Adventures of Sailing with Jennifer

It became obvious that we needed to seek a safe harbor. Unfortunately the nearest place was Charlevoix and it was in the opposite direction from Beaver Island.

When we got through the channel and under the bridge, my cell phone rang. I handed the wheel to Jennifer and went below to answer it.

When finished I stood in the doorway and looked at Jennifer.

"So what was that" she inquired.

"That was my friend Dr. F. He wanted to know if I was anywhere near Charlevoix. When I told him where we were he begged me to do him a favor. It seems there is a professor here and he needs to get to the island today and missed the ferry. The planes are grounded and was wondering if I would be the worlds best friend and bring him to the island. Are you up for some rough weather sailing?" I inquired.

"Can't be any worse than what we just went through. How do we find this guy," she inquired.

"Well he is suppose to meet us at the ferry dock, his name is professor Greenfield from your university," I replied.

Jennifer turned white as a sheet and just starred at me.

"Jennifer, what's the matter?" I asked

"He's my thesis adviser. He's the reason I took this little holiday - I needed some space from that ass-hole," she muttered.

"Oh, this should be interesting. Doc owes me big time for this," I said to myself.

We motored over to the ferry dock and saw a lone man standing there with briefcase.

"Professor Greenfield," I shouted.

He walked over to the boat "are you the gentleman that is suppose to take me to Beaver Island?" he inquired.

"Yes, I'm a friend of Dr. Fitsimmons," I replied.

I grabbed his briefcase and set it on the cockpit floor and extended my hand to help the professor on board.

"Jennifer, would you show the professor where to put his things?" I asked.

The professor looked up and saw Jennifer walking back from the bow where she was tending the bow line. I have never seen an expression on a human like that before. It was a combination of shock, surprise and oh shit all in one. As little as Jennifer was looking forward to seeing her adviser, he clearly was liking it less.

"Professor, we have about a 3 hour trip ahead of us and it is going to be very rough. Do you tend to get seasick," I inquired.

"I have on occasion gotten some queasiness', he replied

"Jennifer, would you get an ear patch and put it on the professor? Oh and while you are down there would you grab some foul weather gear for him also?" I asked.

Jennifer went below with out speaking or acknowledging the professor.

While Jennifer was below, the professor asked, "Are you a coworker of Dr. Fitzsimmons?"

"No, we were roommates in college. I'm not a biologist," I replied, figuring keeping my answer as short as possible would be the smart thing to do until I understood exactly what the hell was going on.

"So how long have you known Jennifer?" he continued to ask questions.

"About 3 weeks," continuing to leave my answers terse.

Just then Jennifer returned carrying a raincoat and a patch for seasickness and the professor stopped asking questions.

"Professor, Jennifer is going to put a patch on you right behind your ear, it will help prevent any seasickness," I announced as Jennifer pealed the backing off the strip and pressed it on the professor. When finished, Jennifer went to the front of the cockpit and stood looking out at the front of the boat. The professor put his raincoat on and sat at the rear of the cockpit facing the side of the boat.

For 3 long hours no one said anything. Jennifer stood at the front of the cockpit occasionally tweaking the sheets, it was apparent that she was looking to get the maximum amount of speed out of the boat. The professor sat quietly looking off into the lake and I was at the helm waiting until I could get Jennifer alone and find out what the hell was going on.

When we spotted the island I gave Doc a call and indicated we would be in port in about a half an hour. He promised he would have someone at the docks to take us to the station. When we arrived there was indeed a young man whom I had never met, waiting for us in a Jeep to take us to the station.

When we arrived at the station Doc was waiting for us in the lobby. We gave each other a big bear hug and expressed the typical greetings that 2 old friends give each other.

He then greeted professor Greenfield and they shook hands.

"Oh Doc," I said "this is Jennifer Walker, she's been helping me crew for the past couple of weeks."

Doc's jaw dropped. "Jennifer Walker working on her PhD in environmental biology?"

"Yes," I replied.

Doc grabbed my arm and dragged me 10 feet away. "Do you know who this girl is?"

"Yes," I reiterated, "Jennifer Walker, shes a graduate student in environmental biology."

"How did you meet her? What is your relationship with her?" he fired questions back at me.

"I needed crew for this trip and she replied to an ad I ran in the paper. As far as my relationship with her is, I think I have fallen in love with her. What the fuck is going on here. I just spent 3 hours on a boat where no one spoke to any one. Would you please tell me what the hell is going on?"

"You don't know?" he asked incredulously.

"Know! Know what? Talk to me dude," becoming more frustrated by my lack of knowledge.

"Hey, this girl is a genius. Her work is smart, brilliant, creative. In 20 years I have never seen work like this. She is on to something that is going to make a major impact on the environment. She's been on your fucking sailboat for the past 3 weeks? Holy shit dude! Look, take her over to the lounge and talk to her, she'll tell you what is going on." He then whispered, "In the meantime I'm going to take the good professor here and cram some science up his ass."

Doc, approached the professor and they went into an office marked John Fitzsimmons, PhD and closed the door.

I approached Jennifer and put my arm around her, "Jennifer, sweetheart, please tell me what is going on."

We sat on a nearby couch and Jennifer burst into tears. "He is having me thrown out of the university. He calls my work crap, unscientific, un-befitting a PhD candidate. I was curious how other members of the scientific community viewed my results, so I posted my thesis on a biology website. Professor Greenfield found out and went ballistic, told me to get out and that I would be receiving an expulsion letter from the dean. That's when I saw your ad and decided I didn't want to be around when my academic career got flushed. I'm really not looking forward to telling my dad."

I pulled Jennifer to me and wrapped my arms around her. "I have known Doc F for a long time. He is never wrong and he never takes prisoners. I have a feeling that what ever is taking place in that office over there has something to do with your work."

Jennifer looked up at me with teary blue eyes, " Jennifer, I love you," I said.

We kissed deeply. I heard a voice "Guys, get a room."

We both looked up and in unison said, "Cindy!"

"Wow, what brings you guys back so soon," she said.

We both got up and gave her big hugs. "We came on a mercy mission to deliver one professor Greenfield that also, by an interesting coincident, turns out to be Jennifer's thesis adviser," I said.

Cindy stared at Jennifer for a second and then exclaimed, "Oh my god, I'm such an idiot. Your last name is Walker. You're, thee Jennifer Walker. Oh my goodness. I spent the day with Jennifer Walker and didn't even know it." She continued to babble on for another 30 seconds before Jennifer stopped her.

"Cindy, what are you babbling about?" Jennifer asked.

"Your work is fucking brilliant, where on earth did you come up with your ideas. We started working on reproducing your work the day you posted it on the web. Doc swore us to secrecy, no one knew what we were working on but the day Doc left and you arrived, we got back the first results and he went to your university only to find out they had expelled you and didn't know where you were. Doc was angry. He has been on a tirade since he got back calling everyone he knows at every university that has even looked at this kind of problem. He has been making so many waves that the dean made Greenfield come up here and talk to Doc. I wouldn't want to be Greenfield right now."

"Oh gosh I wish I could have been here when he saw Jennifer. I'll bet that was priceless," Cindy continued.

We continued to talk for about an hour then suddenly the young man that brought us from the dock appeared and about a minute later the door opened on Doc's office and both men came out. Doc looked at the young man and instructed, "take mister Greenfield to the dock, there is a ferry leaving in 45 minutes." Neither man said goodbye and professor Greenfield never looked in our direction on his way out the door.

Doc stood in the doorway making sure Greenfield was gone before walking over to us. He shook his head "They gave that idiot tenure. Jennifer, I am really looking forward to talking to you. However, would you mind waiting here for just a couple of minutes while I make a phone call?"

Doc returned about 15 minutes later and sat on the couch. "Jennifer, I can't tell you how impressed we are with your work. You haven't been on the Internet in the past month but there is quite a buzz out there on the work you have done. My group here and a couple of other universities have verified your results and may I say, I'm impressed. The journals Science and Nature have had general postings asking where you are, so you might consider publishing your work in their publications. Your university has some serious egg on their face."

"Jennifer," he continued, "some interesting things are going to happen to you in the next couple of months. I'm going to start that trend by doing this, our university would like to offer you a full time Associate Professor position in environmental biology. During the school year you would teach and do research and in the summer you would come here and focus completely on research."

Jennifer looked stunned, "but I don't have my PhD yet."

"Oh you will," Doc replied, "I have been in contact with the Dean at your university and he assures me that you have done all the work required for a PhD. All you need to do is defend your thesis and with your data, our data and the data from a half dozen other universities that are reproducing your results right now - it shouldn't be very hard to defend."

"But what about Greenfield?" Jennifer inquired.

"The Dean has assured me that you can have who ever you want on your committee. He even suggested that I serve on the committee and I would be very honored if you would ask me to be part of such important research," Doc continued.

"Wow," Jennifer replied looking a little stunned, "There is something I need to do first. We were interrupted earlier." Jennifer turned to me, put her hands on my shoulders and said. "I love you too."

I pulled her close and kissed her. Off on the left I heard Doc's voice "Dude, let go of her lips, we are discussing science here. You're interrupting a recruiting session."

I pulled away for a second, "Shhh, I'm doing some biological research here myself and I think I'm getting results." We continued kissing for a few more seconds and then stood up.

"So," I looked over to Doc, "has Kim wised up and left your miserable ass yet?" I smiled, ribbing my old friend.

"Nope, she still loves me," Doc said smiling back.

"Wow, such a smart woman with a serious blind spot. Well, I think there is only one thing to do, get her on the phone and the 5 of us go out and celebrate," I said.

Doc pulled out his phone and 15 seconds later told us that Kim wouldn't be available for another hour. He suggested that we wander around and relax until she comes over.

I turned to Jennifer and handed her my phone, "sweetheart, why don't take this time and call your dad, I'm sure he would love to hear from you."

She took the phone, smiled and said, "I love you."

Doc chimed in, "Why don't you use my office, close the door, it is nice and private. I'm going to spend the next hour catching up with my old friend."

Jennifer wandered off. "Dude, did you really find her in a newspaper ad?" Doc inquired.

"Yes, I had a crew all lined up for this trip and 2 weeks before we were going to leave, they wimped out on me. I thought there must be some guy hanging around the university looking for something to do this summer. Jennifer is the only one that answered the ad. A few days later off we went."

"You had no idea what was going on with her?" he asked.

"No, she said she needed time away from her studies. She didn't talk about it and I didn't press. She is so smart and driven, I assumed she was suffering from a bit of burnout." I replied.

"Well," Doc continued, "I can't tell you how pissed off the Dean of sciences was. He stepped over the line to get this girl expelled who had a perfect 4.0 at the advice of one of his professors and then had to explain it to the Journal of Science and Nature when other researchers verified her results. Worse still they didn't know where she was. It gave the impression that the university kicked her out on the street and didn't want anything to do with her. They look like buffoons, throwing away some of the best research done in the past 20 years. You gotta love the Internet, people are all over the place trying to find her and you drop her in my lap at the same time I'm stuffing results up Greenfield's ass - what a great day!"

"Greenfield might have tenure but I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up sweeping the floors for the next 20 years. In order to save face, Jenifer's University is desperate to get her back and end up with some association with this work."

"So who did you call when Greenfield left," I inquired.

"I made 2 calls. I called the Dean of sciences at my university and told him I had Jennifer with me and could I offer her an associate professorship? He said yes, as long as she finished her PhD within one year. I then called the dean at Jennifer's university. I told him that Jennifer was touring our research facilities and that I hoped there wasn't any hard feelings. He came unglued right over the phone begging me to talk to her and try to convince her to publish her thesis with them. He offered me an adjunct professorship and a bunch of other crap. They screwed up and did it really publicly. We all know this work could result in a cleaner environment but they just care about the millions of dollars in research funds that are going to pour into anyone that is associated with the project."

A few minutes later Jennifer came back smiling and sat on my lap and put her arms around me.

"My father is such an amazing man," she said. "Apparently he has also been following my research on the web and knew about my expulsion and the follow up research by this university and a couple of other universities. When the dean called him asking my whereabouts he told him to fuck off. My father actually used the words fuck off. Then he told him he was making arrangements for me to meet with the chairman of the biology department in Wisconsin." Jennifer turned to Doc, "my father is professor of physics."

"He talked to the chairman of the biology department and although they would want to talk to me, they told him they would be very interested in me, my credits would transfer, which would mean I would graduate at an accelerated rate. I can't believe this is happening to me."

Jennifer continued, "I told my father about us. I told him that I met the kindest, gentlest, most wonderful man in the whole world and that I have fallen in love with him. He wants to meet you. Any chance we have time to sail over to Milwaukee to meet him."

Doc interjected, "Why don't you invite your father here. The university would love to have professor Walker as our guest. I'll make sure we have guest quarters available and he can stay as long as he wants."

Jennifer grabbed my phone back and sprinted back to Doc's office.

I turned back to Doc, "Wow, you must want her bad," I inquired.

"Damn right, she is the hottest thing in environmental biology right now, she dropped on my doorstep and I'm not going to let her wander off to Wisconsin."

Jennifer returned a few minutes later and resumed her position on my lap. Just then Kim walked in and everyone stood up. She came up and gave me a huge hug and a big kiss on the cheek. "John told me you where here with a friend," she said.

"Oh yes," I turned to Jennifer, "Jennifer, I want you to meet an old girlfriend, Kim."

Jennifer extended her hand, "Hi Kim, nice to meet you."

Kim extended her hand, "Nice to meet you, I've heard so much about you. By the way, Tom and I only went out once and then I dumped him for his room mate," She smiled back at me and put her arm around Doc.

"Ya, but she was really broken up about it," I replied.

"In your dreams, mister," and she came back and gave me another hug.

Doc and Kim had an errand to run but we all agreed that we would meet at the local pub in about 45 minutes.

When we arrived at the pub the men ordered beer, Jennifer and Cindy ordered wine and Kim asked for a glass of water. The conversation quickly turned to environmental research and I took the opportunity to talk to Kim.

"So drinking just water tonight, where is the white wine?" I asked.

"Oh, you don't know? I'm 3 months pregnant."

"Oh my," I screamed in my loudest voice, "DOC KNOCKED YOU UP!"

The pub instantly turned silent and everyone in the pub looked at Kim. Kim turned flaming red and held up her hand with the wedding ring for all to see. I gave Kim a huge hug and a kiss on the cheek and then got up and grabbed Doc and gave him a hug as well.

"You guys are going to make great parents," I said.

Doc returned the hug and grabbed me around the shoulder and faced me away from the table. "You enjoy doing that to my wife don't you?" he said.

"Sadly, I do," I replied.

"Well you are the only one that can get away with it. I have no idea why she still likes you - but she does," Doc said.

"You know, with children on the way, you guys should really consider a better class of friends," I smiled.

"Oh, you'll never know how often that conversation as happened and just recently within the past hour I might add. Now go sit down and behave yourself," he smiled and gestured to my chair.

I returned to my chair and Jennifer congratulated Doc and Kim, however within a few minutes the conversation switched back to the environmental plight of the Great Lakes. I took the opportunity to again talk to Kim.

I moved close to Kim, "So Doc's thing actually works, wow, who knew? Gee if you need me to talk to him about anything else that you might be missing in your love life, just let me know."

"Oh good grief, how come every time we have a conversation all you talk about is sex," she rolled her eyes exasperated.

"They're talking about sex also, it just happens to be about the reproduction cycle of the Zebra Mussel. Me, I prefer women. It's a lifestyle choice. Call me weird, what can I say," I smiled back at her.

"Here, be useful and get me a refill on my water," she handed me her glass.

The rest of the evening went great and we all had a wonderful time. When it was time to leave, Jennifer whispered in my ear, "would you like to have Cindy spend the night with us on the boat?"

"How about you?" I asked back.

"Yes, I think that might be fun. Ask her," she replied back.

Cindy did indeed join us for the night. I wanted the night to be special for Jennifer, she must have spent the past month in a lot of worry and concern about her future. I wanted to get across to her that she could share anything with me and that I would always be there for her. I shouldn't have worried, she had a great time that evening. I did pay special attention to her, it is a little weird telling someone you love them while some other woman is sucking on your cock but Jennifer was happy.