“My butt is going to freeze to these steps,” he said. He rubbed his hands together, his breath white and warm in the chilly morning air.
“Amen. I thought winter in California was cold.”
“So who’s coming to take Lucky?” He reached over and scratched Lucky’s chin. Lucky rolled onto his back on my lap and pawed at Mark’s hand, his tiny claws splayed fiercely in the air.
“Um, Dr. Herceg.” As I said the name, my heart cramped with emotion.
“Wait, the Dr. Herceg?”
I nodded.
“How the hell do you have his phone number?”
“I—um—” I really didn’t know how to explain it without giving away everything. Mark cocked his head and looked at me curiously. “He met me when I arrived here early.”
“So you can just call him up to say hello?”
“I guess,” I said, my eyes shifting away uncomfortably. “He said Lucky would be okay here, so I think he feels bad about it.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah,” I said. “He gave me a textbook to study, too.”
“Oh? What’s it about?”
We talked for only a few minutes about the kinds of math we thought we were going to have to work on, and I told Mark all that Eliot had taught me about the basis of his work, without mentioning that he had personally taught me, of course. So engrossed in our discussion, I didn’t notice the car pull up until the engine’s sound registered in my brain. I turned to see Eliot getting out of the car.
Mark jumped up and almost ran down the steps to greet him.
“It’s so good to see you again, Dr. Herceg. Thank you so much for this opportunity.” He shook Eliot’s hand firmly. I held Lucky with both arms, trying not to seem awkward.
“Mark, Brynn. It’s good to see both of you again.” He looked tired, dark circles under his eyes.
“Thanks for taking Lucky,” I said. I held him out to Eliot, who took him gently. The kitten looked so small in his large hands. His gaze turned from Mark to me, as though trying to figure out the answer to a logic puzzle.
“He’s a good cat,” Mark said.
“I’ll see that he’s taken care of.” Eliot looked once more at the both of us, then pressed his lips together. “I’ll see you both later, I’m sure.”
“Looking forward to it!” Mark said. I just nodded, and Eliot climbed back into his car, Lucky sitting on his haunches in the passenger seat. Whiskers twitching, he looked back at me through the window and I waved goodbye. Eliot held up a hand, and then the engine rumbled to life and the car rolled away down the street.
“I miss him already,” I said, not sure who I meant. I walked up the steps slowly and watched as the car turned at the corner and disappeared.
“You’ll see him again,” Mark said. “Don’t worry.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Mathematics is the queen of the sciences, and number theory is the queen of mathematics”. - Gauss
We began our work in earnest at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Mark and I spent most of our time in the libraries studying. Despite our intense efforts on the problems we worked on, Mark and I goofed off together just like we always had, and the other students all broke off into their own cliques to study. Everything was the same, but something inside me had changed. In less than a week, I had become someone different.
The academy stood only a few blocks away from the apartments, and so we walked to our study sessions every morning and back every night. After so much time and effort spent studying, I never wanted to do anything but collapse in my bunk at the end of the day. I promised myself that I would go to see my mother’s grave that weekend when I had the time to spare.
Meanwhile, Eliot stayed away from the academy. At first I had hoped to see him during the day when we studied, but always it was the assistants who taught the lectures and worked with us on the math problems. After we learned the fundamentals of the work, the assistants had no further insights to give us, and on the last day of the week Mark and I slipped away to the library to work on our own.
“Could you call him?” Mark said, after we had been stuck for hours working on a single line of the proof.
“Call who?”
“Dr. Herceg. Just to see if we’re right about this part. It seems impossible.”
“I can’t,” I said.
“Why not?”
“If he wanted to work with us, he would work with us,” I said. “There must be a reason he’s staying away.” I didn’t bother to mention that the reason might be me.
“Just give him a call then. If he doesn’t want to answer, he doesn’t have to.”