Eric’s innocence as he sat there talking about mecs and flight dynamics, his utter unawareness of all that had been said that night, was affecting Kevin. It seemed to symbolize the whole pattern of Eric’s life. He wanted to reach out, put an arm around his shoulder, and tell him to be careful because Kevin cared; and so did Doug, and Michelle, and they’d all be looking out for him, and everything would be okay. He wanted to spend more time with Eric, do all the things they kept promising each other they would do, and usually ended up putting off. People were always saying that time went faster as you got older. Kevin wondered if he was beginning to experience it already.
“Maybe we could look at it together this weekend,” he said.
“I have to go to this thing at Barrow’s Pass,” Eric reminded him.
“Oh, that’s right. I’d forgotten. What’s happening there? Tell me again.”
“It’s a sort of conference on basic physics. I’ll be playing Giordano Bruno to the Bishops of Relativity again.”
That was an aspect of Eric’s interests that Kevin had never gotten involved in, although he knew it had been Eric’s prime subject when he was an academic physicist. All Kevin knew was that according to Eric, most of the experimental “proofs” cited in the text books were derivable from classical physics and said nothing exclusive about Relativity at all. That was something he’d have to sit down and find out more about, he kept telling himself—and putting off.
“When will you be leaving?” Kevin asked.
“It’s the holiday weekend, and I know I have to be there on Saturday. So either in the morning, or maybe Friday evening. I’ll need to check the schedule again before I—” A phone on a shelf by where Kevin was standing rang. Kevin picked it up.
“Hello?”
“Knock-knock.”
Sigh. “Hi, Taki. Okay, who’s there?”
“Winnie Thupp.”
“Winnie Thupp who?”
“And Tigger too! Ho-ho. I take it you’re back.”
“No, actually I’m an aural hallucination. Mom says you called earlier. I was going to call you back. What’s up?”
“The opposite of down. No, seriously, about flying mecs. Have you still got the ones that you were going to take to the lab today, or did you leave them there?”
“I’ve got them with me, in my bag. Why?”
“Oh, good. Can you bring them with you to school tomorrow? I think I might have figured out a better way of structuring the microprograms. If you come over to my place after school, we could try it out on them.”
“Sounds good. I was just talking about that with my dad. He’s got some papers on insect simulations that he says we ought to look at. Oh, wait a minute—I think they’re at the firm.” Kevin looked across at Eric. “Taki wants me to go on to his place tomorrow after school. I can’t get those papers before then, can I?—the one that talks about wing dynamics, anyhow.”
“I could fax it to Taki’s,” Eric offered.
“Dad says he’ll fax it to us at your place.”
“Okay. That settles that, then. Where were you tonight?”
“Oh, I went for a ride into town with Doug to pick up some stuff. We ate at a restaurant, saw a lot of traffic, highways, buildings, bridges. You know—the breathtaking, unfolding, urban extravaganza. Oh, and I’ve got your relay. It’s in the trunk of Mom’s car.”
“Great. Maybe you can let me have that too. Okay, well, it’s late. See you tomorrow.”
“Be good, Taki.”
“That’s what everyone keeps telling me. I tried it. It’s overrated.”
Kevin smiled tiredly into the receiver. “Goodnight, anyhow.” He hung up.
Eric was studying the screen again, bringing up another piece of e-mail. Despite what had been said earlier, Kevin was tempted to tell him all about what had been said that night; then he’d be able to stop worrying, and Eric would know as much as all of them. They were alone. Vanessa wouldn’t come down to the lab now. . . .
But as he began mentally rehearsing how he might go about it, all of a sudden he found he was just too weary. The seeping in his brain had built up to a saturation that would need a night of sleep to absorb. It occurred to him then that if the entirety of the adult world was paralyzed, then he might have to be the one to do something. Just at the moment, precisely what was far from obvious. But in the morning a lot might seem clearer.