Noelle was special, this was known very early on. At seven months she had stopped babbling and begun to speak. By the time she was three she was reading grade school novels. While her parents were always fighting like wild animals stuck in a cage with one another they could both agree that their daughter was gifted. The perfect future lawyer, they called her.

The other children disagreed. Noelle was good for cheating off of, but that was the limit. Her classmates wanted to talk Disney, not Tolkien; listen to pop, not Debussy. Overly analytic, overly critical, overly pedantic, and overly lonely, Noelle drifted through life with no friends or prospects for them.

“Star-touched girl,” that was the comforting term her grandmother used to describe her. “You’ll do great things one day, I know it,” is what she told Noelle. Noelle’s older sister, Beatrice, was encouraging as well. Hell, almost everything Noelle read or listened to came on Beatrice’s recommendation. If anyone was to blame for her interests, it was Beatrice. But life never remains constant and eventually the two of them exited the stage.

A grandmother passing was a sad but ordinary occurrence. Beatrice’s death, however, was harder to stomach. Nobody ever expects a beautiful mid-twenties girl to turn up dead out of the blue.

Needless to say, her parents weren’t much help with that stress.In fact, the whole event pushed them into overdrive, snipping at each other more and more and pushing even more lofty expectations onto Noelle. Her career path as a lawyer was an unspoken absolute. They had hated Beatrice’s decision to become a detective and went to any length to encourage Noelle off that path.

Her reprieve came in high school, where she finally made a friend-Emily. It was a new experience, but Noelle knew it would end. She would ship off to college eventually, destined to become the lawyer her parents always wanted her to be.

So she went. Off to Princeton University to pursue her predetermined life.

And then she met Andrew

“Why are you still following us? Hey! Are you even listening?”

A girl’s voice dragged Noelle out of her head. She had been walking behind Oscar, Lorelei, and Beth absentmindedly to the point she overshot her turn and had travelled all the way to the girls’ home.

“Thinking about all that stuff with Talise?” asked Oscar, “Makes sense. I told you magic brought nothing but trouble. Just go home and forget about it. Leave this to the professionals.”

Noelle put on her best nonplussed expression. “I am a professional.”

“You’re a little girl with a badge. Just give it a rest. Even Levi is being held back by you.”

Noelle felt her hackles raise but held back the urge to retort. Oscar’s temper was probably just running high after learning the entire state of New York was at risk. The prospect of another 9/11 or Philadelphia bio-terror incident would make anyone snippy. Oscar was probably racking his brain for a solution this very moment.

Honestly, saying Levi was getting held back...what could that guy do that Oscar and the witches couldn’t? Not that Noelle thought they should get little girls involved.

The front door to the house opened and Dr. Bismark poked his head through. “Quite the crew,” he whistled dramatically.

“Uh, yeah,” Lorelei tilted her head, jumbling up a suitable lie from its depths, “We just kinda ran into each other.”

“I thought we were gonna save the town like heroes?” asked Beth.

“No, don’t be silly,” said Oscar. “That was just pretend! Remember? We were playing a game.” Noelle saw him clench his fist behind his back, out of Dr. Bismark’s sight. There was no benefit in Oscar breaking kayfabe and cluing Dr. Bismark in to monsters and witches,

“Well, I appreciate you guys walking the girls back again. It’s become quite the habit, hahaha!” Dr. Bismark slapped the door frame, causing a loud boom. “I’m actually just about to go check something at the university lab, dinner’s on the table girls.”

“Home made?” asked Lorelei.

“Chinese.”

“Tch! You can’t just feed Beth fast food all the time!”

“Cheer up Lorelei,” chirped Beth. “I’ll give you my egg roll if you’re nice!”

“Like I’d let you eat that fried crap in the first place.” Lorelei’s gripe chased after Beth as the younger girl skipped through the doorway, with Lorelei herself trudging through only a few seconds later. With the girls inside, Noelle was left on the porch with Oscar and Dr. Bismark.

“Sad to say, but I only bought enough for those two.” Bismark laughed at his joke to no one in particular. Noelle realized far too late that she should’ve joined in with him as a courtesy. Now he would just feel awkward hanging around his unreceptive audience.

“Well, see ya,” said Oscar. By the time Noelle turned her head to look at him he had turned his back and made it partway across the street. Now Noelle was alone with a man she knew even less about than she did Oscar.

She admired the pithy he had shown just now, but he could’ve helped her out of this bind a bit more.

“Hmmm...do you live near the university, by any chance?” Bismark asked.

“You should stick to picking up girls your own age,” replied Noelle on auto-pilot. Another social misstep to add to the list.

Dr. Bismark gave a cheery laugh in response. “I need to drive to the university, so I’m willing to give you a ride that far. Take a break and save on some walking, officer.”

Noelle stared out the car window absentmindedly as porch lights flickered by. There was an inviting sense to those lights, like they were welcoming you to come inside their respective buildings. Noelle’s parents always had her check to make sure the light was on when they were expecting evening company. Were all those people waiting for somebody else?

Naturally, she knew they weren’t inviting her; it was just a thought.

She glanced to her left, just barely catching a sight of Dr. Bismark’s profile in her peripheral vision. Against her better judgement she had accepted his offer for a ride despite knowing men were nothing but libido-driven, disgusting so-and-so’s.

“Hopefully you’re not driving me out to the middle of nowhere to have your way with me.”

Dr. Bismarck sputtered then was silent for a moment before answering. “I’m always telling Lorelei there’s a fine line between gallows humor and sheer bad taste. The two of you need to clean up your mouths.”

“Telling me what to do, daddy-o?”

“Don’t call me that. I already have a daughter. Scratch that, I have three counting Lorelei and Beth.”

“Three? Oh...right. Sorry.”

Dr. Bismarck slowed as a couple came into view walking the opposite way, the girl on the sidewalk and the boy on the shoulder. Looking up at the car’s headlights, the boy did a short skip and got in line behind his partner.

“They died around here. They were walking back home, actually. My wife and daughter that is.” Dr. Bismark gripped the steering wheel ever so tighter as he spoke, “It was a hit and run. Ever since then, I’ve never been comfortable with the idea of people walking this road at night.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Nah, don’t I’m sorry to have brought it up. I’m quite the mood killer. Besides, life’s much better now. Lorelei and Beth could give any man hope.”

“Yet they’re at home, and you’re out here,” she chided.

“Hahaha! You got me! Even with all that I still drive off when there’s work to be done.” Bismark’s grip on the wheel eased. Even Noelle could lighten the mood sometimes. She gave herself a mental pat on the back.

Although, she didn’t really mind what he had been saying. Something extremely painful and life changing had happened to him, and yet, he kept on living and giving back. A good person...that’s what he was.

Better than her at least.

“So...what project has you driving to work in the middle of the night?” Noelle let herself relax a bit, stretching out in the passenger seat.

“It’s a bit embarrassing, but...it’s called TWE.”

“I fail to see how that’s embarrassing.”

“I’m sure the only one who knows this is me, but I’ll let you in on it. You see, when I was submitting the project name to my supervisor...I fell asleep and my head hit the keyboard. The name’s an accident.”

“...”

“It was supposed to be called E-Engine. Can you believe it? Now it’s TWE!”

“E-Engine? So it’s an eco project?”

“Hmmhmmmhmmm,” Bismark chuckled to himself, a gleam in his eye. “It’s a bit more sophisticated than that. Have you heard of Maxwell’s Demon?”

“Eh? Maxi dress?”

“No, Maxwell’s demon.”

“Maxi Pad?”

“Stop! I know you heard me the first time! I’m old now! I’m middle-aged! I can’t keep up with your comedy routine!”

“Then no,” said Noelle, “I don’t know what this Maxwell’s Demon is. Some magic story?”

“It’s a common thought experiment in theoretical physics.”

“Not something a pre-law student like I was would deal with.”

“That’s no issue, we can’t all know everything. You know how when you put ice in your drink it starts as cold ice and warm liquid but eventually the ice melts and you’re left with a slightly cooler liquid? That’s the second law of thermodynamics at work. The amount of entropy in an isolated system can’t decrease, so areas of differing energy will reach an equilibrium.”

“I know that much. Even I took high school physics.” Noelle ran her fingers through her hair with a flourish.

“That’s just the primer,” said Bismark, “In the Maxwell’s Demon thought experiment, a chamber of cool particles and hot particles are connected by a door to another room. The demon opens the door fast enough to only let the hot particles through, thereby leaving the hot and cool particles in separate rooms. One room will heat up and one will cool down, rather than approaching equilibrium the temperatures are separate. This decreases entropy, you see?”

“Not at all.”

“Haha! Well I am dumping a lot on you at once!” said Bismark, “In real life, this wouldn’t decrease entropy because the demon would expend energy opening and closing the door. The system would still reach a state of equilibrium. That’s why I enjoy the terminology of calling the facilitator of the theory a demon. Only something fantastical could cause such a thermodynamic effect. You almost wish demons were real!”

Dr. Bismark continued to mutter and chuckle to himself over the thought experiment as Noelle chewed over what he had told her. The idea was all well and good, yet…

“What’s the point of this project then?"

“Try extrapolating the idea a bit. Maxwell’s Demon facilitates free particle exchange. In other words, a perpetual motion machine. The theoretical construct implies an infinite source of clean energy.”

“If it works...which it doesn’t. You admit that yourself.”

“Yes, the project doesn’t work. Even trying to produce energy as cleanly as possible TWE keeps on having all these anomalous faults. That’s why I’m going in tonight. The grant review board’s swinging by next week, I need something to show for it.”

The car slowed as Dr. Bismark turned into one of Cornell’s many lots. “I’d take you all the way, but I’m in a rush.” He motioned towards a jacket in the backseat. “Can you hand me that? The AC in the lab is total overkill.”

Noelle handed him the jacket before opening her door and stepping out. Dr. Bismark gave her a short wave before jogging off towards the building which housed his lab. Noelle watched him get farther and farther away with a slight smile. It was nice to talk to good people every once in a while. She kept on watching until he disappeared indoors before turning to face the night and the rest of her walk to her apartment with no porchlight.