Unity (Part Two)

His college experience turned out to be a total dichotomy. It was nothing like his expectations, or misconceptions, but at the same time, lived up to all of them in a very bizarre way. Like most new students, he found some classes very tedious and struggled to stay interested. Others pushed him in directions he never thought to go. Jim had always been the top achiever since middle school. If there was ever a time he was not, it was when he came in second to Nathan Connors. They always seemed to be jockeying with one another to share the spotlight.

Jim’s social life was a different story. He had been the observer in high school, never comfortable in the social spotlight. Always the geek, he was forever analyzing and predicting what was and would be happening, never actively participating. His first roommate, Robert, blew that cocoon of safety apart with the force of an F-5 twister. Robert came from a small private school in California and introduced Jim to the world of advanced physics and the antics of Richard Feynman, one of its founding fathers.

It wasn’t that Jim had skipped physics during high school, it was just Artificial Intelligence had captured his imagination and never ceased to dominant his thoughts and drive. During the first month of school, Robert had been the mastermind behind numerous pranks and always talked Jim into joining him by posing the pranks as experiments in human patterns. It was during one of their more daring pranks on one of the girl’s floor that Jim ran into Cally McDuncan, literally. Jim and Robert were in the process of absconding with the door to the floor warden’s room after curfew when Cally walked out of the elevator and collided with Jim.

"Hey!” she exclaimed.

"Jim, bring her with now!” said Robert. "I’ve got the door."

"Uh, where? How?"

"I don’t care. Just hurry."

"What’s going on here?" Cally asked.

"No time to explain. Just follow me." Jim said as he grabbed her arm.

"Why should I?"

"I don’t know. To get your answers?"

Jim’s honesty and the implied intrigue piqued Cally’s interest. She gamely followed the two into the freight elevator and down to the basement. Robert quickly outlined what they were doing with the door. The guys found their prankster group doubling in size as Cally told them about how she and her friend, Darcy, were the other ones responsible for the pranks in the dorm goading Robert and Jim into more outrageous pranks, which, in turn, goaded the girls into trying to outdo them. The four of them quickly became known as the Fearsome Foursome, the feared, but oft admired, pranksters of campus.

Unity (Part One)

The scream shredded the comforting blankets of his dreams. The panic that seized him was akin to that of a parent whose baby has gone missing. He searched the house, flooding it with light as he went. First, he checked the upstairs bedrooms. All was as it should be. Maybe the scream came from downstairs. His heart thudded as he made his way to the living room and then the kitchen. It was only as he was about to check the porch that he realized the scream had been his.

He quivered uncontrollably under the intensity of the emotional tidal wave. Nights like this made him question the direction he took in life. Had it been worth all the loss and turmoil? Rarely did he regret what he had done, but the dream nights brought a sense of despair and longing for what he lost. He missed the days when the future had yet to unfold.

Jim stood by the front window all afternoon. His stomach was performing a routine guarenteed to earn a gold medal for tumbling. He had been promised today was the day. The postman always arrived before noon, but not today, not when Jim was expecting the letter. His friends had received theirs the previous week and he had the confirmation sitting in his email. He still wouldn’t believe it until he had the actual document in hand. Given his skills, he knew how easy email could be spoofed or telephone calls rerouted. It was the actual document on the forgery-proof paper that truly meant his application to the Oklahoma School of Technology was granted.

He nearly fainted when the postman drove past the mailbox. As he stood in shock, the postman backed up, put a large envelope in the box and waved as he pulled away. Jim couldn’t move. It was here, the acknowledgement of all his work and the beginning of his dreams. OST was the only school Jim wanted to attend. There were schools with bigger reputations and longer traditions in the computer field, but they had issues accepting the speed of change in the field. They provided a solid education and background in the history of the field, but only the grad students worked on the new technology. Not at OST, they prided themselves in the number of undergraduate students contributing to the discoveries in the labs. It was the only school to which Jim had applied.