Equanimity by Maxwell Blue
The receptionist’s watchful eye seemed to be saying he didn’t belong. What was her problem anyway? Nick couldn’t tell. Was there something wrong with the way he was dressed? He admitted to himself that his style was somewhat unconventional. His sneakers were so vintage that they were nearly impossible to purchase, his brand of blue jeans were fashioned mostly by Hollywood Stars and Rock Legends, but his signature purple button-down shirt was just a modest gift from his girlfriend Allison. Maybe the receptionist didn’t think his six thousand dollar Omega wristwatch went with the rest of his attire. But that was a silly notion. He was just being self-conscience.
He would never apologize for it; he knew it was just one of his idiosyncrasies working overtime, the touch of spontaneity, the restricting view of tunnel-vision and the waking hours of sleepless nights. Like the minute he saw that Omega wristwatch he was wearing, he knew he had to have it. After all that was the wristwatch of James Bond. Soon after he saw the latest James Bond blockbuster and got him the urge to visit London.
Nick took Allison with him, of course, and they saw all the landmarks and stopped by Wimbledon to watch a match or two. Nick, a tennis fanatic, couldn’t get enough of this racket sport. He doesn’t play tennis himself, but he gets in a few games of racquetball ever weekend.
They spent a few days observing all the sights after the tennis matches. Allison was a force of nature. Once she got a taste of the place there was no stopping her. She wanted to do everything. In the end she pleaded with Nick to just visit Paris for a day, only he had to be in this office building—today—in this meeting with Rosenthal.
When did Rosenthal become such a monkey on his back? Rosenthal didn’t seem to have any sense of the endless hours he was putting in the lab. In the past year Sandro Rosenthal was never satisfied. The unmistakable question: wasn’t this his life? Rosenthal always wanted more of a cut of the profits - more of a cut of everything. It was like Rosenthal had attached his tentacles deep within him and only now Nick was just starting to break free.
Just because Rosenthal found Nick when he was in pain, grant you it was the worst pain Nick ever felt in his life, doesn’t mean that Rosenthal can drain him dry.
“Mr. Clegg,” the receptionist called out, “Mr. Rosenthal will see you now.”
Nick flashed the receptionist a smile as he walked by. She seemed immune to his charms and just went right back to doing the boring, uninteresting work that he imagined those receptionists do. Have at it he thought. What lies has Rosenthal been telling you about me? Nick was the talent after all. If anything he should be treated like a royalty. Nick figured that Rosenthal doesn’t believe in profit sharing. If he did then his receptionist would definitely be treating him a little more warmly.
“Nick,” Rosenthal said greeting him at the door to his office, “come in, come in and take a seat. I hope you haven’t been waiting long.”
Nick took a seat at one of the three chairs that were new to Rosenthal’s office. “I haven’t been waiting long.”
“That is good. I am glad.” Rosenthal said calmly. “Now how is that new project coming?”
“I am almost finished now.” Nick said looking down at his watch and raising it up to his right ear to listen to the clicks of the second hand.
“You have been saying that for six months now,” Rosenthal said trying not to let the tension show.
“Genius takes time.”
“You have been saying that too.”
“Well it is true.” Nick said getting up from the soft leather chair so he could pace. “You know me and Allison could be having espressos in Paris right now looking at the Eiffel tower if I didn’t agree to have this meeting with you.”
“Is that what is bothering you?” Rosenthal looked genuinely concerned “You could have just called and I could have arranged for the corporate jet to fly you and Allison wherever you want to go.”
Nick stopped pacing and turned to confront Rosenthal, “That is just it - I feel like a little pig that is constantly getting fed little bits of food. I don’t want to be asking for things. I want to be in charge.”
“I am not controlling you, Nick.” Rosenthal said “We are partners.”
“Partners?”
“That’s right.” Rosenthal said with a big simile. “When I got my cut last time and I cut you a check for half a billion dollars. That’s a lot of money.”
“But the patent is obviously worth far more.”
Patting Nick on the back with a big beefy hand “Don’t worry about the details. Remember who believed in you from the beginning and gave you a place at the table.”
“I remember.”
“Now tell me about this next invention.” Rosenthal said eagerly, “You have kept me in the dark long enough.”
“Oh, it is a big one,” Nick teased “But like I said it needs some work.”
Rosenthal wasn’t pleased to say the least. “You promised me something and I assumed that it would be the next new thing and all you give me…”
Rosenthal continues to yell at Nick. Nick figures Rosenthal must have promised his investors something extra special. When Rosenthal doesn’t delivers he is likely to be thrown into a shark tank or something. The thought of it made Nick chuckle. He couldn’t understand how men with so much money could whine so much. Thankfully he had the ability to block Rosenthal out of his head. He looked over to Rosenthal to see if he realized that he was no longer listening to him. Sure enough Rosenthal stopped talking when he could no longer hear his voice vibrating in his ears. And it wasn’t too long after that when Rosenthal realized he could not hear anything at all.
Even though Nick couldn’t hear Rosenthal he still seemed pretty upset. Nick was never trained to read lips, but it appears that his “partner” was trying to mouth the words, “Oh, that is very funny.” Nick tossed Rosenthal the device he was using to cancel out the sound in a hundred yard radius. The device was the size of a six-sided gambling die with dark blue and charcoal gray sides. Rosenthal was looking for some kind of switch on the die to turn the damn thing off and found only smooth sides. Looking over to Nick for help, Nick motioned his thumb and fingers together to give Rosenthal an idea how the device was operated.
Rosenthal squeezed the device and it flashed once like a strobe light and the sound was restored.
Then the door to Rosenthal office burst open and in popped the receptionist, “Mr. Rosenthal? Mr. Clegg? What just happening?”
“Everything is just fine, Miss Schumacher. Mr. Clegg was just having his say.”
“Yes, sir.” The receptionist said catching her breath, before she walked out and closing the door behind her.
“I see you have made it a great deal smaller.” Rosenthal said examining the cube closely.
“And just as powerful.”
“But isn’t there anything else?” Rosenthal asked “Don’t play games with me, Nick.”
“I agree that I would give you something today and there you have it.” Nick said “I told you what I want. I want some credit for my work. I am not some cog in a machine. I don’t like how the company holds on to all the patents.”
“Let me broker a deal. Bring me your next invention and I will make them listen.” Rosenthal said studying the cube Nick tossed him in silent wonder. “This sound nullifier should help convince them.”
“I will take you up on your word, partner!” Nick said before departing from Rosenthal’s office.
“So what did the big man have to say?” Allison asked when Nick met up with her. She was sitting at a table in the Angelic, a local French bistro near their penthouse apartment at 7th and Washington. She had already ordered herself an iced tea and a bowl of French onion soup. Allison considered herself a connoisseur of soups and would usual order the soup over the salad.
Whenever Nick ordered the house salad Allison would go into a spiel about how the house salad typically was made up of everything in the walk-in refrigerator that the restaurant was about to throw away anyway and unlike the soup, the salad was never cooked and there was no telling what was growing in it. Nick always told her that he preferred the salad over soup and that he liked to live dangerously and Allison would always reply that his culinary recklessness was bound to catch up with him.
“I don’t trust that man.” Nick said taking the opposite seat at the table that was set for two.
“That’s nothing new.” Allison chided breaking open the melted Gruyère cheese and soaking the toasted French bread with her soup.
“No.” Nick conceded, “But there is no telling what harm this next device could do.”
“More harm than that force thingy you invented?” Allison asked
“The force shield?” Nick said “What harm could be done in protecting people - besides Rosenthal promised that it would only be used for commercial applications.”
“And you believed him?” nearly choking on her soup.
“He signed an agreement.”
“Hells spells,” Allison protested “An agreement.”
“If anything, Rosenthal, has been a man of his word—well mostly. You didn’t know me when Rosenthal discovered me. I was at a very low point in my life. There was no way of knowing where I would have ended up without Rosenthal.”
“Is that why you stay with him?” Allison asked “You would have landed on your feet. You are brilliant, Nick.”
“Go on…” Nick said with a self-assured grin.
“I am serious.” Allison said with a laugh.
“I know you are and that is what scares me at times.” Nick said sobering up. “What happens when I get the genie out of the bottle?”
“More like Pandora’s Box you mean.”
“You are right,” Nick acknowledged “But I am like a heroin addict. Once I invent something I cannot stop. I suppose I am a prankster at heart. When I was a child I loved to play games with my sisters. You should have seen me with a whoopee cushion. Times were that I could be satisfied with only funny noises.”
“Now you are more sophisticated?” Allison joked
“You know me so well.” Nick said getting the waiters attention while he reached into his sports jacket and pulled out a headband and crowned it on his head.
“What are you up to, Nick?” Allison said.
“Just a little test.”
“Oh, don’t make a scene!” Allison protested
“Did you want to order something, Sir?” The waiter asked primly when he reached their table. With a small black notepad in hand he stood at attention ready to take Nick’s order like he had done a dozen times that afternoon.
“Do you have a hard cider on tap here?” Nick asked
“Indeed we do, sir.” The waiter pleasantly told him. “Crispin Cider.”
“I will have a mug of that.”
“Very good, sir. And what else…” Then just as the waiter was about to make note of the drink order the pen and notepad inexplicably dropped out of his hands and fell to the porcelain tile floor with a thud and a rattle.
“Oops.” The waiter said reaching down for the pen and his notepad.
“I will also have the house salad.” Nick said
“House salad.” The waiter said as he wrote it down. “And is there…” Again the waiter drops his pen and notepad like they were made of water.
“Call me Mr. Clumsy today.” The waiter said.
“My girlfriend claims the house salad has the worst things in it.” Nick said with a playful grin. “Do you disagree?”
“I can assure you the garde chef takes her job very seriously and uses the best ingredients.” The waiter said.
“What’s in the house salad today?” Nick asked.
“Snails.” The waiter said as he didn’t believe what he was saying.
“Snails?” Allison said. “Aargh! You won’t find me eating that.”
“This is a French bistro after all” Nick explained
“Did I say snails?” The waiter asked. “I meant to say nails.”
“Nails?” Allison said “What are you talking about?”
“Yes, nails.” The waiter proclaimed “Very hard ones. Dirty rocks and succulent earthworms, black beetles and puppy dog tails.”
“Now I know you are putting me on.” Allison said.
“Not at all.” The waiter said.
“That sounds good to me.” Nick said.
“Would you want something else, sir?” The waiter asked.
“Nothing else for me.” Nick said taking the headband off of his head and placing it back into his sports jacket.
The waiter turned away and left shaking his head like he had a screw loose.
“Did you do that?” Allison asked
“Do what?”
“That?!”
“I am just a simply man with a few dollars in his bank account. I don’t have the power to make people do whatever I want. I am not a god, Allison.”
“More like a little devil.” Allison reasoned. “Now I can see why you are reluctant to give this over to Rosenthal”
“Right now I only trust myself with it and I don’t trust myself with it.”
“That’s reassuring.” Allison said “Are you certain that it is safe to use on people?”
“It is perfectly fine as long as you don’t direct people over rooftops or into oncoming traffic.” Nick said
“Why would you create such a device?” Allison asked “There seems no good that can come from it.”
“Because it is fun.” Nick said “Besides I believe it can be used to restore nerve damage and it might be able to make a quadriplegic walk again.”
“No.” Allison gushed.
“It’s possible.” Nick explained “But whatever good it can do I know it can do just as much bad.”
“So what are you going to do?” Allison asked
“Bananas.” Nick said
“Bananas?” Allison said completely puzzled.
“After lunch here I am going to the market for some bananas. I think better after I made myself a smoothie.” Nick said
Nick thought that the market was just the place to test his device again and he could do it while he getting the ingredients for his smoothie. Placing the headband on his head after walking into the market he picked up a basket in one hand and crossed over to the produce section of the market for some bananas, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and a good sized pineapple. Now where was the peanut butter? Nick always forgot where this market kept its peanut butter so he circled around to the front of the market to ask one of the clerks at the cash registers.
A large muscular man in his late forties was steaming down an aisle of the market, in the very front of the store crossing past people waiting in line at the open checkout stations. He was wearing all black; black shoes, black socks, black slacks and a black shirt.
“Isn’t it a little early to be walking around, Dracula?”
“What was that?” the man in black asked stopping in his tracks. He addressed the person who made the remark, who happened to be a man that stood a foot shorter than him in a gray business suit.
“Are you talking to me?” the man in the business suit asked.
“Is there something wrong with what I am wearing?” the man in black asked.
“Black looks good on you.” The man in the business suit said.
“You better watch what you say or that mouth of ours is doing to get you into a lot of trouble.” The man in black warned.
“But I didn’t say anything!”
“Right?” the man in black said still a little flushed with anger.
That was close. Nick thought he would have to intervene. He didn’t account that that guy in black would be such a hothead. Nick didn’t realize how quickly his invention could turn dangerous. Maybe he was really playing with fire here. If he redesigned the device and removed the mind control aspects it would still be a viable invention in its own right and then he wouldn’t have any reservations in handing it over to Rosenthal. Rosenthal could still make hundreds of millions on the medical functions of the device and would be no wiser to the darker side of its possibilities.
A clerk with light blond hair that came down to the shoulders of her red blouse got done checking out all of her customers and Nick used his device one more time to get her attention. She turned like she had eyes in the back of her head.
“Can I help you, sir?” she asked.
“I am looking for the peanut butter.” Nick said.
“Aisle nine.” The clerk informed him
“Thanks.” Nick said before he went searching for his peanut butter. Once he got home and make his smoothie he would spend the rest of the day reprogramming the device. No one can have this device in its current configuration.
Once Nick got home he started right away making his smoothie. He sliced the pineapple into chuck size pieces and dropped them into his deluxe blender that he bought at Sur La Table, a high end kitchen supply store on the East side, the store had been around before the turn of the last century.
Then he added the berries and peanut butter and some orange juice, apple juice and just a splash of pineapple juice with a handful of crushed ice. Allison was in the other room watching a cable news station. She was watching intently and didn’t notice Nick putting his smoothie together until he activated the blender. The noise caused her to dash into their fashionable kitchen that they remodeled just last year. “Nick, did you hear the news?” Allison asked once he switched off the blender
“What news?”
“About Jaxon Castle.” Allison said. “He just said the most damning thing and it has already gone viral all over the social media networks.”
Jaxson Castle was the Republican nominee who as of recently was ticking up in the polls after the President health care program has been such a disaster. Democrats across the nation have been bailing on WarrenCare like rats on a sinking ship in fear of the upcoming elections. The chances of President Michael Warren getting re-elected were dim at best and Democrats running for political office didn’t want any association of him in fear that it would damage their campaigns. Nick was a supporter of the President and thought those Democratic politicians were spineless. Any new governmental program was going to have some speed bumps during its implementation. He was a diehard Democrat and wouldn’t vote for Jaxon Castle on a bet.
“This should be good.” Nick said “What did Jaxon Castle do now?”
“He told some man at a rally that he wanted to have sex with his wife.” Allison said.
“He did what?” Nick asked pouring himself his smoothie into a large highball drinking glass. “I find that hard to believe.”
Allison called out, “Kitchen screen.” And the kitchen’s holographic projector materialized a screen out of thin air that panned the length of the room. “Play Jaxson Castle’s comment at the rally today in its entirety.” Instantaneously the screen played back the rally.
The Republican nominee was shown stepping down from the podium and shaking hands with the audience that pooled to meet him. Out of the crowd a young man offered his support to Jaxson Castle and introduced him to his wife. Upon seeing the supporter’s wife, a tall voluptuous woman with long auburn hair who had the composure of someone in their late twenties, the Republican nominee remarked that he would sure like to “pork” her. The supporter was not sure what he was hearing so Jaxson Castle explained it in simpler terms. “How much money do I need to give you before I can have sex with your beautiful wife?”
It looked as though the man tried to laugh it off, but he appeared confused and a little upset. Meanwhile the image cuts back to the studio. Hosting the program is Emily Gertz. She has been a recent edition to the Global News Network. This is the first time Nick has seen her at a loss of words. Her guest was a Democratic commentator. Emily Gertz turns to him for his reaction. The commentator explained that he always thought that Jaxon Castle was an unpolished speaker, but had no idea that he could be this uncouth. Then Gertz asked the Democratic commentator if he thinks that Jaxon Castle was joking. The commentator concludes that joke or no joke the Republican nominee is going to take a hit in the polls.
Allison paused the video. “It looks, to me, as though Jaxon Castle was forced into saying that.”
“By my device?” Nick asked with a smile. “The problem is the headband is right here.” Patting his hand over the pocket in his jacket where he temporarily stored his invention.
“Is that the only one you made?” Allison asked
“Well, I made a series of other prototypes in various stages of completion.” Nick ventured. “But they are locked in my lab and the only one who knows about this device is you and I just showed you the device today.” Now he was getting worried. “Kitchen screen.” He called out, “Replay the Jaxson Castle rally.”
“What are you looking for?” Allison asked.
“If anyone is using my device they must be in proximity of Jaxson Castle and that woman that he propositioned.”
“How close would they have to be?” Allison asked.
“Close. The prototypes don’t have much range.” Nick explained “If someone was using one of my prototypes we should see them on the video.”
“Still frame.” Allison ordered the screen.
“Do you see something?” Nick asked.
“Enhance lower right.” Allison said and the kitchen screen took that portion of the image and increased that section until it filled the entire screen. “Isn’t that one of your prototypes?” pointing to a man a few yards away from Jaxon Castle. “Zoom in and enhance.” She order the screen
“This is not possible.” Escaped Nicks lips “To win an election?”
“I’ve read the cost of running for office this year has gone up to six billion dollars.” Allison said.
“Well Castle is buffoon anyway.” Nick said “It shouldn’t cost six billion dollars to defeat him.”
“So you had nothing to do with this, Nick?” Allison asked
“Me?” Nick said taken back by her question. “I might be a trickster, but stealing elections isn’t in my playbook."
“What are you going to do?” Allison asked
“First I am going to finish my smoothie.”
“Very funny.”
“Then I am going to my lab and see what exactly is missing.”
“You think Rosenthal is behind this.”
“He better not be.” |