Quantum Entanglement

Alice of course was livid. After the divorce she'd expected me to sit around being angry and lonely, then finally the two of us would get back together. In her mind what she'd done hadn't been that bad. Most of science was about experimentation and examining the results of those experiments.

Instead of realizing that the result of her cheating was losing me, Alice was scheming as hard as she could to get me back.

Of course, me falling in love with someone else had never figured into her plans though. She surmised, perhaps correctly that if Chavonne hadn't come along that she and I might have had a chance. As I said being with Chavonne was in most ways far better and more like a marriage than being married to Alice ever had been.

Chavonne and I gave ourselves to each other totally. With Alice we would look at our mutual schedules and decide when we'd have sex. With Chavonne, we just looked at each other and that was all it took.

I walked around constantly on a cloud. My new euphoric state of mind also served to focus my mind better. I published several papers that either criticized or supported the published works of several other scientists. Publishing papers is a good way for a scientist to become known and to secure grants and other funding for their institution so naturally my bosses were happy as well.

Chavonne also got me to trim my unruly hair just a bit and to switch to glasses that were slightly less nerdy. She also upgraded my wardrobe a bit too. As soon as I stopped wearing my bell bottoms people actually started to take interest in me. I began to get invitations to speak at scientific gatherings or to participate in forums. I turned down most of the requests but being asked was nice. Strangely enough women started to become interested in me too. But it didn't matter because I already had the one I wanted.

My life was exactly the way I wanted it. I was a popular teacher, a well respected and in demand scientist and I was in love with a beautiful young woman who loved me back. Things were going too well, it was time for life, to shit in my cornflakes.

For a few days, Chavonne had been nervous and a little testy. She'd told me that she had a doctor's appointment and that we needed to talk about some things. Being the typical scientist, I had other less mundane things on my mind.

A team of Chinese researchers had proven that there was a limit on the speed that a photon could reach. Their research seemed to indicate that it was impossible for a single photon to travel at speeds greater than the speed of light.

This was extremely interesting because it meant that several concepts that we worked with everyday might not be possible, among them FTL or faster than light travel and of course time travel. I was reading all of the details of their research and intended to publish a paper on their findings. So I guess I was a bit preoccupied it and not very attentive to Chavonne's situation.

In my supposed wisdom, I was sure that Chavonne's dilemma stemmed mostly from the fact that she was worried about how I'd take the news that she had failed my class. I was certain that she'd come to me all teary eyed and worried about how I'd see her in that light.

She really didn't need to even consider it though because I loved her totally. For all of my life before meeting Chavonne, I judged everyone solely on INTELLIGENCE. Chavonne had taught me that some things were simply more important. Whether she realized it or not, Chavonne had actually been a very important step in my development.

She was the first person I'd associated with in any way simply because I wanted to. She was also the first person whom I'd admitted to any emotional attachment for. I think some of my peers were surprised to discover that I even had emotions.

So it was another big blow to both my ego and my supposed INTELLIGENCE to walk into my house yet again and hear voices. This time I didn't simply walk into the situation, apparently I'd learned something from the first time.

As I watched from the kitchen I saw Chavonne and that same bastard, Greg Hawkes. He had her bent over my fucking sofa.

"Come on Chavonne, can't we do it in the bed?" he whined.

"No," she snapped. "There's no way I'd let you anywhere near our bed."

"Well take off your top so I can see those big assed titties," he begged.

"Nope, not part of the deal," she said.

"Well bitch, at least take your panties off. Just pushing them to the side isn't working. I can't get a good stroke in and they are getting in the way."

"Look, I'm keeping up my part of the bargain," she said. "Just do it and we're done. I need this over with so I can get on with my life."

"What about the professor?" he asked. "I know that he can't do it like I can."

"You're right about that." she said bursting into laughter.

All of my life I'd resisted the notion that emotional attachments had value. Seeing Chavonne with Hawkes definitely proved that I'd been wrong. With Alice, I'd been outraged but merely angry that what I believed had been the rules of our relationship had been violated.

Even though we were married, I'd married Alice because it was a logical thing to do. It had been a cold and cartoon like marriage that probably should never have happened. When I caught her, since there'd been no emotional linkage on my part, there was no emotional pain. It was simple, she'd broken the rules the marriage was over.

With Chavonne there was immediate pain and though the pain was emotional, it didn't hurt any less. It felt awful. It was as if I had to physically make myself breathe. I wanted to cry like a baby. There could be no calm discussion of who got what like I'd had with Alice. I simply needed to get away.

I went up the stairs as quickly as I could and grabbed my essentials. My intention was to come back down and leave, I'd email Chavonne from where ever I went to think this out.

As I came back down the stairs though, they were just leaving the living room.

"Oh fuck not again," said Greg. He was right in the path I needed to follow to get out of the house.

"Oh please, No!" cried Chavonne.

Calm and INTELLIGENT discourse hadn't worked with Greg the first time I'd caught him, and this time I was too angry to consider it.

"Get the fuck out of my way you Neanderthal," I told him, trying to push my way past him.

"First you take my girlfriend away from me, then you fail me in your fucking physics class and now you're calling me names," said Greg.

Once again all it took was one punch and I was on my back. This time I regained consciousness a lot quicker. Chavonne was in the kitchen talking to herself as I got up. I think she was getting some ice to put on my face. "Please let him understand, please let him be okay," she said. "I'm going to kill that bastard Greg."

As she had that little conversation with herself, I got up and left the house.

I drove first to my mother's place on the other side of town. My mom and I hadn't been very close for most of my life. After my dad died we just discovered that we didn't have much in common. We still visited and I did inform her of significant events in my life and she did the same but as I said before emotional attachments meant very little to me.

My mom and Dad had left the family home to me a few years after I got married to Alice. They'd no longer needed the room or the hassle of a large house and had moved into an apartment.

I had never actually told her about Chavonne or introduced them.

I stayed with my mom that first night and explained to her everything that was going on. The weirdest thing about it was that as I explained to her about Chavonne, I realized that my mother had no idea that I'd even divorced Alice.

It turned out that my mother hadn't thought very highly of Alice from the beginning. I asked my mother to watch out for the house for me and told her that I'd be away indefinitely.

To start with I notified the school that I'd had an emergency in the family and would be away for a while. The timing of the incident was of course fortuitous. Since classes had just ended there was no awkward situation to handle that way.

The Dean and my department head were even happier, when a few weeks later I informed them that I wouldn't be returning for a while since I'd decided to accept a few speaking engagements. I'm not sure that my situation mattered to them in the least.

In their minds having one of their professors, publishing serious scientific papers, speaking to gatherings of influential people and being asked to participate in research studies was much more of a plus for the university's reputation than me simply being home and teaching classes.

Weeks became months which quickly became years that I'd been away from home. I'd gotten cards from Alice who was naturally outwardly thrilled and pleased with my success in the scientific community. "I always said that you were one of the most INTELLIGENT people I know," she wrote. Inwardly I also knew that she was both jealous of that same success and angry that she wasn't with me to either share in it, trade on it or attribute it in some way to her own capabilities.

My mother often tried to call me or write to me as well, but I was very busy. I also got a few cards from Chavonne. I don't know how she was able to track me down but after what I'd heard from her on that fateful day, I didn't think that she thought very highly of me.

The way that she'd laughed when Greg asked her about my sexual prowess still stung me. I knew that there was no way I could have been considered some kind of a stud but I'd really believed that she felt the same way about me that I'd felt about her.

Though not truly INTELLIGENT, Chavonne was quite beautiful and extremely sexy. I realized that there had to be a reason she'd taken up with me.

After a while I just attributed it to her needing a place to stay and someone to support her while she got her shit together. I didn't hate her for what had happened but I really wished that she'd been honest about the whole thing. That way at least we could have stayed friends.

I supposed that her fear and need to deceive had come from the way Hawkes had treated her when she stayed with him. The first few weeks she sent me a lot of cards and letters none of which I ever opened or responded to. I guess that she was smart enough to know that I wasn't reading them because she started writing quick little messages on the envelopes.

She'd write things like "We need to talk," or "Please come home." Those became "I need you," or "I miss you." after a while. It didn't take her long to replace me though. Less than a year after I left I noticed that one of her cards said "We hope you'll be home for Christmas."

The "We," actually hurt me. Chavonne had been my first real love and something about that first love stays with you forever. I'd always supposed that she'd replace me and I guess that I was surprised that it had taken her that long.

But since she'd found another person to be "We" with that only made the fact that I had nothing to rush home to more evident.

I spent a lot of time speaking in Europe and became rather famous in the scientific community. I also took a hard look at myself and decided that I didn't like what I saw. In one of the summer retreats I attended I took a Tai Chi class because several of the participants praised it as a system of exercise that promoted mental clarity.

After a few days I was hooked on it and begin to study more aggressive Martial arts. Of course never having done anything athletic or physical it took me a while to become competent, but soon I was excelling in it. Martial arts became one of my passions and that passion increased my fitness and my confidence.

I ended up getting an agent who scheduled my appearances and speaking engagements. She also represented several Rock Stars and Athletes. Kim was her name. She told me that I was a diamond in the rough and if I stuck with her she'd make me famous and rich.

A few weeks before my first television appearance on a documentary series on String Theory she gave me a makeover. My longish disheveled hair was cut very short and very stylish. It was also very easy to maintain. I could literally roll out of bed and look great.

She totally changed my wardrobe. She put me in more fashionable suits and separates. It took me away from that stuffy 18th century scientist look. Lastly she got rid of my glasses altogether in favor of contacts which she said brought out how nice my eyes were.

She must have known what she was talking about because the next thing I knew I was doing far more TV shows and had even been offered my own show. There were also a lot of women throwing themselves at me.

I was never a troglodyte or hideous, there had been the occasional student who'd get a crush here or there on me, but it just got ridiculous. There would be rows of women coming to hear me speak and all kinds of nerd girls e-mailing me and swearing to love me forever.

Over the years, I'd often found myself thinking about Chavonne. One of the things I regretted the most was not talking to her after catching her. There were still unresolved feelings and issues there that I was sure someday I'd get over as I was sure that she had.

The funniest thing about it was that I was still on staff at the university. Every appearance and TV show or article I did was advertizing for the school. I was always listed as Dr. Samuel T. Stanford, PHD, Professor of Theoretical Physics from Bozen Scholastic University. Occasionally I even wore a "BS" T-shirt.

I'd spoken to the dean several times over the years and they claimed that my celebrity status had actually boosted enrollment and endowments so they were extremely happy to pay my salary and had actually given me several raises while I'd been away.

So it was very strange when I spoke to the dean over the phone and he asked me to come home and take over the position of Dean of Physics. True, I'd always wanted the job but the outgoing dean and my former boss was a personal friend. Hearing that he'd retired after a long period of illness brought home to me just how long I'd been away.

All of the things I'd been hiding from had probably resolved themselves. I was an older and I truly believe wiser person. I was certainly a different man than the one who'd run away from the school and Chavonne a little over 9 years prior.

For one thing I'd gone to see my old mentor, Professor Harry in Va. several times and he'd tried again to teach me a few things. I think I understood some of them. But it wasn't as easy to apply as Quantum Physics.

Harry's theories on INTELLIGENCE actually scared the shit out of me. Harry shocked me one day when I was insulting the INTELLIGENCE of some of the scientists I'd just delivered a lecture to.

"Those guys shouldn't even fucking be called scientists," I said. Yep I'd started using a lot of fucking profanity over the past 9 years. "They're barely good enough to be Engineers," I whined.

"Ooh, it could be worse," said Harry sarcastically. Harry is always pretty fucking sarcastic, even on his best days. It literally scares the shit out of me when he likes something.

"They could be auto mechanics," he intoned. "Then they'd be absolute morons, right?"

"Right," I said nodding my head several times.

"Sam ,where do you go when there's something wrong with your Mustang?" he asked.

"I take it and have it fixed, Harry," I said.

"Why don't you fix it yourself?" he asked.

"Shit, I don't know much about fixing cars, Harry," I replied.

"So in a sense," he started. "The auto mechanics are smarter than you are, right?"

"Well..." I began.

"Didn't you just say that mechanics are absolute morons?" he asked.

"But..."I said.

"So if the mechanics know more than you do and they're morons doesn't that make you a sub-moron?" he asked.

"But they only know more than I do about one limited subject," I spat.

"Sam, how many cars would you say there are on the planet?" he asked.

"Millions maybe more than that," I said knowing my estimate was very low.

"So millions of people at least, need mechanics," he said. "Now how many people on the planet would you say are interested in Quantum Physics?"

"Probably not very many," I said.

"So in terms of value to humanity or society," he said. "What does the world really need more, a professor of some esoteric science that to most of the world may as well be voodoo, of a good mechanic?"

Before I could answer he cut me off again. "I think I was wrong," he said. "I shouldn't have used voodoo. More people on the planet know about voodoo than string theory. So actually there are more people on Earth who need a good witch doctor than there are people who need professors of Quantum Physics."

"You're very smart Sam," he said. "But the problem is that your INTELLIGENCE is only applicable in a very narrow and not readily necessary field. You have a totally asinine way of assessing and grading INTELLIGENCE. It's like a race car driver judging tractors. He's not going to be very impressed with their acceleration or their speed, because his scale of judging vehicles is skewed very differently."

Harry gave me a lot to think about. I contacted Kim and explained the new situation to her. It was time for me to go home.

Less than two weeks later I drove into town, the roar of my new Mustang Boss 302's exhaust system warning the small sleepy town that I was back.

After a long dusty drive I decided to stop in at Sleepy Joe's Cafe in town. I'd called my mother a few days ago to find out that my house was occupied. I couldn't believe that she'd rented out my house. I'd probably have to stay with her until we could get them out of there.

As I parked my car outside of the Cafe I noticed that it was already attracting attention. I also noticed a very nice looking older Mustang a few parking spots away. It looked just like the one that Chavonne and I had been working on.

I walked into the Cafe and sat down at a table. The waitress who waited on me took one look at me and the wheels started going around in her head.

"I know you from somewhere," she said.

"Menu please," I replied cheerfully.

Across the Cafe a girl who liked like she was 8 or 9 years old pushed her glasses off of her nose and looked at me. Except for her giant glasses she was a pretty little thing, but that wasn't what got me to notice her. She was reading the latest copy of American Scientific magazine. It had my picture on the cover. I was astounded that a child so young was reading it. Most adults couldn't follow the articles.

I smiled at her and she sipped her coke and came over to my table.

"Hi," she said. "It's about time you got here." She was looking at me from different angles as if she was assessing me. "I've got a lot of questions for you. And I have a theory too," she said.

I smiled and nodded my head. The little girl was amazing, but there was also something weirdly familiar about her, like she was my niece or a family member's child.

"What the fuck are you doing with my kid?" asked a pissed off voice. "Are you some kind of pervert?"

I turned around to see Greg Hawkes, in the flesh. "I'm not your kid," said the little girl. "I've tried to explain it to you several times. You don't understand the DNA results so I've tried to just tell you that you're simply not smart enough to be my father."

"That's just more of your mother's lies," snapped Hawkes. "Now shut up before I have to teach you some manners. Grown folks are talking."

"How can you teach me something that you yourself don't possess?" asked the girl.

Hawkes turned to her angrily and raised his hand.

"Greg, leave the little girl alone," I said.

"How the fuck do you know my name?" he sneered. I realized that he didn't recognize me.