Chapter 10

The last test, marked with an A+, joined the rest of the tests stacked on the left hand corner of William's desk. Looking over at Lucy, he said, "That's the last one."

"So how were the grades?" Lucy asked looking up from her work.

"Not bad," William answered patting the stack of test papers. The first eight weeks of teaching had been hard on William. He didn't have any real experience of dealing with high school students. Getting his early education at the Druid College had not prepared him for the social and emotional structure within which high school students operated. He had finally found the appropriate level at which to present the material and the students had responded. He said, "At least I didn't have anyone write that a tort is a kind of pie."

Lucy giggled and said, "Good. We all know that it is a kind of toaster pastry."

"Don't remind me of that. I couldn't stop laughing when Patrick said that he'd had a Pop Tort for breakfast," William said with a chuckle.

"Admit it, Patrick was your favorite student," Lucy said. It seemed to her that every day after class, William had told her about Patrick and his comments. She could even tell by William's mood when Patrick missed class for a few days because of an illness.

"Maybe," William admitted. The young man had a very funny sense of humor, but had often delivered the jokes in a manner that hadn't been disruptive. It seemed to William that Patrick had a perfect sense of timing when delivering a joke.

"So how was it teaching high school?" Lucy asked.

"Different. I really didn't know what to expect and I was pleasantly surprised. I don't know if these kids are representative of high school students everywhere," William answered.

"Did you decide to teach another semester?"

"Yes. I made a lot of changes to the book as a result of teaching this class. I need to see if the changes represent an improvement," William answered. After reading the first draft of the book, Eddie had pointed out that the level of the material was just a little too high for high school students. William had disagreed, but Eddie had been proven correct. He said, "I'm going to have to do something nice for Eddie. He really helped a lot."

"What are you going to do for him?"

"I don't know."

Lucy was silent for a minute and then suggested, "You might consider taking him to some exotic location for a rock hunting expedition."

"No, I can't really leave here," William said shaking his head vigorously from side to side.

It had been her hope that he would agree, but she hadn't counted on it. Lucy didn't say anything for a minute. In a quiet voice, she said, "Christmas is coming. Are we going to the homeless hotel in Phoenix?"

William rested his chin on his fist while thinking about her question. The uneasy silence stretched to three minutes before he answered, "Yes. We'll go, but we're taking Rock, Colt, Natalie, Nicole, and Ling with us."

It was a long awaited concession. Rather than allow him to change his mind, Lucy jumped up from her chair and said, "I'll go make the arrangements now."

It was too late to retract his words. She had run out of the room before William had allowed his doubts to get the better of him. He sighed and said, "This is going to be a disaster."

A recording of Oscar Meyers leaving a church was playing on the television. William turned up the volume to listen to the news report. This particular channel was tracking Oscar's progress through Russia. The reporter mentioned that Russia was in the middle of the coldest December of the past one hundred years. William shook his head and said, "I thought you had more sense than to visit Russia in the winter time."

Lucy looked up from the book she was reading. It was a murder mystery and she was reading a part where the crime sleuth was pursuing some significant clue. She asked, "Who are you talking to?"

"Oscar," William answered thinking that Oscar looked tired. Three months on the road had to be wearing him down a little. Georgia was wearing so many clothes that he couldn't tell how she looked.

"Huh?"

"He's in Russia. I was just saying that I thought he had more sense than to visit Russia in the winter time," William answered gesturing at the television. It showed Oscar and Georgia trudging along a street with snow falling around them. Crowds lined the streets making signs of the cross as they passed.

Lucy glanced over at the news just in time to catch the last two seconds of the news story. Nodding her head, she said, "That's okay. He'll be back in the Middle East at the height of summer. The temperature extremes will average out."

"Spoken like a true mathematician," William teased.

"Speaking of which, I found a transformation that simplifies about half of the equations in your theory," Lucy said smugly. She looked down at her book and resumed reading.

After a full minute passed, William asked, "When are you going to show it to me?"

Looking up with a smile, Lucy said, "After I finish this chapter."

"I can't wait that long," William said looking up at the ceiling.

Across from the library was a large room that William and Lucy had adopted as their work room. To say that the room was disorganized would be misleading, but it was overwhelming to the unprepared visitor. Lucy liked to refer to it as controlled chaos, but William called it comfortable.

Occupying William's side of the room was a desk flanked by two tables. There were papers stacked in neat piles on the two work tables. On the one to the right of the desk, there were fifteen small stacks of paper, each representing one chapter of his book, placed one beside the other with two inches between them. There were three stacks of books about economics and sociology on the floor within reach. The wall, ceiling to floor whiteboard, on one side of the room was filled with equations while the other was marked off in the form of a calendar with important dates filled in. Appointments for William were in red while those for Lucy were in black. Every day had something in red or black.

The most intimidating part of the room was the huge array of computer monitors mounted in front of the desk. The array comprised six monitors across and four monitors tall. The top row had real-time feeds from Wall Street and news services. One row of the monitors showed the situation status board from the Fusion Foundation command center. The remainder of the monitors showed various programs that William was using.

In contrast, Lucy's side of the room was a study in simplicity. It was occupied by a simple desk with a single stack of papers. A few neat notes were jotted on the walls.

Ken entered the room and looked around. It was only the second time that he had been in it. The only people who visited with any regularity were Doug, Rock, Rudy, and Vera. William didn't allow the cleaning staff in the room, treating the material within it as secret. Clearing his throat, he said, "William, there's a young man here to see you."

Since interruptions were very rare, William and Lucy swiveled around in their chairs to look at him. Looking puzzled, William asked, "Who would want to see me?"

"He said that his name was Patrick Black Thorn," Ken answered hoping that he had remembered the name correctly. Rock was on the first floor watching the young man from a discrete distance. Odds were good that the young man would never know that he was being watched.

On hearing the name of their guest, Lucy grinned and said, "I get to meet the infamous Patrick at long last."

"I wonder what he's doing here," William said rising from his chair. He glanced at the stack of tests wondering if it had anything to do with his grade. He didn't think so.

Not wanting to miss an opportunity to meet Patrick, Lucy immediately joined him. The couple went up to the first floor where Patrick was waiting for them. He was standing at the railing looking out the window at the magnificent view outside. The stories that he had heard about William's house had not done it justice. When he heard footsteps behind him, he turned and looked at William. Feeling awed by his surroundings, he said, "This is an amazing house."

"Thank you," William said glancing over at the far end of the room. He made a gesture dismissing Rock.

Frowning a little, Patrick asked, "Isn't it a little too large?"

It was a good question. There were times when it took William fifteen minutes to find Lucy in the house despite the fact that there were major portions of it that they rarely visited. The upstairs was only used when entertaining guests. The second floor was primarily office space with the library and quarters for the staff that lived in the house. The bottom floor was their living area and they spent most of the time in their suite, the pool, the exercise room, and the dining room.

William answered, "It does seem that way at times. My sister designed the house so that it could accommodate a lot of visitors. She also assumed that my family would grow in size."

"It would take a lot of kids to fill up this place," Patrick said looking around the room. His gaze stopped at Lucy and he said, "Of course, with a wife who looks like yours I imagine that you'll have lots of kids."

Lucy laughed at the compliment. She had been warned that Patrick tended to say things that were often embarrassing. She said, "Thank you. My name is Lucy."

"You're welcome, Mrs. Carter. I'm Patrick."

"Please call me Lucy." It felt weird being called Mrs. Carter despite how long they had been married. Everyone still referred to her as Lucy.