In The Dark

Prof. Dupont

It's five thirty in the afternoon and I'm repeating some notes of the lecture at the kitchen table. "You okay?", Madeleine says, laid back as she enters the room. "I'm good. You?", I ask, as she takes out an apple from the fridge and leans on the kitchen table. "Not so good, to be honest". She's dressed in her adidas trackies and a sweatshirt. Her curled black hair is tied in a messed up bun, letting some hair fall across her face. She doesn't care, though.

"I have one free afternoon, nothing to do and too much mess to think about", she says and sighs. "Why don't you call your boyfriend?", I ask. She rolls her eyes. „He's in Spain, out with homies".
God bless that he's not around, I think. I don't have the patience to have him be around anyway, when his presence does even get on my nerve, when I'm in a good mood. That sounds so mean, but it's just how I feel about him.

"What have you and Aarav been doing yesterday night? If it's appropriate to ask?" "Did we make so much noise?", I ask. She shakes her head. "No, I've just taken myself a glass of water and I've heard you two talk about something". She shruggs:"I don't know, sounded scientific. And I know you guys are overmotivated about what you do, but three in the morning is a sick time for experiments".

I laugh a little. But then I explain her, what Aarav found and how that clock confuses us. "Man, I would have never cared about an old clock like that, and I think you shouldn't either. What is happening here is goddamn spiritual. We messed up somehow. Now we got to just wash our sins", she says. "And how do you imagine doing that?", I ask her, even though I don't share that opinion at all.

"I'm going to church everyday, I've confessed my sins , I've done some more charity work. Yeah...I don't think there's more we can do", Madeleine sighs. "What if I'm not religious?", I ask. "Find your approach to god", she tells me. "Science is mine", I say and then I take out the book I found yesterday at the attic.

"Would you like to come with me somewhere, to learn something about the former residents of the house?", I ask. "I know you don't believe much in it, but I don't want to go there all by myself". "Where would that be?" "Not so far. Twenty minutes with the car". She sighs, but then she takes her jacket, showing that we can leave.

During the drive I explain her, that one older member of the society, that the people in the book where part of, is now a professor at the faculty of physics. She wasn't commenting much about that, which is because I still think she believes what we're doing is ridiculous, but I really didn't want to go there by myself. My anxieties are more intense those days and I just can't imagine talking to an unknown person behind four walls all by myself.

I read in the uni website that office hours should be around that time, so after we looked for his office for about 15 minutes we found him. The man, Prof. Dupont has a doctorate in physics and has written a few scripts. He's also got a few prizes, that I didn't bother checking too much. Madeleine knocked at his open door, as I hesitated.

Prof. Dupont is a man who's white hair prove that he's sixty, wheras his suit proves that he didn't loose his sense of fashion in his thoughts, the way I probably did. "Hello, I'm Giselle Bernard", I introduce myself, without introducing Madeleine, not sure if she wanted to be. "I'm a medicine student and I ... I'm also doing some research on Prof. Blake Stanton. He used to live in our house", I say.

He looks back at his sheet of paper, on which he has written down some formulas, without changing his impassive expression."I don't know a Blake Stanton". You can feel his arrogance only from looking at him. "Are you sure? He was part of New Science, of which you were member as well", I blurt out, through the exitement I have, connected to that topic.

Now he looks at us, with an expression that I don't understand. If his face ever showed a warmth it must have died many years ago, in his crinkles and his formulas. „What make you so interested in New Science?", he asks me suspiciously. "What's your name again?", he is frowning now, waiting for my answer. "See, we only came to ask a few questions. We'll never have to see each other again", Madeleine says obviously annoyed of him.

"What do you you have on your forehead?" He is indicating to Madeleine's neat bruise over her eyebrow.  "Non of your business", Madeleine says. He now walks in front of his table to face us and sits down. "Giselle Bernard", he says again, proving that he hasn't forgotten my name. "Tell your dad, that if you ever contact me again, I'd throw you out of any university in Paris, you try to apply to".

"Try that", I say, more quiet than I intended. "What's it that you're hiding anyway? Otherwise you wouldn't be so fussy, about some stupid society", Madeleine says and crosses her hands in front of her chest. He still remains unimpressed. "I could still call the Police", he says. "For what, huh? Scratching you're goddamn ego? Try finding better lawyers than me anyway, and than we can talk". Madeleine's anger doesn't seem to fade and I can't help, but smirk at her attidtude.

"We can also talk quietly and respectfully. I don't know what you think this is about, but what I really am here for is to ask a physical question. It wouldn't take too much of your time", I try this way now, but he shakes his head immediately and waves us to leave his room. "Go! Go, go, go", he says hysterically. "It's about a clock we found", I blurt out.

He suddenly stops, thinking about something. "It's very old, from the twenties, but someone has rebuilt the inside. I've been comparing all kind of clock systems, all day long and nothing looks like this", I say and take out my phone, which contains a picture of the clock's shiny inside and show it to him. Somehow I managed to get his attention.

He observes the picture and frowns. He spends a few seconds thinking about something, before telling us again to leave and than that's what we do.