Gerrie Nelson - Lab Notes

She glanced over at David, then back at the road. “You look good in a tux.”

“You’re looking rather lovely yourself. Nice dress.”

“Thanks. It’s my only designer dress; it’s seen a lot of miles. I wore it to that Christmas…” Her voice cracked and she didn’t complete the sentence.

“I remember,” David said softly, almost in a whisper.

They rode in silence, immersed in their own thoughts. Then Diane realized David was watching her. She gave him a sidelong glance. “What?” she asked.

“You seem rested lately; what’s your secret?”

Diane nodded knowingly. “I’ve had at least eight hours of sleep almost every night for the past couple weeks… And it seems that I dream the entire night.”

“They’re obviously happy dreams.”

“It’s mostly one recurring dream. In it, throngs of whiterobed people stand in line to place garlands of thistles in my hands.”

“Sounds mighty prickly.”

Diane kept her eyes on the road. But in her mind, she saw an ageless face in a village in the mighty Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. She smiled and said, “Quite the contrary. It’s the finest bouquet a person could ever hold.”

The dinner and the speeches were finally over. The emcee returned to the microphone and announced that this was the moment everyone was waiting for—the naming of Houston Biopreneurs’ Person of the Year.

“This year, the award goes posthumously to Raymond Bellfort, former president of Bayside Research, for his philanthropy in the Houston science community. The award will be accepted by BRI’s new president, Dr. Diane Rose.”

Diane stood up amid the applause and stepped toward the stage to say a few kind words about Raymond Bellfort.

Gerrie Nelson is a retired registered nurse. She and her husband live in Houston, Texas and Penang, Malaysia (the locale of the sequel to Lab Notes entitled The Pearl ).

Copyright © 2011 Gerrie Nelson

All rights reserved.

ISBN-10: 1466467487

ISBN-13: 978-1466467484

eBook ISBN: 978-1-62110-790-3