AN: I'm very thrilled with the reactions I got for this story; I'm so glad you like it. Thanks to all of you who reviewed, favorited, followed or simply read and enjoyed!
Let's go on with the chase; we left Amy when she had just arrived at the zoo but could not find the clue.
Chapter 4 : Ab Origine Fidelis
She sat back on the bench, not knowing what else she was supposed to do or where else she was supposed to go. She turned her head, checking around, very carefully, just in case she had missed something. And then, she caught Mac's eye. His cart was very busy, as you would expect it to be on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Though, as soon as he saw her, he waved at her then signaled her to come closer. Amy obeyed and stood in line, waiting for her turn while keeping an open eye on her surroundings.
When the two teenage girls before Amy left with their Haagen Dazs mini tubs, Mac greeted her with his thick Scottish accent "Hello there Dr Amy! How nice to see you!" She could not help but smile. When Sheldon had introduced Amy to Mac a few years ago, he had called her Dr Amy Farrah Fowler, and from that moment on, Mac had taken up calling her Dr Amy. She kind of liked it, and coming from Mac she knew it was affectionate.
Mac was quite tall but not as tall as Sheldon, with gray hair and blue eyes. He was in his fifties and had arrived from Europe over thirty years ago. He had been working at the zoo ever since. From the moment she met him, Amy had been surprised to see how Mac acted with Sheldon. Usually, people found Sheldon annoying at best, but Mac seemed to sincerely like the physicist. He would ask him about his week, joke with him, tease him… And Sheldon did not seem to mind. And more surprising, he even seemed to like it. Maybe it also had to do with the fact that Sheldon was a totally different person when he was at the zoo. It was like all his worries, all his issues and all his fears disappeared when he was within these walls; the zoo was the place where Sheldon felt the most relaxed and pressure free. That was the main reason why Amy liked their visits here so much.
"Hi Mac. How are you doing? Things seem to be going very well today." She said, looking behind her at the five people waiting in line.
"I'm fine thank you." He said, leaning over his counter, smiling widely. "Yes, it has been very busy, but just like any Saturday. Everyone likes ice creams!" He stood back up again, moving towards his machine. "Here is for you, Dr Amy, your usual: a two scoop vanilla cone with lots of whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles."
"Thank you Mac. But I don't have time today. I just came to say Hello." She replied, waving both her head and her right hand. It was true, she did not have time, she had a clue to find. And to be honest, having an ice cream without Sheldon would probably feel kind of weird; having an ice cream at the zoo was their thing, she did not feel like doing it by herself or with anyone else for that matter. But Mac did not pay attention and before she knew it, he was already handing her the cone with a spoon on top, wrapped in two napkins. It would be rude to refuse now. So reluctantly, she opened her handbag to pay for it.
"Oh no, Doc, it is all been taken care of, put your purse back in your bag and just enjoy it!" She heard him say.
Amy frowned, looking at him. "What do you m…" she began asking, when she realized what just was probably going on. Of course, that was what was missing when she was sitting on the bench: the ice cream cone. It became even more obvious as she noticed Mac's wide grin and bright eyes. "Oh, I see. Did you by any chance see someone we both know, around here, earlier today?" She asked, still frowning.
"Maybe." The older man replied, trying to sound mysterious but failing, his smile betraying him. He handed her the cone that was already beginning to melt.
"And did that person leave you a message for me?" Amy asked, grabbing the ice cream and the napkins, and leaving the line. She stood by the cart, letting him work, but eagerly waiting for an answer.
"Maybe." He said, before taking someone else's order.
"Well, what is it, Mac, please?" she asked, growing impatient, which only seemed to amuse Mac even more. She began to use the spoon and eat the whipped cream, hoping it would make her calm down a little. Gosh, that was so good.
"Aren't you two the cutest of all?" He said, teasing.
"Please Mac!" she begged, blushing lightly.
"Alright. Alright. But as a matter of fact, I have already given it to you." He said, winking. Then he went back towards the ice box to prepare the last placed order.
It took Amy a couple of seconds to comprehend what Mac had just said. As she took a look at her hands, she realized that the message could not be in the cone, or on the spoon for that matter; it was her usual, nothing special. So it had to be on one of the napkins. She carefully switched hands to hold the cone with her left hand, and quickly checked both napkins with her right hand. There it was: there was something written with a black Sharpie on one of them.
But as she was holding both the cone and the spoon, trying not to make it fall to the ground, it was not easy to read what was written on it while standing there. "Mac." She said loudly enough for Mac to hear over the machine's noise "I will go and check what the message says now. See you around very soon! And thanks for everything!" She said, grinning.
Mac handed the ice creams he had just prepared to his customers, then turned towards her "Bye Dr Amy. You're very welcome. I love seeing that smile on your face, it suits you. Your boyfriend is a lucky chap. A little eccentric, but very lucky!"
"Eccentric? I don't know what you mean." Amy replied, smirking, as she waved goodbye and went to sit back on their bench.
She kept on eating the ice cream which was so good, as usual, using the white napkin to clean her hand. And after doing so, she placed the other napkin on her lap and unfolded it. It was Sheldon's handwriting, all right.
It simply said "4.30 – 1,722 days ago. Time to go back to O (0, 0, 0)."
Amy looked at it thoughtfully as she kept bringing the spoon to her mouth automatically. Immediately, she had a theory about the solution, but a quick calculation would help prove her right. 1,722divided by 366 roughly gave something between 4.5 and 5. It fitted. She checked her watch; it was 4.15pm. If she was right, it would only take her ten minutes maximum to go where she was supposed to next. So she took her time to finish her ice cream, thinking of her boyfriend that was not there physically and yet was so present in spirit, and once she was finished, she took the notepad from her bag and checked the maths. Bingo!
Today was February 14th 2015, so 1,722 days ago was May 29th 2010. The day she met Sheldon. The day it all began. The T0 in their very own space time. So Sheldon wanted her to go back to the physical point of origin of their relationship: the coffee shop where they met on that day, in Glendale.
Amy got up, cleaned her hands with the white napkin and threw it in the bin, then placed the other one carefully in her handbag: that one was going to go directly in her scrapbooked relationship album, along with all the messages she got today! She waved at Mac, who waved back, and she left the zoo for her next destination.
It was 4.30pm sharp when Amy got inside the coffee shop. Even though it was located in Glendale, just a couple of blocks away from her apartment, funnily enough, she had never gone back there. She had passed by in her car a few times, but she had never stopped by again.
So it was very special to come back today, on a quest. It felt like some pilgrimage; so many things had changed since that day for her. So many things indeed but definitely not the way the tables inside the coffee shop were arranged; it simply looked exactly the same. Amy simply stood there for a moment, remembering that exact moment, 1,722 days ago. "Excuse me! I'm Amy Farrah Fowler and you're Sheldon Cooper." "Hello Amy Farrah Fowler…"
"Excuse me, Madam, can I help you?"
Amy snapped out of her reverie and got closer to the counter. The waitress was about twenty-twenty five years old, blonde, very pretty and obviously in a hurry to take Amy's order. There was another waitress behind the counter, a brunette about the same age, with her back half turned, busy wiping some dishes.
"Hmmm Actually, I'd like…." She was about to ask for some tea then she remembered that day years ago and finally said "Tepid Water, please."
"Tepid water?..." The waitress looked at her stunned then quickly checked her watch and with a smile, added "Oh, of course." She moved to conspiratorially pat her colleague's arm and whisper something in her ear. Then both girls moved back to the counter and watched Amy with a strange smile. The first waitress grabbed a tray and put Amy's order on it, while the second girl simply smiled. She was almost as pretty as her colleague and Amy smiled back at first, but there was something in her smile that made the neurobiologist very uncomfortable.
She decided not to pay attention and focused on getting the money from her purse instead. As she moved towards the cashier to hand a five dollar bill to the brunette, the girl said "Oh no, that's fine, it's already been paid for." Then she went on grinning.
Alright, so that was part of Sheldon's plan. And that would explain the waitresses' weird attitude from the moment she had said 'tepid water'. But what was she supposed to do now? As she was beginning to anticipate her next move, looking all around, Amy noticed that the blonde waitress had moved to room in the back and was coming back with a wooden Japanese box that she placed between the water bottle and the glass on Amy's tray.
"What is this?" Amy asked, though she had a little idea of what it might be, or rather from whom it might be.
The blonde girl replied "A man came earlier today. He said that if someone showed up at 4.30pm asking for tepid water, we had to give her that box." She was all smiles "We have been wondering all day what this meant. Well, we guessed it was probably Valentine's day related."
Her colleague went on "Is it from a secret Valentine? Because we can tell you one thing, the man that came this morning was quite handsome!"
Amy could not help but smile now "Not really. He is my boyfriend."She replied, very proud "He has prepared a little scavenger hunt for me in all the places that mean something to us as a couple."
"So why here?" The brunette asked, ignoring the customers standing next to Amy and who were waiting patiently.
"This place is where we met almost 5 years ago."
"Awwwww" Both girls said in unison.
"Yes." Amy smiled wider. She was not used to all the attention, but she loved it; Especially because she could make out something that looked a lot like jealousy over these pretty girls' face. 'Yes Ladies, my boyfriend is very romantic! And brilliant! And handsome! And mine!' she felt like bragging. But she kept it to herself.
"Well you are one lucky girl, this is all so romantic. That's not my boyfriend that would do such a thing for me." The brunette said, frowning. "And we've been together two years."
"At least you have a boyfriend!" the blonde added sadly. "Anyways, that's things like that that make me like Valentine's day. And keep faith in men!" She said, sighing. "Good for you Lady, don't let that one go!" Then she moved to finally listen to the other customers' order.
Amy was looking around to find a place to sit when the brunette added "You can sit over there. There is a reserved sign, but it really is for you to sit. Another request from your man." Her man. She really loved the sound of it. Yes, Sheldon was her man. And he had reserved that same table where they had been chatting for around four hours. How thoughtful.
She sat at the table, opened her bottle of water, and poured it in the glass. Then she placed the box in front of her and carefully started playing with it. That was one of the biggest and most complicated models she had ever seen; nothing to see with the model she had used for her experiment with the monkeys in her lab, Penny and Leonard not so long ago. This one would take a bit longer to figure out. But with patience, she finally managed to open it, within a few minutes.
Once it was open, she realized that there were several objects inside. Probably clues to combine in order to find out the next destination. She retrieved them one by one. First, there was a message that seemed to come from a Chinese fortune cookie, that said "Logic will get you from point A to point B. Imagination will take you anywhere." She placed the paper on the table next to the box.
Then she moved on to the next object which was a miniature locomotive. It was nothing very sophisticated; she had seen Sheldon play with models far more beautiful. This one was made of cheap wood and had been poorly painted in red and black.
The third object was a small blue-white-red flag on a stick. After being part of so many Fun with Flags episodes, Amy's knowledge about flags had increased so much that she was pretty sure she would recognize almost any flag of the World. To guess what that one was though, she did not need that much knowledge; this was the French flag. She placed it next to the other objects.
The last object was the picture of an old man wearing a beret. Amy knew immediately who he was, she had seen so many movies with him – even though in these movies he was much younger and so handsome. But she was sure it was him, no mistake possible; his name was Jean Gabin, he was a famous French actor back in the 40s.
"Okay so what have we got here" Amy thought "The quote about imagination, a locomotive, a French flag and a picture of Jean Gabin." What could all these objects put together mean? Jean Gabin was French, so these two clues fitted together. Amy loved Old French Movies, and Jean Gabin was one of her favorite actors. She started remembering the movies she had seen with him: 'Daybreak', 'Great Illusion'… 'Great Illusion' would fit with the quote about imagination, and going from point A to point B, as it was about prisoners escaping during WWI, but Amy did not remember a train in the movie. She went on 'Quai des Brumes', 'Pepe le Moko', 'The Human Beast'. That one was about trains! And she had seen it with Sheldon. Of course, the clue had to be 'The Human Beast'.
From time to time, Sheldon would let Amy watch one of her French movies during date night. He was not necessarily a big fan of such movies, she knew it, so it made her even happier that he would watch it with her; it meant he was really trying to please her. And not so long ago, about a couple of months back maybe, they had seen 'the Human Beast' together. As it was about a train driver, Amy thought Sheldon might like it, at least a little. And she had been right; while Amy had been enthralled by the tragic love story displayed onscreen, Sheldon had enjoyed all the technical scenes with the locomotives.
Now what about the first clue? How did it fit in? "Logic will get you to point A to point B, imagination will take you anywhere." It could be an image for what the movies allowed you to do, travel with your imagination. But it could also be taken literally. Yep, that was it!
Amy started placing all the items in her handbag – luckily she had taken her biggest bag today as it was quite full now! She brought the tray back to the counter, waved goodbye but both waitresses were busy and did not see her. Then she left the shop. She knew exactly where she was supposed to go next; she knew where point B was! And it was only a few blocks away.
AN: What about you guys, do you know where point B might be? Congrats to ScienceGeekMom who had guessed Amy had to buy an ice cream to get the clue.
Stay tuned for a few more puzzles. And please don't hesitate to review, I love it!
One last thing: English is not my first language, so sorry for any mistake you may notice, I try my best. Until next time, bye!