Author: jash@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu

=============================================================================

	No sex in this one, folks.  Just a vivid memory coming back to 
life.  The odds of the guy in the ECE shop actually seeing this or 
remembering this incident is pretty much near -infinity but I still wish
I could let him know how much he changed my life..

	I'm always looking for critiques (even flames!!) so feel free to 
write to me at jash@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu...  I have no problem with people
e-mailing my stuff around, as long as my name remains with it.

	And for those of you who suffer under the delusion that women 
engineers can't possibly be sensual...  

============================================================================




			DarkNites: ECE shop
			===================


	I wasn't in any kind of mood at all.  I had long been in the state
where nothing mattered or even touched me and I had been this way for longer
than I cared to remember.  My roommate had told me recently in a disgruntled
voice that I just wasn't any fun anymore.  Sorry babe but I don't really give
a damn.  My life was just a series of projects, tests and more projects..  
And a project was exactly why I was in the ECE shop winding yards of red wire 
around my fingers, wondering dispassionately how best to murder my project
partner.

	"Excuse me..", came a strong, level voice behind me.  I automatically
turned around and ran into the most beautiful eyes I had even seen.  For the
first and only time in my life, I felt The Thunderbolt.  I don't really
know what the rest of him looked like and I don't care but his eyes and smile
were things crafted in heaven.  Specifically for me.  My mind screeched to
a halt.

	He held out a tangled bundle of black wire to me.  
	"You dropped this..."  That voice...  Oh God!  The shock of pure 
desire, something totally unfamiliar to that 18 year old virgin, flowed down 
my body. I swear that if I had been capable of motion, I would have reached for
those shoulders and kissed him the way he'd always secretly dreamed someone 
would.  Right there in Learned Hall and started a scandal..
	"Uhh..", my mind raced vainly for something inspired to say..  
"Thanks."  The rest of me recoiled.  THAT'S IT????  YOU MORON!! 
Another beautiful smile and he walked out.  Stop him!  How?  I don't know,
goddamit..  How would P. handle this??  I was still scrambling for ideas when 
he reached the hallway doors and disappeared.  Oh HELL!

	I turned back to the counter, completely disoriented, and the shop
assistant was grinning at me knowingly.  Embarrassment rose.  Dammit, if 
it was so obvious, why the hell hadn't He done something about it??  I could
only live in the hope that he had been too blind to see it.  As for the 
shop guy, he never knew how close he came to having a bag of parts rammed 
down his throat...

	I walked back to the 301 lab clutching my brown paper overflowing
with chips and wire, reveling in the unusual feeling of rubbery legs.  My 
whole body felt more alive than it had in a year.  Singing heart, stupid grin, 
I had all the symptoms.  I noticed the men passing me in the hall, I saw the 
guys sunning themselves on the courtyard outside the windows.  All friends, 
all definitely off-limits, but for the first time, all very male..  

	
	I started living life that day, and I hope I never stop.

