The Abacus Equation

by Peter Stremus

  Chapter 35

  Pieter had just completed his report to Abdi when a message appeared on his telephone's screen.

  Tonight dinner with parents. I pick you up @8. Miss you. Kisses. Jane.

  It did not make him any merrier. Actually he wanted to postpone or even cancel this moment all together. But he knew that with Jane things would move fast. He had to admit she was a woman of action, not trailing behind nor wasting time. But a dinner with her parents was not exactly fun for him. For a moment he was tempted to come up with the lame excuse that he was fully occupied with the case.

  Minutes to eight he paced up and down the lobby. With some envy he looked at a group of noisy people in the bar, apparently celebrating something. One of the men caught sight of Pieter and with a bewildered look made his way to him. His eyes were bloodshot and he tried to grab Pieter by the arm. He pulled himself back and tried to ignore the intoxicated man.

  “You don't know who I am, hey? But I know who you are. You dirty sneaky old Casanova. You don't now it, hey?” The man droned on and on.

  Pieter tried to remember where he had seen him before. When he used the word Casanova, he remembered. The drunken man was Brian, Jane's recent ex.

  “Yes, I know who you are. A dumb brute who molests women. Not very honourable. And the way you look now, you're only making it worse.”

  “You have taken away Jane from me!” the man bellowed. Some people in the lobby pretended not to see anything and hurried away. “So much for solidarity in this place,” Pieter thought.

  “Why don't you sleep off your hangover somewhere?” Pieter suggested and turned away to step outside. Brian was not inclined to let his prey escape. A woman from the group came next to Brian and started to incite him. “You let him go like that, Brian? Hell, he has taken away your wife, God dammed.”

  Brian made another move at Pieter and grabbed him by the shoulder in a surprisingly strong grip. The man was taller and heavier than Pieter, but the latter sober and thus faster. Pieter broke away as he was about to exit the hotel and saw a car ramping up the drive way, most likely Jane. A sudden push from Brian made him almost lose his equilibrium.

  “You weak old little man,” Brian yelled.

  “For the last time, leave me alone. You are embarrassing yourself.”

  “Only if you stay away from Jane so she comes back to me.”

  “The chance that will happen is nil.”

  Brian took another swing with his fist but missed Pieter completely.

  “You are really pathetic, Brian. You can beat a woman but you can only stand up to a man when you are drunk.”

  The woman looked puzzled: “what is he talking about?”

  “Leave me alone,” Brian answered who gave it another try to hit Pieter. This time with more success and the latter received a painful blow on the shoulder.

  Exultantly Brian blocked the exit in front of Pieter. The woman who had previously supported Brian was visibly trying to arrange her thoughts in a nebula of alcohol.

  “Who did you hit? Jane?” she shouted from a coach in the lobby.

  “Leave me alone I said,” Brian repeated angrily. He swayed on his legs and for the third time took a swing at him. Pieter dived under the arm of his attacker and decided that this was the last attempt he would allow.

  Coming out of his dive behind a confused Brian, he aimed his fist at his bewildered face. He did not even hit him hard but the effect was immediate. With a painful grimace Brian sank on his knees, blood trickling from his nose and mouth corner. In seconds his face was covered in blood, making the injuries look worse than they really were. Some of his drunken friends had come out of the bar.

  Without even looking Pieter stepped outside, just in time to get into Jane's car.

  Jane looked curiously through the glass door at the scene in the lobby. “Something I missed? What happened?”

  “Nothing special, my dear. Just some warming up for the rest of the evening.”

  She gave him a dubious look but decided to tell him all about her day.

  Iveta had introduced Jane to the team of translators but soon after noon she had been so bored that she had ran away. “I cannot recall ever to have yawned that long and often. The ongoing discussions and reflections of the political character of Abacus were so exciting that I actually fell asleep. Thank God I was able to reach Iveta again and we have found a job that is much more fun. I am now teaching English in the first grade It was really nice. Fantastic classes and interested pupils. Did you know that some of the pupils actually are two hours on the road to even get to the school? And guess who is sitting in my class?”

  “Jackie?”

  “Haha, very funny. No, Mister Abdi's grandchildren. So how was your day? Oh, we are already at my parents' place. Maybe things will be a bit chaotic, they just moved today to this house. But I went shopping with my mother so at least we'll have some food.”

  Desperately Pieter grabbed this ultimate opening: “in that case it may be better to do this later? I don't want to create an even bigger chaos. And these people probably have other things on their mind than to see their daughter's suitor.”

  In his mind he added: “and have a father-examination.”

  “But of course not, you silly. They are really looking forward to see you. And really, this is not like exactly bringing my first boy friend home.”

  “No? Than why does it feel like that anyway?” Pieter wondered.

  Jackie threw the door wildly open en jumped on Pieter.

  “Easy sister,” Jane threatened, “find your own toy.”

  “Toy?” Pieter whispered following Jane into the house.

  “You prefer I call you gramps?” she teased him.

  The encounter with Jane's parents went as Pieter had feared. The mother had been very cordial, the father coldly reserved. “Regardless how old the daughter is, the father remains the watchdog,” he realized. Fortunately the bickering and chattering of Jane and Jackie ensured enough animation around the table. After the dinner they went to the patio to enjoy the warm outside air.

  Jane nestled herself in Pieter's arms. “I still cannot believe what we have gone through this week. It is like I am in a raft on a white river. And we may count ourselves amongst the luckiest people on earth. If you see what is going on in the world.”

  Ray Hutton added thoughtfully: “and it is just the beginning. Today the news was filled again with escalated violence. It does not look pretty. I am wondering what will happen to Abacus when it all really gets out of hand.”

  “It will not be that bad,” misses Hutton tried to improve the mood, “there have been more crises in the world. I am sure that hundreds of people are now trying to find diplomatic solutions and all will be soothed again. Anyone coffee?”

  Jane held Pieter tightly: “I am so happy to have met you. Who knows what would have become of me?”

  “You would have been alright, you really don't need me for that,” Pieter tried to put her remark in perspective..

  “I am not so sure," Jane answered softly.

  Jackie put her finger in her mouth and pretended to vomit. “Stop it, both of you. You make me sick with that lovebird babble. I will get that coffee.”

  Ray sighed. “The Indian and Chinese relations have come to a point of no return. They are blaming each other. The UN safety council broke up with a fight, can you imagine that? In Delhi and Beijing people are leaving the city centres out of fear that they will be bombed. The language between those two countries is muscled, to put it mildly. And other surrounding countries are being dragged into the conflict. China has already threatened Japan and Taiwan that they will annex them. In any case, I am glad that I am here. Also with you Pieter. And I want to thank you again for the good care that you gave my two daughters.”

  “Specifically the personal good care for Jane,” Jackie added coming back carrying a tray with cups and coffee.

  “In any case,” Ray continued, ignoring deliberately the last remark, “I am glad that yo
u both have found each other and I hope to see a lot more of you. You are always welcome here.”

  “Thank you,” was the only answer Pieter could come up with, but apparently nothing more was expected. He found that he had done it alright for the first encounter.

  When Jane and Pieter went back to the car, they were startled by a loud shrieking noise. An unfriendly baboon with uncovered yellow teeth had been disturbed in his nap and ran away, screeching and sniffing. Frightened, Jane had yelled and trembled, laughing because of her own reaction and had started to sob quietly.

  “I am so worried Pieter. About everything, the world around us. Maybe all of this will be over soon and we need to get back to Australia. It's been all too much. And than this whole thing with Jonathan. Ah well, I am so tired after this full day. I am not used to work anymore, that's probably it.”

  She smiled through her tears: “A good night sleep will do wonders. And don't you dare to keep me awake. I have to be in the school at eight and it is already past midnight.”

  But after staring for hours at the ceiling, Pieter stepped carefully out of the bed. He decided to run his mails in the small living room. He saw that Paul, as promised, had sent him the specification comparison. He opened the attached document and gasped when he saw the page count appear at the bottom of the file.

  “Just under a hundred pages, thanks Paul.”

  He made up his mind to bite the bullet and tried to understand the details as much as possible. After some pages he frowned his forehead and mumbled: “that is it, now it makes sense.”

  He started a new message and began to type vehemently.

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