Chapter 241: Prof Is Welcomed Back to Corvallis

Friday, June 17, 2005 (Continued)

After the last exam (yippee again), I headed to the store to pick up Carol's new dress. I'd been worrying that the saleslady might've remembered the wrong dress, or there might've be a dimensional difference, or some other problem, but I was very happy to see that it was exactly as I remembered; which meant it was the exact same, because I remembered it VERY well! I got the nice saleslady to remove all the tags so it was ready to wear, then she wrapped it up for me and I very happily paid for it.

I'd been internally debating how best to unveil Carol's dress. Obviously as soon as possible, but otherwise how? It needed a special occasion, and the most appropriate one was our having our first threesome date. I even decided to make it a dinner back at the same restaurant where I'd first seen Carol wearing this dress, as that seemed appropriate too. Even better, as there'd be no Cindy with us this time.

Prof and Vanessa were driving back this afternoon, arriving sometime after 5pm. That meant there'd be no opportunity for the date before they arrived, and not this evening either as Julia definitely wouldn't appreciate my taking her out on a date within minutes of her parents returning. Which left a problem about where to store the dress until the date. Carol had to get dressed in one of the two houses, which meant that some parents might see it, and they're going to notice that there's a noticeable lack of front. Prof and Vanessa were obviously the safest parents, so I'd store the dress in their house, and try to have a conversation with them as soon as I could after they returned, to feel them out on "The Carol Situation".

Mom and Carol had done the cooking for an informal "Welcome Back" dinner at the Williams'. I'd encouraged Carol to help as she needed to learn more about cooking; it was only fifteen months until we'd be leaving Corvallis, and somehow I couldn't imagine Julia doing much cooking in our life. [[It turns out that I'll be doing a lot of the 'cooking' now, which is a very unexpected development.]] The dinner is just for our two families, with the rest of Prof's would-be visitors requested to visit on the weekend. Given the publicity about his Binion's win, Prof is going to have a busy weekend with well-wishers, the curious, and the money-hungry; and I'm going to stay well away from the place to avoid being sucked into any of it.

Upon his arrival, it was great to see Prof getting around normally, rather than walking around a hospital in his robe. Prof appeared to be fully healthy. I knew his organ functions still weren't 100%, and often well below that value, but they were all performing well enough for him to have a bounce in his step and smile on his face. It was VERY good to see! In return, he said it was good to see me without my casts. One of the first things Prof wanted to do was see me use my new computer system. Vanessa seconded that motion, so most of us went upstairs, Donna and The Boys excluded again because I was going to do my eyes-shut thing again.

The wall my desk faced seemed almost totally covered in panels, so the initial sight of it impressed them. I'd been cautious about what I'd said back in the hospital, so Prof and Vanessa knew I could read seven or eight screens at once, but not how. I minimized the existing windows so I wouldn't lose my place on all of them, opening up eight more browser windows into which I put random Algebra lectures. I showed them how the special keyboard worked, initially using my fingers so they could see what I was doing, and then with NP. Then I got them to stand to either side of me as I started reading all eight screens at once.

As had been the case with Julia, the first few seconds had them making "I'm impressed"-type sounds, as all the screens scrolled down at different rates. Then Vanessa looked at me, closely followed by her asking, "Why are your eyes closed, Mark?"

"Because it's easier for me to read eight screens if I close my physical eyes. They're too slow for this kind of work."

They had some follow-up questions.

Julia laughed at her parents' growing amazement, as I repeated the explanation I'd given my parents. As I'd done with Mom and Dad, I let Prof and Vanessa get the idea that my mental sight was anchored in my head like real eyes were. There was no real point in them knowing the full details, and I worried about the potential loss of privacy making them uncomfortable. Plus Mom and Dad were in the room, so I couldn't come out with a different story now. [[Prof and Vanessa wouldn't have feared for the loss of privacy, as they believed that I was a moral boy, even though I was boinking their daughter and several other girls. Dad wouldn't have cared much, except on Mom's behalf. Mom would've been uncomfortable.]]

I was pleased that Carol didn't let the cat out of the bag (or "eyeballs out of the sockets"). She looked a little uncomfortable when she knew I was deliberately misleading the parents, but she didn't comment.

Back after I'd finished my first demonstration to my parents I'd realized that there was a flaw in my explanation about how my new sight worked, as it didn't explain how I saw where the kidnappers' keys were hanging. I deliberately didn't raise that example of my new sight in action during this demonstration. None of the parents had yet asked for the details of my escape. The most I'd said to them so far was that I'd gotten us out by improving my abilities, so if they asked for more details, I'll say I used the improved two seconds cancellation limit on NP-fingertips to feel around, and had found the keys by touch. If they ever caught me out on my 'simplification' about how my new sight worked, I'd use the excuse that I wanted to save them from worrying about their privacy. That even had the advantage of being true.

There were a few little differences between my demonstration to my parents and to Prof and Vanessa. The latter pair took my word that I could read with my eyes shut, not needing me to prove it. Vanessa only needed a couple of minutes before she said, "What a pity you can't teach that to blind people." To be fair to my parents, Prof and Vanessa had known I had special abilities for several weeks, compared to my parents not having any prior warning at all. Prof didn't take long to ask, "If you can learn from all eight screens at the same time, does that mean you can consciously think about eight different things at once?"

That was getting scarily close to the fundamental truth about how my minds worked, but it would be very hard to explain how I learned stuff without that being the case. I certainly couldn't say I simply saw it and absorbed it somehow, because that wasn't "learning". So I admitted, "Yeah. I've been working hard at getting in touch with my feminine side, because I've heard women say they're much better at multitasking than men. Eight's my limit, so does that make me as good as a woman?"

Vanessa said, "You're getting close. Keep trying."

Prof said, "I'm trying to imagine what it's like to have eight distinct, conscious lines of thought going at once. Is it like there are eight of you in your head?"

I'd thought this question might come up ever since I showed Prof the piece of paper with eight screens drawn on it, but there was no possibility of me not upgrading the computer, and no possibility of keeping it secret when I did, so I had an answer prepared. I'd even realized I should keep it short, to avoid my tendency to be verbose when I'm lying about something serious. "No. They would have eight different memories, which wouldn't be practical when two prerequisite courses are needed to study a third. I can't say I understand what goes on in my head, but I think it's just slightly better than what everyone else can do. Everyone's brain can think of several things at once, such as talk with someone, recognize more people approaching, worry about having enough food in the house for Mark's dinner, keep track of the time, admire Julia's latest new dress, etc. I think my IQ allows me to be slightly more conscious of all the different things I'm thinking about. I'm pretty sure other people have no hope of doing this," I held up my hand and created a light blob in it, "but I wouldn't be surprised if some people could learn to read two or more screens at once. It just needs an increased awareness of something we're already doing."

[[In most w-dimensions, there's currently only one single-minded human who can read from two books simultaneously with excellent comprehension, and he's a "Rainman" type of savant, so has a very rare brain. The skill isn't as easy as I made it out to be.]]

My answer didn't enlighten anyone, but it did kill off the idea of my having eight minds. It pretty much ended my demonstration too, so we headed downstairs for dinner.

While that was being laid out, I quickly took Donna to my study to show it to her. The Boys had seen it before so they didn't need to come, but I didn't want Donna to feel too badly excluded. I did explain that some of the things I'd said to the parents were the same secrets I'd scared her about when I'd talked to Mom in Dad in Julia's bedroom. Donna was reasonably okay; not great, but okay. I was happy enough with that.

Dinner was meant to be a casual, low-key event, but it was a very happy one because everyone was so happy to have Prof back, all the kids were happy that exams were over, and all the parents and some of the girls were happy that I was so impressive. It was a very enjoyable dinner right up to the time that Prof couldn't resist making a little speech praising me. In the presence of Donna he was careful with what he said, which made this the first time I was glad Donna's immaturity stopped our speaking openly, but it was still something I very much could have done without. Comments about how I'd saved his life immediately reminded me that I had NOT saved the life of 3B's Prof. It is EXTREMELY uncomfortable receiving praise for something that you failed terribly at, causing deaths and enormous grief and misery to loved ones. I had previously decided that it was impossible for me to explain my feelings at times like this, so 3A took over while 3B retreated internally.

When I had my turn, I (a member of 3A) replied, "Being rescued seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I'm regretting that our rescuers removed Prof's gag. I will say a few words in reply though. From the four days we spent chained facing each other, I saw what style of nightwear Prof prefers. I don't know how I could respect a man who wears pajamas with little pictures of space rockets all over them, but somehow I do." (Prof being so short, he wears boys' pajamas to bed. It's one of the ongoing jokes in his family, as they all keep their eyes open for silly sleepwear to buy for him.)

^-- "I can't imagine anyone getting us through that ordeal as well as Prof did. Obviously any female would've snapped from being unable to go shopping for four days and not having a cellphone to gossip on, but even among guys, Prof was exceptional. He kept his head the whole time and he carefully planned what we should do. I'm sure he saved our lives." I truly WAS sure of it. If I'd had to make all the decisions (say because Prof had been unconscious), I would have killed the baddies earlier, depriving us of that essential drink of water. Without that we both would have been in serious trouble by the time of the déjà vu. I almost certainly wouldn't have been able to think clearly enough to discover sight blobs and to get hold of the keys, so we would have died where we were. If I had eventually managed to get the keys, Prof would most likely have died anyway, if not in the basement then in the hospital when several of his organs failed.

^-- I continued, "But what made the biggest impact on me was toward the end when we'd both lost hope of getting out. Prof's attitude was loving and thankful, when all I wanted to do was rant and rave over the unfairness of it all. The last day was horrific but also beautiful in a very weird way, because of you, Prof. I'll never forget the wonderful way you rose above your despair, and you'll be serving me as a goal for the sort of man I want to grow into for the rest of my life."

^-- Prof tried to respond to my response, but I cut him off with, "No, no; you've had your turn already. And don't go getting big headed either, because you're certainly not perfect, especially your sense of timing. How could you start a speech of appreciation to a guy before he's had his second helping of dessert? That's just cruel, especially with Donna's eyeing it the way she is. I declare speeches over with and dessert resumed."

Several more people had things to say. In fact, more people gave speeches than didn't, proving that my list of special abilities did not include making my declarations stick. I consoled myself by fairly sharing the remaining dessert with Donna; I got two-thirds of it.

A much more enjoyable topic - than being the subject of speeches I mean, not desserts; there are very few more enjoyable subjects than desserts - was a talk about the mansion-buying situation. Mom and Julia, with Vanessa helping at the end of a phone, had already decided on the short-shortlist of four properties. The architect had already provided a rough report about what renovations each property would need to have done to meet our requirements, with time and cost estimates for the jobs. That'd been finished about a week ago. It was time to pick one!

That was women's work, of course, so it'd been held up until Vanessa returned to Corvallis. Mom had brought the four sets of information up to Seattle and had gone through it with Vanessa and Julia. They were pretty sure which property they were going to choose, but they wanted one last visit to all four before they finalized their choice, and then Vanessa would act as our Negotiation Agent. One of Vanessa's areas of interest is "The Ethics of Business Negotiations", so she knew a thing or two about negotiating.

More good news was that Vanessa had plenty of time available as the academic year was over. She and Prof would be going into OSU to catch up on some of the work they'd missed, but it wasn't going to be even close to full time so mansion buying should progress quickly.

The women wouldn't tell us which of the properties was their favorite. We had to "wait and see" some more. Hopefully we'd be waiting and seeing quickly though, as their final inspections were being done on Sunday. With two families moving into the same house - or three really, as accommodation was needed for Julia, Carol, Ava and me as another 'family' - the decision about which house to buy was far too complex to even pretend that the men had any ability to contribute usefully. The women were 100% serious about that! They'd pick their favorite property and Vanessa would negotiate on my behalf - I was the one who'd be writing the check, although I was underage so my parents would be countersigning the contract. When the negotiation was finished, and the contract signed, including a clause that the sale would be conditional on my approving the property, THEN the men would be allowed to inspect it. If I approved, then the sale would move forward.