As I was looking outside of my cage, I couldn't tell who was opening the door right away. Whoever it was, they were talking to someone or something as they were coming in. Suddenly a foot to hold the door open came thru and I knew it was Caitlin. Caitlin always wore flip-flops and I recognized her meticulously pedicured red toenails right away. As she pushed the door open with her butt, she had a Starbucks coffee cup in one hand with a magazine under her arm and a couple of large brown files in her other hand.

She walked into the room, seemingly oblivious to me and put her coffee and the files on a desk on the other side of the lab. As usual she was wearing a white lab coat that came down little below her knees. The lower half of her legs usually had jeans but today they were bare. She was probably wearing shorts under her lab coat. She always wore the same white flip-flops. She sat down at the desk and was on a computer for a few minutes, possibly checking her email. Her dark red hair was in a pony-tail today and she had her back to me.

"Caitlin! Caitlin!", I screamed from my hamster cage/prison, but she was oblivious to me. Perhaps my voice didn't carry all the way to the other side of the room. Well, at some point she would come to me and at that point I would try to confront her on my situation.

A few minutes later Helga walked in and she came straight to my cage while Caitlin was at her desk. The cage was situated on a counter that was about waist high. Helga peered down at me from a standing position, then looked at the "nourishment" I didn't eat on the other side of the cage. She made some notes on her clipboard. For a second I thought about confronting Helga but something held me back. It just seemed to make more sense to try to talk to Caitlin first. Helga leaned down so that her face was even with the cage. I was startled and backed off as far as I could. Although I know it's not possible, that damn mole her upper lip looked bigger than ever. Helga wrote some more notes on the clipboard but seemed oblivious to my startled reaction. Suddenly she called out to Caitlin.

"Caitlin, come here please", she said in her shrill German accent. "I have a question for you."

Caitlin came over next to Helga. "Yes, Helga.", she said.

"What time did you turn off za electricity to za steel plate?", she asked Caitlin.

"About 6PM last night, like you told me to, is something wrong?", Caitlin responded.

"Actually no, za specimen did not attempt to take za food all night, which shows good cognitive skills. When we are finished with za regular testing zis morning I want you to test za specimen's cognitive skills", Helga continued talking as she lowered her face to the level of the cage. "Zis specimen might be a Type A."

For a brief second, I thought I saw, for the first time, a small smile on Helga's face.

Helga walked away and Caitlin leaned down face level with the cage. Wow", she said seemingly to herself, "A Type A specimen, this is exciting!"

I started to try to say something but before I could say anything, she reached into the cage, grabbed me and started walking with me between her index finger and thumb with her other hand right underneath me.

As she walking she looked down at me and said, "Well, lets get you tested sweetie, this is going to be a big day!" As she walked, she looked down at me with a big smile and it was obvious that her beautiful green eyes were beaming with excitement.

(End of Chapter 2)