Maille Jents

Her name means Pearl Peace. And she truly is. A rare find. A pearl, and from the first moment I really looked at her. She brought peace.

I have to say really looked at her, because I actually had met Maille before she rescued me. She'd been working at the lab for a couple of years before I came on board. To say I didn't take notice of her is an understatement. Especially for me. I'd given her enough notice to know that she lived alone, was strapped for cash, had a love of animals, and that she started crushing on me from the moment I walked in the door.
I hadn't come to work for a relationship, let alone for someone easily flustered; when she spoke at all, and clumsy; which caused her to move more slowly to avoid being clumsy,  She ended up just being quiet around me. To which I liked then as senseless chatter only gave me cause to put my foot in my mouth. I regret that. She's keener then the typical girls I've been stuck around in the various jobs I've been in.
She's skilled in understanding people's nuances. What makes them tick, what calms them down. She's a born people person. She knew that I had no interest in her, that I didn't want friends, and so left me alone. Remaining nonjudgmental the whole time of my attitude towards her. I wish I had made more of an effort to get to know her. Really, know her. Observational skills only help me with physical attributes and then again, only in attributes I choose to remember. For example I couldn't have told you what color her eyes were, or if her hair was curly or straight, though I may have been lucky and known her hair color. 
Maille, she can see into the emotions of people, and understand where they're coming from, why they're acting like they are, and how to fix it if it needs fixing in the same amount of time it takes me to be 'Sherlock' and learn from observing those physical attributes. I'm dead sure that if I'd made more of an effort to learn from her and not write her off as no one of consequence...I wouldn't have gotten into that mess with Howard.

It didn't happen. But I'm grateful that she is the caring person she is. For if she hadn't been an animal lover, she wouldn't have been heart-broken that more hamsters had died, she wouldn't have watched for signs of life and noticed that I had moved. In other words, I wouldn't be alive if she hadn't been there.  

Martin Elek