Chapter 22

Mona came in and said: "10 tomorrow morning. You look tired."

"I am."

"Go home."

"OK."

I was waiting for the Dean a bit before 10 on Friday. "Thanks for the pep-talk yesterday."

"You're welcome. Did the meeting proceed well?"

"Better than I had hoped. Before I get the committees down in the dirt, though, I had a few questions."

"Not unexpected."

"Advertising?"

"For the chair, say half a dozen academic places plus The Australian. Final text to be approved by this office. Deadline four to eight weeks after publication date. For the professorial job, two ads. In both cases, a flyer to every university in this country plus New Zealand. Show me that wording, too."

"Money?"

"Bills come to this office. You mark them 'evolution' and OK them." He smiled. "Cut each list to five, we'll interview three. I'll cover travel, too. But not first class."

"Right. That's all the questions I've got."

"Have a good weekend."

When I got to my office, there were two stacks of paper on my desk. "Mona what's all that stuff?"

"End of June. You told Floreat and Scitech you wanted material by 1 July."

"So I did." I got coffee and sat down at my desk. The heap of Floreat stuff (from Chaz) was smaller, so I began reading there. About 90 minutes later, I broke for lunch: a sandwich and a bottle of water from the cart near the parking lot. I was done by two. Looking at the Scitech material, I realised that 75% of it was pamphlets, study materials and such. I broke the stack into two parts and began reading the two centimetres of paper.

I was really amazed at the extent of Scitech's outreach. Not only did they bring in busloads of students, many of the staff went off on visits to schools. The teacher's guides were very fine. I realised that in all my visits I'd not seen Horizon, the planetarium, nor attended a planetarium show. I saw that both Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton were contributors.

I had made some notes while reading Chaz' stuff. I made more on Scitech. Then I became aware of the fact that I'd not logged my activities for the quarter. I hoped that Mona had. Actually, I was certain that she had. Just then she stuck her head in.

"I'm off!"

"What?"

"It's Friday. It's 4pm. I'll see you on Monday."

"Right. Have a good weekend." I must have spent five hours in all on the stuff. I straightened out the papers, put a book on top of each pile, and took a deep breath. I took my cup and went to the men's, where I rinsed it out. I put it on my desk, turned out the lights, and left.

There was barely room for me to park at home. When I got out of the car, I saw Rob, Mary, Evans, and Willy paying court to Patrick, who was in Weena's arms.

"Room for one more?"

"Hello, Gordy." "Good day at school?" "Didn't you bring any students?" were the greetings I got. Weena just kissed me.

"I'm beat," I said.

"I'll get you a beer," said Mary.

"Thanks, mum."

"What?" asked Willy, quick off the mark.

"Didn't they tell you?"

Rob was crimson, edging towards maroon.

"Rob's buying Mary a ring," I said.

"Aha. Most likely he has to," said Evans. "He should have known that he could get into trouble."

"Oh, he's not in trouble," I stuck in, "she is." Everyone (except Rob) laughed.

"Not only that, but he's out of work," said Weena.

"What happened?" I asked.

Rob was regaining his composure. "They didn't like one of my reports."

"Oh?"

"They sent me to Ravenscroft last autumn. I told them there was nickel, but that they shouldn't invest a lot. They sent me back last month. They'd already begun the works. I told them they were wrong. They didn't like my advice, so I'm gone at the end of July."

"What'll you do?" asked Willy.

Rob winked at Mary. "Well, we've talked about it. I've saved a bit of money. I though we'd get married in ten days or so and then spend a year going around the world."

"Daddy! Are you serious?"

"Oh yes. Ask Mary."

"We haven't exactly decided where we want to go. And I'm not sure I want to be away for a whole year. But we'll start by going to Singapore and then to India. I want to see New Delhi and Agra and Bombay ... uh ... Mumbai. And then Cairo and the pyramids ... unless they're shooting tourists again. And Athens and Istanbul and Rome and Milan and Vienna and Paris and London." Mary started to run out of steam, so Rob 'helped.'

"Edinburgh, Toronto, Rio, Buenos Aires, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Vancouver, Honolulu, and back."