by Frank Kale
Chapter Eight
Somerville, Davis Square: While traveling the Thurmond circuit, Zachary sorely missed the eclectic tea selection provided by his Davis Square Coffee shop and upon his first return visit chose an herbal flavor he had never tried, cinnamon chai – though it proved a poor choice so he stood back in line again and ordered his usual standby, honey ginger. A few minutes later, while sipping at his still-too-hot tea, Zachary glanced over his preliminary results and finding reading impossible without note taking -- even if the writing were his own -- he jotted copious notes in the columns, so that by the time Omar and Samantha arrived his preliminary results had the appearance of a failed graduate paper.
Samantha greeted Zachary with a forceful hug and dominated the first few minutes of conversation to such an extent that neither Zachary nor Omar got a word in edgewise. Samantha informed Zachary that their Texas offer had fallen through but that there had been some interest of late by private prisons founded by Donald Thurmond.
“Nice job Zachary, it seems that he has taken an interest in you and therefore in Dunbar and Associates,” Samantha concluded.
“Yes, it was a nice though rather odd meeting. In fact that is the impression that I had with many of the Thurmonds – the CMR positive ones anyway – nice but odd.”
“So what big discovery did you make this time?” Omar asked.
“Well, Dunbar and Associates did not make any big discoveries this time around but we do have some interesting data,” said Zachary, shuffling through his papers and handing Omar and Samantha his preliminary report, their copies of the charts still to his left.
“This looks very rough,” said Samantha, flipping through.
Omar and Zachary looked up both expecting her to say more, but when she did not Zachary explained, “This is only the preliminary report. I still actually have one more test subject, so I want to find out whether Windsor wants me to start writing the final report now or to wait until I have the last subject’s results.”
“So what are we looking at here? Is there a clear heir-apparent?” Samantha asked.
“There are some good prospects, yes, but I really don’t know what criteria Windsor will use. All we can do is to present him with the data in an organized fashion,” said Zachary.
“Okay, so here is the million dollar question that I know you have been dying for me to ask you. What discoveries were made concerning CMR and Trait Theory?” said Samantha.
“Actually it is all pretty dry. Like I said there were no big discoveries. But let’s go through the data. Okay, so all and all there were 24 family members who were tested – and if you can believe it I still haven’t tested Windsor. He will make 25 and the final boy will make 26, if he ends up being tested that is –“
“You still haven’t tested Windsor?” interrupted Samantha.
“No,” said Zachary.
“Well, why the hell not? It would seem that he is a pretty important point of comparison,” Samantha said.
“I know, I agree totally. The opportunity just hasn’t presented itself. I’ve tried but he wasn’t up for it. But when I present him with these preliminary results later today I will see if I can test him,” said Zachary.
Samantha shrugged.
“Give the guy a break. He’s been traveling around the country,” said Omar, a big bite of his muffin still in his mouth.
“No it is okay,” said Zachary, while continuing to riffle through his papers. “I understand her concern. I will get it done. So all total there could be 26 or 25 tested. But at this point there have been 24 tested and I have broken them down first individually. The way these chart works is that a white background indicates CMR positive. A pink back ground indicates CMR negative. And a blue background indicates an unknown CMR status.”
