Wanda

by carl smothers

  Bill checked the room and everyone nodded in agreement. “All right, it’s a go. Dr. Ignaz and I will run this up the management chain. I suspect they’ll concur with us.”

  Chapter 7

  NSTA

  Washington, D.C.

  Harry carefully put his Qtab in his brief case and closed the latches. He was leaving to attend the Project Wormhole kickoff meeting with Marc Anthoni and his team from STL. Just as he was about to go, Bill Hart rang in on the vid link.

  “Hi, Bill, what up? I was just leaving for the spaceport.”

  “Harry, please come to my office right now. I need to talk to you.”

  Harry was curious. Bill knew he was preparing to leave. Why such a last minute meeting? I wonder if they cut our funding. He put down his case and headed to Bill’s office. I hope this won’t take long, or I might miss my flight. “What’s up, Bill? I was about ready to leave for Virginia.”

  “Sit down, Harry.” Bill had a strained look on his face as though he was trying to figure out what to say. Finally he spoke. “I don’t know exactly how to say this, but I guess I might as well be blunt. One of the contractors, who proposed on your project, has accused you of taking a monetary bribe from STL.”

  “What? Harry was floored by that statement and didn’t know how to respond. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! How could they make such an accusation?” Harry was hurt, confused and angry. Who would do such a screwy thing? “The proposal evaluation was done to the letter of the law. Everyone agreed STL should have won the bid. There was no disagreement about the winner.”

  “A contractor claims one of their people saw you and Marc Anthoni in front of a restaurant just prior to proposal release and saw him hand you a package. Their deposition says you opened a small box and pulled out a one thousand dollar bill, then shook his hand, and patted him on the shoulder after you put the bill back. They also said you left with the money. Can you please explain that to me? They’ve filed a formal protest and, unless we can refute their claim, we have to shut the project down until the litigation issues are resolved.”

  “I can’t believe this,” Harry blurted out in protest. “The bill they saw was a confederate bill from the eighteen hundreds. I collect old currency and I mentioned it to Marc who’s also a currency collector. He ran into the bill at a coin dealer convention. He called me, and I asked him to buy it for me. I sent him a check that night. I can show you the bill and the cancelled check if you like. If I were taking a bribe, don’t you think I would have been more discrete about it? I’m not that stupid!”

  “Harry, I don’t believe a word of this, but my hands are tied. Management insists that we put you on unpaid administrative leave until this thing is settled. I’m afraid you’ll have to cancel your trip and the project kickoff meeting. In addition, the lawyers said you can’t visit the office, talk to any of the staff or contractors involved while this is going on. I’m very sorry.”

  “So am I,” Harry replied. He got up and left without another word. He had never been so hurt and so mad in his life. He knew it wasn’t Bill’s fault, but he felt like telling him and NSTA to kiss off. He had never been so insulted in his life. He stormed out of the building and stood fuming while he waited for Jack to pick him up. I can’t believe this shit!

  The Loft

  Washington, D.C.

  When he got home, Scooter met him at the door. “Hi, Harry. Home so soon? We weren’t expecting you back for several days. Did your trip get canceled?”

  “Yeah, and I won’t be going anywhere for awhile. Bring me a drink will you?”

  “Coming right up, boss.”

  He threw his brief case on the table and flopped down in his favorite chair. “Scooter, hurry up with that drink!” he yelled. He was devastated. As sometimes happens with bad news, his mind took it to the extreme and he fell into a deep depression. Why me? He thought. I don’t deserve this. I wonder who stabbed me in the back and why? He chug-a-lugged the drink as soon as Scooter gave it to him.

  Wanda then appeared. “What’s wrong, Harry?” You look like you’ve got a black cloud hanging over you.”

  Harry told her the whole story then demanded another drink.

  “Can’t you show them that bill? What if Marc sends a certified letter as to the exchange through his legal department?” she asked.

  “I’m sure he will, but he’s a party to the whole thing. They’re not going to believe him. I don’t know what to do. I’ve wanted to work on wormholes my entire life. I spent seven years at Cal Tech preparing for it. I feel like I just wasted my time. It was my dream and now it’s been taken from me. Even worse, I’ve been disgraced to the entire research and development community. Nothing is worse than a crooked politician or program manager. My whole life has been screwed up and there’s nothing I can do about it. Scooter, bring me another drink — now!”

  “You better cool the booze, Harry,” Wanda said sternly. “You’re going to get drunk and that’s not going to solve anything. Quit feeling sorry for yourself! I don’t like to see you like this. Look, this isn’t the end of the world: drowning yourself in liquor is not the solution. There are other things you can do?”

  “What? No one will hire someone who’s on the take. Who would want me?”

  “That’s pure crap, Harry. You’re a brilliant Physicist. I’m sure Scott Kimberly would help you get on at Tech. No one could convince him you’d take a bribe. I read all of the proposals and there’s no doubt STL won it easily. Scott knows that too. He told me.”

  “He did?”

  “Yes! Would I lie to you? I’m incapable of lying. Look, stop pouring the booze down your throat and get some sleep. Let’s talk about this tomorrow. We can also discuss it with our parents. Maybe they can convince you what I’m saying is right. While you sleep, I’ll review all of the information pertaining to this. I’m going to hack into a lot of computers, so just stay out of my way while I Investigate.”

  “Thanks, Wanda. I’m not sure I can sleep. I’m so upset. I feel so violated and helpless. Good night,” he said as he staggered to the bedroom and fell onto his bed.

  The next morning Harry walked into the kitchen and sat at the little breakfast table. Scooter came up to him. “Do you need something for a hangover? You look terrible. Bet you didn’t sleep.”

  “Not a wink, and yes I have a horrible hangover. My head sure hurts. Have you seen Wanda yet?”

  “No. I monitored the network last night and she was really burning the midnight oils.”

  About that time Wanda appeared. “Good morning, Bro. Did you sleep?”

  “Not so loud … please. What do you think?”

  She laughed and said, “I calculate the probability of that is about zero.”

  “What did you find out?”

  “Well, I ran all of the data bases and internal messages of the accusing contractor for some type of collusions but found nothing. I also investigated every vendor at that coin convention. I even checked their bank accounts and tried to correlate their sales against deposits. I found the vendor Marc was working with, and I checked his deposits against sales. Unfortunately, Marc must have paid cash, and the vendor did not issue a receipt, so there was no way to verify he bought that bill. I ran an exhaustive search, and analysis, believe me.”

  “I guess I’m just screwed,” he replied sarcastically. “It’s basically mine and Marc’s word against a supposed eye witness.”

  “I’ve already discussed this with Mom and she wants to talk to you. Wanda activated the video link and called home. Carle Anne appeared. She was having breakfast. Her long, blond hair was a bit messy and she was still in her nightgown.

  “We’re looking very negative today,” she said. “Did the world just come to an end?”

  “Mom, Wanda just gave me the bad news. I think I’m screwed. There’s no way I can prove my innocence. That project was my greatest aspiration. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. Now some lying bastard has stolen it from me,” Harry said with te
ars running down his face.

  Carle Anne was perturbed about his entire attitude. “Harry, this is not the end of the world. You know you’re innocent, so get off your butt and move on. I’m sorry you feel like your dreams have been crushed, but we all have setbacks in our lives. You can roll over and play dead or get up, dust yourself off and find a new direction. I am not going to spend any more time listening to you wallow in self-pity. Now, get over it! I didn’t raise my son to be a whiner or a quitter.”

  “But, Mom—”

  “Don’t mom, me! Harry Stevenson, get off your ass, and figure out what you’re going to do. I suggest you call Scott Kimberly. I’d bet money he’ll help you get on at Tech. Maybe you can’t develop wormholes but you damn sure can teach it. This is the end of discussion, mister ... and get off the hooch.”

  “Amen, Mom,” Wanda chirped in.

  “Call me after you talk to him and let me know what he had to say. I love you both.”

  Chapter 8

  Cal Tech

  Pasadena, Ca.

  It took Scott Kimberly, Harry’s major professor at Cal Tech and the Chairman of the Theoretical Physics Department, a month to get Harry an offer as an Associate Professor of Physics. After he and Scott discussed the job and he accepted, he called Bill Hart. Nothing had been resolved, and Bill agreed he could take a leave of absence provided he was available, as needed, to support the upcoming lawsuits. Harry was convinced he would never work at NSTA again.

  Harry and Wanda relocated to Pasadena and settled into academia. He was teaching a graduate course on differential and Minkowskian space-time geometry. Scott, as Chairman of the Physics Department, gave him permission to let Wanda sit in and audit his classes. The grad students were a bit skeptical about a hologram sitting in on the class. That was until Harry let her lecture on the Jacobean equation and its use to measure space-time curvature. After that, everyone thought she was cool and treated her as any other student — quite often, competing to see whose study group she would join.

  Nine months had gone by. Harry had settled into his new job and accepted the idea he might be spending the rest of his life in academia. It wasn’t all bad. He was able to stay abreast of research papers presented by some of the keenest minds in physics. And, he got a lot of satisfaction teaching grad students about physics and mathematics. He even taught a course in Tensor Calculus, his favorite subject, and the math Einstein used to develop the General Theory of Relativity. He missed his friends at NSTA though, particularly Pepper. He thought about her often.

  Wanda was having the time of her life with her new friends. The study groups usually met at their house, and always concluded with some kind of crazy party. Harry had once told her that he liked the parties because they were a target rich environment. She wasn’t sure what he meant by that. He never explained it to her.

  On one particular evening, the party was going full tilt. Wanda was having so much fun. Everyone was laughing, dancing and drinking a little too much beer. She spotted her pal Joey and waved at him to come over. He always paid a lot of attention to her, including a bi-weekly call to discuss their studies and a multitude of other interesting things. She liked his long, blonde hair, blue eyes and his short-cropped beard. She thought he was cute and had a secret crush on him.

  He walked up, winked at her and smiled. “Hey girl are you having fun?”

  “Always. Doesn’t that song have a great beat, I just love that group,” Wanda said.

  “Would you like to dance?”

  “I don’t know how. I’m not sure I can do it.”

  “Come on, I’ll show you.”

  He started moving his body to the beat. Wanda studied his movements and noticed how he moved in response to the tempo. After a little while she got the hang of it and joined him. They danced to several fast tunes, for twenty minutes, then he stopped and sat next to her, trying to catch his breath. “I need a break and something to drink. Think I’ll go get a beer and a snack. Do you want anything?”

  “No, thanks, I’m good. You know, that was fun. Thanks for teaching me.”

  “You’re welcome, cutie. Be right back.”

  After he walked off, she saw Janie, her best friend forever, walking towards her. Janie was always on top of the relationships and student-dating situation at Tech. She and Janie talked frequently, and it usually focused on campus gossip — who was seeing whom, and who had broken up at the last frat party. Since it was Janie’s favorite subject, she was more than happy to discuss it, and so was Wanda.

  The idea of dating a boy, especially Joey, fascinated Wanda. “Janie, who’s that cute guy you were talking to? He’s new to our group.”

  “That’s my new friend I met at the Delta Phi Omega frat party last night. He’s a real hunk.”

  “He is cute. So what’s the latest?” Wanda asked.

  “You won’t believe it, but Mary Jean Silke broke up with her long standing boy friend last night at the frat party.”

  “What happened?”

  “She caught him making out in the kitchen with Sadie Martin. What’s worse he had his hand inside her blouse. She was a bit drunk and slapped Sadie. It was ugly, to say the least. The two of them got into a hair pulling, screaming fight. It took three guys to pull them apart. It was wild. Sadie’s blouse was torn off and Mary Jean had a black eye.”

  “I sure wished I could have seen that,” Wanda said. “So what else is going on?”

  Janie looked around, and then quietly said, “You wouldn’t believe it, but Terry Lane broke up with her girlfriend Charlene two nights ago.”

  “Go on.”

  “Well, she unexpectedly went to Charlene’s dorm room and found her in bed with another girl, Maude O’Brien. I’m not sure what happened next, but the three of them showed up at Joe’s Pub later that night and were drinking quite a bit. Maude and Charlene danced several times, and when they got back to the table, a big argument broke out. It turned into a yelling match, so the bouncers threw them out of the pub before they started fighting.”

  “Oh, my gosh. That must have been some argument. No one ever gets thrown out of Joe’s,” Wanda, said. “Sounds exciting. Did they break up?”

  “I don’t have the latest on that. I’ll have to let you know.”

  Harry awoke the next morning. Jamie, his new girlfriend, was sleeping next to him, naked. She had the prettiest face and most sexy body he’d ever seen. He propped himself up on one elbow so he could get a good look at her. She opened her eyes and smiled. “Good morning, Harry. I sure enjoyed last night. She put her arm around his neck and pulled him on top of her, kissing him passionately. Two hours later, she got out of the bed and went into the bathroom to shower. He was so relaxed he just lay there, not wanting to move.

  He watched her dress. “Jamie, do you have to leave so soon?”

  ”Got an early class. Give me a call later.” She bent over and kissed him. “That should hold you for a little while, Tiger.”

  He chuckled, and then muttered at to himself. “Well, no wonder I’m tired. I only got two hours sleep. She has to be the most desirable woman I’ve ever met. Man, I can’t get seem to get enough of her,” he said to himself.

  He lay there, still thinking about her, when Scooter came into the bedroom. “Morning, Harry. Sleeping late huh? Must have been a rough night.”

  Harry chuckled. “You should only know.”

  “Want a coffee in bed?”

  “Yeah, that would be nice.”

  Wanda then appeared. “I see Jamie just left?”

  “Thanks for not busting in on us. The party lasted so long; it was too late for her to go home. Did you have a good time?”

  “I sure did. I got caught up on the latest gossip from Janie, and Joey taught me to dance. What a blast that was. I do have a question for you.”

  “What’s that?”

  Scooter came back in and said, “Here’s your coffee.”

  “Thanks, Scooter.”

  Wanda then continued. “What’s it like to kiss s
omeone? I mean, how does it feel, and why do you want to do it?”

  He thought for a moment. “Well, it’s a token of affection between two people.”

  “Is kissing Jamie like kissing mom?”

  “Oh, no, it’s very different.”

  “How?” she asked.

  “When I kiss mom, I’m expressing my love for her as a parent, and showing her I appreciate all she’s done for me.” He paused and took a sip of his coffee. “Whew, I needed that. Where was I? Oh, yes. When I kiss Jamie, my breathing quickens and I get very excited. My heart rate increases and I want to be very close to her.”

  “Are you talking about reproduction?”

  Harry laughed. “Not necessarily.”

  “I’d sure like to be able to kiss a boy and see if it makes me excited. I don’t know why, but I think it would be nice.”

  “I understand,” he replied, not completely certain of what to say next. He felt a bit remorse. He knew Wanda hated cyberspace and wanted to be a part of the real world. While he wasn’t completely sure of how she felt, he surmised that wanting something so bad, and never being able to have it was difficult to deal with.

  Harry was in his office grading final exam papers when the video link rang in. It was Bill Hart. I bet he’s calling to give me the axe, he thought.

  “I guess you’re calling to give me the bad news.” He braced himself for the bomb.

  “Well, Harry, someone has to do it. You did work for me you know.”

  Harry’s jaw dropped, and he looked down at his desk in dismay. He was afraid to speak. He had secretly hoped they would clear his name and call him back someday.

  Bill was silent for a moment then said. “What’s the gloomy look for? Hell, I called to tell you we cleared that matter up and want you to come back to NSTA. Are you interested?”