“Okay, Tio Eddie, you’ve duly impressed me,” Freddie said. “How did you do this?”
Edison’s eyes twinkled.
“It can do two other little things, too. Unit 2, playback.”
At his command the images from the previous few minutes reappeared in the room.
“Fantastic!” Lilly exclaimed.
“And what else?” Freddie asked.
“When you check your video mail you’ll find the recording in your inbox.”
Freddie sighed.
“Why did I bother going away to school?”
“I’ve been thinking the same thing,” Mike said, entering the room and taking a seat next to Carmelita.
Galen hadn’t seen Edison look so pleased in a long time.
“So, little brother, this thing can record or project room-sized holographic images and transmit them instantly to the Internet?”
“Almost. The electronics are very capable, but I need a nearby power booster, and a friendly satellite, if I want to move the data more than 20 feet or so. That’s why I’ve called for reinforcements.”
He turned to Carmelita.
“Think we can trap our varmint?”
She smiled, and nods reverberated around the room.
“I can’t believe it,” Freddie said, holding up one of Edison’s wonder phones. “This thing is bristling with microlenses, Tio. I thought it was just the texture of the metal.”
“You built these yourself, Tio?” Lilly asked.
“Mike helped me with the second one.”
“How many more will we need?”
“I figure three more, plus the relay/booster. I’m going to need all of your help to get this done in time.”
“Where are we going to get the satellite?” Freddie asked.
Edison frowned.
“Boy, haven’t I taught you anything?”
“Oh, right, I forgot, you ‘have your sources.’”
“Let’s get to work, chillun.”
“I’m going with them.”
“Sandy, what can you do?”
“Galen, we’ve already discussed this. You know the plan. Besides, your June was an alumnus of Yale.”
“So?”
“She was my big sorority sister.”
His eyes widened.
“You were a Yalie?”
“Yes, and a lot more, but you’ll learn.”
Two days later, four young adults and one of their elders stood outside the front door ready to leave. Three had strained eyes and aching fingers from several days of micro assembly work.
Nancy stood next to Carmelita.
“I sure hope this works.”
“Me, too, Tia, but coming from Tio Eddie I’m not worried.”
“You shouldn’t be, young ’un,” Edison said. “We’ll be watching your every move.”
Sandy smiled, hugged Nancy, and whispered “Make sure you keep an eye on him, old girl.”
“Who are you calling old, girl?” Nancy chuckled.
“Gonna miss me, Bear?”
Galen surprised them all by hugging the Dresden doll-sized woman.
“Behave yourself, little vixen, and don’t set a bad example for the kids.”
“You wish.”
The trio watched the van carrying the five conspirators down the mountain. They wanted to go with them, to be in the midst of the action, but as Galen had pointed out, this operation called for quick timing and if necessary fast thinking on the fly.
Their appetites were ravenous that evening as they sat in the dining room waiting for the plan to unfold. Edison poured himself a second cup of Jasmine tea and uncharacteristically gulped it down.
“Easy, little brother. It’ll be okay. With those magnificent phones I think we can count on our professor having an interesting experience, maybe even an educational one.”
“It can still go wrong.”
Galen noticed that Edison’s hands were shaking. Nancy noticed, too.
“Galen and I have faith in your genius, Bob. Now let’s have some faith in what the kids can do.”
“Kids?”
“Okay, the kids and their mother hen.”
They began fanning out through the campus early the next afternoon amid the students, faculty and staff who had returned to begin the new school year. The quintet had arrived at Carmelita’s apartment just off campus in New Haven the night before, exhausted not so much from the drive but from the constant gabbing on the way and their anticipation of the following day’s activities.
Freddie and Mike sought out every bulletin board they could find. Amid the “Welcome Back” posters and activity notices they tacked up a sign: “Free holographic movie demonstration, tonight at 8, Silliman Quadrangle.”
“Think this’ll draw a crowd?” Freddie asked when they posted the last one.
“Enough for our purposes,” Mike answered.
“Now where to?”
“IT Services.”
Lilly walked up Dixwell Avenue to the Zieg residence guided by her palm navigator. She stood on the front porch and rang the doorbell. Ophelia Zieg answered.
“Mrs. Zieg?”
“Yes?”
“Hello. My name is Daphne Darwell and I work on the staff of the Women’s Faculty Forum. I’ve come to see if you’d be interested in participating in a live videoconference tonight for faculty wives.”
“Oh, I didn’t know...”
“This is being done confidentially. You see there was a rash of incidents on campus during the spring semester involving male faculty members and their female graduate students. The WFF wants to hold a private and off-the-record discussion with as many faculty wives as possible to support those whose husbands may be taking advantage of their position.
“May I please come in?”
Ophelia Zieg hesitated just for a moment.
“Yes, do come in.”
“Dean Whittier will see you now, Ms. McDevitt.”
Sandy rose from her chair and walked into the lavishly paneled office.
Carmelita stood just outside the Linguistics Department building that housed Winston Zieg’s lair. She had made the appointment via his secretary earlier in the day. She knew that an evening session would no doubt have him licking his chops at the prospect.
She could not get the dream image out of her mind.
The bastard’s going to try it again . God, I hate this!
“Don’t worry, Carm,” Mike told her. “We’ll be watching everything, and if he gets within a foot of you I’ll be bursting in.”
“I know,” she said quietly.
He gently wiped a tear from her cheek and kissed her tenderly.
She turned and opened the glass door to the lobby.
Winston Zieg had been preening all afternoon, ever since his secretary told him that Carmelita Hidalgo had requested an appointment. He brushed his teeth in the office lavatory, rinsed with mouthwash, and even trimmed a few errant nostril hairs.
“I’ll be home about 9 o’clock,” he had told Ophelia. “I’ve got some papers I have to go over.”
She had seemed strangely delighted to hear he would be late. No matter, in a few minutes one of the most gorgeous graduate students he had ever seen would be, literally, within his grasp.
“Dr. Zieg, I have to say that the last time I visited your office was quite a shocking experience for me...”
The remark brought an instant glare.
“But over the summer I had time to think about your offer of help on my dissertation, and I’ve decided it’s my best alternative.”
He smiled a strange smile, an expression more like a grimace.
“I think that’s a wise decision, Ms. Hidalgo. Shall we get started?”
He got up from the desk and moved closer to her.
“Uh ... yes. I’ve prepared a PowerPoint presentation.”
She dropped her tote bag on the floor, quickly pulled out the tripod, and activated the projector, which illuminated the first slide on the office wall.
>
Back on Dixwell Avenue, Ophelia Zieg watched the scene with interest.
So did the several dozen students gathered on the Silliman Quad, after Lilly, at Freddie’s direction, had set up the tripod, and it began beaming Zieg and Carmelita in real-time, life-size holograms.
Likewise Roscoe Whittier, dean of the School of Liberal Arts, who sat in his office with Sandra McDevitt, class of 1962 and member of the Dean’s Circle of donors.
Freddie watched, too, in the IT Center, as he relayed the images via satellite to a mountaintop house somewhere in the vast hills of northeastern Pennsylvania.
The three old friends sat around the dining room table, witnessing the scene in Zieg’s office. Edison had reset the projected images to tabletop size. He figured that if things got out of hand it might be easier for Nancy to watch.
He was thinking about himself as well.
Nancy saw the man who would ruin her Carmelita’s life sitting uncomfortably close by her on his leather sofa while she presented her research proposal. Carmelita concentrated on the PowerPoint items while Zieg paid no notice of anything except the curves of her body.
“Oh, Bob, do you think we’ve made a mistake?”
“Don’t worry dear. She can do this.”
Galen stared silently, shaking his head in disgust.
“As you can see, Dr. Zieg, if you compare the natural semantic metalanguage of the Yanomomo tribe of Venezuela with the...”
Suddenly Zieg stood up preemptively.
“All right, Ms. Hildalgo, I’ve heard enough.”
“But sir, I haven’t...”
“Actually you have.”
He was standing nearly to-to-toe with her.
“I told you last spring that this proposal was substandard,” he said curtly.
“Uh ... yes, but you also said...”
“I know what I said. But I’ve changed my mind. I don’t think it’s possible to improve this work to the point where I’d sponsor a dissertation.”
“But sir, I...”
“Look, Ms. Hidalgo, let’s be frank here. You didn’t want my help last spring and I’m damned sure you don’t want it now. I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, but it won’t work. Do you understand?”
“Uh-oh,” Nancy said with a start. “Do you think he’s on to her?”
“No,” Galen responded. “He’s closing in for the kill.”
“I hope Mike’s ready to pounce,” Edison added.
Mike Dimitriades was indeed ready, as he stood just outside the front door of the building. He couldn’t see what was going on but thanks to an earpiece he was listening in.
“Professor Zieg, I honestly don’t understand. I thought you said...”
“You know perfectly well what I said—and if not let me show you.”
With that he lunged at her even more ferociously than before, his momentum sending them both sprawling on the floor. She fought to resist, but this time he had her trapped. He used his weight and superior strength to subdue her struggling.
“Mike!” She screamed. “Help me!”
“My God, Bob, he’s got her! Do something!”
“Hang on, honey. The kids are right there.”
At the sound of Carmelita’s distress, Mike went for the building front door—and found it had been automatically locked. He began banging on it frantically, hoping to attract someone’s attention.
“Freddie, Freddie!” he yelled. “I’m locked out!”
“Okay Mike,” Freddie responded via the earpiece, “I’m on it.”
He quickly manipulated the relay station’s touch screen. Suddenly holograms of the students on the quad, of Sandy and Dean Whittier, and of Ophelia Zieg all appeared in Winston Zieg’s office.
“Professor Zieg?” Freddie announced calmly.
The sound distracted the learned professor from his assault of the young woman on the floor. He raised his head.
“Huh? What the...?”
“Professor, you might have noticed that you’re no longer alone.”
Astonished and sheepish, Zieg struggled to his feet, not realizing that he remained ... exposed. Carmelita, suddenly freed from his grasp, got to her feet as well. She straightened her skirt, grabbed the nearest object she could find—a candy dish on the coffee table—and smacked him in the head with it.
“You disgusting pig!”
With that, applause and cheers erupted from the crowd in the quad...
And from the trio at Safehaven.
“Disgusting pig sonofabitch!” Edison yelled.
Winston Zieg was so shocked he could barely move. Shocking as well was the sight of his wife staring at him with loathing in her eyes.
Even more shocking was Dean Whittier beholding him with his pants down.
“Get over to my office, Winston, immediately.”
“She’s okay, Mike,” Freddie told him.
Within a minute Carmelita was pushing open the front doors and falling into his arms. They hugged and kissed tearfully.
“Attention viewers,” Freddie told the audience near and far. “Show’s over. We thank you for your time and interest. Please stand back from the projection devices.”
With that he punched in a code sequence that his Tio Edison had given him and each tripod crackled loudly and smoked profusely as its circuits melted and fused into useless junk.
She held hands with Mike in front of the Jetway as he waited for his final boarding call. She had said goodbye to Sandy an hour earlier when she boarded her flight back to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. She had driven Lilly and Freddie to the New Haven station for their train to Massachusetts. Now she and Mike were alone in the crowd.
“Are you sure you don’t want to transfer to UCLA, Carm?”
“My new adviser thinks I’ll have my degree by the end of the year. She couldn’t believe how complete my paper was already.”
She hugged him and whispered, “I’ll still come out there in-between.”
Four seniors enjoyed a light breakfast.
“Wonder what’s happening with Zieg?” Sandy asked.
Edison almost coughed up the mouthful of toast and All Fruit Preserves With Fiber he had jammed it into his mouth.
“Why are you bringing up that sonofabitch at this table?”
Nancy finally had had enough of that talk.
“Robert Cornelius Edison, that is the last time I want to hear such language!”
“Yes dear,” he replied docilely.
“To answer the question,” Galen said, “from what Carm said, after he was treated for that bump on his head that she gave him, he skipped town. Word has it that Mrs. Zieg is going to take everything—including his underwear.”
Galen stretched and yawned as he got up from the table.
“By the way, little brother, how did you manage to set up that satellite link? Carm said the campus techs are still trying to figure it out.”
The engineer’s eyes sparkled.
“Big brother, you have your secrets and I have mine. Besides, if I told you, I’d have to kill you.”
Two old men’s faces creased in smiles. Then Galen remembered.
“Cornelius?”
She was back on that hurricane-tossed sea.
¡Me asustan! ¡Me asustan!
“I’m frightened! I’m frightened,” Freddie called to her.
No sea el asustado, pequeño , she heard herself saying.
All night long she cradled them both, Freddie and Tonio, lashed to their tiny life raft, until she saw it, faintly at first then growing brighter, that beam of light sweeping across the starry sky. Then shortly before dawn she saw the distant shore. And later, the last wave cast them almost gently upon the beach.
Carmelita Hidalgo, doctoral candidate in linguistics, Yale University, lay on her bed staring at the ceiling, pondering her memories and a promising future.
8. Butterfly
He circled the flower, fearing its rejection...
Missus Edison, I’m going into town for suppli
es and stuff. Anything you need?”
Lem Caddler stood in the doorway, shifting like a 5-year-old child from foot to foot.
Nancy had returned home just before the weather-beaten farmer knocked.
“Maybe you could let the grocer know to save some of the meat scraps again. We need to restock and I have a feeling this winter is going to be hard on the animals. Oh, and check on getting some large salt blocks, too. We have a new mother and family on the mountain.”
The mention of salt blocks brought understanding.
“We got deer now, Ma’am?”
“Yep, as Galen would say, a female Odocoileus virginianus and her brood have moved into the high grass field where the Henslow’s sparrows live.”
“How many, Missus?”
“Mama, a girl and two boys.”
She paused. It hit her.
The cycle repeats .
She looked up at the scarecrow-tall man.
“How’s Miriam?”
“She’s doing right well. Missus Douglas is sittin’ with her while I head out fer awhile.”
Just then Galen walked up to the two talking in the foyer.
“Did I hear my name being taken in vain? And what’s this about white-tailed deer?”
“We’ve got another new family on the mountain. I forgot to tell you amid all the fuss. Carmelita, Sandy and I managed to spot one giving birth to three fawns, a female and two males, while we were birding.”
She smiled. “See what you missed by not coming with us?”
Galen shook his head and muttered, “A girl and two boys.”
The pattern holds .
His face lit up in a rare smile.
“Lem, if you’re heading into town would you pick up some stuff for me, too?”
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