I headed for the University campus a little earlier than usual on Monday morning, hoping to catch my thesis chairman Dr. Keller and drop off the project notes Jamie and I had compiled. More accurately, I hoped to arrive before his gatekeeper, Mrs. Marsh. That didn't work out.
Doesn't that woman ever leave her guard post?
"Hello, Tom," she sniffed dismissively.
"Good morning, Mrs. Marsh. I've got some project proposal notes to drop off with Dr. Keller."
"Fine. Give them to me and I'll see that he gets them."
Hopefully before the next ice age, I thought to myself.
But just then, Dr. Keller walked out of his office.
"Tom, good morning. I thought I heard your voice. Come in! Come in! What have you got? I'm afraid I've only got about fifteen minutes before I have to leave for a meeting."
Oh, how I wanted to turn around and stick my tongue out at Mrs. Marsh.
"I spent some time this weekend putting together some thoughts on our proposed project. They're really more an outline of what I think I need to know from a medical perspective, things we probably need to discuss with Dr. Klein and Dr. Geiler-Callaghan, before I develop a more detailed project outline. But I hoped you would take a look at them first since the project is likely to reflect on the double-E department."
Jamie had been right in giving me a quick introduction into the politics of academia. Keller beamed.
"Tom, I sincerely appreciate your already looking at the possible consequences of your project and wanting to make sure the electrical engineering department is portrayed in its best light. You would be surprised how few graduate students are that astute.
I'll give your notes a quick once-over right now. As it happens, my meeting is with Dr. Klein. If it is appropriate, and with your permission of course, I'll discuss them with him. My guess is that he will want you to work closely with Dr. Geiler-Callaghan to expeditiously get the information you need but also to educate her into your expertise in nanotechnology."
Working closely with Dr. Kim Geiler-Callaghan was just fine with me. If Keller knew how close Kim and I already were ...
"Thank you, Dr. Keller. Now, if you'll please excuse me, I have to get to my first class."
He actually rose, extended his hand, and thanked me for leaving the notes. In the past he had rarely even looked up in my pre-project days as a lowly grad student, so I took that as a good sign.
I sailed through my morning and early afternoon classes, then headed to the University pool for my twice weekly swimming workout. It was a good way to work out stress and kinks, and it also cleared my mind. After that, I put in a couple hours at the library and then headed back to my apartment.
After dinner I began to wonder how Lorraine's final phallus fitting had gone, so I called Jamie to find out.
"Glad you called, Tom. I was going to call you a little later and fill you in.
Everything went quite well. Lorraine is very pleased at the slight changes we made to improve fit and heft. She wore it for the hour or so it took me to show her how to use her tablet computer to adjust its sensitivity and timing settings. She said she hardly noticed it during that time. Of course, she's still not exactly thrilled with having to depilate her pubic hair, but the three-part depilatory that Amanda and her partner came up with has gone a long way toward alleviating her concerns.
On a whim, I asked her to do an experiment in private when had some time. I asked her to put on the phallus and then do something that normally sexually arouses her - maybe read a story or watch a video - but not touch the phallus. I want to see if there's any mental activity that causes the prosthetic phallus to become even partially erect without any physical contact with it."
"You mean you want to see if her mind alone can somehow cause sufficient electrical current to expand the sealant?"
"Yeah, sort of!"
"Good idea."
"You'll be happy to know that she said that short of having you there in person, watching one or two of your videos done in her lab ought to do the trick if anything would.
Anyway, she will get back to me every couple days with routine reports. Of course, if she notices anything terribly extraordinary, she'll call sooner."
"And Kim's coming in tomorrow for her's right? Do you plan on asking her to do the same experiment?"
"Well, it seems like it's worth a try and shouldn't do any harm. But what do you think? I probably should have discussed it with you before asking Lorraine to do it."
"Sure. It was a very good idea, Jamie. Knowing if spontaneous erections can be generated by external factors would affect future electronic design and construction. So yes, I'd say ask Kim to do the same experiment."
I went on to tell Jamie about my meeting with Keller and about his intentions to show the notes to Klein in their meeting.
"Tom, it sounds as if you're off to a very good start. My guess is that Klein will urge Kim to start working with you as soon as possible. You're fortunate that you already know her and are comfortable with her. That will make it easier for you to handle the academic pressure that you're under. And just so you know, Klein will be subjecting Kim to comparable professional pressure to produce results. But you shouldn't worry. You will both do just fine. Kim's used to it, and she will help you adjust as well."
She paused, then added with a laugh, "Of course it would be better if Klein and Keller didn't know about Kim's methods of helping you adjust."
"True enough," I answered. "So, do you want me to call tomorrow night to see how Kim's fitting went?"
"Sure. If it's convenient, call me about seven."
After disconnecting with Jamie, I fixed dinner, then began to study. About 9:30 p.m. my cell phone rang.
"Hi, Tom. I hope I'm not calling too late." It was Kim. "I thought you might like to know that Klein and Keller met this morning. Klein invited me to sit in when Keller showed him some preliminary notes you had made about our project.
They were absolutely giddy over your questions."
"Giddy? I thought the questions were pretty reasonable," I interrupted, maybe a little too defensively.
