[The theme of this story: surreal mystery. The main characters: rebellious chemist and mystic explorer. The major event of the story: conversion.]
"I was this close to discovering the perfect temperature, coffee to cream ratio." He took a sip of the concoction. "Ugh, not it. By the Moons of Madness, what do you want?"
"Actually, you wanted to see me. My name is Harold Weaver." Harold extended his hand.
"Of course!" Dr. Akroyd put down his coffee and dodged around the table grasping Harold's hand in an enormous leather gauntlet. "A pleasure to meet you. I really enjoyed your paper on John Dee's Interpretations and Uses of Enochian Script as an Alternative Language of Mathematical Discourse."
Harold squinted for a moment. "Oh. Are you talking about the blog entry on the history of John Dee I wrote--what?--five years ago? I made a single paragraph reference to using it as a simple cipher-number code in college."
"I know it was brilliant; really opened up some avenues in my research."
"Dr. Akroyd..."
"Harold, please, call me Cameron." Akroyd released the handshake and returned to his coffee, taking another swig and making another sour face.
"Cameron. What exactly is it you do?"
"I...am a scientist!"
"I got that. Of what?"
Dr. Akroyd gestured to a stool at one of the lab tables on which sat a contraption of micro gears, hydrolics, filament wired wings of mica feathers, computer chips, brass ornamentation and a wind-up key all looking to be grafted onto an antique orrery already slowly spinning round.
"A little of everything, and well, actually everything of everything." Akroyd flipped over the chalkboard with the tarot symbolism and on the other side was a picture of the solar system, a match to the orrery on the table. "Are you familiar with the Ptolemaic Universe?" asked Akroyd.
"Earth as the center of the Cosmos? Music of the spheres, and all that?"
"That's right! And it was the prevailing concept of the universe during the middle ages. Now, Earth is not the center of the universe, as we know from Copernicus forward, but there is an aspect of this medieval vision of the cosmos that intrigues me." Dr. Akroyd paused. "Harold, you are Roman Catholic, are you not?"
Harold shifted and coughed. "Yes." He drew out the syllable.
"I was this close to discovering the perfect temperature, coffee to cream ratio." He took a sip of the concoction. "Ugh, not it. By the Moons of Madness, what do you want?"
"Actually, you wanted to see me. My name is Harold Weaver." Harold extended his hand.
"Of course!" Dr. Akroyd put down his coffee and dodged around the table grasping Harold's hand in an enormous leather gauntlet. "A pleasure to meet you. I really enjoyed your paper on John Dee's Interpretations and Uses of Enochian Script as an Alternative Language of Mathematical Discourse."
Harold squinted for a moment. "Oh. Are you talking about the blog entry on the history of John Dee I wrote--what?--five years ago? I made a single paragraph reference to using it as a simple cipher-number code in college."
"I know it was brilliant; really opened up some avenues in my research."
"Dr. Akroyd..."
"Harold, please, call me Cameron." Akroyd released the handshake and returned to his coffee, taking another swig and making another sour face.
"Cameron. What exactly is it you do?"
"I...am a scientist!"
"I got that. Of what?"
Dr. Akroyd gestured to a stool at one of the lab tables on which sat a contraption of micro gears, hydrolics, filament wired wings of mica feathers, computer chips, brass ornamentation and a wind-up key all looking to be grafted onto an antique orrery already slowly spinning round.
"A little of everything, and well, actually everything of everything." Akroyd flipped over the chalkboard with the tarot symbolism and on the other side was a picture of the solar system, a match to the orrery on the table. "Are you familiar with the Ptolemaic Universe?" asked Akroyd.
"Earth as the center of the Cosmos? Music of the spheres, and all that?"
"That's right! And it was the prevailing concept of the universe during the middle ages. Now, Earth is not the center of the universe, as we know from Copernicus forward, but there is an aspect of this medieval vision of the cosmos that intrigues me." Dr. Akroyd paused. "Harold, you are Roman Catholic, are you not?"
Harold shifted and coughed. "Yes." He drew out the syllable.
