The Disclaimer Continues. Ad Infinitum.
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Chapter 4
After Don planted his father in the surgical waiting area, he went back downstairs to deal with his wrist. Before he would face the Morphine, though, Don found Megan and Larry in the trauma waiting area. He sat heavily in a chair next to them.
Megan glanced at the arm he cradled against his middle. "Shouldn't you be doing something about that?"
Don shrugged. "In a minute. There will be drugs involved, and I want to talk to Larry while my head is clear."
The smaller man looked at Don sadly. "I'm not certain I'll shed any light, Don."
Don nodded. "Just tell me what you know. Did you spend any time with Charlie, today?"
Larry's hand crept toward his head, which he scratched absently. "I saw him this morning, before our first classes. We shared some tea, in his office. I asked if he would join me for lunch, but he said he had a meeting with Dr. Sorenson, the Division Chair, during his break between classes. He didn't know what it was about, and he was understandably a little apprehensive." He dropped his hand nervously to his lap.
"Did he seem upset about anything else? Did he talk about anything?"
Larry shook his head. "I'm afraid we didn't really speak much at all. We only had a few minutes, and first he received a call from USC asking him to speak again at the math symposium they host every year. Then Dr. Haven dropped by. He's one of my colleagues, in the Physics Department. Came to us this year from Cornell. Apparently he has had Charles checking his calculations on a paper he's writing for one of our educational journals – as he has done for me countless times…" He glanced at Megan. "He has one of mine now, in fact. I didn't realize Charlie was also working with Dr. Haven. I wish he had told me." His hand crept upward again, and this time he tugged an ear.
Don frowned. "Is it considered…unethical…to help you both?"
Larry shook his head, his hand flying off his ear and almost hitting Megan before finding his own lap, again. "No, no, it's not that. It's just that these papers can be quite intense, and complicated. It's a great deal of work. I wouldn't have given him mine if I knew he was working on Dr. Haven's already. I could have waited." Larry looked decidedly unhappy. "I hope that I did not contribute to a sense of pressure that escalated out of control."
Don wouldn't go there. He couldn't. So he ignored the statement. "So you didn't see him again?"
Larry shook his head miserably. "No. I confess, I did not even think to phone after his meeting with Dr. Sorenson. My last afternoon class is in another building, and as I approached my office, I saw the groups of excited students, pointing up to the roof. I recognized Charles, and found his behavior quite unlike him. Naturally, I went to the roof to speak with him. Someone got Campus Security involved, and they called LAPD. Oh!" A look passed Larry's face and he reached into the pocket of his jacket. He brought out the keys to Don's SUV and offered them to him. "LAPD parked it, in the faculty lot. They gave me these to return to you."
Don accepted the keys, and stared at them. "Thanks. What did he say to you before I got there?"
Larry sighed. "What he said after you got there. That he could fly, that he had corrected the Wright Brothers' math. He asked me to determine the sky's origin for him. I think I could have walked right up to him, but that's when some people from Campus Security showed up, bursting through the door onto the roof, yelling. I think they frightened him. He told us all to stay back then, and that's when I called you."
Don pocketed his keys and frowned again. "I don't remember Campus Security on the roof."
"No," Larry agreed, "you wouldn't. LAPD rather quickly removed them from the situation. Charles was talking to me when they arrived, explaining wind variables and lift-off strategies…I guess they decided that I might be able to keep him talking, and they let me stay."
Don winced, and Megan spoke gently, but firmly. "Don, you need to take care of that wrist."
He nodded and stood. "I'll go. Larry, maybe you can call this Sorenson and find out why he wanted to see Charlie."
Larry and Megan both stood, Larry nodding his head. "Of course."
Don started to thank them and walk away, but turned back after one step. "Listen, if you can stay, you guys shouldn't wait here for me. I'll go up to ortho for a cast soon, anyway. Dad's in the 4th floor surgical waiting room, alone. Could you go up there? I'll find you as soon as I'm done."
Larry clutched at Don's good arm a little. "Surgery?"
Don was startled, until he figured out that no-one had come out here and talked to them. "Ankle," he said simply. "Needs some pins and stuff." He found himself completely unable to repeat most of what the doctor had said. He was still digesting it himself. "Dad can tell you everything…"
Larry's hand was creeping up, again, but this time Megan grabbed it with one of her own, and held it tightly. She smiled reassuringly at Don. "Of course we'll go to Alan," she said. "Don't worry about him. We take care of family."
Don stared at her, wondering if she had any idea at all what she had just said. He saw the compassion in her suspiciously bright eyes, saw the concern and love for Charlie in Larry's, and decided that she probably did.
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