Jubilee Year: A Novel (Erelong Trilogy Book I) - An Extended Sample

Chapter 8: PARENTS

A short distance from the car loomed the high angular observatory owned by the Koreans, and close by stood a large walled open-air enclosure often filled with multiple telescopes when there were visiting students. There were also several other observatories, but the huge dome of Siding Spring dominated all of them.

The place reminded him of the covers of meditation magazines Stella used to receive in her mailbox. The buildings might just as well be stone monasteries, places of worship, and within each, the telescopes would be the sacred altars. On a quieter day, the place might be pervaded by solitude.

He parked up the short drive behind Penny's father's car. The sweet, acrid smell of barbecue smoke hung in the air, and they could hear the unmistakable laugh of Michael Boulos.

Michael waved a pair of tongs at the new arrivals. "Good to see you two finally show up!" He hollered.

"Hi, Dad," she shouted with a grin.

She looked forward to showing off Storm to her dad's friends. She knew they would be surprised.

"I had a horrible idea we were going to find him at work in his office," she said to Storm. "Can you imagine? We'd have to organize everything ourselves."

She rolled her eyes at the thought.

"Well, you know what Mom's like in the kitchen," she said.

Storm screwed up his face. "I remember the first time I came to dinner at your mom's house."

"So do I," Penny said. "I think it was chicken—and something else that tasted very bad. She burned it, whatever it was."

Penny brushed hair back from her face, suddenly eager to change the subject. She reached over into the back seat for her jacket.

"Can you bring the beer?"

"I'm already on it," Storm said, and he popped the boot release.

The box in the back was filled with sealed plastic containers of salads Penny had picked up from a local restaurant. He lifted the cans out of the back, catching as he did the sweet aroma of caramelized steaks and onions. He was nervous at the prospect of being surrounded by the university colleagues of Penny's father, but he was really looking forward to the party just the same.

Michael Boulos lived in a single-story house of sunburned yellow stone bricks, a little down the slope from the great silver dome. The director's cottage was new, a freak firestorm having destroyed the old building three years earlier. The cottage was the only structure to be destroyed by the flames, and that fact was considered no small miracle among the community of scientists who knew a lightning strike starting a blaze in the dry bushland was always a possibility.

He was a little stout, his well-groomed beard and black tangle of curly hair not quite hiding a jowly face. And yet, he could not be called unfit or unhealthy for a man of middle age. His legs were strong from long walks up and down the peak whenever he found time allowed him to exercise.

Beside Michael stood a tall thin man somewhere in his twenties with a frizz of blond hair and a tiny bud of goatee beard. Karl was a Ph.D. candidate gaining practical experience at the observatory.

A pink-cheeked, chubby man smiled under a wide-brimmed straw hat and raised his glass of beer to greet Storm. He gestured to the empty chair beside him, his small eyes flickering over Storm.

"I'm Stephen Druitt from ANU," the soft-faced man said and beamed like an idiot.

Professor Druitt was appreciating the opportunity to study up close, an unkempt native of the region.