"Graciela. My friends and family call me Grace."
"Pretty name." Now he could finally stop thinking of her asthe woman.
"Thanks."
"So, today was your last day, huh?" Keeping her talking was the best way he could think of to distract her. "Your coworkers must really like you to give you such a nice going away gift."
"It is nice, isn't it?" She stopped hugging her knees to pull the basket closer. She rifled through it. Her head suddenly popped up. "There's a candle in here." Then her face fell. "But no lighter."
"You have a candle?" Damon was already pulling the lighter from his pocket.
"You carry a lighter?" She gave him a puzzled look.
"I'm an Army Ranger. I like to be prepared for anything."
"Well, I'm glad you are." She set the candle on the floor next to his phone.
Damon lit each of the wicks. They were short, so the flames were small at first, but it was enough light to see the rosiness of Grace's full lips and just how big her brown eyes were.
"Now, if only there was a battery-operated fan in here." She lifted her head after poking around in the basket again, concern furrowing her brow. "How long do you think it will take to rescue us? How long will the air in here last?"
Damon looked up at the panel behind the lights. "Considering, we heard the gears of the cables engaging, I don't think this box is all that airtight." Her expression remained doubtful, so he went for distraction again. "How long have you worked here?"
"Five years. I really enjoyed it."
"Why are you leaving then?"
"I moved last week and will be starting a job closer to my new home."
"Same kind of job? Or are you going into a new vocation?"
"Same, but I've recently considered going back to school to get my Doctorate of Radiology."
"So instead of just taking the x-rays, you'd be interpreting them?"
"Yes, but it would be all imaging, not just x-rays."
"Sounds interesting and ambitious. I'm still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up." He tossed the lighter in the air then caught it and tossed it again. If he stayed calm and relaxed, hopefully she would too. "What is the craziest thing you've ever x-rayed...or imaged?"
"I assume you're talking about something more interesting than compound fractures?" When he nodded, she tapped her lips. "Let me see...there was that time when a fourteen-year-old swallowed a whole egg, shell and all."
"You're kidding." Damon tipped his head back and felt the front of his neck. "Having a big mouth is one thing, but how does it fit down the esophagus?"
"It didn't."
They continued to talk about the unusual things she'd seen, including an old man who laughed so hard he swallowed his false teeth, and a guy who had accidentally been shot in the head with a nail gun.
"Ouch." Damon winced. "Did he survive?"
"As far as I know. He was extremely lucky the nail missed the major blood vessels and nerves. If it had been even a centimeter longer, he wouldn't have been so lucky." She rummaged in the basket again.
Damon whistled. "I thought I'd been through some crazy stuff, but nothing like that, thank goodness." He had, however, been grazed by a bullet and caught more shrapnel than he'd ever admit to his mother.
"Being in the military, I'm sure you've seen your share of...grisly injuries."
"Yeah." He stared at the doors, willing them to open. He didn't like where this conversation had gone.
"So, besides living in swamps, what other outrageous things have you done?"
