Chapter 2

The bar was rather empty that time of day, though it was beginning to pick up with some people beginning to sit out on the patio, having a beer and enjoying the warm weather.

I ordered a beer, grabbed a seat at the end of the bar, and watched a few minutes of a preseason baseball game that was on the television. I was also checking out the crowd that was beginning to slowly accumulate indoors when I noticed the two older gentlemen that entered the bar and took a seat in a corner booth. I didn’t think much about it at the time, I had simply noticed them as being out of place in the bar, but then I thought that I must seem out of place there as well. Realizing that it was probably foolish of me to try and pick up a woman here, and realizing that I had finally gotten too old for the college scene, I paid my tab and headed for the library.

The walk back was quite serene and I watched the sun set over the large field on the edge of campus where a small crowd had gathered to watch a fraternity softball game, keg ball as we used to call it, where the runner had to drink a beer at every base.

I stopped and watched for a moment and as I turned for the library, I ran right into the most beautiful woman I had seen in ages. She wasn’t tall or even voluptuous, but she appeared perfectly proportioned and she had the most beautiful brown eyes that were framed by a lovely halo of soft brown hair.

She had apparently been watching the game as well, and when I suddenly turned and bumped into her, I had knocked her backwards, scattering her armful of books across the grass, and knocking her glasses onto a rock where, as if on cue, one of the lenses cracked. Luckily, she was unhurt, slightly dazed, and maybe even embarrassed, but regaining her composure quickly she arranged herself and sat up gracefully, searching the ground for her glasses, which I picked up and handed to her.

“I’m so sorry,” I began, “I didn’t realize that you were behind me. Let me help you up.” I said, offering a hand which she accepted, and though it sounds silly there was some sort of electricity in her touch, and, for a brief moment, our eyes locked. Then as quickly as it happened, it was over and I realized that I was still holding her hand.

Letting go and dropping to one knee, I helped her gather up her books and papers, the whole time thinking that this was something out of a Laurel and Hardy movie. Boy knocks girl over, boy meets girl, and boy and girl fall madly in love and elope to Reno. Instead, I gathered her papers, helped her gather herself up, and apologized again, heading off to the library without even introducing myself or finding out her name.

In the library, I was the only person in the computer lab and I quickly logged onto the computer and downloaded the information the computer had generated onto a couple of disks that I had brought along, figuring that I would peruse the information in depth at home.

After completing that task, I figured I would glance through what information there was and then grab a bite to eat at my favorite restaurant here in town. I hadn’t eaten here in more than a year and I hoped that I would be able to get a table this time of night.

I opened the file on the computer and began scanning the information about the first symbol. It appeared that it was closely related to two other symbols the computer had found and appeared to be derived from a particular base symbol that meant plant.

The other two closely related symbols were of medicinal plants, one of which was a plant native to Egypt and now thought to be extinct and the other, more distantly related symbol, represented the poppy plant, from which that dreaded vice opium was derived. I wondered what the symbol actually stood for and how it related to my John Doe. It was the second symbol that really confused me and threw me off my rocker. The second symbol was apparently related to either cooking or metal making. There were apparently several symbols that were related, but none very closely, and there was no clear symbol from which it was derived.

My mind immediately flew back to the previous night when Jonathan had said that the substance contained an “unusual mixture of metals in a double ringed carbon structure.” I wondered if perhaps this second symbol was a way to prepare whatever mixture there was to be made from what I assumed was a plant in the first symbol.

How the third symbol fit in I had no idea. Perhaps it represented some cult or sect that produced this mixture. Possibly this mixture was prepared to help people into the next world or something that they believed was needed to survive in the next world.

About that time, I was startled by the sound of a door shutting and I turned to see the beautiful brunette whom I had encountered earlier in my little mishap. I was surprised to see her here in the lab on a Saturday night. I figured that she would be out at a fraternity party having a good time instead of working in the computer lab.

When she saw me, she mockingly clutched her books to her chest and with feign terror said, “Stay away! Keep your distance you brute. I won’t stand for you to abuse my books anymore.”

She laughed and sat down at the terminal next to mine. I was embarrassed, turning red, and she laughed even harder when she saw that.

“I’m very sorry,” I said, “usually I am very coordinated and normally I don’t knock down beautiful women.”

“That’s alright,” she said, “I usually don’t sneak up behind good looking men and smell their cologne while they are watching keg ball.”

We both laughed for a moment, each of us seeming to want to say something else, but neither of us doing so. Instead, a strained silence seemed to hang in the air, both of us just looking at each other, until she broke eye contact and sat down in front of a terminal beside the printers.

I returned to trying to decipher the references that the computer had generated, but I just couldn’t seem to concentrate. Instead, I saved the information to my account and logged out of the system.

When I stood, I startled the brunette and caused her to drop a notebook that she had been reading. She bent over to pick it up and glared at me as I gathered my belongings.

“Well, it does seem that you enjoy scaring women and making them drop things. Did you perhaps work in a haunted house when you were a boy?” she asked with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

“How did you ever guess?” I asked in mock surprise, “I come from a long line of circus performers!”

“That’s all right,” she gave me one of the most beautiful smiles that I had ever seen, “I just got wrapped up in this program that I am working on so that it startled me. I’m Lyssa, by the way. Sorry, I didn’t introduce myself earlier, but you didn’t catch me at one of my better moments.” I laughed and held out my hand, “And I am Josh. I was surprised to see you here in the lab this time of night. You look like you should be at some society gala instead of here.”

“Now I’m no more out of place than you appear to be. You look like you should be drinking daiquiris on a yacht sailing around the Caribbean.”

“Only in my dreams.” I replied. “What sort of program are you working on?” A seemingly innocent question, but one that was carefully planned to get several key points of information out of this beautiful woman, answers like, are you a student, do you have a job, or are you single.

“Well, it is sort of difficult to explain, but basically it is a computer model of a biochemical process that I am working on in the lab where we are trying to combine some rare metals with a carbon backbone structure. It really sounds more complicated than it is.” She looked slightly embarrassed, as if she were ashamed that she was working on something that most people couldn’t understand, or maybe because she was bragging. “And just what are you working on this time of night that is so interesting?” she returned with her pert little attitude.

“You think your project sounds complicated, you will laugh when you hear what I have been working on. I’m trying to learn to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics. It is for a project that I have been working on trying to learn more about the healing arts of antiquity.” A rather bold if not an all-encompassing lie. I was rather proud of this lie, for it would cover almost any question and it was partly true.

Lyssa looked somewhat impressed, as she just sort of stared at me as if she expected me to be some sort of nerd, and she was impressed that I wasn’t here doing some sort of statistical analysis.

“So, are you some sort of history professor then?” Lyssa asked.

“No, actually I’m the captain of a yacht who doubles as a doctor when I’m not at sea and sometimes when I am.”

She laughed, that same beautiful, light, and airy laugh that seemed to lighten the mood in the room almost instantly. “Josh, the book killer, yacht captain, and part time physician. Quite an interesting character to meet at the library on a Saturday night.” And with that she seemed to brush me aside and went back to work on her terminal.

I took that as a sign that our playful bantering had come to a close. I grabbed my jacket and started to head out the door.

‘No,’ I told myself, ‘I am not going to let a chance like this slip through my fingers. I am going to find some way to get to know this beautiful woman.’ I walked over to where she was sitting and pulled up a chair, waiting for a break in her concentration to ask her if she would like to have dinner.

Without even looking up, and seemingly without breaking her concentration, she said, “Yes, Josh, I would love to go to dinner with you, just give me a few more minutes to finish this and then I need to run home and change, since you caused me to get this filthy grass stain on my jeans, but then I would love to go.”

I just sat there and I know that I must have looked either shocked or dumbfounded, but I had to laugh when Lyssa finally turned from her terminal to give me another of her mischievous smiles. Then I began to seriously wonder if she had read my mind or, was she just very good at the dating game, and sort of knew what I was going to say. Either way I was impressed.

I nodded and eased back into my chair, pulled out my phone and started to read the research I had downloaded until she was finished.

I didn’t find much else in the information I had saved. Just a lot of references to where certain symbols had been found, and what they pertained to. I really learned nothing new from those pages, but it did pass the time, so much so that I didn’t notice when Lyssa turned off her terminal and turned to watch me.

Finally, I noticed the silence and looked up, only to see her intently staring at me, as if she were examining every single inch of me, looking into my very soul. I started to turn red in the face and she just laughed, stood up, and held out her hand for me.

I stuffed the stack of papers into my case, accepted her hand, and almost lost my balance as I stood up because of that same strange electricity that I felt when I had first helped her to her feet.

We headed off for her apartment, I followed her in my car, and we played a nice little game of chase through the city. She had an older, but well maintained, 280 Z and she was a good driver, weaving in and out between cars, shifting up and down, even running one stop light. In record time we had arrived across town and when she finally slowed and signaled a turn, something she had not done all the way across town.

This little drive had gotten my adrenaline flowing, something that had not happened for quite a while, and she was a good driver, something that I considered very important. Who else could understand my love of driving fast and fine German engineering than someone who also enjoyed driving?

“Nice driving.” she said as she slid out of her car, gracefully as ever, long legs emerging first, “It’s good you passed my first test, with a car like yours it would be a shame to waste it on careful driving.” She gave me an evil little grin and motioned for me to follow her as she darted up the stairs.

Her apartment was tastefully decorated. Not girlish in pink and frills, but not manly either. Just simply done in peach and navy, with white oak wood, something I was also partial to.

“Why don’t you fix us both a drink? The bar is over behind those louvered doors. I’d like a bourbon and coke and help yourself to anything else I have. I’ll just be a minute while I change.” With that she disappeared into the bedroom, unbuttoning her blouse, and closing the door.

I fixed both of us a bourbon and coke and kicked back on the couch with the remote control to her CD player which had a cool, new fusion jazz disk in it that was perfect for my mellow mood.

Lyssa emerged from the bedroom a few minutes later holding up a green plaid sleeveless dress that she asked me to zip for her. It fit her beautifully, not too tight, but definitely, figure flattering.

I handed her the drink as she finished putting on some earrings, and she downed almost half of it before she sat it down and bent over to get a pair of shoes that were half tucked under a chair across the room. Her dress rode up just enough to get a great view of two of the most beautiful legs I had seen in a long time. If there was something the medical profession could teach a person was to appreciate good anatomy.