Chapter 15: The Interview

Carlos may not have known what the error message meant but he did know one thing, there was now a perfectly scientific reason for Cecil to be on his mind, which meant he could see him without judgement from his team, or perhaps more accurately, from himself. After all, someone with those readings would be of great interest to Mr Markson and his 'company'. It would probably win him a ton of brownie points if he found out more. So, he invited him to an interview, which Cecil gleefully accepted.

Holding the interview at the lab seemed like a terrible idea. For one, there were a lot of dangerous chemicals around that he didn't entirely trust curious Cecil not to touch. Then, of course, there was his team, who knew way too much and weren't afraid to let Carlos' hidden affections slip. So where to hold such an important meeting? There was the radio station, but Carlos didn't feel entirely safe there with the interesting state of station management. That just left two places. Cecil's place or his? It would probably be rude to invite himself into Cecil's home, even though the offer had been made on the hill, so Carlos cleaned his own apartment top to bottom and brewed tea in preparation of the visit.

"This is a lovely place you've got here." Said Cecil as he hung up faux fur coat. Cecil's fashion sense seemed to be getting more and more bizarre as their meetings went on, not that Carlos minded. His self-confidence was something to be admired. Carlos' apartment wasn't a lovely place. It was a small box apartment with one bedroom, no carpet, barely furnished, and still no lock. Still, it was only temporary.

"Thank you." Carlos replied as he hung his white lab coat, which was quickly becoming light grey with all the sand and dust constantly blowing in the air. He really hoped Night Vale had a normal laundromat. Had Cecil ever seen him without his lab coat? In the last four months, he couldn't remember ever taking it off in front of anyone, not even his team. It was kind of like a security item, a warm little piece of home. "I have cookies. Do you want one?"

"Oh, I'd love one. Ah, but do they contain wheat? The city council has a warning out about wheat and wheat-by products at the moment. It's nothing serious, at least not yet, but I don't really want to take the risk, you know?"

"I'm not sure. It's a gluten free mix from the Ralph's. It's kind of experimental." He shrugged.

"Well, I can't turn down an experiment." Cecil winked as he took one of the sugary snacks. The pair took their seats as Cecil took a bite. "Oh wow, these are…interesting."

"Are they bad?"

"No, no, they're not bad. They're just…very spicy." Cecil winced.

"Spicy?" Asked Carlos. Cecil tried to say yes, but just ended up nodding through bouts of coughing. "Huh, I'll have to look into that." The box didn't say anything on the front about spice, though he wouldn't put it passed the cashier not to find a way to put a little something extra in there. At least he'd stopped barking at him.

After a quick glass of milk to cool Cecil's burning mouth, the interview started. Carlos grabbed his notebook and his glasses. He didn't actual need glasses, but they made him feel more intelligent and he kind of liked the look.

"Oh, I'd like to record this, if that's alright with you." Said Carlos. He presented a cassette recorder from out of his shirt pocket. He would have used his mobile, but recently blood had started seeping out of the home button and he wasn't messing with that.

"Carlos, I'm a radio host. I live to be recording." Cecil smiled before taking another sip of milk.

"Okay." Carlos laughed nervously. He started the recording device and placed it on the table next to the box of spicy cookies. "So, I'd like to talk to you about your readings the other day."

"Oh yeah, did you work out what that was?" Asked Cecil.

"No, that's what I'm trying to figure out." Totally, 100% for figuring out the readings. It wasn't just an excuse to chat and drink milk with Cecil, no Sir. "I mean, Night Vale's radiation levels are higher than usual, which is kind of concerning, but I doubt your readings are going to be higher than everyone else, unless you drank gallons of toxic waste as a kid."

"I might have done. I don't have the greatest memory when it comes to my childhood…or…. well anything."

"I feel like you'd remember doing something like that. What about electrical signals? Do you have any implants? Like…a lot of implants."

"Nope, this is all me, baby." Cecil smirked, waving dramatically at himself, causing Carlos to laugh.

"Well, that's good. Is there anything exclusive to Night Vale that you might have been exposed to that I wouldn't know about?"

"How would I know whether or not something was exclusive to Night Vale?"

"Have you never left?"

"Once, to Europe, a very, very long time ago."

"It can't have been that long ago. I mean you're only…I'm sorry, how old are you?"

"You know I'm…I'm not actually sure."

"Huh." Carlos quickly made a note. Sure, there was bad memory, but not knowing Cecil not knowing his own age was a whole new level of forgetfulness. "You know I went to Europe once. I went to France. And I lived in Italy for a short time, but only for a few months."

"Oh, I know French. Como estan tus burros?" Asked Cecil.

"That's Spanish, but my donkeys are fine, thank you."

"I meant to say how was your trip." Cecil blushed.

"It was very nice. And don't worry, I'll teach you proper Spanish. No French though, sorry."

"That would be fantastic."

"So, where did you go?" Asked Carlos.

"Oh, I went all over the place. Alright, let me tell you about Svitz."

Carlos never managed to turn the conversation back to Cecil's unusual readings, but then again, he didn't really try. Instead, he listened to Cecil's stories of countries he'd never heard of and got silently jealous of unnamed travel partners. Soon, things quickly moved to childhood summer holidays. Carlos scientific adventures in woods all across America, Cecil's blurry, barely remembered staycations in Night Vale. They talked for hours, usually taking cookies out of the box, which despite the undeniable taste actually had quite a nice flavour to them. By the time the conversation finally ended, it was dark outside, and Carlos had gained very few helpful notes.

"Hmm, it's half an hour earlier today." Carlos muttered.

"What was that?" Asked Cecil.

"Nothing." Carlos smiled as he handed Cecil his coat.

"Hey, we should do this more often. I find it so easy to talk to you. I mean…not like on the radio. On the radio it's just people listening to me. With you, it's like your hearing me."

"I…like talking to you too, Cecil."

"I'll see you soon. We can do more science or Spanish or Spanish science."

"I'd love to do whatever Spanish science is." Carlos laughed.

"We can find out together. Bye, Carlos. Thanks for the cookies." Cecil waved as he walked away.

"Thanks for the science." Carlos waved back. Spanish science. That sounded like fun. That could be their thing.