Primogeniture (The Firstborn)

10: A meeting of minds.

As Alison approached the Cafe Rouge in Beaconsfield where she had agreed to meet Peter, she wondered if she would be able to spot him as soon as she walked in. It was a strange feeling meeting a man she had never met before, like an on-line dating agency, something she had told herself she would never succumb to.

Perhaps I should have asked him to wear a red carnation, she smiled to herself. She had come armed with a brief if somewhat incoherent description of a brown-headed youth in a black leather zipper jacket.

When she entered she saw him straight away looking anxiously at the door from the back of the seating area, obviously chosen for being quieter and emptier than the window seats. He stood up and as Alison approached she burst out laughing. He was wearing an enormous red carnation. Within moments he was also laughing, explaining that he had hoped she would see the joke and that it might break the ice.

“Dreadful cliché I know but doesn’t it just feel like an on-line dating agency set-up,” Peter said smiling profusely.

Alison warmed to him immediately, “I know, I’ve never done anything like this before, but I suppose if we are supposed to be cousins or something then that makes it okay.”

“Well, quite, just long lost cousins getting to know each other,” Peter undid the buttonhole and handed it to Alison, “For you.” Alison was flattered, “How sweet,” laying it down carefully on the white tablecloth next to her.

After ordering coffee for himself and Earl Grey tea for her, she asked him what it was that he was so concerned about.

It’s rather difficult to explain, but to cut to the chase, there is something really weird going on and I really don’t know what to make of it. How much do you know about my Dad?”

“Very little really. I met him four or five times I think. He phoned one day out of the blue and offered to help me get an internship. I’d always known that he was some connection of the family and that he was very wealthy and I supposed successful at whatever it was that he did... or does. Other than that I know nothing. My Dad died when I was ten you see and my Mum liked the booze too much so we never saw much of family or friends. I learnt from a very young age to look after myself. So you see, when Andrew, or rather your Dad, contacted me and offered to help, why shouldn’t I accept?”

“So he got you a job in a lab somewhere I’m guessing.”

“He put me forward for a job, I still had to go for the interview, but I got it. I like to think that it had something to do with my abilities.”

“I’m sure that’s the case, but what sort of research were they doing and who was leading.”

“Felix Englehart, he’s brilliant in my opinion. A wonderfully concise conceptual thinker in the old fashioned sense.”

“And what was he into, I wonder, that could possibly have interested the old man?”

“Longevity and ageing, was, and is, his speciality.”

Peter pulled himself up from his laid back semi-slumped posture and suddenly looked very serious.

“Oh! I see... that figures.”

“What figures? What are you getting so agitated about?”

“Well it’s just this whole thing; why I needed to talk to you in the first place. What did the old man want by the way?  I know he wouldn’t do anything out the goodness of his own heart.”

“I was actually a little concerned as to his motives if that’s what you mean, but it turned out all he wanted was to be kept informed about the type of research Felix was doing and how it progressed. Said it was an area of special interest to him, sort of a hobby. He seemed very pleasant and very genuine, and lent me some money to help with my expenses, before I got my first pay slip that is. He was very helpful.”