Chapter 5

As I watched Ben lead Laura away from me I was disturbed by the void I felt as she disappeared from view. All I knew was I wanted to spend more time with her. I made sure that I continued to bump into her at the party and engaged in small talk. I could tell we were getting more comfortable around each other. I excused myself to go get her another glass of wine.

Then I saw her talking with Jason Feder. When I walked up to them I handed her the glass. She smiled and told me, thank you. Feder had a look of distaste as he excused me from their conversation. I debated remaining there but I didn't want to cause any problem for Ben or Teri. I walked over to Teri as she watched Feder and Laura continue to talk. She shook her head and told me this was the first time Jason had attended one of their parties. It was obvious what had enticed him to attend this one.

"Where's Ben?" I asked.

Teri responded, "He got so disgusted on seeing Jason that he went to hide out in the shop. Are you going to join him?"

I pondered it for awhile, "No, I think I'll head home. Tell Ben, I'll be at the office tomorrow and I'll drop by in the evening to help him bore out the engine block on that BSA bike."

She gave me a hug and kissed me as I left.

Saturday morning, I spent all day in the office running through permutations, but, all I could focus on were images of Laura. Disgusted on wasting a day I finally left for Ben's shop and as I entered I heard a conversation going on.

"Reed, about time you showed up. I finally had to replace you with another mechanic."

Then, I noticed Laura dressed in casual clothes and seeing how clean Ben was I knew that no work had gone on before I arrived.

"Laura and Teri have decided that we need to take them out to eat. I told Laura that I insisted that it would be your treat." Ben continued.

Laura and I laughed as I agreed to the proposition. The four of us were soon seated at a fine Italian restaurant that ignored our snubbing the clothing requirement due to the long patronage of the Stevens. I winced when I got the bill, but, being seated next to Laura made it all worthwhile. From there we went to a small jazz bar and without too much prompting I asked Laura for a dance.

I gathered her in my arms and we swayed to the soft tune. I breathed in her perfume and thrilled as various points of our bodies made contact.

She leaned away from me and said, "I should be angry with you."

Puzzled, I asked why.

"You left me with Jason Feder. He made my skin crawl. He had the audacity to tell me, not ask me, but, tell me to follow him home."

I told her I was sorry. She told me I could make it up to her by taking her out on Friday. Then she snuggled against me and I would have agreed to anything right then.

We started dating and soon agreed to be exclusive. That didn't stop Feder from still trying to see Laura. Laura joined Ben and me in our little informal trivariate as we battled on the Hodge Conjecture and Feder would take every opportunity to interrupt us. Then he got so desperate that he offered to help. Try as he could, he wasn't successful in driving a wedge between me and Laura and after the school year, Laura and I were married.

For the next four years I was in bliss being married to the loveliest woman in creation. I loved my work and friendship with Ben. I finally helped restore a 1969 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide that I had purchased and now I had bragging rights whenever I went to Jocko's, the seedy biker bar that Ben introduced me to. The only fly in the ointment was that the Hodge Conjecture continued to elude me.

One day, I took a break from the equations. I was at a crossroad in my computations and it seemed whatever direction I took, the variables led into a one way direction to futility. I was beginning to despair that I would ever make another significant breakthrough in the Conjecture. I started to think that perhaps if I did not solve the Conjecture, perhaps I could teach the student that would solve it. That got me thinking on how lax our elementary levels were educating childrens. What was needed was a jumpstart that would get kids interested in math. I continued to germinate my idea until my entire idea was fleshed out.

Saturday evening, we went over to Ben's to grill steaks. After we ate, we sat on the patio and relaxed. That was when I brought up the subject.

"Guys, I want to talk shop for a second." That brought on some groans but I forged ahead. "Look, education at the preschool level and elementary levels are putting American children at a severe disadvantage in the field of math. We have to do something to reverse that trend. Now, due to our culture, the only way to keep children's attention is to entertain them. What we need is to script some shows that teach basic math principals in a way that kids will retain the knowledge and induce them to want to learn more. What if we used the university broadcasting system which piggybacks PBS and produce the shows? We invite celebrities to come on and spend an hour teaching math in a fun and enjoyable way."

My idea brought on some discussion and I could see Ben and Laura becoming enthused at the prospect. I hadn't told either of them, but, I was going to push for them to co-host the shows. Once all the preliminary issues were dealt with, the shows premiered and were a raving success. The broadcasts were syndicated throughout the country and brought in a revenue stream to the university.

It also enriched me and Laura and Ben. Laura and Ben became well known due to the show and I kept busy writing scripts for each week's show. That kept us busy for the next few years and frankly I was glad to be able to take a break from the Conjecture. I also co-authored several math textbooks. I was doing very well career wise and I kept discussing with Laura how I wanted to have children. It wasn't that she was against the idea, she just objected to the timing.