Hey yall! I have a few unfinished stories on my computer. Being stuck in the house, I've gone back to them. Let me know what you think and I'll consider finishing/publishing them!
Two Nobel medals stood resolutely in the center of the mantel with dried yellow Play-Doh stuck between the grooves: it was an anomaly being a Nobel winner and a parent. The Cooper house, which used to be the standard of cleanliness, was now perpetually covered in a layer of stickiness. They never knew what made everything so sticky, and honestly, they were too afraid to find out.
The tired parents bustled around the living room picking up half naked dolls with tangled hair, tattered books and the remains of science experiments gone awry. Before bed was usually Sheldon and Amy's time to regale in their intelligence and challenge each other's scientific prowess. Two children later, however, they drag their tired bodies through their nightly routine and are in a deep slobbery sleep before the bed can warm to their bodies.
Sheldon began tidying the glossy magazines on the coffee table when he picked up a manila folder. It was signed, 'To Amy! I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Barry Kripke.' He scrunched his face.
"What's this?" Sheldon held the folder to his wife but, she was deep in her routine and didn't pay him any attention. "It's signed to you, from Barry Kripke."
"Oh, he's having an essay of his featured in the fall edition of The Scientific Journal and he asked me to read it. You should check it out, it's fascinating."
"Aw, it's a pity to hear that about The Journal." He sucked his teeth and shook his head.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, it used to be such a prestigious honor to be featured in that magazine. But clearly they've gone downhill if they're featuring Kripke in their fall edition."
A simple 'Congratulations, Kripke' would kill Sheldon.
"I'm serious, the way he compares his theory to neurobiology is remarkable. The biology department was blown away."
Sheldon mangled his face and slapped his hands over his ears.
"Should I really have to listen to my wife talk about another man's research in my house, no less. You used to talk about my research like that. What happened?"
Amy began heading to their bedroom but, the more she ignored him the more he pressed on. She would need to outwit him if she wanted this jealous tantrum to end. Amy stopped and Sheldon slammed into her back. She smirked before turning around and stroking his warm cheek.
"Honey." Strike one, Sheldon hated pet names. He tried to convince Amy to make his children call him Dr. Cooper. "You know how much I love your research, but sometimes I need to experience other men's research to remind me of how great yours is." She placed a teasing kiss on his jaw.
Sheldon couldn't tell if he was being manipulated or if his wife was being honest. Even after 7 years of marriage she was still too brilliant for him. Nevertheless, he found the self-righteous nugget of reassurance in her statement and happily followed her to bed.
The couple's roles switched for the night. Amy was usually the one who read in bed, sometimes falling asleep with a book teetering on her finger tips. But tonight, it was Sheldon. His face was pressed into the thick white papers taking in every disgusting word of the article. His wife was right, it was brilliant.
"You're still reading that?" Amy said from beside the bed.
"I'm on my third read."
"Wow, you must really like it."
"It's awful." He said fingering the corner of a new page.
"Really, I thought the way he viewed-"
"No, I love it. That's the awful thing."
Amy crawled into their bed and immediately buried herself beneath Sheldon's arm. He let the stack of papers rest on his chest while he stared absently into the ceiling.
"When was the last time I was in a magazine?" His voice reeked of doubt.
"You won a Nobel in physics. You've been in plenty of magazines." She reminded him.
"Yes, but that was 5 years ago. Have I been featured in anything or written anything since then?"
"You were featured in your mom's church newsletter. "Sheldon Lee Cooper has a wife and two kids. God can perform miracles." Amy joked but his brow was furrowed and his lips were tight. His mind was rummaging through something up there. Hopefully she could pull him out before he got lost. "Babe, don't think too much into it. You are doing good work, it's just time for Barry to get some credit for his work too."
Sheldon's thinking was so loud it kept both of them up. He tossed and groaned and woke up as restless as ever.
His agitation followed him like a shadow to work. He wanted to lock himself in his office, but the guys wanted to catch up and Amy wanted to have lunch until finally he was running through the halls for a moment of solitude.
"Cwooper!" The sour tang of his voice leeched onto Sheldon's skin. He turned and saw an incredibly smug Kripke leaning against the corner. His sagging pants hung from his tattered belt which was peeking from underneath his worn t-shirt. This could not be the man the Scientific Journal deemed a "Physics phenom".
It's like Kripke had been waiting for him. He knew that Sheldon was having a rough day and staked out at this corner until fate would have it and Sheldon would cross his path.
"Come to congratulate me on my feature in the scientific journal?"
Sheldon wasn't a conspiracy theorist but this had a sticky plot all over it.
"This was your plan all along, wasn't it? You gave that article to Amy knowing she would take it home; where I live. And I would see it; and I did. And you knew that I was going to be in this hallway at 1:06 p.m.; like I was. So, you waited for me to rub it in that you have an article in the scientific journal and I don't. LIKE YOU JUST DID!" The searing veins were popping in Sheldon's eyes.
"No. A lot of my comparisons have to do with neurobiology. Amy was the perfect person to share it with." He was aggravatingly calm.
"Oh."
"Aaand I knew that you would eventually find it, so I could rub it in your face." Kripke took his small victory and schlepped down the hall. Each kerplunk of Barry's floppy feet sent violent shocks through Sheldon's back.
"Well it's not working. Actually, I came to find you. I wanted to offer you something." Sheldon said, pacing behind Kripke.
"I already have your dignity, Cooper, I don't need anything else."
"I've come to offer my services. This is your first-time doing work that merits any recognition. I've been receiving esteemed acknowledgements since I was a toddler. I can help you refine your work so you don't look so…amateur."
"I'm good." Kripke pulled out a tangled wad of headphone and begin placing the buds in his ear.
"Wel, waa-waait. You didn't even think about it yet."
"Thinking," he stirred the thin wires in his hand, "thinking, thinking….nope!"
Sheldon was paralyzed in place. So much so, he forgot to breathe. When he finally opened his mouth, a bevy of words fell out.
"You think you're so much better than me because your little project is getting featured in some stupid has been journal. Anyone can do that."
"Fine, then you do it."
"Huh."
"If you think anyone could be featured in The Scientific Journal, then you do it. I'm just a nobody, right. I'm sure if Nobel prize winner Sheldon Cooper puts out a groundbreaking essay before print, they will use your article instead of mine. However, if you don't, I will have the feature and you won't. Whoever gets the feature will be the superior scientist and the other will run crying to their mama with their tail between their legs. Deal?"
Sheldon's jaw hinged open and close repeatedly, he didn't know what to say. On one hand, after Kripke's awful rendition of "At Last" at their wedding Amy made Sheldon promise to make no deals with him. It was worse than making a deal with the devil, she said. On the other hand, Sheldon hasn't run crying to his mama since he was 10 and he wasn't going to start again today.
"Deal."
The two big headed scientists shook hands and Kripke walked into his office with an obnoxious grin.