Chapter 1
Idle minds are the Devil’s workshop. Professor Simon Petrikov had been studying to be an antiquarian (a specialist in the knowledge of ancient artifacts) for 3 years after falling in love with the thrill of discovery due to all his past excavations as an Archeologist. Only after a few minutes of soft murmurs among the crowd had his mind registered that he was staring into blankness again, lost in his thoughts of finding astonishing artifacts that held the most devious secrets of our past. But Simon was far from one of his expeditions in the orient. In fact, he was at his podium, at the front of the main lecture room of Gale University when he realized he had been day dreaming again, and his 167 students were starting to get confused at his blank stare. “That will be all for today, class.”, he mindlessly muttered in his lanky voice. Not 2 minutes have passed and his lecture room had already been empty with only few traces left such as crumpled papers and pencils on the desks of the students who were just listening to another one of his talks on historical sites a few minutes ago. Simon took a deep sigh of exhaustion and his mouth naturally curved into a smirk, excited with the fact that he just realized his day of learning and work was over, and his girlfriend Betty was waiting for him at their apartment, most likely with an embrace waiting for him as well.
It was 5:45 in the afternoon and Simon saw while peering out of the train window the bright day slowly turn into a dark blue busy night at the city. His body ached from studying at the University library and giving lectures to academic hopefuls all day. But Simon was no longer keeping that in mind. The only thing keeping his mood in a state of peace was the thought of coming home to see Betty smiling, knowing she had missed him all day, working as a chemist at Schrodinger Inc., a chemical industry on the other side of town.
Though Betty was dedicated to her work, she never minded coming home early over working all night at the lab. Simon slowly drifted away in his mind again when he remembered meeting Betty for the first time.
It was 4 years ago at the grocery store when Simon was lining up in front of the cash register and a woman with hazel colored hair and oblong glasses caught his eye at the other counter nearby. A young woman was reaching for a rainbow colored lollipop in the candy shelf at the side of the cash register before it fell to the ground, shattering to pieces inside its plastic wrap. The woman’s mouth opened and eyes narrowed in frustration as she saw it was the last lollipop on the shelf. Simon seized the opportunity when he found an identical lollipop at his counter and grabbed it immediately, leaving his grocery cart to give it to the girl. “Uhhm…” Simon awkwardly uttered a meter away from her, not thinking of what he was going to say before he approached her. “Miss, I uh…-”
“Oh thank you!” the woman interrupted his pitiful offer. “I hope you didn’t have to take this from a baby because this store just never has enough of these things for us adults.”
Simon nervously laughed. Wanting to extend the conversation Simon tried not to panic and thought quickly. “I see you have a knack for candies?” he said, trying to maintain a smooth flow of words. “Oh, yes,” she blushed and answered perkily “My sweet tooth has always been my weakness. Well, right next to studying the chemical composition of an alkaline earth metal, I mean those are a really hard nut to crack.”
Simon’s eyes widened “You’re a chemist??” his self proclaimed sense of class in his flirting strategy faded.
“Yes I am!” the girl answered proudly. “Are you a chemist as well?”. Simon’s nervous mood was overcome by his fascination. “No, I’m an archeologist. But I’ve worked with quite a number of chemists in my days. I’m surprised I’ve never met you, there aren’t many scientists working in this town.”
“Wow! Is that so? Actually, I just moved here from Detroit to work at Shrodinger Incorporated on the other side of town. My apartment’s practically empty so I’m stalking up on groceries at the moment.” She said with a gleeful smile “I hope my clumsiness didn’t force you to leave that cart at the other counter?”
“What?” Simon turned around to see a line of anticipating customers and an angry little woman at the cash register.
“Excuse me, sir? Is this your cart? Would you mind hurrying it up, the other customers are waiting!” the woman yelled to him, her frustrated voice filling the entire aisle.
Simon looked back at the girl and they both giggled. “You better get going, we don’t wanna cause a scene.” the girl told him.
“I’m afraid it’s too late for that.” Simon humorously said and the two laughed again.
Simon and the girl both paid for their groceries smiling, occasionally glancing over at each other’s counter. When they both finished, they met outside the store with their paper bags.
“I’d be happy to show you around the city some time, just so you get to know it more.” Simon said with a kind smile, his heart beating fast, realizing he was asking her out on a date.
“Sounds great! Actually I’d like to get to know you more.” she gleefully said.
Simon smiled like a little boy who had just been given his first Christmas present. “Fantastic! I’ll pick you up at your lab tomorrow in the afternoon. I’ll tell you everything you need to know about me and the town.”
“Well you can start now by telling me your name first.” She jokingly said.
“What? Oh right! My name is Simon” he said as he let go of his grocery bag to extend one hand and shook hers “Simon Petrikov.”
“My name’s Betty." she said as she felt his soft grip on her hand. "It’s really nice to meet you, Simon. You’re very sweet."
“Would that be because of the lollipop?” he added.
The girl blushed and giggled “Yes. That was very sweet of you. No pun intended”
Simon laughed while feeling his face suddenly turning warm, as if he was blushing as well. “Well, if we meet again, I’ll keep in mind to bring you more lollipops, miss…”
“Betty” the girl smiled. "Just call me Betty." as she started pacing backward to her car.
Betty…
Beautiful name. he thought to himself as she walked away with an obvious smile on her face.
