Resistance (Replica) by Jenna Black Page A

to show up or when, because that would have required communication with the outside world, and she wanted to make sure she didn’t miss a single minute of her time with her loved ones.
    The visitors’ lobby was festive and comfortable. Chairs and tables were arranged in intimate clusters so that people could visit in a semblance of privacy. There was a table of hors d’oeuvres set up near the entrance, and retreat staff prowled the room to take drink orders. A merry wood fire crackled away in a recessed area in the middle of the room, and Nadia could see the carpeted stairs leading down to the fireplace were a popular seating choice, the room being surprisingly chilly considering the outside temperature.
    Except for the fireplace with its enormous mantel and the chimney that disappeared into the ceiling, the lobby had an open floor plan. Standing in the doorway from the dormitory wing, Nadia could see practically the whole room without having to move. The visitors hadn’t been granted entry yet, so all she could see were retreat employees and fellow inmates like herself. It was a veritable sea of powder-blue uniforms, and Nadia swore that when she got out of here, she would never again wear so much as a hair ribbon in that color.
    The visitors began to trickle in within a minute or so of Nadia’s arrival, and she waited and watched breathlessly as people in street clothes entered the room. There were some enthusiastic greetings, complete with hugs and kisses, but mostly everyone was quiet and reserved, as if they were meeting at a funeral. Nadia supposed the circumstances that had driven most of the guests into the retreat cast a pall on their relationships with friends and family.
    By six o’clock, the steady stream of visitors had slowed to a trickle, and no one had come for Nadia. She circled the room restlessly, feeling like a lost soul. Of course, she reminded herself, the retreat was almost an hour and a half’s drive from Manhattan, so it would take a while for any of her visitors to arrive. Neither her father nor Gerri would leave work early for anything short of a crisis, and her mother would wait for them before coming out herself.
    Nate’s absence was a little harder to explain away, as he was liable to duck out of work on the flimsiest of excuses. She knew he was trying to become more responsible, but she didn’t think his newfound sense of responsibility would keep him in the office when he had a chance to visit her, especially when they hadn’t seen each other before she’d been spirited away. He would want to put in an appearance to give her some moral support, if nothing else.
    Nadia finally got tired of her restless pacing and plunked into a seat where she’d have a good view of the entrance. She wasn’t the only retreat guest not to have any visitors yet, and she supposed she could go sit with some other lonely guest so they could keep each other company. But the guests were far from the most social bunch, and Nadia was so much younger than everyone else it was hard to find common ground. She felt like a complete pariah sitting in the corner by herself, but that wasn’t enough to motivate her to move.
    The hollow feeling in Nadia’s stomach worsened as every minute ticked by. She checked the time compulsively, deciding that she couldn’t reasonably expect anyone to show up until 6:30 if they didn’t leave Manhattan until 5:00. When 6:30 rolled around and there was still no one, she told herself they probably didn’t leave work until 5:30, and therefore she shouldn’t expect anyone until 7:00.
    When 7:00 came and went and she was still alone, Nadia ran out of hopeful excuses and started entertaining the possibility that no one was coming. At first, she could hardly believe that was the case, but as the hands on the clock continued their relentless circling, it became harder and harder to deny it. She considered fleeing the visitors’ lobby and heading back to her room before visiting hours