The Medical Center was nestled in a grove of Eucalyptus trees on the west side of the hill, separating the hospital from the Research Center and classrooms that were scattered over the hills. Everything on "Pill Hill", as the doctors, professors, and research students called it affectionately, was painted white and now, in the late morning sun, the hill had a magical feeling to it. Buzzing with activity, students rushed to and from classes, eyes glued to the sidewalk in worry… spring time was a time of completion – graduation, diplomas and careers all pending.

And so, too, Ann Dexter shared in this elation of growth, although to a minor degree in her involvement with her husband's research project. Not that she didn't have any plans of her own! For if the young blonde's fantasies had any foundation, today would be the final test!

The gears of the Dexter's second car – a blue Volkswagen they bought two years ago when new cars were purely a thing of the future – ground and meshed as Ann maneuvered the car up the forty-five degree hill to the underground parking lot, slowing only to drop two quarters into the slot and waited for the mechanical machine to spit out a piece of paper as her receipt.

With anxious, shaking hands, she smeared on a fresh layer of reddish-brown lipstick and an extra smudge of black mascara to make her eyelashes look like spider legs. Ann couldn't remember when she'd been more uptight, unless it was at her wedding when one of her old boyfriends who'd warned her that a marriage to a man twice her age would never work, slipped her a piece of paper with his phone number on it, and right in front of Ann's mother, too! From that moment on, she'd looked on Carl with cooler, less ardently loving eyes. It was an omen she'd ignored.

From the underground parking lot, it was only a short walk to the elevator that zoomed her to the mezzanine level of the student union and from there, a half block to the Research Center building overlooking the sun-warmed city.