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The new assistant

A chapter in the book What We See

What We See - Chapter 28

by Jim Wile

Background
A high school teacher wrongly accused of sexual assault reinvents his life.

Recap of Interlude: We shift temporarily to a different character, Abby St. Claire, who is Callie’s cousin and a junior at Penn State University. It’s semester's end, and she is on the way to visit Callie and her family. As she is driving there, she reminisces about a disastrous demonstration she recently gave of her mechanical engineering project, in which a fellow student sabotaged the miniature tools she had created to help surgeons operate robotically with minimal invasion.

Chapter 28

Late May, 1986

Warren has been working here for a couple of weeks now, and I’m quite satisfied with his work. He hasn’t missed a day yet, comes in on time, and does every task I ask of him. I’ve taught him a good bit about computers and the typical things that go wrong with them, and he’s been able to do most repairs on his own with little guidance from me.

I’m not really sure about Tommy’s impression of him. It almost seems like he might be a little bit jealous of Warren because his skills far surpass Tommy’s at present. Also, I’ve heard Tommy ask him a few questions, and Warren is often brusque with his answers and doesn’t seem to have the patience to clearly explain things, assuming Tommy knows more than he actually does.

Warren has seen me working on my new invention when I’ve had a few spare moments and was curious about what I was doing. I’ve been somewhat reluctant to share too much with him because I don’t know him well enough yet, and I’m still trying to be cautious.

We eat our lunch together, much as Tommy and I did last summer. He’s not a baseball fan, so we don’t talk about that. His chief interest seems to be poker, and he’s asked me if I know of any games he might get into. I said no, but that I liked to play chess. He also plays, and occasionally we play a game.

Ginnie has met him, and they’ve talked together a few times. The other day, she said to me, “Alan, he strikes me as a little bit creepy. He doesn’t really look me in the eye when we talk, but I’ve caught him staring at my chest a few times. And once, when I had come over to ask you something, I was wearing a skirt and sitting on a stool talking to you. Every time I looked at him, I caught him staring at my legs.”

“Well, I certainly can’t fault his taste.”

“You guys! At least you don’t appear to drool while you sneak peeks.”

I laughed at that, and she smiled.

I was beginning to get a little discouraged with the miniaturization aspect of my invention. One afternoon, right during this time, Callie came in the door accompanied by an older girl who looked like her a little. This girl was a few years older than Callie and had redder hair where Callie’s was more auburn, but they both had freckles and the same nose and eyes. This girl was very pretty, where Callie still had that slightly awkward young teen look about her with braces on her teeth.

Callie said, “Mr. Phelps, this is my cousin, Abby. She’s here, visiting for a few days. We were shopping on Main Street, and I told her I was taking a programming class from you just around the corner, and I asked her if I could introduce you to her.”

I held out my hand and said, “Hello, Abby. I’m Alan Phelps. It’s very nice to meet you. Callie has told me a lot about you. Said you were a math major at Penn State and minored in engineering.”

“Yes, it’s nice to meet you too, Alan,” she said, shaking my hand.

“I’ve got to tell you, your young cousin is a whiz in my class. She is a natural-born programmer, if I’ve ever seen one. Comes up with very creative solutions.”

“Yes, I thought that would be a good fit for her. She’s very bright.”

Callie was blushing as we both went on about her.

“Tell me, Abby, what branch of engineering are you minoring in?”

“Mechanical.”

“Well, that’s great. Electrical engineering was my minor. I was an education major. Uh, you wouldn’t happen to know much about miniaturization by any chance, would you?”

“As a matter of fact, my junior mech. eng. lab project was all about the miniaturization of surgical tools manipulated through very small incisions in the body.”

“I’m working on something right now that requires miniaturization of both a camera and a speaker. These are both electro-mechanical devices, and I sure would love to have someone to bounce ideas off. Are you familiar with the workings of those devices?”

“I used a small TV camera in my presentation. It wasn’t quite of miniature size, but I am familiar with how it worked. Speakers too.”

“Excellent. Do you think I could call you sometime to discuss them?”

“I’m going to be living with my great aunt and uncle in Dubois, Pennsylvania, this summer, where I’ll be working. I could give you their phone number. Maybe you could call me there?”

“That would be great, Abby. I’ll give you my phone number too.” I went to my desk to write my phone number down for her, and I brought her a pad and pen to write hers down. I looked over at Warren, who was staring at her.

“Abby and Callie, this is my new assistant, Warren Meyers. He’s been with me for a few weeks now.”

He came out and shook Abby’s hand. “Very nice to meet you, Abby,” he said.

“You too, Warren,” but he didn’t let go of her hand right away, and he didn’t acknowledge Callie at all. He just kept staring at Abby. It was all rather awkward.

Abby managed to extricate her hand from his, looked at me, and said, “I’m glad we stopped by and got to meet Callie’s teacher. She speaks very highly of you.”

I walked them to the door and said, “Thanks for stopping by, Callie, and introducing us. And Abby, I’ll call you sometime in a couple weeks, maybe.”

“I look forward to it, Alan. Bye.”

“Bye, Mr. Phelps,” added Callie.

“Alan, I think I’m in love!” said Warren. “God, was she beautiful.”

“You could have been a little less obvious about it, you know.”

“I was using great restraint not to rip her clothes off right then and there.”

I just snorted and shook my head. I really didn’t know him well enough for that kind of joking around.

“By the way, what was that about miniature speakers and cameras? What exactly are you working on?”

I had been prepared for this and simply said, “I’ve been toying with a few ideas for computer accessories to be able to talk to someone while looking at them through your computer. Very preliminary stages at this point.”

“Well, that sounds interesting.”

“Listen, Warren, it’s close enough to quitting time right now. Why don’t you call it a day, and I’ll see you in the morning.” I’d had enough of him for one afternoon.

“Sounds great. You’re really a great boss, Alan. I’ve got a big poker game tonight, so this way I won’t have to rush through dinner to make it on time. See you tomorrow then, and thanks a million, boss.”

An hour later, I went next door to help Ginnie with dinner. “I met Callie’s cousin, Abby, this afternoon,” I said to her.

“Oh? What was she like?”

“She was very nice. They were out shopping on Main Street, and Callie wanted her to meet me and see where she’d been taking her programming class. She told me something interesting—she has been working on miniature tools for operations on the body in her mechanical engineering class. She’s a college student at Penn State. I really need someone to bounce ideas off, and she seemed very bright to me. Callie raves about her. So, I thought I would give her a call in a few weeks to discuss a few things.”

“Well, I would just be careful. It might not be wise to divulge too much about what you plan to do with that information.”

“Yes, I know. She didn’t strike me as the kind of person who would steal someone’s idea, but I guess you can’t be too careful.”

“You’re right. And I’d also be careful around Warren. I don’t know that I fully trust that guy. He may be a good worker, but there’s something about him that I’m just a little unsure of. How do you feel about him?”

“Well, he is a little creepy, like you’ve said. I think he made Abby feel uncomfortable today. He was really leering at her, and he said some rather crude remarks after they left.”

“Why? Is she good-looking?”

“I hadn’t noticed.”

“Don’t give me that. Of course, you noticed. So, she is good-looking.”

“Well, now that you mention it, I guess she is,” I said with a smile.

“Oh, ho. Better looking than me?” she teased.

“No way. Maybe a very close second, though.”

She threw a wet dishrag at me, and I ducked out of the way, smiling as she smiled back. “Help me bring these plates in, Romeo.”

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CHARACTERS

Alan Phelps: The narrator of the story. He is a 28-year-old high school physics and natural science teacher in Grantham, Indiana in 1985.

Archie: David's orange tabby cat

Tommy Boardman: Alan's 12-year-old next door neighbor. He is dyslexic like Alan.

Ginnie Boardman: Tommy's mother. She is 30 years old and is an ICU nurse.

Artie Intintoli: Tommy's friend who also lives on Loser St.

Ida Beeman: Alan's first customer. She is a nice old lady who lives on Loser Street.

Leroy Beeman: Miss Ida's grandson and Tommy's friend.

Mrs. Dunbar: Tommy's 7th grade English teacher.

Callie Lyons: A nice girl in Tommy's class at school.

Warren Meyers: Alan's assistant in the repair shop.

Abby St. Claire: Callie's cousin who is a math major with an engineering minor at Penn State University.

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The new assistant

A chapter in the book What We See

What We See - Chapter 28

by Jim Wile

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