Although Dr. Pearson’s address that morning managed to hold the interest of the audience, Reedville High School never saw the visionary scientist who routinely fired up the imaginations of his students back at Christiania. He was simply not in a very visionary frame of mind when 10:30 rolled around. Nevertheless, the contents of the notes he had prepared proved exotic enough on their own to keep his listeners attentive, while his reputation and scholarly mien lent them a distinctive aura of authority. Around the core theme of the gradual elimination of the evils that plague human life on earth, he arranged and related many of the scientific advances then on the horizon, most of which have become commonplace since then but which were almost unthinkable at the time. Each advance, he declared, if properly harnessed and responsibly utilized, could address a real human need and could release for better things the time and energy presently tied up in trying to cope with that need. He then proceeded to use the emerging satellite technologies to illustrate this point. Already there were on the drawing boards satellites to provide instant communications worldwide through telephone and other means, to beam television and radio signals in every direction, to gather and collate weather data instantly for the whole world, to explore outer and inner space unencumbered by the earth’s atmosphere and to track accurately military maneuvers anywhere on the face of the globe with extremely high resolution cameras. His description of his own projects involving both fusion and synthesis, with their many anticipated benefits, kept the audience spellbound. Some peaceful uses of atomic energy were right around the corner, he informed them, whereas other promising uses would take time to develop with adequate safeguards. He challenged the students to join in the crusade to rid the human race of the shameful elements of its sorry past and to become part of a universal positive energy which, under God, would be dedicated to “turning swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks,” in the highly suggestive words of Sacred Scripture. This, he concluded, was not only the best hope for the future of mankind on planet Earth: it was its only hope.
After his forty-minute address, no one mistrusted the administration’s decision to call upon Dr. Pearson to keynote this year’s “Looking Ahead Day.” He really was different.
That noon the Pearsons were the guests of Sally Larsen again. After showing them through the spotless cafeteria, she shuttled them off to a private dining room where they were scheduled to lunch with the student council. This body of leading personages about the school had prepared a list of questions to guide its informal discussion with their guest of honor during the meal. For the first several minutes, however, it appeared that the discussion would revolve around the food, not the other way around.
“Not this old stuff again.”
“It’s the second time this month.”
“Chow mein on ‘Looking Ahead Day’!”
“To serve to our guests!”
“The government must be unloading its surpluses on us poor students again.”
When nobody seemed to be touching the food, Dr. Pearson quietly suggested that someone say grace. A lad at the far end of the table, who thus far had said nothing, obliged. And with that, most of the student councilors commenced to pick at their plate of food, some first removing the celery, others first clearing the “mess” off the rice before tackling any of it that was not contaminated.
“Dr. Pearson,” spoke up the handsome football player on his right, reading from the prepared list of questions, “as president of the Reedville High School Student Council, I would like to throw open our discussion by asking your professional opinion on an issue that is quite a hot topic around here these days. Who will get to the moon first, the Russians or us?”
Someone snickered near the end of the table.
“That`s difficult to say at this point,” ventured the professor. “In what way would this particular issue be of concern to the students here?”
“Well,” supplied a redheaded lad jauntily, “if the Russians get there first, they`ll turn it into a Communist satellite.”
A few suppressed chuckles showed that his wit was not wasted on everyone.
“Oh, they`ll never get there first,” asserted a brunette with conviction. “There`s too much bureaucracy in Communism. We learned that in modern problems.”
From there the conversation took off on everyone`s opinion of Communism, the race to the moon, and the armament race.
“They wouldn’t dare pull anything on us.”
“We’d clobber them.”
“That Sputnik just caught us off guard.”
Steve and Kay, and that quiet lad at the far end of the table, had cleared their plates long before most of the rest of the diners had made an impression on theirs.
With five minutes of the allotted discussion time remaining, the president offered another question for the consideration of the group. “Dr. Pearson,” he read, “would you please tell us what your … your con—fession is of the supercity of tomorrow, its con—veniences, its … novelties, its general—”
He tossed the paper aside. “What we want to know is, what do you think will make it hop?”
“Here, let`s see that paper, Goofus,” needled the girl sitting next to him. “That’s ‘conception,’ Mr. Pearson, not ‘confession’—‘your conception of the supercity of tomorrow.’”
“Yeah, that’s just what I said: ‘your confession of the supercity of tomorrow.’”
“O stupid!” exclaimed the brunette, throwing the paper back at him. “That’s ‘its conveniences, its novelties, its general attractions,’ sir.”
The little professor looked up from his empty plate, a strained expression on his face, and asked, “That too, I suppose, is an issue of collective interest to all of you?”
“Everyone wants to know where tomorrow’s kicks are coming from. Don`t you?” volunteered a long-haired chap on the left.
The guest of honor looked down at his plate. His mind was as blank as the surface he was staring at. His tongue stuck to his gums. But the proverbial bell came to his rescue. Sally Larsen jumped to her feet as most of the assembled gathering was making for the door, conveyed to him the group`s thanks for his time, and wouldn’t he please come back real soon? In a flash the room was nearly deserted.
“I`ll just leave you two to wander around at your leisure,” she said, patting Dr. Pearson on the arm. “We have a real keen school building, the keenest I`ve ever seen.” And then she hastily added, “But I’ll bet Christiania is even keener! Well, I’ve got to run along now to another one of those meetings. Sometimes I wish I weren’t so popular. See you later!”
And she dashed out of the room.
The two guests of honor looked at each other. “We might just as well go back to our ‘home for the day,’” Kay suggested. “It won’t be long until they’ll be wanting you for this afternoon.”
They were about to leave when the quiet lad who had been sitting at the far end of the table cautiously approached them and, looking down through the floor, said, “I … I’m sorry for this noon. I was hoping it would go in a better direction.”
The contrast between these words and all the other words spoken during the meal gave the Pearsons quite a jolt. A moment of awkward silence followed. Then the gentle scientist walked over to the young fellow, who was now blinking fast, put his hand on his shoulder, and said, “I was hoping so, too.”
The boy`s eyes rose and met Dr. Pearson`s. Nothing more needed to be said.
Kay sensed at once what was needed. “We are just heading over to a private office set aside for us today. Why don’t you come and join us? Your teacher won’t mind when you explain why you aren’t in class.”
The lad`s face lit up at the thought.
“Yes, of course,” said Steve. “That’s a fine idea.”
On the way over to the office, Steve was surprised to learn that the young man had read virtually all of his postwar articles of general interest, and some of his prewar writings as well. Where had he got hold of them? Oh, the Minneapolis library had almost everything!
They entered the office from the corridor in order not to disturb the principal. Steve was as excited about having at last discovered a spark of real promise as his new young friend was at being in the presence of the great man he had admired for so long. Eagerly they drew their chairs around so they could talk facing each other. The boy`s mind was obviously teeming with questions he wanted to ask.
At that very moment, there was a tap on the door connecting them to the principal’s office. It swung open and Mr. Pfister strode in. “I heard you come in and before you settle down, I was just going to mention….
“Rolph! How did you get in here? You’re supposed to be in class, not pestering our guests in their private suite. Now run along!”
Dr. Pearson and Rolph stared at each other incredulously. Then the former stood up and turned toward the principal. “Really, Rolph and I were just about to have a little….”
“Yes, I know. I know. You’re too gracious to admit he’s imposing on you. But trust me, if you let one of them get away with it, before long they’re crawling all over you. Now run along, Rolph. And don’t forget to stop at the office for an admittance slip. You’re already four minutes late. Run along now.”
The crestfallen lad got up. “Thanks anyhow, Dr. Pearson. Thanks very much.”
“We’ll get our little talk in yet,” the professor assured him.
And the young man disappeared.
“Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile!” declared Mr. Pfister. “That Rolph Eriksen is one of the most maladjusted boys I’ve ever seen. He has no conception of how to behave in society. Everything Sally Larsen is, that poor boy is not. Sally can fit in anywhere, but that lad fits in nowhere.”
“Indeed…. Everything that boy is, Sally is not,” Steve intoned softly, as though to himself.
“Ah yes…. Well, I was just going to mention that we have some twenty minutes before we are expected in the science wing, so feel free to relax here for a little while. While you’re gone with me, Doctor, Miss Bailey will introduce your charming wife to our girls in the Home Economics Department. We mustn’t have you bored during your stay with us.”
“That is very thoughtful,” replied Kay politely.
The principal ducked back into his office.
They sat back down in silence for a few minutes. Then Steve stood up.
“I think it’s more than my age.”
“I`ve never felt more like a dinosaur,” concurred Kay, stepping into the washroom. She decided not to avail herself of the bathtub or of the shower, or even of the collapsible massage table folded up against the wall, tempting as it was.