Page 24 of Red Zone Realizations
He hesitates, draws a breath, and then whispers, “Lara Croft.”
“Oh my God!” I burst out laughing, then immediately cover my mouth.
“I told you it was lame!”
“No. I mean—yes. It is lame. But mine is Ash Ketchum.” I move my hands from my mouth to cover my eyes.
“Anime? Really?”
“Like you’re one to talk, mister triangle titties!”
He’s crying laughing now, tears streaming slowly down his face. “So pointy.”
This feels good. Better even than the times Hunter and I did stuff like this. He didn’t see the charm of the science museum, and he was too cool to talk about silly things like crushing over video game characters.
Noah puts the car in park, quickly unbuckles, and takes offaround the car to open my door while I grab my purse from the floor.
“Shall we, milady?” His so-formal comment after the belly laughs we just shared almost makes me blush.
We walk into the museum, and I find none of the normal hustle and bustle. Where are the families with diaper bags and strollers lined up to buy tickets? Where are the employees who stand at the front to direct you this way or that? For a split second, I’m a little weirded out. “Is it closed? Did we miss something?” I glance back toward the exit.
He chuffs. “No, they’re not closed. Well, not for us. But they are for the public.”
“You did this?”
“I did.” He smiles.
For the next couple hours, we wander around the museum, hand in hand. Talking about nothing and everything. Taking turns reading the placard out loud.
When we get to the Egyptian part, I get the heebie-jeebies around all the mummies.
I point to the one in front of me. “There’s a real body in there.”
Noah peers over my shoulder at the crusty shape wrapped in cloth. “Pretty cool.”
“It’s so gross.” I read the name of the mummy aloud from the placard. “Did you know that the Egyptians believe the first act of creation was through masturbation?”
Noah whips his focus toward me, ripping it away from the mummy before us. “What?”
“One of my fun facts.”
“How did it work?”
“It was believed that their first god masturbated, and through that act twin gods were born.”
Noah looks at me like I’m crazy. “Why do you know that?”
“I took a mythology class as an arts elective in college. It covered Egyptians, Mesopotamian, ancient Greece and Rome, and the Norse.”
Noah laughs and puts his arm around my shoulder as we walk to the next mummy. “You’re something else, aren’t you?”
There’s so much to take in that by the time we get to the dinosaurs my mind is melting.
Noah takes note of my dragging ass. “Ready for a break from the never-ending search for knowledge?”
I nod, exhausted. “So much reading and walking and thinking.”
He leads us down the stairs toward the main area. I always thought the design of this building was so interesting. When you walk through the front doors, the main hall is one long rectangle with thirty-foot ceilings. The doors in the very back lead to the butterflies, and the doors down the longer right side lead to the other exhibits. There’s only one restaurant in this museum—McDonald’s. It’s been here for as long as I can remember. I don’t think it’s ever been anything else.
