Free Flicker by Viola Grace

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter One
     
     
    “We’re next. I can tell.” The two ladies on her left snickered and looked over at the alien attendants who were keeping an eye on the waiting room. The women were ogling the physiques on the aliens and making comparisons to human males.
    Seval had finished her questionnaire and was waiting patiently for her name to be called so that she could go home. With deliberate attention, she hunkered in on herself and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. She knew that she had succeeded when the attendant who had taken her questionnaire was standing right in front of her and he still couldn’t see her.
    Finally he gave up, “Seval Wythin? Are you still here?”
    She relaxed her body and spoke softly to him so as not to startle him, “Yes, I am right here. May I go now?”
    Her attempt to keep him from jumping was in vain. He leapt away from her as if scalded. She stood, resigned to the looks that she was getting from the ladies who had been gossiping about the sexual positions of the alien races.
    “Miss Wythin? Please follow me, there is someone who wishes to speak with you for a moment.” The attendant recovered from his start and walked in front of her through a series of doors, each guarded by a couple of alien attendants. “Miss Wythin? Why did you keep yourself from being noticed in the waiting room?”
    “The women were being a little harsh with their assessments of the other volunteer candidates. I didn’t want them to turn their attention to me.”
    They continued their march down hallways and finally he let her precede him through the doors. “A Representative will be with you in a moment. Please be patient.”
    She was patient. There was no one to hide from in here so she just decided to stay calm. What other choice was there? A sudden whirring of a camera drew her gaze to the ceiling and she immediately wanted to be somewhere else. She hated cameras, hated being on film. It was her least favourite place to be.
    A knock on the door let her know that the solitude was over. He was a tiny silver man, no bigger than four feet tall. “Hello, Miss Wythin, I am Alliance Representative Alaw.”
    She extended her hand and felt less foolish when he took it. “Pleased to meet you.”
    “I have come here to offer you a position with the Volunteers leaving the Earth in a few weeks.”
    Her jaw had to have been hanging open. “What? Why? Why me?”
    “You have an unusual talent. Let me show you.” He had left the door open and the attendant manning it came forward with a small box. Oh, it was a DVD player. Alaw opened it and began to run some footage. “Here you are filling out the forms and answering our extensive questionnaire.” Sure enough, she was on the screen, biting at her lip as she concentrated.
    “And here you are handing in your documents.” Sure enough, there she was, but a flicker on the screen was affecting the spot where she was standing. “Why did you not want to be noticed there?”
    “The attendant was cute and we made eye contact. I suddenly wanted to be out of his site.” She had never seen herself in that kind of a situation. Certainly not from this angle.
    “Ah.” He made a note on a small tablet that he had produced. “You are shy then? Afraid of attention?”
    “Most of the time, yes. The attention that I have received in my life has not been of the highest calibre.”
    “I thought that might be the case, for example, here.” Her tiny image was in the waiting room and as the women began to gossip, she began to flicker on screen until she was only some heat wave haze. “Obviously you were under duress. It was only logical for you to disappear into the scenery. Has anyone ever sat upon you?”
    Ruefully she had to admit, “Twice. More, if you count my family.”
    “I thought as much.” He suddenly turned all cheerful and businesslike. “My dear Miss Seval, I am offering you the opportunity of your lifetime. You can learn to