Injected 2: Jordan's Revenge

Chapter 3 - Experiment Time!

[Claire]

Claire watched the tiny speaker vibrate as it emitted Adam’s cute, pathetic voice.

“Oh god…not that.  Please, Claire…is this necessary?  Can’t you just–?”

–CLICK

“Did you turn him off?” Jordan asked curiously, noticing this time that Adam was muted mid-sentence.

“Yeah, all the high frequency squeaking is giving me a headache.” Claire said, setting Jordan’s white and orange sock down next to the amplification prototype. It was funny how much larger Jordan’s dirty toe prints were than her dad’s entire shaking body.  “Plus, we don’t need to hear him for this part anyway.”

The dirty blonde could feel Jordan’s curious eyes dancing between her silently pleading father and her own actions. Claire was removing from her bag a small sheet of 3”x3” cardstock square of paper and a tiny, opaque ziplock bag not much larger than her fingernail.  There was some kind of writing all over the side of the bag, either Chinese or Japanese…Claire didn’t know or care.

“How will you know if you can’t hear him tell you?” Jordan asked.

“Oh, with these.” Claire asked.  She turned the tiny bag upside down over the dining room table and spilled at least 2 dozen very small, reflective disks all in a variety of different colors.  They looked almost like lithium watch batteries, only they were way, WAY smaller.  They came in a variety of sizes, some as large as 0.5” in diameter while others looked so small they could have passed as grains of sand.  The last thing to fall from the bag hit with a light ding: it was a tiny pair of tweezers.

“These are STA’s…Stress Tracker Adhesives.”  Claire consulted the back of the baggie and said, “Okay….we want 2.5mm…which is a purple one…” Claire said, sifting through the colorful assortment of tiny disks.  She bit her lip in focus, pulling a purple disk away from the pile.

“That thing is going to track his stress then?” Jordan asked, leaning in so close that her breath actually made the purple disk flutter back into the pile.

Claire gave Jordan an agitated look to which Jordan gave a half-hearted apology.  Claire retrieved the disk from the pile.

“Yeah…” Claire answered, retrieving her phone and swiping through several menus. “Luckily we don’t need a pink or a black one…we’d need way more special tools for them.”

“Where does it plug in at?” Jordan asked, this time sitting far back enough so as not to create another hurricane which Claire appreciated.

“No plugs.” Claire said, holding the disk up to her phone.  After a moment, the phone’s screen flashed the same color as the purple disk.  She looked up at Jordan and smiled.  “It pairs up with my phone and sends the information over bluetooth.”

“Oh wow..did you make those?” Jordan said, impressed.

“Heck no!” Claire laughed. “I get these from a manufacturer overseas…Okay, this is the tricky part…”

Claire bit her lip in deep concentration. She was now trying to surgically remove the sticky backing from the purple disk using the tweezers.

“Can you move him over here?” Claire asked Jordan, not looking away from the precise task at hand.  “You can just set him on the sheet of paper next to your sock.”

Jordan lifted the amplification prototype with both hands and gently tilted Adam off the edge and onto the sheet of paper.

Claire allowed the white sticker backing to fall down to the table’s surface.  Between her tweezers, she expertly held the purple disk on the edge about as far out as she possibly could have.

“Alrighty…”Claire said, extending the tweezers toward Adam.  “Grab the purple disk as far out on the edges as you can and stick it on your chest.”

Jordan leaned in closer, holding her breath.  “He’s not taking it.”

Claire rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation.  “No…he’s trying to talk again.  Can you lean in and tell me what he’s saying?”

Jordan slid her sneaker in under her wide butt to help her lean in.  She pushed her thick brown hair out of her ear and brought it right up to Adam.  Jordan stared up at the ceiling as she focused on what she was hearing.

“He’s asking what it is.”

“I already said it's a stress tracker, you goof.  It's just going to track stress indicator metrics like changes in heart rate.”  Claire shook it in front of him again and repeated herself a bit more stern this time, “Stick it on your chest.”

“He’s crying about not wanting to wear it…and he’s” Jordan listened closer, “...he’s asking what we’re going to do with the socks.”

Claire spoke calmly but firmly. “You need to put this on right now. If you don’t, then the deal is off and I’ll just go flush you down the toilet.  I’m seriously not kidding..you’re worth NOTHING to me but data.”

With one hand, Claire held the tweezers and in the other she held the magnifying glass.  The dirty blonde smiled as she watched Adam’s skinny arms shakily extend out to the purple disk.  It was hilarious to see how big it looked in his hands.  Claire had to consciously freeze her muscles just to handle the tiny thing properly while Adam’s arms were spread out to either side of it as if he were holding an extra large pizza box.

“Now stick it on your chest…right in the center.” Claire instructed and Adam listened. She watched him smooth the purple disk over his chest and almost immediately her cell phone lit up with a matching purple background. Immediately, a plethora of graphs and changing values popped up on the screen.

“It’s working now?” Jordan asked.

“Yup! Just need a second to get some baseline measurements….Okay! All systems go.” Claire chirped excitedly, lifting the sheet of cardstock.  Adam’s legs gave out from under him. “You wanna open your sock up?” Claire asked Jordan.

Claire held the cardstock about 12 inches up off the surface of the table and Jordan positioned the mouth of the sock next to it, about an inch lower.

“I think it’d be more fun if you jumped.” Claire said to Adam, raising an eyebrow.  “Just think of it as a super big diving board.” The two girls stared at him, his knees shaking and trying to speak…but neither of them cared to hear what he had to say.

Claire sighed, “Ehh…you can’t always get what you want.”

The girls giggled as Adam scrambled to remain atop the gradually angling cardstock square until he was now clumsily tumbling off the edge.  They lost sight of him once he crossed the threshold of the ankle sock and Claire immediately turned her attention to her phone.  Jordan was peering inside the sock.

“Pinch it shut.” Claire said urgently.  “We don’t want any fresh air getting in there.”

“Should I just put it on?” Jordan asked.

Claire was quiet for a moment, and Jordan sensed this as a yes.  She quickly kicked her running sneaker and sock off her right foot and began slowly feeding her wiggling chubby toes into the mouth of the orange and white sock.

“Actually…nah, probably shouldn’t.”  Claire said.

Jordan stopped with the sock about halfway onto her foot and looked at Claire.  “Why not?”

“He’s durable but I’m not sure if he’s THAT durable.  He may very well be, but I don’t know for sure.  Your toes might crush him…and plus, we don’t have everyone here to wear their socks. We should be consistent with his exposure.  Science is all about controls and variables.” Claire lectured.

Jordan rolled her eyes and pulled her foot out of the sock.  She carefully inspected her foot to make sure Adam wasn’t stuck between her toes. The sporty brown haired girl then cinched the mouth of the sock with her fingers.  She stood up from the table and grabbed one of those sandwich claspers and attached it to the end of her white and orange sock.

Jordan set the sock down gently on the table and returned to her seat next to Claire to look at the data.

“What’s all that mean?” Jordan asked, almost certainly referring to the crazy spikes on the graph and the numbers steadily increasing in value.

“It means he’s severely stressed and uncomfortable.” Claire said, her fingers dancing nimbly over the phone screen.  She was cropping regions to save for review later.

“I think you were right about him not liking feet.” Claire said, trying to stifle a giggle.

The girls watched silently for a few moments, as if the well-worn, discolored sock was going to do a trick, but it just laid there completely motionless.  Claire thought if she looked close enough she might be able to make out movement down in the toe section area…and she thought she might have…but it could have just been her imagination.

“Let’s give him another 2 minutes…” Claire said, opening up one of the other zip lock bags.

At the end of the two minutes, Claire had Jordan pour Adam back onto the cardstock.  The two looked at him through the magnifying glass; he looked incredibly disheveled.

“Quarter of the way done.” Claire said cheerfully, opening the mouth of her own sock and positioning it in the same location beneath and to the side of the cardstock platform.  Unlike Jordan’s white and orange ankle sock, the sock that Claire chose was a tall wool sock.  It was fuzzy and comfy, which is why she elected to wear it on the flight over from California and then the full next day at Jordan’s graduation.

“It looks the same.” Jordan said, breaking Claire’s concentration.

“Umm…I thought you were going to the gym.” Claire said.

“Oh, I already texted Chelsea to let her know I’d be late.” Jordan said, lightly flicking the toe section of Claire’s sock where she suspected Adam was confined. “This is a lot more interesting than I thought it would be.”

“It’s not that out of the ordinary to see the same stress levels between the two of us….I mean, I’ve never done this before but this is pretty much what I’d expect.” Claire justified, recording the data.

Jordan retrieved from the refrigerator a New York style cheesecake that her mother had purchased the night before. The girls sat there at the dining room table, each eating a slice of cheesecake and making small talk, neither of them acknowledging even once the tiny man trapped in Claire’s well-worn wool sock…not until time was up.

“Okay, who’s next.” Jordan asked, picking up Claire’s sock by the mouth, reluctant to touch too much of Claire’s dirty sock.

Claire held up the ziplock bag with a set of high-ankle socks.  They were a very light gray with darker gray stripes that circled the foot; they appeared thick and well-worn.  Claire modeled the bag playfully, drawing attention to the “E” drawn across it and Jordan smiled.

“You’re doing good, Adam!” Claire said encouragingly as a dazed Adam tumbled out onto the cardstock for the second time.  Jordan didn’t waste any time sending him tumbling head over heels into his ex-wife’s dirty sock and quickly sealing it shut.

“Umm…is it broken?” Jordan asked, gently tapping on Claire’s phone screen.

“Stop.” Claire said, sounding slightly annoyed but also very excited.  “It’s not broken!  It's just as I thought!”

“What?” Jordan asked quizzically.

“Look at his freaking stress indicators!  They’re all plummeting!  The scent of your mom’s feet is literally like..relaxing him and calming him down.”

“Seriously?!” Jordan said, unable to control her giggling.  “That’s so funny!  Like I said, he hates feet!”

“..and now your mom’s big giant dirty sock may as well be his security blanket; bahahaha! Not gonna lie, it's actually kinda cute if you think about it.” Claire mused and then continued.  “Okay, let’s give him another minute and get the last one ready.”

Jordan grabbed her mom’s sock as Claire removed Amina’s bright pink ankle sock from the ziplock bag.

“Okay..for this last one…” Claire said, “I want to just dump him right from that one to this one.”

Jordan smirked in agreement.

“Yup…just connect the two mouths together and slowly start…yup, slowly start lifting the toe section of your mom’s sock.”

Claire instructed Jordan, eventually handing both socks off to Jordan.  She wanted her full attention on the stress indicator readouts when the transfer was made.

Jordan tilted the toe section of her mother’s dirty sock up until it was vertical, giving the toes a nice gentle shake and a few flicks.

“How am I supposed to know when he’s–”

“--Holy cow!” Claire exclaimed.  Jordan pinched Amina’s sock shut and directed her focus to Claire’s phone screen.

“What? Is it back up again?” Jordan asked urgently.

“Understatement of the year!  He’s like…having a freaking panic attack!”  Claire declared.  “Look at these spikes..they’re beyond the red caution threshold.  He’s completely panicking in there!”

Jordan’s brow furrowed.  Claire saw Jordan lift Amina’s sock up to her face.  She hesitated for a moment, thinking about if she really wanted to do this, and then decided to do it.  Jordan touched her nose against the toe section of Amina’s dirty sock and breathed in.  She’d been cringing up until she took the short breath in, but then her brow unwrinkled.  Jordan took another deeper breath in, her breasts expanding as her lungs accepted maximum oxygen.

“I don’t get it.  Her sock just smells like coconuts.  It doesn’t smell bad at all.” Jordan said, confused.

“That’s because it's not about the smell!” Claire said excitedly.  “Well…maybe it’s a little, tiny part of it..but in this case, it's something else.”

“What is it?” Jordan asked.

“It's probably an emasculation thing.  He looks like he might have been one of those macho handsome guys back when he was big…and guys like that have fragile egos.  Honestly, I can’t really think of something more humiliating and emasculating than not only having his entire world literally become his ex-wife’s boob…but also having a forced, permanent front-row seat to all the times she’s getting properly railed by Amina.”

“Umm…eww?” Jordan said, gagging.

“It must have worn away his psyche. That would explain why he loves the pheromonal presence of your mom but he is terrified of Amina’s.  She’s the alpha.  She’s superior…and he knows it. It's like how you can scare prey animals away by spraying the ground and fences and stuff with the urine of their predators.  The prey animals know that the predators are stronger and better so just the scent of the predator terrifies them.”

“That’s kinda gross…and kinda weird but I guess that makes sense when you explain it like that.” Jordan said, rubbing her chin.  She appeared deep in thought but Claire didn’t know what about.

“Don’t worry, I don’t have anything planned with urine.” Claire broke the silence bluntly.

Jordan couldn't help but laugh.

““Are you done with these now?” Jordan asked as she stood up from her chair, grabbing her white and orange sock.

“Hmm?” Claire said, having been lost in the screen of her phone.  “Oh!  Yup, all done.”

“Good, I should get these back to the dirty clothes hamper.  It’d be pretty awkward to try explaining why I borrowed Mom or Amina’s socks.”

Jordan turned Amina’s pink sock upside down and shook it, unceremoniously spilling little Adam out onto the dining room table.  With her mother’s white sock, Amina’s pink sock, and her own white and orange sock in hand, Jordan made her way to the laundry room.

Claire caught the pink flash out of the corner of her eye and quickly reached for the magnifying glass.  She trained it on Adam.

“That’s it for Part 1 of the evaluation…..you can take off the purple disk now..Adam?  ….Uh-oh…”

“What?” Jordan asked, returning from the laundry room.

Adam was clutching his head and vigorously rubbing his scalp, now curling up into a trembling ball of anxiety.

“He’s in a daze…completely lost in space.” Claire said, gently poking him with the tweezers she’d used earlier, but he wasn’t even responding to that.

Jordan set her hands down on the table on either side of Adam and began lowering her head such that her face was positioned directly over his curled up body.  Claire watched in amusement as Jordan’s eyes crossed to focus on the tiny thing only a foot or so beneath her face.  It looked like she might have been attempting to reach him verbally, but it looked like she had something else in mind.  Claire could see her cheeks shifting as Jordan shifted her tongue around in her mouth. She then pursed her lips and opened them just enough for a long, continuous stream of spit to pass her tightened, wrinkled lips.

“Direct hit.” Claire giggled, watching the massive stream of Jordan’s saliva rush toward the table like a long-tailed comet, striking dead on with Adam’s naked body.

He was absolutely engulfed in the sphere of saliva, and it looked like Jordan had the right idea because Adam immediately began wiggling and wagging his limbs like crazy, trying to swim through the thick, viscous liquid.

Claire watched in fascination.  It would have made more sense for Adam to swim forward since he was very close to the translucent sphere’s curved edge, but the prey instinct in his prey-converted mind commanded that he swim upward.  Even as his head broke the surface, the syrupy clear saliva clung with a vengeance over his face and clusters of tiny little air bubbles sprouted from his mouth and nose as he fought for air.  Somehow, he managed to tumble out of the sphere and roll away, leaving a clear trail of Jordan’s saliva as he clawed at his face, trying to clear the path between his lungs and precious oxygen.

The dirty blonde almost thought about intervening when she saw Adam’s chest finally expand.

“Well, that snapped him out of it, huh?” Claire said giggling. Jordan cracked the slightest of smiles.

“Okay…I gotta go to the gym now.  I’ll be back in about an hour and a half.  Will you be alright here?” Jordan asked, turning away from Adam’s gasping, spit-soaked display without any more acknowledgement.

“Oh sure, we’ve got quite a few more things to evaluate.” Claire said, rubbing her hands together.

~