Infinite Testament (11 page)

Stephen stood at the front of the University of Michigan
classroom. It was a medium-sized room, housing roughly 50 students.
Posters of the periodic elements graced the wall and the space oozed of
academia. Stephen was no longer a student. Now he was a
professor. Many years had gone by since he graduated from this very
school, and in the midst of conducting research, he taught classes.
Stephen wore a collared shirt and tie and demanded the professionalism of his
students.

“Erasmus Darwin,” Stephen declared, nearly yelling so
everyone could hear him. A wall-size chalkboard was sprawled behind him,
littered with notes Stephen had scribbled. He paced while fidgeting with
a piece of white chalk. “Can anyone tell me the significance of Erasmus
Darwin?”

Stephen looked out into the crowd of students. Hands
shot up, waiting to be summoned. The students were diligent, hard
working, and taking notes on just about every word that left his mouth.
Well, most of them were. Naturally, there were the obligatory kids who
just didn’t care. They sat there, arms folded, half asleep, struggling to
make it through his lectures. At least they showed up.

Stephen noticed a particular student taking notes. He
was a young man wearing glasses and sporting perfectly combed hair. He
was always scribbling away. That was great but he never spoke up in class
and participated. Not once. He was always at the classroom 10
minutes before everyone else and never bothered to talk to anybody.

“You,” Stephen said, pointing at the student. “What’s
your name?”

A cluster of students in the vicinity of Stephen’s
fingerpoint panicked, wondering who he was referring to. A couple of them
pointed at themselves and mouthed, “Me?”

Stephen wasn’t specific enough. “You,” he said again,
still pointing, “with the glasses and the tie.”

The student froze and almost fainted at the notion of
getting called on in class. “Yes?” he barely managed to get out.

“What is your name?” Stephen asked. He wasn’t trying
to embarrass the kid, he just wanted to know his name.

“My name is Jay. Jay Campbell.”

“Well Campbell, do you know the significance of Erasmus
Darwin?”

Jay fluttered and scrolled through the notes on his
desk. “Ummm,” he uttered as his face darkened red.

“Does anybody know the answer?”

The usual suspects’ hands again shot up in the air.
“Okay Wendy, tell us.”

A chipper, excitable brunette wearing a blue ‘M’ on her
sweater said, “He invented the idea of evolution.”

Stephen forced a smile. “I’m sorry Wendy, that’s
totally wrong. But nice try.” He turned his attention back to the
rest of the students and continued pacing while fidgeting his chalk. “The
correct answer is simply this: he was Charles Darwin’s grandfather. And
Charles
Darwin, Wendy, is the one who ‘invented’ the idea of evolution.

“Erasmus only hinted at the idea. He started the
framework for it. And my point to bringing up Erasmus, as many of you are
no doubt wondering about, is that there are a lot of ideas in the world, a lot
of frameworks. Throughout the rest of your college career, you will learn
a lot of facts. If you simply go through these years and just learn the
facts, you will have learned nothing but how to be a good Jeopardy
contestant. Take these facts, take these things you learn, and apply
them. Explore. Discover. The facts are just your
frameworks.

“Study hard for finals next week. Class dismissed.”

The students leapt out of the chairs and gathered their
belongings. Stephen watched as they packed their bags like the room was
on fire. And there was Jay Campbell, still taking notes.

“Campbell,” Stephen yelled over the ruffling, “I’d like to
talk to you.”

Minutes later, the students were gone. All that
remained were Stephen, Campbell, and dozens of empty desks.

“You’re a freshman, right?”

“Yes, sir,” Campbell responded. He was stiff and
gangly, uneasy about talking to his teacher.

“How are you enjoying school so far?”

Campbell dashed his eyes around, unable to maintain eye
contact with Stephen for longer than a second or two. “It’s okay. I
like it just fine.”

Stephen contemplated, trying to gauge the reliability of
his statement. There were shades of Vince in Campbell: the old, awkward,
antisocial Vince. Stephen always felt for people who didn’t fit in and it
seemed like Campbell was one of those people. But if Campbell liked
school, there was no problem. He wanted to help, but didn’t know what he
could do.

“Okay Campbell. Make sure you’re ready for the final
next week, alright?”

Campbell nodded and took off, leaving Stephen alone with
the empty desks.

“That’s it! It’s right there!” Stephen,
Bruce, Vince, and Natalie were
in Stephen’s car, pulling up to Lisa’s
apartment building for the big party.

Stephen parallel-parked and everyone filed out of the
car. Stephen could hear the pumping of the music already. Natalie
huddled near Vince. Stephen asked her, “Do you really think that’s a good
idea?”

“What?” She didn’t understand. He nodded
downwards at her blue and gold Michigan sweater. She shrugged it
off. “Whatever.”

They entered the building and proceeded upstairs where they
were greeted by Kristen. “Hey!” She opened the door and let them
in. There were dozens of people crammed in the apartment. It was a
full-fledged party. Almost instantly, the group split up. Bruce
eloped with Kristen, and Vince and Natalie wandered away, leaving Stephen to
fend for himself.

Vince and Natalie strolled to the kitchen, which was
littered with cups-empty, full, and everything in between. A tall, lanky
fellow worked a keg, handing out cups of beer to anyone who waited in the line
that was only a couple people deep. On the kitchen table, a game of beer
pong was in progress. Ping-pong balls soared through the air, hoping to
land in cups of beer.

Bruce appeared over Natalie’s shoulder, “Beer pong!
Now
this
is a party!” Bruce, with his arm around Kristen, joined a
group of people watching. “Anyone got next?” He wasted no time
getting competitive with the Michigan State locals.

Vince was uninterested. Next to the kitchen table he
spotted another table: a raggedy fold-up table with a chessboard on top.
This
is
a party, he surmised. He led Natalie to the table.

“Checkmate,” proclaimed the winner, Matt, Lisa’s
boyfriend. He laughed and noticed Vince and Natalie towering over
him. “Hey baby,” he said to Natalie, “I don’t like the sweater, but I
like everything else.” He smiled, exposing his perfect teeth. He
was a slim, powerfully muscular guy. He held out his hand, “I’m Matt, Michigan
State QB. Future NFL star.” Natalie shook his hand only out of
courtesy. She pegged him as a creep even before his ridiculous
introduction.

Vince sat in the chair across from Matt and held out his
hand. “I’m Vince, Biological Engineer major. 4.0 GPA. When
I’m 40 years old, I will have full use of my body. I will be able to run,
jump and even pick something up when I drop it. You?” Matt growled
at Vince. Naturally, neither liked each other; they just became fierce
adversaries.

Stephen scoured the partygoers for Lisa. College
students roamed around him, offering passing smiles and polite hellos. He
looked in the family room. Nope. Just a bunch of people drinking
and hanging out. Where was she?

Lisa was in the bathroom tidying herself up and applying
some final touches on her makeup. She left the bathroom and entered her
connecting bedroom. The walls of the room were painted a pleasant yellow
and the bed was neatly made. As she passed by her dresser, she noticed a
picture of her and Matt that sat atop it. They were both dressed up and
held each other. Lisa smiled as she observed this moment captured in
time. Matt was a good guy, no doubt. She might have loved him-she
couldn’t be sure. But something always felt off about him. Either
way, she wouldn’t hurt him. She cared too much to do that to him.
Lisa left her room and joined the party.

Vince moved his bishop. Matt had so far proven
himself to be a worthy adversary. Vince tried to get in his head.
What was Matt’s strategy? His opening had been pretty solid. Vince
fought off his setups, striving to obtain the upper hand. As of yet, they
were evenly matched.

Natalie stood over them. How boring, she
thought. She didn’t come to the party to watch Vince play chess.
“I’m going to see what else is going on,” she said. “Sounds good,” Vince
responded without taking his eyes off the board. His mind was racing,
anticipating the next couple moves.

“Whoa, hold on there, baby,” Matt said, as his attention
veered away from the board and shifted to Natalie. Vince’s calculating
mind raced to a halt. What did he just say?

Natalie snapped, “Don’t talk to me like that.” And
with that, she left the chess game for a new endeavor.

“She’s a feisty one, huh?”

Vince stared at the board, not bothering with Matt.
“I’m focusing.”

Finally, Stephen spotted Lisa. Passing faces
prevented him from getting a complete view, but there she was, in the middle of
the hallway. Her eyes shot around, presumably looking for him. She
wore eye shadow that accentuated her green eyes. What a sight. He
squeezed his way past the crowd.

Lisa looked toward the kitchen: Bruce and Kristen were
there playing beer pong. That meant Stephen was somewhere in the
apartment. She turned toward the family room and found him in the
hallway, inching his way toward her.

Stephen waved his hand in the air. Lisa waved
back. After making his way through a cluster of people, Stephen
approached her. Lisa’s lips extended and her teeth were revealed as she
gave him the
smile
. Stephen managed to maintain his
composure. “Hey,” he said quietly.

“Hey, Slave Stephen,” she responded.

Stephen looked at her feet. “No crutches?”

“Thought I’d give walking a shot a little early.”

As Stephen started to lose himself in her presence, he
asked, “You want to grab a drink?”

She nodded. Up close, Lisa sparkled. There was
not a more dazzling sight than the one standing in front of him. Stephen
leaned into her ear and whispered, “You look beautiful.”

Lisa was touched. She gazed longingly at Stephen as
he backed away from her ear. If there was any question how Stephen made
her feel, she only had to look within at this moment. That same longing
and thirst she felt at the ice cream parlor was again overpowering her.
She forced a smile. Almost forgetting their plan, she mumbled, “Why don’t
we… Why don’t we get something to drink?”

Natalie approached the family room full of green and white
wearing jocks courting the girls. Football players, she assumed.
She strolled in the room. One by one, everyone in the room stopped their
conversations and glared at her.

“Hi,” she said.

Everyone looked at her like she had just slapped their
mothers. Natalie realized their problem: they were sickened by her
Michigan sweater. “Oh this?” she said as she pointed at her sweater,
“Yeah, we kicked your ass this year, don’t worry about it.”

In the kitchen, the tall, lanky fellow working the keg
handed Stephen and Lisa cups of beer. Stephen raised his flimsy, plastic
cup. “To you.”

Lisa raised hers. “To
you
.”

“How generous.” Stephen said, “In that case, to
us
.”

As they clanged their cups together, the cheap plastic
created almost no audible sound.

“Hey Lisa! Can you grab me a beer, please, babe?”
Matt yelled as he faced off with Vince in chess. Lisa took a quiet breath
of frustration. “Sure, Matt,” she uttered. Lisa once again utilized
the services of the lanky fellow filling cups. As the cup was being
filled, Stephen whispered, “You okay?” She nodded. Her internal pain
was unfortunately obvious to Stephen.

Stephen seized the cup from Lisa’s clutch. He walked
over to the chess table and plopped it in front of Matt. “Here ya go,
Mike,” he said, spouting the wrong name on purpose. Matt looked up at
him, puzzled.

Stephen held out his hand, “I’m Stephen.”

“My name’s not Mike,” he said as he took Stephen’s hand.
“It’s Matt. Lisa’s told me all about you.”

Vince interrupted, “Wait. He doesn’t get the ‘Future
NFL star’ spiel?”

Stephen and Matt ignored him. “I’ve heard about you
too,” Stephen said, “It’s a pleasure to meet the football legend.”

Matt instantly liked him. “Appreciate it, dude.
If you’ll excuse me, I have to beat bookworm here at his own game.”

Stephen was done patronizing him. Matt was a
tool. The arrogance seethed out of his pores and infected the air around
him. But he would wisely keep his opinions to himself.

Stephen turned to face Lisa. She was gone.
Huh? He looked around the kitchen: all he could see was Bruce and Kristen
quickly getting drunk playing beer pong. The kitchen was devoid of Lisa’s
presence. Stephen spotted her standing in the hallway again. He
stepped around everyone and joined her. “Where’d you go?”

She smiled half-heartedly. “Wanna take a walk with
me?”

Outside, they strolled on the sidewalk. Although the
area around her apartment was dark, the streets lit up as they walked further
away.

“You guys got ripped off with the streetlights.”

Lisa laughed, “I know, right? It’s like we’re the
embarrassment of the neighborhood and no one wants to see us.”

“So where are we headed?” Stephen asked, getting straight
to the point.

“I don’t know. I guess we could go to the lake and
head back. I just need to get some fresh air.”