11
Parking his car behind Penny's under the extended roof on the side of the house, Leonard returned to the mansion that late Monday afternoon from the university and entered the side hall on his way for the foyer, not that going through the kitchen was any quicker a route to his room than the front way. It was a bright windy day and the breeze blew the leaves of tiny tree blossoms in to the side hall. He crossed the front hall heading toward the stairwell to head to his room. Perhaps, just unconsciously, he was willing to get over whatever yelling Jimmy was going to do to him. He started thinking how much he was going to miss living here.
"Leonard…" Jimmy was in his study. He noticed Leonard through the door and called to him.
Stopping on the bottom step of the staircase, Leonard looked up through the entryway and dropped his head down a bit lower. Crossing the width of the main hall like a small boy sent to the principal's office, he walked with his sneakers squeaking on the parquet floor. He treaded softer on the carpet of the study and blinked a few times before looking at Jimmy with ashamed embarrassment.
"You want to tell me what happened over the weekend." Jimmy leaned back in his leather chair with the fingers of his two hands up before him with the tips touching.
"Well…" Leonard choked on his words. As much he liked Jimmy as a friend and colleague, this was one of the hardest statements he had to make since he had moved into Jimmy's place. "I wasn't watching, and Sheldon got on your computer." He cleared his throat with a lot of difficulty. "I'm so sorry. You let me move into your house, you let me have full reign of the house, open your grandfather's research to me and let me move my girlfriend in, and then Sheldon violates your privacy. If you told me to get out, I would completely understand."
"And how long after throwing you out do you think I'd start to feet guilty?" Jimmy put his hands down and leaned sideways in his seat. "Leonard, I can't tell you what to do, but I seriously think you need to cut Sheldon out of your life. I can forgive, but one of these days, he's going to get you in a lot of trouble. You have to see that."
"I know…" Leonard felt a bit of pressure off. "I always thought that by living with him that I was teaching him to be more human, but… he's always fighting the effort."
"Why have you stayed with him this long?"
"Well," Leonard tried to understand it. "After a while, you kind of start wondering where he's going and you want to see it through…" He added. "But then you can kind of get complacent, and he'll come at you with something you don't expect."
"I don't have a problem with Howard and Raj…." Jimmy sat back again and tapped the mouse of his desktop computer. "They're great guys and obviously good friends, when they're not having fun humiliating each other, but I don't want Sheldon in my house ever again, and if he's got a problem with that, send him to me. I'll knock that ego of his down to size."
"It's not his ego you have to worry about…" Leonard looked to the Hindu fertility statue on the desk and back to Jimmy. "It's his mouth." He paused a moment. "Is there any chicken left?" He started getting hungry.
"One more thing, Leonard…" Jimmy tapped his Hotmail open and pulled open his e-mail account. "I got an e-mail from my sister, Sara. She and Gwen are bringing the kids for the summer here in sunny California."
"It'd be nice to meet them."
"Yeah…" Jimmy pulled the regular rooming agreement. "Unfortunately, Sara and her husband will want her room back, and Penny will have to go in yours. Some of my nephews and nieces are still under thirteen, so you guys will have to curb the fooling around here. Do you mind sleeping in my grandfather's study?"
"I guess so…" Leonard thought about it. "I've been moving things around in there so I can make it nice."
"You find anything earth-shattering in his notes." Jimmy now stood to take some textbooks back to his shelf.
"He was on the same lines of a lot other guys in terms of infra-spatial lines of forces along permutable fields of resistance…" Leonard turned physicist again. "But I'm having a hard time trying to follow his logic that string theory can double back upon itself in areas of higher inertial force within sub-atomic fields."
Jimmy pulled his hand over his head as a gesture to show that the physics jargon went over his head.
"I'm glad you're getting a kick out of it." Jimmy placed his books back, noticed Marilyn was slightly askew and dragged her back into her spot near his downstairs bathroom. "Don't forget to give Penny the message about my sisters coming."
"I won't…" Leonard turned to head out then paused and looked back at Jimmy adjusting the arrangement of his books. "Thanks again for the second chance."
"You deserve it." Jimmy turned around as Leonard headed for the kitchen. "Just don't squander it…" He mumbled under his breath then looked at Marilyn again and found a spot on her shoulder. "Did someone try giving you a hickey?"
