Winter Journeys

Chapter 5 Luke in 10-D Heaven

(AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've never actually been in Harvard's Computer Center; I'm only speculating what it might be like. If any reader has actually been there, tell me and I'll correct things. The story will still be pretty much valid even if I'm wrong.)

Luke has spent a miserable month ever since his birthday. Not only was Grace absent from his life, but nobody seemed to understand his point of view.

Friedmann, when Luke visited him shortly after his wedding, couldn't understand why Luke didn't just contact Grace and arrange secret meetings in which they could do what they wanted without her parents' knowing. He even suggested several strategems for evading detection (though he was careful to do so away from Glynis' hearing). On the other hand, Joan's reaction to having discovered the lovers in bed in the first place was one long "eeeeeew".

The fact was that Luke believed in absolutes and universals. When he fell in love with a girl, he didn't just dream of moments of bliss, but of spending his life with her. And part of the ideal was getting himself accepted by her parents, just as his own parents had largely accepted Grace. If a temporary separation from Grace assured their future happiness, well, so be it. One of Luke's heroes, the scientist-philosopher Jacob Bronowski, had written that the ability to defer gratification was one of the gifts that separated man from the animals. Luke was trying to exercise it now.

But, at the bottom, Luke missed Grace terribly. And with no way to satisfy his longing directly, he tried to distract himself. As long as school lasted, he threw himself into all his courses. And with vacation approaching, he had conceived the plan of visiting Harvard, where he had the potential of being accepted. He told himself that even that plan was not really a matter of ignoring Grace. Getting accepted at Harvard, and a year ahead of most students, was something that would probably impress the Polonskis.

Unfortunately, that meant travelling with Joan.

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Luke followed his sister and the bellhop down the hotel corridor. Already it was clear that he and Joan were not exactly compatible travelling companions. On the way from the airport he had been fascinated by the "Big Dig", the innovative underground highway designed to keep Boston traffic snarls off of the surface. To Joan it had been just a hole in the ground. And when checking in, Joan had been all "I am Ms Girardi and this is my kid brother." She had opened a bank account when she started the bookstore job, and their parents had temporarily dumped extra money into account to cover travel expenses and contingencies. That left Luke dependent on Joan for all the cash.

The bellhop unlocked Joan's door, and showed them her room. "Mr. Girardi will be next door. There's the connecting door, but it must be unlocked from both sides, so that nobody can cross over except by mutual agreement." The two nodded. That had been the parents' idea, and it had been a good one, allowing the two to share or not share their privacy as much as they liked.

"I'll take care of Mr. Girardi next. I hope you enjoy your hotel, but it's important to go out and see the city. I'd suggest starting at Old North Church, from revolutionary times. That means you, Joan."

Joan started. As always, the use of her first name by a stranger was a signal. "Bellhop God?"

"That's right, miss."

"Am I doing everything right so far? You said be an adult, and Luke needed an adult escort, so I'm here."

"Yes, miss."

"I'm here, too," said Luke, somewhat miffed that even God considered Joan in charge. "Do you have any special advice for me?"

"Seek knowledge though it be in China."

"China?"

"That's how the Quran puts it. Of course China was a lot harder to get to in Mohammed's day, so it's an intense way to put it."

"Yeah, you don't have to worry about my seeking knowledge."

"Here's your tip," said Joan. "Though you don't really need it, do you?"

"I am playing a human, and nothing human is alien to me," replied the bellhop, pocketing Joan's bills.

They opened the connecting door once he was gone. "What do you think we should do first?" asked Joan.

"One of the guys that suggested I come here is named Desmond Harvey, a physics student at Harvard," observed Luke. "He's English, and said he would stay at the school over the holidays to avoid expensive plane flights to Europe and back. I'll call his cell and see if he's available."

"Cool."

Luke dialed the number. "Hullo? Harvey here."

"Hi. This is Luke Girardi. I've just arrived in Boston, and I was wondering if we could meet."

"Um, that is a bit awkward. I'm working on a project at the college's supercomputer center. But if you don't mind coming here--"

"I'd love it!"

"I'll tell them it's OK to let you in."

"OK. Oh, tell them to let two people in. I'll have a girl with me."

"Righto." He gave directions to the school and the center.

"Have a girl?" mimicked Joan as he hung up.

Luke smirked. He had gotten even for "my kid brother."

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Seeing the computer center was a bit of an anticlimactic. From the outside it seemed to be a much older institution, and the building had probably been designed for a different purpose. Inside all they could see were desktop computers and dumb terminals. The powerful supercomputer itself was carefully protected and not even visible to the users.

"Pleased to meet you face-to-face, Luke," said Harvey. "And this is your girl friend?"

"Um, actually my sister, Joan. She's interested in seeing the college too." That was a half-truth, since Joan did want to go sight-seeing. Luke was NOT going to explain that Joan was his chaperone. They were so close in age that an outside observer might mistake them for fraternal twins. "Tell me, why are you doing your work here? I heard that college dorms have excellent high-speed connections."

"They do, but they're not sufficient for what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to do simulations of string theory."

"Ms. Lischak -- our A.P. Physics teacher -- mentioned string theory a little, but didn't tell us much," said Joan. "She said it still had a lot of loose ends, and she didn't want to teach us theory that might prove wrong."

Luke was rather proud of his sister in showing polite interest. Two years ago she would just dismissed the subject as so much dorkiness. "I did some reading on my own. They say that strings are 10-dimensional objects. It's difficult to visualize."

"Exactly, which is why I'm trying to represent them on the computer. But ordinary coordinate systems won't work. Even if you had a crude grid with only 10 units on a side, you would need 10-to-the-tenth squares to cover all the dimensions -- 10 billion, in American terminology. And even if you had that much memory, it would take forever to manipulate them."

"I see that now. What do you do about it?"

"Try to calculate a three-dimensional cross-section, and display that on the screen."

He explained his theory for doing this. Luke had trouble following his concepts, and Joan was visibly trying to avoid yawning. Finally Harvey excused himself, saying that he had to visit the "loo", and left the Girardis alone.

"Luke, I thought I understood physics, but what this Harvey guy is saying is just Geek to me."

"Yeah, I'm having trouble following it too. I may ask him to explain it in more detail."

Joan looked exasperated, and Luke could understand. He himself was trying to distract himself from the argument with Grace, and this seemed an intricate enough problem to occupy his attention. Joan, on the other hand, had eliminated the last barrier between herself and Adam, only to find herself stuck hundreds of miles away from him, in a conversation that did not interest her at all.

"Look," proposed Luke. "Why don't you leave me here and go see the sights as our, uh, friend recommended?"

Joan looked tempted, but raised objections. "I'm supposed to watch over you."

"Come on, I'm in an Ivy League computer center. What could threaten me here? And if you'll give me sufficient cab fare, I promise to go straight to our hotel afterward."

Joan pondered that. "Okay." She rummaged in her purse, and ended by giving Luke twenty dollars and a sisterly kiss. "Remember your promise."

Harvey came back a minute later. Luke made excuses for Joan's disappearance, and urged him to keep talking about his formula for reducing ten dimensions.

Grace had once told Luke about how the rebel philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau had recorded an embarrassing but amusing event in his diary. During an argument with his girlfriend, he had made a rude comment about her figure. She had retorted that if he was that interested in figures, he should give up women and take up geometry.

Now, two centuries later, Luke was temporarily trying to follow the same advice.