Chapter 3 - A new day

	Chapter 3 - A new day
Some People's Parents	Prev \| TOC \| Next

Astulf woke up feeling refreshed, dirty, stiff, dreamy and anxious. He suddenly realized that the anxiety was caused by the assignment due today and that focused his thoughts. He remembered that Roger said they had two extra days, but that did not reassure him much. He opened his eyes wide and scrambled out of bed.
During his shower and shave he thought furiously about ways to accelerate the computer model, while keeping it consistent with the baseline conditions. Reluctantly, he scrapped them all as being no help for an assignment due so soon.
He thought for a moment that he should have worked last night. But when he got back with the computers, he'd been exhausted, and unfocused. Unfocused. Part of his mind on ... his razor slowly finished the stroke and set itself on the sink ... that reporter. He'd felt ... that something had happened between them ... but her words had been ... mundane, but with a certain ... intensity. Did she have that affect on all men? Not possible. Because a part of himself had reached out to her before she even spoke.
He heard a clatter of keys from the living room. Computers. Roger. Assignment. The reporter would wait. As he thought that, it felt right, but he still felt a burst of anxiety and guilt at leaving her at the police station.
Clatter of keys, muttered curse. Roger needed help. Astulf finished his shave with no more than 4 or 5 thoughts of the reporter: her hand holding the clipboard, her shining black loafers, the thrill in her voice as she said "Wait!"
"How are you doing, Roger?" Astulf asked as he headed into the cluttered living room. Cables were strewn in an arc behind a large kitchen table, connecting computers to each other, to power, and to a pair of monitors on the table with keyboards and mice. The room looked considerably tidier than before the police had come.
Roger set down the screwdriver and looked at Astulf. "Great, how about you?"
"I'm fine," Astulf scoffed. "12 hours sleep did wonders for me."
"14 hours actually," Roger corrected with a grin. "You were asleep by 7 and up at 9:03."
'You look like you've been up for hours."
"I got 8 hours sleep." Roger claimed. "I also got the network set up and ran the function tests, and the system tests." He frowned.
"Something wrong with the tests?"
"Actually, the low level function tests were fine. But the tests on the main machine came out a bit weird."
"Weird how?"
"You grab some breakfast and I'll talk about it. I could use a snack, too." Roger stood up and shooed Astulf into the kitchen. "You remember how we set up some simple tests to make sure our log files weren't going wild and filling the hard drive?"
"Yes, we did that after the log files went wild and filled the old small hard drive and we sprang for a bigger one."
"Right." Roger grabbed a loaf of bread off the counter and opened it up. "Well, if I remember the old sizes correctly, there is 6GB of space missing, and I don't know where it's gone."
"Well, wouldn't it show up in the directory summaries?"
"It didn't, according to the ..." The door buzzer interrupted loudly. I'll get it, you start some toast." Roger marched back through the living room toward the door. "I'm coming!"
As he opened the door a wonderful warm smell of soup filled the room, and Astulf poked his head back out of the kitchen.
"I thought you guys would like some of my famous Cauliflower soup, after all you've been through!" said Mrs. Cauliflower cheerfully as she sailed into the room carrying a large pot full of hot soup in her mittened hands.
The phone rang. It was in the kitchen, on the end of its 25 foot cord. As Astulf reached for it, a warm feeling swept over him and he began to smile.
"Hello, this is Astulf." he said cheerfully.
Mrs. Astulf set the pot down on the stove and began rinsing a couple of bowls in the sink, ignoring Roger's panicky guilt, sputtering and hand waving.
"Don't worry!" she whispered to him. "I'm not your mother."
Roger noticed that Astulf's face had lost its alert edge. He looked bemused as he spoke. "Sure."
"Who is it?" Roger hissed.
Astulf didn't notice. He felt relaxed and happy. "And your name is June?" Her voice was soothing to his ears, as familiar as his mother's, and yet he'd only met her yesterday.
"Would you like to come over now? Mrs. Cauliflower just brought some wonderful soup, and I'm sure there's enough for one more."
"Oh, yes. Lots." encouraged Mrs. Cauliflower.
Astulf smiled at her. "Sure. Do you like whole wheat bread? There's a bakery... Yes, that's the one."
"Sure. 15 minutes? Great. See you then."
"Astulf. You don't look normal. Who was that?" Roger demanded.
"A woman I met yesterday. She's a reporter." Astulf still looked bemused, as if the whole world was wearing rose tinted glasses. He picked up a bowl of soup and headed for the computer table in the living room.
Roger followed. "A reporter? And you volunteered to see her? Here? How did she do that to you? How could you fall for it?" Roger was shocked, outraged. He shook his hands at Astulf at every question.
Mrs. Cauliflower handed him a bowl of soup and a clean spoon.
"Roger. You like my soup, yes?"
Roger was surprised and felt a bit guilty. "Well, yes, of course. I like your soup a lot, Mrs. Cauliflower."
"Well, sit down at the table here and eat a bowl. You'll feel better."
Mrs. Cauliflower ruthlessly stacked the paper from part of the table, and pushed a keyboard and mouse aside. "Sit. Eat."
She turned her head to Astulf. "You sit, too. I'll go get you a spoon."
While Astulf, still smiling, got a chair, Mrs. Cauliflower sailed smoothly to the kitchen, returning with a spoon and another chair as Astulf sat down. She sat down and handed him the spoon.
"Now, Astulf, tell us about her. Her name is June?"
Astulf was spooning the delicious soup into his mouth. He didn't stop, just nodded and smiled.
"And you met her yesterday?"
Another nod and smile.
"You have a special feeling for her?"
Astulf stopped spooning. "That's a good way to describe it. Special. Kind of a whole-body certainty. I even felt it before I saw or heard her yesterday. And again before I picked up the phone just now."
"So you're sure she's not just putting sweet smiles on you," Roger broke in suspiciously as he set down his empty soup bowl, "to help her get the interview?"
Mrs. Cauliflower frowned at Roger and patted his hand. Astulf smiled beatifically. "You'll see. She'll be here in a few minutes."

Some People's Parents

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