The Mindtraveler by Bonnie Rozanski

Author:Bonnie Rozanski [Rozanski, Bonnie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bitingduck Press
Published: 2015-01-10T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

The following week at two o’clock, one of my undergrads was leaving my office, having just persuaded me to up his grade from C+ to B- on the last exam, and Caleb was on his way in. As usual, he just barged in, pushing the student back against the door frame. Then as the young man left, Caleb closed the door, turning the sign on the door from “Come in” to “Back tomorrow,” and dropped into the chair facing me.

There are two chairs in my office: one for me, and one for the rare visitor. Behind the battered desk stands a single precarious bookshelf crammed with physics books I haven’t looked at in years. Along the adjacent wall lies a lone window so dirty I have to dredge my memory to recall what it looks out upon. The room is an eyesore. No one comes to this office for a social call except Caleb, and I wish he wouldn’t.

“My office hours go till three,” I protested.

“Don’t worry your little head about it,” he said, easing himself back into the chair.

“Caleb, you are so patronizing,” I told him.

“You feminists have no sense of humor, you know that?” Caleb shot back, his fat face looking genuinely hurt.

“One, I’m not a feminist. And two, your so-called jokes aren’t funny. They’re insulting.”

“That’s my point. You women are just too sensitive.”

“Like your ‘joke’ the other day,” I continued, ignoring his comment, “about the gene for intelligence being based on the Y chromosome. Not funny.”

“Everyone else laughed,” Caleb said, crossing his legs.

“Not everyone, and, besides, all the other people in the room were men.”

“Could be the gene for humor is also on the Y chromosome,” Caleb quipped.

“Damn it, Caleb,” I said, standing up. I never could figure the guy out. Half a dozen times he insinuates how much he’d like to get me in bed, but then he goes and insults my intelligence. Some people are clueless.

“Anyway,” Caleb chuckled. “That’s not what I came here to talk about.”

“Okay,” I said, sitting back down. “What is it?”

“Janie Carr called me this morning.”

I felt a jolt of adrenalin, but 35 played it cool. “Did she now?” I said.

“She says that she saw a man coming out of your lab last night. Must have been around nine.”

Another jolt of adrenalin, this time stronger. “What’s she doing, spying on me?”

“No law against standing in the hallway of the science building,” Caleb said with a grin. “The thing is, you didn’t come out for another twenty minutes.”

“Jesus, Caleb. Why are you even talking to her?”

“Hey, she says you won’t talk to her. She pleaded with you, she says, to tell her something—anything—but you said no.”

“I don’t have to give out information on my research until I’m good and ready.”

“Well, that’s why she came to me. I’m advisor to the paper, you’ll remember,” Caleb said. “Anyway, who’s the man? Janie didn’t know. Just said he’s tall. Could it be…Frank?”

“I don’t have to account to you for anything,” I said, folding my arms across my chest.

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