A Singular Witness

The Professor

The state university boasted an expansive campus situated in the heart of Norborne.  Toby trekked across the grounds each morning in order to reach the science building located at the center of the campus.  The university was founded before Oklahoma acquired statehood, in what was then Indian Territory. 

Its sidewalks were wide and unbroken, shaded by trees planted over a century before with the express intent of transforming the prairie in which the school was installed.  Vegetation crept in tandem with the passage of time until the city of Norborne boasted higher overall humidity than the surrounding towns due to the lush planting around the campus.  The palatial buildings were almost all uniformly constructed from red brick, buttressed by elaborate white concrete molding.  They stood in stately defiance of the limitations imposed by the red clay soil of the region, a grand testament to their Cherokee Gothic architecture.

Throughout campus, flowerbeds and fountains adorned clearings.  Even nooks and crannies, and the occasional awkward corner formed studies in miniature landscapes along looming exterior façades.  It was June, and entire beds of flowers bared the tender flesh of their blooms, which had grown heavier as the season marched toward summer.  As he walked across campus, Toby felt the first real wave of summer's heat, though it failed to warm him.  The blossoms decorating the walk were made sadder by their sweetness.  The sun would soon beat down with such force that water would evaporate before it was felt in the soil, reducing them all to dust.  Most of the students were gone, having returned home for the summer.  The well-kept campus was rather empty, leaving Toby at home in his surroundings.

After his first day of class Toby decided to stop by Dr. Guro's office.  He liked the biomedical engineering professor, and always found talking with him interesting.  Toby intended to thank him in person for the recommendation Dr. Guro had written, allowing Toby the opportunity to enroll in advanced labs over during the summer session. 

Toby took the stairs to the top floor of the science building, and a moment or so after he knocked, Dr. Guro opened the door of his office.  Dr. Guro was a thin wiry man of a little less than average height.  He had piercing dark eyes that frequently danced with humor, and curly thick gray hair.  There were deep lines around his mouth where he smiled, and between his brow, which he knitted while he thought.  His glasses were slightly askew, and on his desk were stacks of folders containing mounds of papers, a few of which were strewn before two computer monitors.

"Toby, come in...It's great to see you.  How are you liking the Bionics course?"  His smile conveyed Toby's presence was a welcome distraction.

Toby mirrored Dr. Guro's expression, the smile feeling strange on his face.  "Today was the first day.  It will be interesting.  Thank you for the recommendation."

"Yes, well it was easy enough.  I got your note.  Good form.  Handwritten notes are rare artifacts these days.  They could just as well be sent framed, as in envelopes."  Dr. Guro motioned for Toby to sit in the chair opposite his own, in which he had swiveled away from his desk, to face Toby.

Toby shrugged.  "Cass raised me right.  Listen, I don't mean to keep you."  Toby surveyed the stack of papers on the desk.  "It looks like you're busy." 

"I have been," Dr. Guro admitted, "but I am more than glad to take a break.  There is nothing quite like the strange, to send the mind spinning." He sighed, "Which of course is what makes science such an attractive occupation to begin with."   

Toby nodded, thinking of the contents of the envelope he retrieved from Dennis Moore's study, and the slips of graphene paper currently tucked away in his wallet.  "It's a strange time."  Toby said.

"It certainly is."  Dr. Guro agreed, stroking the soft gray stubble on his chin.  He wheeled around; picking up a piece of paper from on top of the stack on his desk, and then turned back to Toby, and handed it to him.  "Take a look at that.  Do you recognize it?"