Avatara

"Grace Shelley I presume?" he said.

A short slim man, in tinted glasses, a black suit, no more than five foot two inches, stood opposite me. His face had an exaggerated wide spread smile and his posture had a forward leer to it.

"Dr Rylan Spector," I replied. Saying a person's full name and title when addressing them is a clear sign of discomfort and also a chance to gather your thoughts when you don't know what to say.

"Fancy seeing you here," I continued. I felt flushed and I felt perspiration on my forehead

"Well I do work here," said Spector. "At least for now."

"Hi, my name's Janice." My mother introduced herself with a handshake.

"Well how do you do, you must be very proud." I tried to signal to my mother that we should leave by pulling at her hand with my hand and directing my body away towards the street. Anywhere, just to get out of this terrible situation. Why is Rylan even entertaining this conversation? He knows the rules and agreements. I am to have no contact professional or casual with anyone from Sheldrake.

"Yes I am proud," said Janice. "How do you know my daughter?"

"Oh she used to work here at Sheldrake Enterprises, in our Data department," said Spector.

"You mean on technical gadget stuff?" said Janice.

"Yes stuff like that for our financial operations," said Spector. "Doesn't she tell you about this?" Both he and Janice looked at me. I froze.

"We do miss Grace," said Spector. "She has brains and beauty." Janice laughed. "I was really nothing compared to her," Spector continued.

"It's a shame because there have been some interesting recent developments in our simulation models that you would find very interesting." Rylan's eyes were piercing and his tone of voice was smug. I felt a nervous chill down my back. He and his team were up to something.

"Well Grace has got her new business now," said Janice.

"That's enough Mum," I said. "Great to see you Rylan, I hope your work all goes well." I didn't hope it goes well, I hoped that Sheldrake Enterprises caught fire and burned to the ground. But British politeness is a difficult trait to get rid of.

"Thank you Grace, how very kind," said Spector. "Great to meet you Janice."

It was his parting words that lingered as we left towards Liverpool street station. "Take care." It sounded ominous. Several yards away from the Tealeaf restaurant and down the road, I looked back to see him still looking at us. I shuddered. Creeps are so common.

"Call me when you get home," I said to mother.

"I'll be ok," said Janice. "It's you we need to worry about."

"Ok pot pudding," I said. We both laughed. It was based on the way she looked and that was my nickname for mum when I was growing up.

Mother looked up at me and grinned. She is shorter than me with an apple shaped body, round face, big cheeks, big red lips and big piercing blue eyes. Her auburn hair colour was the same as mine and was long and richly textured.

"I'm so chuffed," she said.

"Why?" I replied

"Because I got to spend quality time with my favourite daughter and best friend," she quipped.

Janice Shelley only has one daughter.

She walked off but kept looking back at me and waving. I mouthed the words, "call when you get home," and shaped my left hand like a phone next to my head to mimic. She blew me a kiss in return.

As I watched my mother walk through the ticket barrier at Liverpool street station, to take the Hammersmith and City line to King's Cross where she would change to take an express train towards Leeds, I could not help worrying that she was not safe.

"Take care." Spector's words made me shudder.