Chapter 8

Sherry looked around at the people gathered at her parent’s house. For all intents and purposes, the majority of them were complete strangers. She knew the professors from school, but that wasn’t exactly a friendly relationship. She kept looking for Alex, but he hadn’t arrived, yet.

Her brother, Daniel, and his wife, Liz, were over by the food, nibbling on hors d’oeuvres and signing to each other about how many people were at the party. They were using the full ASL set of signs rather than just fingerspelling. It made it easy to watch what they were discussing even from across the room. Liz was signing that she was rather surprised Sherry knew that many people. Daniel was suggesting that most of the people there were just professional acquaintances.

Her mother was involved in a discussion with Dr. Dimsdale. It appeared that the two of them were getting along well. For some reason, that didn’t surprise her. Her father was chatting with Dr. Tiege. She headed over to rescue Dr. Tiege from her father.

“Hello, Dr. Tiege.”

“Hello, Dr. Fields.”

Sherry said, “It’s going to take some time to get used to hearing that.”

“It took me a long time. The only place anyone calls me doctor is at the school. My wife calls me ‘hey you,’” Dr. Tiege said with a grin.

Sherry laughed at the obvious joke.

Putting an arm around Sherry, her father pulled her close to him while he said, “I sure am proud of my little girl.”

“You should be proud of her. She did an outstanding job,” Dr. Tiege said.

“I had a little help,” Sherry said.

Dr. Tiege leaned forward and asked, “Is he coming here?”

“According to Secretary, he’s on his way,” Sherry answered.

“His secretary? Where’s he working?” Dr. Tiege asked.

“He’s self employed. Secretary is one of his programs,” Sherry answered.

“Oh,” Dr. Tiege said with a frown.

“Alice was telling me about Secretary. It sounds like science fiction. Aren’t you afraid that it will turn on you and kill you, or something?” her father asked.

“No, and don’t say anything like that to Alex,” Sherry said.

“Does it actually understand fingerspelling?” her father said.

“Yes, with two minor additions. He added a slash between words so that the system can introduce spaces and a wave of the hand to represent the end of a command,” Sherry answered.

There was a knock on the door. Heading towards the door, she called over her shoulder, “That must be him.”

Dr. Tiege leaned over to her father and asked, “Do you like fireworks?”

“Yes,” her father answered.

“Good. Watch the pudgy guy over there talking to your wife,” Dr. Tiege said.

“Why?”

Sherry returned to the room with Alex walking beside her. He was carrying a huge present wrapped in newspaper. He had just set the present on the coffee table where there were a few other presents when Dr. Dimsdale noticed that he was there. The reaction was immediate and loud.

Dr. Dimsdale shouted, “What are you doing here?”

Having promised not to make a scene, Alex said, “Ah! It’s Dr. Dimsdale.”

“Someone call the police! I want him arrested. He’s a psychopath and should be locked up,” Dr. Dimsdale shouted.

Sherry’s mother asked, “What did he do?”

“He threatened me with a hammer,” Dr. Dimsdale said.

Alex waved a hand dismissively. “Get over it. That was eight years ago and I didn’t actually threaten you with a hammer.”

“You threatened to beat my brains out with a hammer,” Dr. Dimsdale said pointing a finger at Alex.

Alex said, “Nonsense. I just suggested that I would displace a little of the vacuum between your ears if you kept complaining about the size of your office. Your brains never entered the equation. It was the lack of brains that was at the core of my suggestion.”

“I’m not going to stay here and be insulted by this man.”

Alex said, “I don’t think I’ve been particularly insulting today. I haven’t even had even had a chance to call you Dr. Dimwit, yet. Nor have I mentioned that you’re the university’s charter member of the mediocre professors club.”

Turning to Sherry’s mother, he asked, “Why is he here?”

Sherry said, “I invited him.”

“He’s Sherry’s boyfriend,” Sherry’s mother answered.

“I would never have signed her dissertation if I had known that she knew him. She should have failed her defense for having bad judgment.”

Sherry said, “But you did sign because, as yourself said, it is stellar work.”

“Under false pretenses. I didn’t know that you liked that madman,” he said.

Sherry’s mother frowned at the exchange. She didn’t appreciate having someone say that her daughter shouldn’t have gotten her degree because of who she was dating even if she wasn’t really dating him yet. In fact, the idea that he wouldn’t have signed her dissertation even after he had praised the results at the end of Sherry’s defense because of Alex, angered her. It wasn’t fair to punish Sherry because he had a problem with Alex.

Sherry said, “My research is excellent.”

“Who cares? You’re hanging around with a maniac,” Dr. Dimsdale said turning his nose up at her.

Sherry said, “The PhD is all about research, and not about the people around us.”

“It’s obvious that you don’t have the kind of judgment that we’re looking for in our doctoral graduates. You’re an embarrassment to the university.”

Dr. Tiege said, “The only embarrassment at the university is you, Dr. Dimsdale.”

“You’re just as much an asshole as Dr. Demento over there.”

Dr. Tiege said, “I’d like to remind you that Dr. Cage is a very well respected and internationally known scientist with a list of publications in the last two years that makes your lifetime contributions to our field look as insignificant as they actually are. In fact, I don’t think you’ve published anything that wasn’t written by one of your students in ten years. He’s a scientist, you - are - not!”

“I want him out of here!” Dr. Dimsdale said.

Sherry’s mother had been getting angrier with each sentence Dr. Dimsdale spoke. Although she might have questioned Sherry’s judgment in taking up with Alex, it was her role as a mother to worry about the people her daughter included in her circle of friends. It was not up to Dr. Dimsdale to decide who Sherry could and couldn’t include in her circle of friends.

She said, “You might want to leave.”

“Why?”

Sherry was rather surprised by the anger in her mother’s voice. Although she had expected Dr. Dimsdale to act like a jerk, her mother hadn’t known how he would react to Alex’s presence at the party. She knew that her mother didn’t care for Alex and had kind of thought she would see things from Dr. Dimsdale’s perspective.

Her mother said, “We don’t owe you an explanation. However, if you want to know the truth – you’re a jerk. You threaten my daughter’s career because you have a problem with someone she knows. I know that’s wrong. It doesn’t take a PhD to know that is wrong.”

Alex said, “You tell him, Mom.”

Sherry’s mother glared at him and signed, “Shut up.”

Alex signed back, “Okay.”

Dr. Dimsdale replied, “Do you know who I am?”

Sherry’s mother replied, “I don’t care who you are. I know what you are. You’re a disgusting little worm.”

Sherry’s father stepped up and said, “I suggest you leave, right this minute.”

“Well, I’ve never been so insulted in my life,” Dr. Dimsdale said while making his way to the front door. “I’m going to petition that her degree be revoked.”

The Department Chair said, “It’s not going to happen.”

The Dean of the School said, “Don’t bother petitioning, Dr. Dimsdale. I’ll reject it out of hand.”

“We’ll see about that,” Dr. Dimsdale said on his way out the door.

The Dean turned to Sherry and said, “I’m embarrassed by that man’s behavior. My apologies for the disruption of your festivities.”

“It’s not your fault,” Sherry said. “He is what he is.”

Sherry’s mother said, “He should be fired.”

“He’s tenured. Basically, he has to commit a felony or it has to be proven that he’s been academically dishonest in order to get fired. Since he hasn’t done anything academic in years, the chance of him getting fired for that are slim to none,” Alex said.