"Ah yes, well then, well then ... I believe we have sufficiently run Dr. Omega through the gauntlet this afternoon. We thank you all, doctors, for coming, and thank you Dr. Omega. You have given us much to think about.
“Now, if the Committee is ready to terminate this interview, we will excuse Dr. Omega to the waiting room while we attempt to arrive at a decision.”
The committee members nodded heads to one another in the affirmative. Hyden indicated the door with a gesture of his hand. “Again, thank you very much for coming, Dr. Omega. If you will show yourself to the door, Ms. Walker, my secretary, is waiting for you outside. I will rejoin you shortly in the foyer with our answer.”
“Of course,” Omega said and, quietly rising from his chair, strode for the door. But he stopped just short of it and turned. “By the way, Dean Hyden,” he said, motioning with his eyes toward a large salt water aquarium on the other side of the room, “your poor fish are about to poach.”
“What?” the Chairman muttered.
“The temperature of the water is too hot.”
Hyden walked over to the aquarium and squinted at the tiny thermostat. “Why, you're absolutely right. It's a full five degrees above what it should be! But, how could you know? You couldn't have read the thermostat from across the room.”
“I know,” Omega replied with a grin, pulling the door closed behind him as he finished over his shoulder, “because the fish told me.”
The heavy brass lock clicked shut and the room stood in silence for a very long moment.
“How'd he do that?” Derk Long broke the silence, shaking his head in amazement.
“He's a biologist,” Annie commented stiffly. “A very observant one, obviously. He saw how the fish were behaving, that's all.” But, having said this, she pursed her lips and looked strangely at the door through which a very amazing man had just exited.
Heads slowly nodded agreement, while an unsettling question mark seemed to float almost tangibly above the faces around the table.
The chairman stood, tapping his pen on the tabletop for attention. “Okay, folks. Let's tackle the subject at hand. In spite of the unusual circumstances, sound judgment tells me we should not question our good fortune. James Omega could do great things for our university. A mind like that—here! He's as much as begging us to take him, asking so little and offering so much in return. I don't need to remind you President Hewitt has taken the effort to call me personally on this matter. Therefore, as Chair of this committee, I move we accept James Omega's application along with the conditions he requests. All in favor?”
Curnow was silent as the others responded in an eager affirmative and he knew when he was licked. If he voted no, he would never hear the end of it, from Hyden, from President Hewitt and especially from the beautiful, hard-nosed Annie Groff. Begrudgingly, his hand joined theirs.
“Wonderful! Then the voting's unanimous,” Hyden said, delightedly rubbing his hands. “We will therefore offer Dr. Omega a full professorship in the College of Natural Sciences, Department of Biology, contingent upon the negotiation of a satisfactory salary, benefit and tenure arrangement. Meeting adjourned.”
Everything about James Omega irked Frank Curnow. Now, he was coming to CSU, asking for a job. It was ludicrous! Why would a PBS superstar give up all his publicity and prestige at the University of Chicago to come to little Fort Collins, Colorado, boasting no more than 140,000 residents and ignobly titled by its student body as “Funtown, U.S.A.?”
It didn’t make sense. Omega already had everything. His television series had made him as famous as Carl Sagan. He had three or four bestsellers in his hip pocket, not to mention numerous public appearances on the late night shows, and who knew what else waiting in the wings! Why give all that up? Omega’s simple explanation that he needed ‘a change of pace,’ didn’t fly. There had to be something in it for him. Unless… Curnow recalled how the mongoose thing had led to a rash of accusations and litigation. What if the man had been discreetly offered his hat by the University of Chicago and was simply trying to find a place to lie low until the waters settled. Omega was considered by many not only one of the most brilliant genetic engineers of the age, but a master marketer of his persona as well as his knowledge. It was the cause for a split ballot; some respected him, others loathed him. Curnow fell one-hundred percent into the later camp.
The professor grinned and at once began to lay out a course of action in his mind. He would not embarrass the dean or the department by attacking Omega directly at this interview as he had previously thought to do. No, for the time being, he would be insidiously gracious and polite. He would acquiesce to Annie Groff and the rest and would not cast a ballot against bringing the Great Wizard aboard CSU’s ship. But in his heart, he was steeled: James Omega was a man who needed watching, and he was the one who would do it.
3
BE IT EVER SO HUMBLE
Anna Dawn Hamlyn prepared to enter her new apartment, balancing a fully-loaded laundry basket of immaculately folded clothes topped with some twenty plastic hangers, plus an open box of sheet music sitting atop that.
It had been a long two-day drive from Texas to Fort Collins. She was already bushed and there was no one to help her unpack the car and haul her things up to the third floor. So, here she was, arms full of stuff and the key to the apartment lost in her purse.
Biting her tongue to keep from saying something her Aunt Carol wouldn’t have approved of, she leaned against the doorjamb, balancing the laundry pile with one hand while struggling to unzip the purse with the other. A centimeter at a time, the zipper finally slid open and she managed to retrieve the key with two fingers. Now, all she had to do was get the key in the lock.
She readjusted her load once again and made the attempt. At that very moment, her wire-rimmed glasses decided to tilt sideways and a mischievous lock of red hair fell impishly forward, blocking her vision. She tried blowing it away with an impatient “poof,” but it only landed back exactly where it was. Undaunted, she slipped the key into the lock blind, pushed open the door with her hip, and battled her way through the doorway by feel.
“Made it!” she cried triumphantly as she stepped over the threshold. This would have been true, except that the heel of her shoe, in keeping with the insolent nature of the eyeglasses and lock of hair, had to do its part to cause problems. It caught on a braided rug she didn't expect and couldn't see.
She felt herself falling and panic took over. For a moment she successfully counterbalanced, overcorrected, then gravity took over. With a shriek, she went down and everything went with her. She hit the floor hard amidst a cascade of garments, a thunderstorm of hangers and an avalanche of sheet music.
She lay for a moment with her eyes tightly closed, afraid to open them. Other than one elbow shooting sparks hot enough to make her eyes well with tears, she didn't think she was seriously hurt.
“Anna Dawn, you are such a klutz!” she moaned and looked about her in despair. “It’s amazing. You managed to do all this on your first load. Imagine what wondrous feats you can achieve with the next twenty loads waiting for you down in the car!”
She readjusted her glasses on her nose, then, groaning with the effort, pulled herself to her feet to begin bringing order to chaos.
“You're actually very good at putting things in order,” she told herself, cheerfully. “Unfortunately, you're even better at orchestrating disaster. Anna Dawn Hamlyn, you're a paradox, that’s what you are—a Franklin Planner with a paper shredder aptitude. Lord help you.”
Somehow, she got through the next two hours. In that time, despite the unfortunate introduction to her new home, she lugged up seven cardboard boxes, three suitcases, five houseplants and a very large musical instrument case. Then she unpacked her clothes, arranged them in the closet according to color, put away the dinnerware and pots and