The Ardoon King Read online

  Chapter 44: Academia and Picket Fences

  Ben opened his eyes, expecting to see the nothing but the glow of the Cicada’ screen in the cave’s darkness.

  But it wasn’t dark. Not at all.

  The smell of breakfast permeated the air. Sunshine streamed through a nearby window. He found himself seated at a table in front of a plate of half-eaten eggs, toast, and bacon. There was a newspaper nearby. The old fashioned kind, made of paper. On top of that was a smartphone. A television blared from a nearby, unseen room. A very serious reporter had breaking news on a wreck involving a cement truck on the interstate.

  He held a cup of coffee in his hand. It smelled good.

  “I was thinking,” came a woman voice from the kitchen, which he saw was to his right.

  “Oh?” he said, surprising himself. “What were you thinking?”

  “Why don’t we skip the lecture this Friday? You don’t even like Dobbs. We could make an early day of it. Catch a movie, maybe? A matinee?”

  Dobbs? Ben shook his head. Who the hell was Dobbs? Then, in a flash, it came to him. Dobbs was that prick from the Art History department; the idiot who thought the Nazca Lines were created by Nazca radical hippies who wanted to protest the primitive irrigation techniques being employed by their kings. The man was loopy but he was the darling of “nouveau-paleo-artisans” or whatever the hell it was they called themselves.

  “Fine by me,” he said, sitting his coffee cup down.

  “Good.” Thal walked into the room from the kitchen, applying lipstick using a compact. She wore a simple beige dress, knee-length, with sleeves that dropped to her elbows. Her hair was cut shorter than normal. It curved gently outward just as it brushed her shoulders. Diamond earrings sparkled on either side of her face.

  Ben saw the hand holding the compact had a diamond, too, on a gold band. Beneath it was another gold band. He looked at his own left hand and saw an identical band.

  “We’re married,” he said.

  “Ha!” laughed Thal. “I knew you’d catch on. It only took three and a half years.” She snapped the compact shut and walked toward him, motioning for him to scoot back. He did, and she sat in his lap, putting and arm around his neck.

  “That’s my point. Why are we wasting our Friday afternoons at university lectures? Let’s do something fun. It doesn’t have to be a movie. We could go to that Italian place you like down on Franklin. Or,” she said, drawing out the word, “there’s a book fair.”

  “A book fair?”

  His wife grinned. “I thought that would get your attention. Yes, at the old community college. Another of the county libraries had to close. No business for libraries these days, you know. It’s one of the older ones. I bet they have some very musty books.”

  Ben put his hand around the woman’s waist. “I love musty.”

  “I know. My greatest fear is that you’ll have an affair a septuagenarian.”

  “That’s not very nice.”

  Thal took a sip of his coffee. With mock gravity, she said, “Nice won’t get you anywhere in academia.” Then she covered her mouth. “That was awful, wasn’t it?”

  “It was,” he agreed. “Okay, I’m in. Let’s take Friday off. The entire day. I’ve got at trip to Ankara on Sunday. We’ll start the weekend early.”

  Thal looked at him, an eyebrow cocked. “We already have that morning off, Ben. Remember?”

  He didn’t.

  “Doctor’s appointment. You said you wanted to come. Ultrasound?” She put her hand on her stomach.

  “Oh,” said Ben, and suddenly he did remember. He was going to be a father. It was the most important thing in his life. “Right.”

  Thal reared back and gave the man a concerned look that quickly changed to an expression of amusement. “My husband, the absent-minded professor. Luckily, you’re a hunk and I’m shallow.”

  She kissed the man on the lips, and the two stayed like that for a moment. Ben felt suddenly foolish. Until a moment ago, he had been oddly melancholy. Depressed, even. He couldn’t remember why. He had a wonderful wife. He had a child on the way. He had a charming house in a great neighborhood and a career he loved that paid more than it should. He and Thal weren’t rich but they were certainly more comfortable than most.

  He had nothing to complain about.

  “I love shallow women,” he said.

  Thal pretended to slap him and rose. She grabbed her purse from the kitchen counter and headed toward the garage. “Got to go, Professor. I’ll call you. Love you!”

  “Love you too,” he said, and felt an odd pang of guilt.

  A minute later the garage door opened. He looked beyond the living room window and saw Thal’s car pass in front of the house. When the vehicle was gone, Ben marveled at the perfectly manicured rose bushes that abutted the proverbial white picket fence on the far edge of his lawn. The maple trees beyond were orange and red and yellow and the sky was blue.

  School children with backpacks walked along a wide sidewalk on the other side of the road. Two girls and a boy, in uniforms. The girl walked backward, saying something, and the other girl, the one with the violin case, laughed, and the boy sneered because he was too manly to laugh at anything a girl would say.

  Ben’s smartphone buzzed. He picked it up.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi Ben, it’s Professor Ridley.”

  Ben squinted at the phone’ screen, looking at the caller’s name. “Who?”

  “Ridley. You remember? Ancient History?”

  Ben put the phone back to his ear, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, Professor. You said ‘Ancient History?’”

  “Yes. You haven’t forgotten our meeting this morning, I hope?”

  Ben had. “Um…”

  “To discuss the tablets,” the other man said. He sounded very old. “The ones found in Bolivia.”

  Ben shook his head again. That did sound vaguely familiar. As did the man’s name. “Give me just a second, please,” he said, and he lowered his phone and checked his calendar.

  He did have an appointment. Hanging Gardens, 9am, Ridley, P. Tablets.

  He said, “Right. I remember now. Sorry. Can you tell me how to get to the Hanging Gardens? It’s a restaurant?”

  “A botanical center, actually. Oddly enough, it has a great coffee shop. I’ll give you the address again, if you like?”

  “Please.”