Later, Sometime After Midnight
Received an email from Omar. It read,
My Dear Giz,
I hope you’re seated – I have some very alarming news – news only our friendship forces me to relate. I just hope you’ll forgive the messenger.
I’ve just landed back in town and dropped by the Jalandhar Raj this evening with a dear friend and who should I see but the incomparable Selina Beri – dining with a rather rummy looking cove – I’d say some very junior law clerk or accountant of some sort. And I further regret to report that she seemed to be having a very good time. I felt that discretion was called for (as I use it, every now and again) so I did not make myself known, and even hid behind my menu when she left.
As I said, I regret bearing this distressing news, but knowing your fondness for the incomparable Miss Beri, having kissed her in the middle of the Broad street, Oxford, Oxfordshire, I feel that it is my sad duty – one that I cannot dodge and still be your friend.
I hope we can gather soon to exchange news,
Your friend,
O.V.
I replied,
O.V.,
Devastated. My job takes me to Scotland for the next three weeks plus. Leaving Sunday morning, so if you want to ‘exchange news’, you’ll need to drop by the house today. I’ll be working on school papers.
Welcome home,
Hugh
Thanks for being discrete, for once.
Had I known that Omar was back in town, (He’d been off visiting his folks stationed in Jakarta this year.) I might have hesitated to take Beri to the Jalandhar Raj. I knew it to be one of O’s haunts when in London, but that was spilled milk.
Saturday Afternoon
I saw Omar slip his e/mini into one of the few open slots on the block from my bedroom window a little after 3:00. I didn’t go down to meet him right away, giving him time to flirt with Mom and my sister, Karen. Mom can take care of herself, but I only gave him a minute or two with Karen, who was getting old enough to flirt with Omar as well.
When I went down to fetch him. I found him sleek and suave as ever, leaning casually against a door frame at the foot of the stairs, sharing a laugh with Karen, who was standing far too close – at least as seen from my angle as an older, more experienced brother. That last part is probably wishful thinking...
‘Hello O, Good to see you hale and hardy after your travels. Come on up, I need a break.’
‘Hello Giz ol’bean,’ He glanced up at me, and exclaimed, ‘Good God, Giz, what have you done to yourself! Why, it was you at the Jalandhar Raj last night with the incomparable...’ Discretion was an iffy thing with Omar.
‘You saw Hugh’s girlfriend!’ exclaimed Karen. ‘Tell us all, he won’t even admit he has one, but we all know!’
‘Oh no, you won’t,’ I jerked him up the step. ‘Come along O, I’ve a lot of work to do, and if you want to exchange news, you can’t be wasting time gabbing with Karen.’
‘I’ll text you all the delicious details,’ Omar called back.
‘Not if you want a long and healthy life.’
‘What’s with the hair cut?’ Omar ask as we climbed the stairs.
‘I’m a responsible adult now... They made me do it...’ I replied and gave him the quick rundown.
I shut the door of my small room, and swung my leg over the back of my desk chair as Omar settled comfortable on the bed. He then just beamed at me with a silly smile on his face and the occasional sigh. I stared at him, just waiting.
‘Now I know exactly how Dr Frankenstein felt the moment his creation stirred to life. My heart is about to burst with pride...’
‘Dr Frankenstein, my ass....’
‘I’ll admit I’d come close to despair over you, Giz. I put a lot of effort into polishing you up enough to be at least presentable to members of the opposite sex, though at times it seemed a hopeless task. But I persevered, that’s my nature... And now, when I see how all that work has paid off... I’ve created a Romeo that can charm the likes of the incomparable Miss Selina Beri, well, as I said, my heart is about to burst...’
I looked silently to the ceiling.
And then leaning forward, he said. ‘In all seriousness, I was amazed and happy when Ham pointed you out in your booth. You’d already eaten and were just finishing up over tea when we arrived, but even so, I felt discretion was called for in this case. Ham was all set to bring my date and me over to your booth, but I gave him a wink and told him to find us a table where we would not be seen, four being a crowd... I actually did hide myself behind the menu when you young people left...’
‘I truly appreciate that, though, I suppose, it may not have been strictly necessary.’ I shrugged. ‘Hard to say, really...’
‘Tell me all, Giz old boy, tell me all...’
I had no intention of telling O all, and didn’t. But on the other hand, Omar's a very social creature with a wide circle of friends well beyond Oxford. What he knew and what he would say is of some importance to both Beri and me in our rather small closed society, so playing coy would only allow rumours go unchecked – rumours that he could squash. Moreover, he’s my best friend – counting Beri as a different sort of best friend – and I knew I could trust him. He could even be discrete, as he had been yesterday, when the situation demanded. In short, I knew I could tell him how things stood, and trust that it would be to both Beri’s and my advantage.
‘You’ve a very strange relationship, Giz, my boy,’ he sighed after I’d finished my outline. ‘But, you’re on your own. You’re launched on your romantic career, but be careful, Hugh. I know little more about Miss Beri than you. She's in a higher orbit, which might give you something to ponder. Still, I suppose you know her far better than me now...' he sighed again. 'I rather look on you as my monster and I should hate to see you end up on the sharp end of a villager’s pitchfork...’
I shrugged. ‘I don’t think I have – or want – any choice. However, all in all, it’s probably good for me. My eyes have been opened as to where I presently stand in my physics studies, and where I need to be if I’m to go on to grad school and on to become a first rate physicist. And I won’t settle for less, now.,’ I replied and proceeded to tell him about my experiences in Cambridge with Moss and the gang, as well as Professor Darneby’s comments. He listened thoughtfully and asked a few questions and considered what I had said for several minutes in silence. He seemed to be weighing options, so I made it easy for him.
Omar is reading Mathematics and Statistics. However, he plans to manage science research projects as a career. He plans to take his masters in management, and is already working towards his career goals by becoming familiar with as many of his contemporaries in the various science fields as he can – the people he sees himself eventually employing or directing. I believe him to be a shrewd judge of humanity, and I know he weighs his wide circle of friends and acquaintances in light of his ambition, noting their strengths and weaknesses with an eye as to how to best employ them when they become his charge.
‘O, as a friend, I’d like to ask you to give me your candid assessment of my potential. How do I rate in your black book of future scientists? I could use an outsider’s opinion. Do I stand any chance to be a first rate physicist?’
‘No punches pulled?’ he asked with a laugh.
‘Well, I’m asking for it.’
‘But will you remember that? Still, never mind, Laddie. I take your point, and I don’t think you will be able to kick about my assessment of Hugh Gallagher.’ He made a tent of his fingers and gathered his most Mycroft Holmes air about him.
‘First, I’d say that you are as honest as a person can be without being annoying. You are entirely trustworthy. I would love to have you as my right hand man. You have, despite your decidedly geeky origins, an intuitive understanding of people, so you fit in and are quietly popular. You’d be easy to manage. These are all positive traits, not to be sniffed at. And you are a very creative thinker to boot...
‘But l
etting the other shoe fall, I have to say that you’ve been far more focused on your Chinese philosophies than on physics. Which is fine, but not if you want a career in physics. And while I know you have some new and sweeping theories of everything, unless you can put those into the language of physics, which is to say maths, you’d best stick to philosophy. And having roomed with you for two years, I have some questions as to your interest in the higher level maths you’d need to excel...’
‘I know...’ I sighed. ‘And as you well know, I’ve just no intuitive feel for it, I can read and understand the mathematical arguments I’ve been exposed to – if I really work at it. But it seems I've no inherent faculty to think or speak in mathematical terms... And when I am being honest with myself, seeing that mathematics is the language of physics, my future does seem rather iffy...’
‘Have you been really trying, Giz?’
I shrugged. ‘Yes and no. When I have to, I do it. I don’t like it, but I can do it. But that’s not really good enough, is it? You have to be passionate about something to really excel and if you don’t excel, you’ll end up teaching high school science... Thank goodness I have SSC to fall back on. I have a passion, but I don’t see much prospect of doing what I want to do given the way things are in physics... Hell, you’ve heard me bitch often enough about how if you need an infinite number of alternate worlds to get your maths to work, you’ve lost the script... It has to be simpler... anyway, I’ve a hard time playing the game or committing completely to a career in physics. Until now. Now it’s the only game I want... I guess I have a reason now to buckle down...’
‘If that’s what you want, you must and you can’t avoid maths. Still, you might consider a way to minimize your conflict with it...’
‘How could I do that?’
‘Have you considered using your knowledge of gadgets, computers, and software in physics as an experimental physicist? With a knowledge of both gadgets and software and physics, I see you as kind of the go-to-cove when anyone needs a hands-on expert to design instruments and software for their proposed experiment. I’d think you might find yourself quite sought after... And I think you might well enjoy that type of challenge as well. It’s the capacity I’d employ you in if you were employed on a project of mine.’
‘I’ve toyed with that idea, but only in terms of working for SSC, after getting my undergrad degree,’ I admitted. ‘But you’re right, there may be a place in the lab on that event horizon between engineering and physics that I might fit well in...’
‘Still, don’t use that idea to avoid maths, you’ve got to hit maths and physics hard this coming year.’
‘Yah, I know that. At least I’m motivated now. Believe me, between Beri and the Cambridge grad students, I’ve had my eyes opened. And I really want to be a part of that scene in one capacity or another...’
We talked more of my prospects and what I need to do, and how to do it for a while more and then it was on to Omar's adventures abroad. Omar had a date later, but we went out to a small, family run – kids playing on a back table – Chinese restaurant for an early dinner after which he dropped me off in front of my house and I returned to my Spartan room, to continue working on my papers until late that night.
Chapter 05 – Piece Five – A Middle-word