Late-K Lunacy by Ted Bernard

Author:Ted Bernard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, environment, dystopia, future, novel, science, ecology, apocalyptic, catastrophe, academia
Publisher: Petra Books

19

Truman Tulkinghorn dialed Jasper Morse’s number for the sixth time in three days. It went immediately to the same voice mail message he had been receiving all weekend. He killed the call. No use leaving the same message again and again. The thing was, he had cornered Morse and Morse knew it. The old buzzard was delaying. His only way out was to accede to Tulkinghorn’s demands as soon as possible. Then everyone could get back to their lives. After the state issued its permits for drilling, which, thanks to the faithful Katavanakis, Tulkinghorn knew was imminent, Morse could gobble his oil and gas, the president would have his energy plan, and he himself, would have secured a permanent place in the pantheon of Gilligan scholar-leaders. Except for the student unrest, all the loose ends would be tidied up. Like gnats in a Dakota spring, those whippersnappers had been nipping him at each energy forum. He needed to speak to the provost about shutting them down. Tulkinghorn went off to lunch forgetting his phone. When he returned, Morse had left a voice mail message.

A few minutes later, when Greta entered Dr. T.’s office, she came upon a scene that proved once again that you can never fully fathom life. Even in the goosey Gilligan world where academic politics reached levels of vitriol and absurdity far out-weighing the stakes, let alone reason. In two decades of running the show in CNRD, Greta believed she had seen everything. But here, crazy beyond reason, she found her ill-humored boss leaning back in his office chair, his stumpy legs stretched across to the desk top and shoeless feet crossed atop the blotter. His eyes were closed and his face, like warm putty, had serenely relaxed downward subsuming both chin and jaw. For just a moment Greta saw not a face but a rippled series of chins. He opened his eyes and to her great surprise beamed the broadest smile she’d ever seen. “Greta,” he exclaimed, using her given name, which usually meant trouble, “this is one helluva a beautiful afternoon, isn’t it?”

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