「 The Professor & I 」VOLUME II

(247) Museum

Lynn's POV

The weekend traffic was the kind sort, granting us a smooth joyride as we headed into the upper west side of Manhattan. The weather was fine, brilliant actually, with comfortable breezes gently grazing my hair throughout the pleasant journey.

Unfortunately, it ended far too soon as Charles swiftly pulled us up before the American Museum of Natural History and promptly unplugged the keys.

As the subtle vibrations ceased and the glorious roar of the magnificent V8 faded into the delightfully cool summer air, I faced towards him, smiling weakly. He beamed brightly in return, leaning over intimately to cradle my head and kiss my temple, gradually moving down my cheek, eventually ending with a sweet one on my lips.

"We're here," Charles blatantly informed as he lightly squeezed my palm and I giggled.

"Can we drive somewhere aimlessly? When we're done here?" I blurted in the spur of a moment and Charles raised his eyebrows, surveying me in a curious manner, as I too wondered what exactly trundled through my mind in that instance of unknowing impulse, but he soon smiled at me with that typical compassion channeling from the bottom of his heart.

"Anything for you, my love," Charles replied graciously, widening the grin on my face.

Conveniently unstrapping himself from his restraints, Charles expertly assembled his chair again and quickly hoisted himself into it before proceeding over to my side. If the glamorous sports car parked in the handicap lot had not already attracted enough attention from the inherently nosy public, our couple of wheelchairs surely did.

The normal guests disembarking their vehicles gaped indiscreetly, not quite curbing their discriminating thoughts or speculative whispers regarding a bald paraplegic and his peculiar partner with an unusual hairstyle who uncannily also had a pair of legs, and apparently a hand, that could not work.

Some almost paused in their tracks as they passed, disgustedly scrutinizing Charles idly sitting by my door while I slowly pieced mine together but honestly, we could not be more accustomed to the weird stares, yielding them every time we went out.

Independently conquering the tricky task, I finally had my chair ready and confidently transferred out from the coupe, albeit wielding considerable assistance from the plastic brace buckled to my hand. As I manually arranged my limply dangling legs neatly onto the foot bar, Charles smiled at me proudly, locking up, and we cheerily rolled alongside each other into the building.

Crazily long lines snaked from the security checkpoints as we arrived on the cramped interior and it was possibly the only good time to be this outstanding from the remaining of the masses. Readily spotting us, a friendly staff cordially escorted Charles and I towards an express queue for disabled patrons.

The metal detectors inevitably alarmed as we propelled ourselves through but the guards respectfully went through the contents of our bags, striving well, at least on their faces, not to be amazed by the quaint array of essentials loaded in the deceptive sack, and upon presenting to them the relevant documents Jubilee responsibly prepared in accordance with the duly organized excursion, we were cleared to enter the premises.

Together, Charles and I roamed around the various expositions starting from the top floor, not really having to worry about running over anyone as empty paths automatically created themselves in our vicinity, allowing us to thoroughly enjoy the displays without distractions. Progressively, we explored our way down to the ground level, getting sight of Storm and a bunch of our students.