The Gravity of Anti-Gravity (7 page)

“Bill, it’s Brenda. I’ll be home on Friday and I’d like to see you. Why don’t we go out to dinner on Saturday night? I figure money’s tight so I’ll pay.”

“You’re asking me out?” I answered trying to be clever in my response. “You know you’ve been away for awhile, Brenda. You must realize that my time is in high demand by lots of important people. Hold on, let me check my schedule.” I paused for a few seconds to build some drama. “That’s amazing and you’re in luck. I am free Saturday night.”

“I’ll pick you up at seven-thirty. I’ll drive.” Brenda said cheerfully, “I understand you still have the Saturn and I’d like to get home in one piece.”

-11-

Bright and early on Tuesday at 6:00 AM I met with Dr. Blackburn and Dr. Brooks. Dr. Blackburn met me at the door to the conference room and was more cordial to me than he had ever been before.

“Good Morning Bill. Since we are colleagues now, please call me as Malcolm.”

“And you might as well call me Arnold.” Dr. Brooks added. “And whatever you do, don’t call me Arnie. That’s what my wife calls me and I almost didn’t marry her because of it.” I decided to keep referring to Dr. Brooks as Dr. Brooks. Anything else just didn’t feel right.

“All right Dr. Brooks and Malcolm, what’s the plan?” I asked.

“Not to be funny but our first order of business is to plan the plan.” Said Dr. Brooks “We will have several more people working on the project in a few days so we need to determine the areas that need to be investigated and who would be best suited to accomplish the goals we are going to set. We will place people in a slot when we identify their particular strengths.”

Then Malcolm asked the question. “What is our overall goal? We’ve got to start there.”

Dr. Brooks answered, “agreed, but in a general sense it’s pretty obvious. Was the time shift the result of some accident, experiment gone wrong, nefarious activity, or was it a natural occurrence in nature that we have never observed before?”

The three of us met until 7:00 PM throwing out hypothesis after hypothesis. Most were immediately thrown out. When we determined that an idea had merit, we had to figure out which data was needed and the ways to gather that data. Next we had to devise ways to mathematically test the data for validity. Then we had to identify how we would determine the usefulness of the conclusion based on the original goal.

“Malcolm I’m tired. Thirteen non-stop hours are enough. Let’s quit and reconvene tomorrow at six,” said Dr. Brooks.

Malcolm said yes and I wholeheartedly agreed.

The next morning we dug back in. After a decent night’s sleep the ideas came a little easier and quicker. Now we had a routine and the projects came faster and smoother.

At about 4:00 PM, Dr. Brooks announced, “I think we have a good framework to put our new geniuses to work. We’ve got two fellows arriving tomorrow. We’ll orient them and bring them into our thought processes. First we will need to see if they have any angles on the project that we haven’t thought of. So let’s go home and rest. We’ve got a big day tomorrow”

On Thursday Drs. Johnson and Singh arrived. They were both typical scientist types complete with corduroy sport coats with leather patches on the elbow.

After Dr. Brooks got them up to speed on our project, they went to their desks and got started. Malcolm and I also went to our respective stations and started on our assigned segment of the investigation.

Strange and conflicted didn’t come close to describing the feeling I had. I was assigned to help discover the cause of a phenomenon for which I was responsible. The consequences for me if the team discovered the truth ranged somewhere between jail time and the Nobel Prize.

The next day was Friday. I knew we all were going to work on Saturday and I had already requested the evening off so that I could go out with Brenda. Since I was by far the youngest participant, Dr. Brooks took pity on me and agreed. About 10 AM we were all called into the conference room to go over any progress we’d made. Very little useful information was offered so Dr. Brooks excused us. As we got up, Dr. Brooks stopped us and related one more bit of information.

“We have one more colleague who will be joining us later today. It turns out she will be the only female in our little group but her resume and references are impeccable. Turns out she has a PHD, in both physics and chemistry from MIT. Her qualifications and experience are tremendous and I think she’ll be a great addition to the group. Here’s a copy of her abbreviated resume. I think you’ll find it impressive. We’ll meet again late this afternoon to monitor any progress we’ve made and meet our new member Dr. Stella Morton. See you all later.”

The afternoon meeting was scheduled for 4:00 PM. As we gathered, Dr. Brooks introduced our newest colleague.

“Gentleman I’d like to introduce the newest and probably last member of our little fact finding group. Dr. Stella Morton.”

Then she walked in.

Without it ever being said, we were all expecting a matronly, middle aged, frumpily dressed and slightly overweight woman, wearing thick glasses, with a great mind and minimal sex appeal. What we got was one of the finest examples of a beautiful young woman I had ever seen. She was about five feet eight with dark hair and blue-green eyes. Her hair was pulled back with some spiral curls hanging down framing her face. She was slender and curvaceous all at the same time. The small amount of cleavage she was showing was the icing on a flawless cake. I decided right then and there that my new mission was to do the due diligence required to confirm or deny my initial impression.

Dr. Brooks started our introductions. If any of the men in the room were able to focus at that time, I wasn’t one of them. When she was introduced to me I stood up, shook her hand firmly and just stared.

“Bill, you can stop shaking Dr. Morton’s hand now,” Dr. Brooks said. “I’m sorry Stella; I think it’s evident that you were not what Mr. Burton was expecting. Now wipe that drool off your chin Bill.”

That comment got a small chuckle from the serious audience.

“It’s time for us all to go back to work.”

At about 7:00 P.M. we again met in the conference room. Dr. Brooks told us to go home, rest our minds, and reconvene at 8 AM Saturday for a progress report. I went home, had some cold meatloaf that grandma had in the fridge and fell into bed.

When I got back to work the next morning, we all recapped any progress we’d made on our project. There wasn’t much yet.

“Everybody go back to work except Bill and Dr. Morton.” Dr. Brooks said. I need to talk to you two together.”

“Bill, I had a long discussion with Dr. Morton last night.” I went over everybody’s assignment including yours. She feels that you have been assigned the most promising approach to solving our mystery. She said she would like to work with you.”

“Bill, Dr. Brooks filled me in on your background.” Dr. Morton commented, “Even though you are a little short on experience, and you don’t have any advanced degrees, he convinced me your unique approach to solving problems would be much more of an asset than a liability. I hope he’s correct. What I do know is that what you lack, I will complete.”

I thought her choice of words was a little strange but I got the point. She had no confidence in my abilities, would take over our part of the investigation and probably kick me to the curb as soon as she could. We’ll see, I thought, we’ll see!

Because there were two of us who were to work together, Dr. Brooks gave Dr. Morton and me a small office with two desks instead of the cubicle that I’d been working at before. After we settled in, I explained to her the progress I’d made on our project segment. I fully expected her to start taking over the direction of our research. Since I was the target of the world’s entire investigation, a thought hit me like a George Foreman punch. Her taking over would be a blessing in disguise and I decided to let her do it.

“Dr. Morton, how late do you want to work tonight? I’ve got a date and I’d like to leave by six.”

“You do grasp the gravity of our work, don’t you?” she said. “The world wants answers. They have chosen us, and that includes you, to give them some. And please call me Stella.”

“But rest and recreation is what we all need to keep our brain functional and fresh, don’t you think, Stella?” I asked.

“Somehow, my young friend, I’d be surprised if your goal for tonight is to rest; recreation maybe, but rest, no,” she said.

“Maybe there is some truth to that,” I responded.

With that comment I explained that my date was with my high school sweetheart and that we hadn’t been together in over two years. I kept my story brief because, as I was discovering, Dr. Stella Morton, despite her incredible beauty, was a no nonsense kind of gal.

Just before six, I asked Stella if she thought it was alright for me to leave.

Stella looked at me and rolled her eyes. “OK, but call me after your date. I might still be here working and I may need your assistance. Go ahead now. Have a good time.”

As I was walking out, Stella stopped me.

“Bill, there is something you need to know.” After a long pause she looked me in the eye and said, “I know what happened!”

-12-

As I was driving home, I was trying to make some sense out of what Stella had said. She couldn’t know about me, How could she. If she did know, why didn’t she say something to Dr. Brooks? She must have meant that she had a theory of what happened or had a new approach to discover it. The whole thing was starting to make me crazy.

Because of the stress of the last week and Stella’s parting comment, I made a conscious effort to put the whole concept out of my head. I was going on a date with Brenda. No matter how it turned out, I wanted to make the best out of seeing her.

I got home, went in, said ‘Hi’ to Pops, Grandma and Joanna. Joanna was dressed up and looked gorgeous.

“Who’s the lucky guy” I said, “I’d say you look fantastic, but I can’t because you’re my sister. I think it would break the brother, sister code.”

“You don’t know, do you?” Joanna answered.

“Is it someone I know or should know? With my crazy schedule the last few years I’m sorry I haven’t met many of your friends.”

Then there was a knock on the door. Joanna went to answer it but I stopped her.

“Let me answer it. I’ll act like your tough older brother. I’ll put the fear of god into this kid and let him know that he’d better take care of my kid sister or else.”

I threw my shoulders back to look as big as I could and reached for the door. As it opened, a loud booming voice almost knocked me down.

“Hey, Cal-Techno Nerd, long time, no see.” It was Jerry.

He stepped in and I was speechless. As I tried to determine if he was Joanna’s date, she ran up and took his arm. He kissed her on the cheek and it was obvious, they were going out.

“Jerry, is Joanna the hottie you were talking about the other night? If she is, I don’t like this one bit!”

“Bill, look at her. She definitely qualifies as a hottie but no, she wasn’t the girl I went out with last Saturday. That was Evelyn Thompson. Remember I dated her in high school some. Turns out she’s already working on her second divorce. One date with her was enough. She almost killed me. And I mean that in a good way.”

Joanna was standing there smiling and blushing. A feeling of love for her came over me as I realized that my sister was grown up and was sweet and beautiful and mature beyond her years.

Just as I was leaving the room to clean up, there was another knock at the door.

“Oh my God, it’s Brenda and I haven’t even had a chance to shower.”

I opened the door and Brenda came in. I hugged her and she hugged me back. I apologized for not being ready, and explained that I had just come home from work.

Brenda nodded and said, “No problem.”

I went on to the introductions or reintroductions because we had all known each other in a former life.

“Brenda, I know you remember Jerry. No one could forget Jerry.” I said nervously. “He’s a First Lieutenant in the Army now and a certified hero with even a medal to prove it.”

Jerry and Brenda shook hands. Jerry looked Brenda up and down and commented in his typical brash way “Wow, look at you girl. You are looking just fine!”

“And Brenda, remember my sister Joanna” I continued.

“Joanna, it’s so good to see you again. I would not have recognized you on the street. You’ve turned into such a striking young woman.” Brenda commented. “And you’re going out with Jerry? I hope the Army has mellowed him some. According to my high school friends, going out with Jerry was always a wild and crazy experience. But looking at you now, I think you’ll be able to keep him in line.”

“Sorry to run but I’m sure this young lady is hungry,” Jerry said. “I made reservations at Stanton’s Bistro and we’ve got just 15 minutes to make it.”

Brenda turned to Jerry chimed in “That’s where I made reservations. Why don’t we call them and see if we can move the time back a little and get a table for four. We’ll let Bill here get ready. It’ll be a double date”