Or maybe this would be a good time to talk about the size of the galaxy.
“Let’s use a transporter to put Linda at the galactic center on her birthday, which is when, Linda?”
“April 11th, Mr. Peacock.” He had no idea of the actual date, but this one was as good a guess as any other.
“Okay. Linda’s there on April 11th, and she turns on a very large spotlight. We have a giant telescope. How long would it be before we could see it? Would it be a few hours? The next day? What do you think?”
“Beautiful,” said Diana. He took her to dinner at Dean’s Restaurant. “You’re on your way.” She raised her glass of Diet Coke to him.
“Premature,” he said. “I don’t want to push my luck.”
“I think we’re doing fine.”
“What exactly happened? What changed?”
“You’ve begun to believe in yourself. It’s all you needed.”
“And you arranged that by having me play John Wayne and Paul Henreid?”
“Not exactly. You had a chance to see what you could do. It fit within your essential parameters. It’s who you are, Walter. All you needed was to get acquainted with yourself.”
“I still don’t buy into it.”
“The technology has only been available for a few months, but there’s already been some research. Most of the people who fail in what they want to accomplish do so because they underestimate who they are. When they don’t believe they can succeed at something, they have little chance. Unless they get lucky. But show them visions of themselves exercising the qualities that most of us are born with, courage and a brain, and they tend to recognize the reality. After that, there’s no stopping them.”
“Well, Diana, I owe you. Maybe I can wander off now into the quantum world and win a Nobel.”
“It’s possible, Walter. But you’ve got a bigger responsibility at the moment.”
“What’s that?”
“Last time I looked, you had over a hundred students.” Their meals arrived. But neither was paying much attention to the food. “You want to watch a movie tonight?”
“Sounds like a good idea,” Walter said. “Do we have a copy of The High and the Mighty?”
“Actually, we do.”
“Okay, let’s go for it.”
“By the way, I don’t think I told you: I’m quitting Arbuckle.”
“Really? Why?”
“I don’t know. I just can’t imagine Ilsa Lund spending her life selling sofas.”