Summer Beach: Coral Cottage by Jan Moran

Author:Jan Moran [Moran, Jan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781647780036
Publisher: Sunny Palms Press
Published: 2020-07-27T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 14

“Who is Grandma COBOL?” Kai asked, leaning toward her laptop screen in the study. “And that looks like Ginger beside her.” She read the caption under the photo. “That hulking machinery is a Univac computer, early 1960s. Way before PCs.”

“In the age of the dinosaurs in computer terms,” Marina said. “Say, that’s about when Ginger and Grandpa were living on the east coast, isn’t it?” The old photo uploaded to a website was a little blurry, but Marina could make out Ginger. “Let’s see,” she said, clicking on the other woman’s name. “Grace Hopper. Commodore Hopper, that is. Recipient of a Presidential Medal of Freedom. I think that’s the highest honor in this country.”

“For what?” Kai asked. The sisters sat huddled in front of her laptop in the study. They’d almost forgotten about the new stickers that Kai was making for Marina.

Marina clicked again. “Wow. Grace was an amazing woman. Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale, Navy Reserve, and this.” She pointed to the screen. “She was known for translating mathematical notations into machine code. She wrote the very first computer compiler.”

“And invented the programming language, COBOL.” Kai pressed a hand to her forehead. “That’s huge. Wonder if Ginger worked with her?”

“Maybe. Evidently, Jack knows more about our grandmother’s professional life than we do. And she confirmed it. But that’s about all she said.” Marina folded her arms. “Have you ever noticed that Ginger is sometimes vague about the trips she takes?”

Kai nodded. “I never really thought of Ginger as more than a math teacher or a diplomat’s wife.”

“Those are both important positions,” Marina said, shooting her sister a look.

“I know, but hanging out with people like Commodore Hopper. And Julia Child, and princes and barons and who knows who else. I used to think she made up all her stories, but maybe our granny had another life we didn’t understand when we were younger.”

“Perhaps she still does,” Marina said, musing over what she saw on the screen. “Jack said she was a code breaker. A cryptologist. That’s easy to believe. We all played her games with codes and ciphers when we were little.”

“Looks like she knows more people in high places,” Kai said. She tapped another link. “There she is again on the grounds of the C.I.A.”

“But Grandpa’s work took them everywhere, and they would have met many high-ranking people.” Marina squinted at the image. “She’s standing in front of a sculpture that looks like alphabet soup. Wow, it’s beautiful, like a high, verdigris scroll unfurled with row upon row of letters. And she’s with the head of the C.I.A.”

Kai read the headline. “Kryptos: An Undecipherable Code?” Sitting back, she said, “Why do I feel like I’m Alice stumbling around in Wonderland?”

Marina laughed. “Or Forrest Gump, where our grandmother seems to have inserted herself into history, and we knew nothing about it.” She rested her chin on her hand. “But this sort of makes sense. Remember those clues she used to leave for us that led to birthday surprises? We had to solve them to find the gifts.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.