Читать книгу Stewards of the White Circle: Calm Before the Storm - JT MDiv Brewer - Страница 10

After only a single week, Omega caused another stir in the calm, ordered waters of his secretary's life. He realized he had, perhaps, overstepped his bounds with his personal inquiries about a boyfriend on only their second day together and, so, kept a polite, professional distance between them for a few days. But he could not keep it up. She was going to be a part of his life now, and there was no sense wasting time treading water. Time passed too swiftly to let it just flow by.

He was over two hours late this particular Monday morning. She was already at her desk, typing away like a hen pecking at a June bug when he came bursting in through the outer door, walking backwards, lugging behind him a load of heavy boxes on a wheeled cart and holding in his teeth a plastic Home Depot bag containing an electric drill, a rubber mallet, wood glue and a sack of assorted metal fasteners. Anna Dawn's eyes widened in disbelief as she watched him drag the paraphernalia past her toward his office.

“Beth not to athk,” he said, passing her with a Cheshire grin, his diction slurred by the plastic bag in his mouth. He

ambled past without another word, shutting his office door behind him.

Within a few moments, sounds of drilling and pounding were rattling the walls like an earthquake. He knew she would be curious, but, if he was any judge of character, she was not going to give in, out of principle. He was right. For three hours, he hammered, glued and drilled in total privacy.

Finally he emerged from the small, very-white office, victorious. “Wahla!” he announced, beaming with pride as he dusted off his pants. “Want to see?”

“Let me guess,” she said, giving nonchalance her best shot. “A built-in entertainment center?”

“Sadly, I am not much for television. Try again.”

She stopped her typing. “How can that be? You're on television! You're Mr. “Save the Animals”, himself, for goodness sake.”

He was brushing dust from the top of his head. “Want my autograph?”

“Just on my paycheck.” Her typing resumed.

“Aw, come on. Guess.”

The typing continued. “I thought you wanted this syllabus typed by the end of the week.”

“This will only take a second.”

“Professor….”

“Ms. Hamlyn, stop what you are doing and come in here! Right now!”

She froze, looking at him over the top of her glasses, polite insubordination written all over her face. “You just want me to come in there and gush all over whatever it is you've done, all the while knowing I'm the one who will have to clean it up.”

“Certainly not!” Omega beckoned impatiently. “Gush or not, as you wish. Just come see!”

“Oh, all right.” Anna Dawn pushed back her chair and followed him into the room. “You know you've probably made a huge mess in there ... with who knows what, all over the place. Bad enough, I cleaned up after your paint job, I'll be hanged if I'm going to....”

“Look.”

With a sigh, she walked in.

“Shelves!” he said. “What do you think?”

She peered past him. A set of finished oak-stained shelves, five levels high, stretched the length of one wall behind the desk.

Anna Dawn took off her glasses and wiped them on her crisply-ironed shirttail. “Keep this up, Professor,” she muttered from the side of her mouth, “and they'll fire you from your day job and write you up full-time on the maintenance crew.”

“That good, huh?”

She nodded, approvingly. “Surprisingly good.”

He plopped down in his leather chair, a little cloud of shredded packaging material powdering the air around him. “I do have purpose behind this madness, you know.”

“Uh-huh. What?”

A gleam shone in his eye. He rubbed his hands eagerly. “I have some ... things ... that will be arriving any day now. Knick knacks, you might call them, very old and very special. They deserve a place of honor.”

“Oh?”

“You will see, when they arrive.”

“Fine, be secretive. But I'm warning you, Dr. Omega, dusting knick knacks is not in my job description!” She folded her arms with a mock pout.

“No dusting will be expected.”

“I want that in writing.” She turned to leave.

He rose from his chair. “Wait, Anna Dawn, I have something for you.”

She stopped, looking uncomfortable. “You don't have to give me things, Dr. Omega. The roses were great, but I don't think.… ”

He interrupted, “Anna Dawn, someone told me you are a botany major when you are not busy being my secretary."

“That's right,” she answered, warily. “I’ve scheduled all morning classes during fall term and will work here afternoons.”

“Well, then, from one scientist to another, have a look at these.” He pulled on his desk drawer, withdrew a rolled up newspaper and spread it open on his desk. It was filled with tiny, blue wildflowers.

Her mouth opened slightly, like a fish not quite sure if it should take the worm or worry about a hook.

He smiled at her happily, sure she must like them; sure he had chosen well. “You see, Anna Dawn,” he explained, simply, “I like to go for walks on the weekends and I found these by the roadside yesterday evening. When I saw them, I wondered if my little botanist, Ms. Hamlyn, could identify them for me? What do you think?”

She leaned in for a closer look. “Pretty.… ”

He offered them to her. “Here. Take them. Smell. They are quite fragrant.”

She put them to her nose and inhaled. "Yes, very sweet, like honey.”

“Well?” Omega looked at her intently, waiting for an answer.

“Well ... what?”

“What are they? You are a botanist?”

She examined the flowers more closely over the top of her glasses. “I don't think I'm familiar with this particular plant,” she admitted, avoiding his penetrating gaze. “I need my field guide.”

His gaze softened. “Not to worry, Anna Dawn. The world is full of questions wanting answers, is it not? I just thought it could be a little ... thing ... between us. I find the flowers, you identify them. Could be fun.”

She nodded, “Yes. It could be.”

“So, perhaps you could just tell me what they are later, when you have time to find out.”

“Be glad to," she said, handing them back to him. “It's very nice of you, to think of me.”

“Oh, please keep them. I picked them for you.”

She looked at him, still not quite sure what to think.

His eyes twinkled. “I assure you, I am not flirting with you, Ms. Hamlyn, if that is what is bothering you; for I am a happily married man. It would just be nice to get to know you a little better and I thought this would break the ice between us a little faster.”

She smiled, accepting his answer with a tilt of her head. “In that case, Dr. Omega, I'll have to watch myself around you. I'm not one to open up easily, not without a fight.”

“I never for one moment thought you would be,” he answered.

Anna Dawn put down the flowers. “Tell me about your wife, Dr. Omega,” she ventured cautiously. “What’s she like?”

Omega's eyes lit up. “Johanna? Oh, she is wonderful. A brilliant woman. I consider her a great scientist in her own right. Insightful, resourceful, brave and very dear.”

“I'd like to meet her sometime.”

“I hope you may. But it may be a while. She is in Africa right now.”

“Africa?!”

“Yes. Working on one of our projects.” He sighed. “I do not see her very often these days. We are both so busy. I miss her.” For a moment, he stared off into space, then cleared his throat, bringing himself back. “You seem a bit lonely yourself, Anna Dawn. Am I wrong?” Here, he was getting personal again and chuckled inwardly at the thought.

Anna Dawn hesitated. “I live alone, if that's what you mean.”

“Partly. I guess what I am asking is, where are your family? Who are the important people in your life?”

She reddened. “My, how we do pry, Professor!”

“Forgive me. But I do take some pride in reading people, and I am usually proven correct. Forgive me for noticing, but I sense an emptiness in you. Like you are the only person in your world. It is very sad.”

She played with her hands. “I don’t know why I’m talking to you like this,” she said hesitantly. “I’m not one to open up to an old acquaintance, much less someone I’ve only known a day. But,” she pointed a finger at his nose, “there is something about you, Dr. Omega…. I don’t know what. Somehow, you do make me feel I could tell you anything.”

“So you could, lass,” Omega answered quickly. “I would never betray your trust. Are you alone, then, as I suspected?”

She nodded. “Yes. Quite alone.” Then she looked up sharply. “But I manage. I’ve managed on my own for some time.”

“I have no doubt of it,” Omega said. “I understand what it is to be lonely, Anna Dawn. Please know that you can talk to me if there is no one else to listen.”

She chewed her lower lip, thinking, then said, “I’ve been orphaned since I was three. Car accident. Killed my parents and my baby brother. I was raised by my Aunt Carol, my father's sister. She just passed away last winter. She was all the family I had. So, you see,” she forced a smile, “after all these years, I'm an orphan again.”

For a moment, she waited, as if deciding whether to say more; then, he could tell from her face, she smelled the hook. That would be all the fishing he would get done today.

“I'll look for something to put these in,” she said, gathering up the newspaper and blue flowers and starting for the door.

Omega was wise enough to know now was not the time to press her more, so he simply called to her as she walked out, “By the way, Ms. Hamlyn, I notice your eyes are the same color as the flowers. Just an interesting coincidence. Have a nice morning.”

Anna Dawn flopped back in her chair, befuddled. For a long moment, she examined the wildflowers, her fingers strangely trembling. How was she supposed to react to things like this? If he made her so uncomfortable, why the devil did she like him so much?

Maybe she was being silly, reading things into their banter that was all perfectly innocent. What was there to fear, really? That somebody was being nice, was actually attempting to care about her? She had been alone so long, independent and self-directed … no one else to have to plan for, or worry about. This whole idea of permitting a personal relationship to develop between them—-a “thing” he had called it—-rubbed like a new pair of jeans. But, then, she had never known a father or an uncle or a grandfather, so how could she know what to expect from a man? Worse, she had never known a mother, so how could she know how a woman effectively interacts with a man, whatever his role? And beyond that, it had to be admitted, her new boss was an entirely different animal altogether from anyone she had ever met, from either sex. How one was to appropriately respond to him was anybody's guess. An instruction manual had not been written on the likes of Dr. James Omega.

Reflectively, she stared at the cheerful bouquet in her hands. Found them by the roadside, did he? she thought. The wild roses from the previous week probably came from his walks, too. Out dear old professor seems to have a knack for finding things others pass by, whether it's flowers or ... me. The question is, do I like being found?

As she fingered the tiny blossoms, she felt a small shiver of delighted discovery—-each delicate blue flower had a perfect, white star in the center.

Boxes began arriving that afternoon. Anna Dawn was sitting at her desk, looking over the fall class schedule when the UPS courier came through the door with two packages, one roughly the size of a microwave oven and the second the size of a shoebox.

“M’am,” he said, “some parcels for a Dr. J. Omega?”

“Yes,” she said. “You may leave them here. He's out of the office, but I'll sign for him.”

“Fine. Where do you want them put?”

“Over there, by his door.” She pointed to his office. “What are they?”

The courier shrugged. “I don't look inside 'em, M'am; I just deliver 'em. But most of ‘em say ‘Handle with Care.’ Were you expecting something fragile?”

Anna Dawn shrugged. “I guess so. Be careful with them,” she cautioned.

When Omega returned an hour later, there were seventeen boxes of varying dimensions awaiting him outside his office door.

Anna Dawn looked up as he came in. “Merry Christmas.”

Omega's eyes lit up. “Oh good! Wonderful! They are here! Would you help me unpack them, Ms. Hamlyn?”

She didn't show it, but if he hadn't invited her, if she had to wait another five minutes to see what the boxes contained, she would have popped. She had no idea what to expect, but she was sure it would be something amazing, and she was right.

Omega opened the first box, reached deep into the Styrofoam peanuts that filled it, and withdrew ... a bird carved of wood. Its plumage was painted powder pink and lavender with a white breast, and it was seated on a branch, head back and beak open, in a pose of singing as if it were beckoning with all its heart for the sun to rise.

Omega stared at it fondly a moment, then turned to Anna Dawn. “Spring's Herald,” he said. “Lovely, is she not?”

“Yes,” Anna Dawn agreed. “I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. What did you call it?”

“Spring's Herald.”

“That's an unusual name.”

“I enjoy giving animals my own little nicknames. It is more fun than Latin.” He placed the bird on the center row of his newly-made shelves. “Spring's Herald is, or was, a real bird—-a member of the lark family. You have not seen anything like her because she and her kind have not been on the planet for a very, very long time. She is extinct now, and a sad thing it is. Her song was ... that is ... was reputed to be ... quite beautiful.”

The next box held a real stuffed squirrel in an air-tight glass case, or at least, Anna Dawn guessed that it was a squirrel. Then, again, truthfully, it didn't look quite right. “What is this?” she queried. “It looks something like a squirrel, but it’s yellow.”

Omega took it from her and gave it a place of honor beside the lark. “Good guess. It is a member of the lemur family, actually, a pomatuu ... a golden pomatuu at that; 'Toe-sleeper,' I like to call him. From South America.”

“Is it extinct, too?”

Omega nodded. “Every box you see here contains a creature that is no more.”

Anna Dawn looked astounded. “How did you get all these?”

“It is a collection I have been making for many, many years. These animals are very precious. Many of them are the only proof that they ever existed. Not only are they all extinct, but a few of them are also extremely old.

Anna Dawn shook her head in disbelief. “So how old can they be? I mean, dead animals turn to dust in a few years, unless they are mummified; and mummies could never look this good.”

Omega's eyes twinkled. “Let us just say, I know some people who are very good at what they do. The point is, Anna Dawn, you are looking at a very valuable collection. It is the only one of its kind in the world. Now, will you help me get the rest of these out of their prisons and up on the shelf? I tend to think of them as my pets, you see, and I do not like them to be cooped up any longer than necessary.”

She bit her lip and pushed up her glasses on her nose. Right. Your pets. Oh, boy.

For the next hour, it was like some bizarre birthday party, opening presents. The specimens ranged from reptiles to fish to insects with a bit of everything in between; the majority being mammals and birds.

When they were done at last, Omega stood back, admiring the display. “Now it feels like my office,” he said.

“Dr. Omega?” Anna Dawn asked. “Is there ever going to come a day when you cease to surprise me? I'm asking, because if there is, just let me know and I'll call in sick and stay home. What I'm trying to say is, I'm getting addicted.”

Omega looked puzzled. “To what?”

“To you,” she said, and walked out, leaving it at that.