E is for Entropy
By Jelsemium
Disclaimer: They're not mine!
Author's Note: This is one of those stories that come to me when I've been driving too much.
Entropy: noun: for a closed thermodynamic system, a quantitative measure of the amount of thermal energy not available to do work.
Charles Edward Eppes slumped down farther down in the seat of his rented Toyota Corolla. The couple wasn't looking his way, but he didn't want to risk being discovered by a casual glance.
He had work to do: a lecture to write, homework to grade, a thesis to proofread, a case to examine for Don, gravitational expressions to calculate for Larry…
Yet, here he was, sitting in a rental watching them through the front window of the restaurant. Intellectually, he knew that what he was doing was wrong; but he couldn't seem to rein in his emotions.
Entropy: noun: The tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity.
A few weeks ago, he would never have believed that he'd be capable of this. He'd always considered himself to be a reasonable man; an intellectual whose emotions always came in second to his math.
Now he was acting like any other insanely jealous man. Like every other insanely jealous man.
It hurt that he could act like this.
He slumped even more.
Entropy: noun: A measure of the loss of information in a transmitted message.
It started small. A missed appointment… His own fault? He was forever forgetting things. Maybe that's what really started this.
Then there were unexplained absences…
Mysterious phone calls…
Outright lies.
Charlie quickly figured out what was going on. He just didn't understand why his world was falling apart, or why this dementia had so firmly taken over his will.
Entropy: noun: A measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system.
His growing fear and suspicion led to increasingly bizarre behavior on his part… listening at doorways, sifting through trash, casual questions designed to entrap, even using predictive analysis to reveal lies.
It was pure chance that had led him here. Something that Larry had, unwittingly, let slip.
He had rented a car. He could hardly use his own for this mission. Now he was staking out the Moroccan restaurant that Larry had so enthusiastically endorsed, watching the dark haired woman laugh and flirt with the tall, handsome man over couscous and b'stella.
Entropy: noun: Inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society.
He couldn't even explain to himself why he was watching. What did he hope to learn, to accomplish? It was stupid. It was foolish. It was petty.
It was all he could do to keep from bursting into the restaurant, throwing a temper tantrum and screaming… MINE!
As if loving someone entitled you to own them.
How could he do this to somebody that he claimed to love?
He sat up suddenly and restarted the Toyota.
This was stupid and unworthy. He was going to have to suck it up and grow up.
It was time to admit that his father had the right to privacy. His father had a right to date anybody he chose. Even if it was Charlie's boss.
His father had the right to move on with his life, even if that meant… moving out. He had no right to make his father feel the need to sneak around just to spare his feelings. Alan Eppes was his own man; it was past time for Charlie to start acting like a man.
He cast one last look at his father and the Millie Finch before he drove off to return the car to the rental company and return his life to sanity.
