Eventually Edward opened his eyes and sighed. “Wow!” he said. Only then did he become aware he was gripping Kevin’s arms. He let go, took a breath, and smoothed his jacket. “I think we got our answer,” he said.
“This was idiotic!” Kevin snapped. “Your little antic terrified me. I was just about to call emergency.”
“Calm down,” Edward said. “It wasn’t that bad. Don’t get all bent out of shape over a sixty-second psychedelic reaction.”
Kevin pointed up at the clock. “It wasn’t sixty seconds,” he said. “It was more like twenty minutes.”
Edward glanced up at the clock’s face. “Isn’t that curious,” he said. “Even my sense of time was distorted.”
“Do you generally feel OK?” Kevin asked.
“Fine!” Edward insisted. “In fact I feel better than fine. I feel~.~.~.” He hesitated while he tried to put into words his inner sensations. “I feel energized, like I’d just had a rest. And also clairvoyant, like my mind is particularly sharp. I might even feel a touch euphoric but that could be because of this positive result: we’ve just ascertained that this new fungus produces a hallucinogenic substance.”
“Let’s not be so lax with the term ‘we,’~” Kevin said. “You ascertained it, not me. I refuse to take any credit for this craziness.”
“I wonder if the alkaloids are the same as Claviceps?” Edward asked. “I don’t seem to have even the slightest signs of reduced peripheral vascular circulation, a frequent sign of ergotism.”
“At least promise me you’ll get a urinalysis and a BUN or creatinine this afternoon,” Kevin said. “Even if you’re not worried, I still am.”
“If it will make you sleep tonight I’ll do it,” Edward said. “Meanwhile I want some more of these sclerotia. Is that possible?”
“It’s possible now that I have figured out the medium this fungus needs to grow, but I can’t promise you a lot of sclerotia. It’s not always easy to get the fungus to produce them.”
“Well, do your best,” Edward said. “Remember, we’ll probably get a nice little paper out of this.”
As Edward hurried across campus to catch the shuttle bus to the medical area, he was thrilled with the results. He couldn’t wait to tell Kim that the poison theory involving the Salem witchcraft episode was alive and well.
As excited as Kim was about seeing the progress at the compound, she was even more curious as to why her father had called her. Confident she was early enough to catch him before he left for his Boston office, Kim detoured to Marblehead.
Entering the house, she went directly to the kitchen. As she expected, she found John lingering over his coffee and his clutch of morning papers. He was a big man who’d reportedly been quite an athlete during his days at Harvard. His broad face was crowned with a full head of hair that had once been as dark and lustrous as Kim’s. Over the years it had grayed in a comely fashion, giving him a stereotypically paternal appearance.
“Good morning, Kimmy,” John said without taking his attention away from his paper.
Kim helped herself to the espresso machine and foamed some milk for a cappuccino.
“How’s that car of yours running?” John asked. The paper crinkled loudly as he turned the page. “I hope you are having it regularly serviced like I advised.”
Kim didn’t answer. She was accustomed to her father treating her as if she were still a little girl and she mildly resented it. He was forever giving her instructions on how to order her life. The older she got the more she thought he shouldn’t be giving anyone advice, especially considering what he’d done to his own life and marriage.
“I heard you called my apartment last night,” Kim said. She sat on a window seat beneath a bay window overlooking the ocean.
John lowered his paper.
“I did indeed,” he said. “Joyce mentioned that you’d become interested in Elizabeth Stewart and had been asking questions about her. It surprised me. I called you to ask why you wanted to upset your mother like that.”
“I wasn’t trying to upset her,” Kim said. “I’ve become interested in Elizabeth and I just wanted to know some basic facts. Like whether or not Elizabeth truly had been hanged for witchcraft or whether it was just a rumor.”