Starring:
Date: November 4, 2009
Summary:
Lee and Alex bump into each other in a bookstore (almost literally, even!). Gab ensues. WARNING: intellectual content contained within!
"Bookwor"
The Writer's Bloc
The Writer's Bloc is a store run by a leftist activist from the 70s who has crammed the tiny space full of paper, used an organizational system even the Soviets would have thought baroque and has an old-style 1950s percolator out on the counter with a sign saying "To Each According To Their Need - Wash Mugs In Bathroom Sink". Defiant in the looming capitalist threat of big box bookstores, it is a mecca for the neighborhood, and Lee often takes special trips to come here, to brows the tangled stacks, the too-tight aisles, the small chairs crammed in here and there to peruse before buying. Today he has put aside his briefcase and is carrying a cup of coffee in his long, delicate fingers as he ambles through the familiar space. Living above a comic book shop as he does, the literature shelves to him feels like a purifying breeze carrying away the putrid stench of laser beams and fan service. Of course when he is halfway down the aisle going one way, Alexandra is coming the other way. It would be a tight fit for two people of Lee's skinniness, and she's not. "Hi." he says gracefully, in lieu of backing all the way out, or making her do the same.
Like the hundreds before her, Alex has found herself in this shop for similar reasons to Lee. Sure, those big-box style chain stores have something to them when it comes to looking for more mainstream publications she might use, or for tracking down her favorite authors' newest work, but this store…it has that je ne sais quoi about it. It very much reminds her of the comfortable confines of the shops in the French Quarter, from the tight aisles to the old style percolating coffee, to the smell of the musty ancient tomes. She drifts from aisle to aisle, perusing, the lack of any discernable order somewhat freeing, as she drifts from dated scientific volumes to ancient prints of literary classics. Here after work, she practically fills an aisle by herself; not her body, but with her shoulderbag. A few volumes are tucked under an arm, eliminating the ability to carry coffee, but she doesn't seem to mind. "Oh…hello!" she chimes, looking up from one shelf, and blowing a stray strand of hair out of her eyes, smiling.
Lee says, "You haven't seen an English translation of Gottefroid on Balzac. Two volumes, maroon cover? Someone spotted them, they think down here, around a month ago. Not a whole lot of audience for that, so I'm still hoping." with a self-deprecating yet still somehow confident half-smile.
"Uh…well…I can't say that I have. Sorry!" Alex replies. "Though, admittedly, I've hardly been looking for that. Mostly just what catches my eye, I'm afraid!" She's still smiling though, looking up at Lee, being that, well, she's short, even more so with the heels of her shoes tucked into the zipper top of her bag, shoes hanging along the outside, content to wander about the carpet in stocking feet…she has been here more than an hour!
Lee is ridiculously super-tall in comparison. "Anything good?" he asks with interest. "You never know what you're going to find in a place like this. I'm a teacher, I'm always browsing down here." He offers his hand. "Lee."
Her ability to offer a hand is impaired, but! holding those books against her side/hip/thigh area, she does manage to offer the arm from about the elbow up, elbow being used to pin the books in place. "Alex," she replies, smiling. "And clearly…a few things…mostly classic things for my own enjoyment…like a copy of the CRC Handbook printed before even my parents were born!"
Lee says, "Er, whoops." He squeezes her arm jovially, having not realized her hands were completley full. "CRC Handbook, are you a scientist, then?" He must not be a science teacher. Nor does he make fun of the nerdy acquisition.
"Engineer…yes. I use the latest edition almost daily…it's a giant nowadays, compared to this little one I could slip right in my bag and carry around!" To the best of her ability, she squeezes back and shakes, but it's brief, and none too strong. The pleasant smile on her face has yet to fade, despite the effort to keep the small stack of books from spilling all over the floor!
Lee says, "You want a hand with those? Looks like you're about to lose a few. What kind of engineer, where do you work? I was always terrible at math, so."
"Oui, much obliged," she replies. One by one she hands over the books: a black-covered CRC Handbook; an ancient textbook on fluid mechanics, first edition since the edition number is not visible at all anywhere; and a hardbound, rather ragged looking copy of the Canterbury Tales. "I…chemical engineer. I work downtown, ORS International."
Lee says, "Interesting…hey, look at this, is this the Ellesmere manuscript translation? It is, oh, this is a good one." he says, waggling her Canterbury Tales edition. "Pinkhurst could really do it up right, couldn't he?" he enthuses. "Great find." As he collects her books, his large hands wrap around them with exquisite balance and care. "Have you read the Tales before? I assume you have."
"Well, just once…some time ago in high school. Wow, that was actually quite a long time ago," Alex answers, with a bit of a blush rising to her cheeks. "In all honesty? I just picked it up because of the cover art, and the look of the book in general. I think it'll be a wonderful addition to my little library. Older books have so much more personality than new, unread books, don't you think?"
Lee says, "Oh, definitely. Absolutely. See, the Ellesmere manuscript is probably one of the most lavish illuminations of the period, and one of the first narrational illuminations. It was the last time a comic book was any good." he concludes with the satisfied smile of someone who has cracked that joke before. "I studied European literature in college, never finished the Ph.D., though, came back to New York instead. I did finally get to teach a class in my field this year, though." Sort of a sad little accomplishment, but Lee seems proud of it.
"Oh…that's a darn shame about the degree, but it's nice that you get to teach something with which you're familiar! I'd considered teaching, but, I just don't think I'm cutout to handle all those kids all day!" With those books in Lee's hand, Alex starts to work her way backwards, down the aisle they currently inhabit, continuing the conversation even as she moves. "I did manage to stick with it and get the Ph.D….or the PhiDuh degree, as my advisor might call it. Clearly, I bought the book not knowing any of that…total girl, I know, got it because it's pretty…you know how it is!" She lifts up one hand, sort of flicking it over her shoulder dismissively, to say that yes, she's a total girl, and her need to shop is something she's totally aware of.
Lee chuckles, "Did you just make an 'even a blind pig finds a truffle' remark about yourself? Because that's awfully low-down. No, you have good taste. Yeah, the kids…the kids are tough. I started out in the Bronx and that was a wake-up call. I thought I knew what the city was like, until I got there. I got an offer for this private school and I thought, well, okay, it won't be so bad. If anything, it's worse. I don't remember having to struggle as hard in school as these kids, you know? So what sort of chemical engineering do you do, have you worked on anything I would know?"
"Well, probably not…unless you're really familiar with Atlantic Ocean oil field exploration, recovery, and discovery. It's…a touchy subject, I know, but the reason I'm here is because the company I'm with is trying to do it in a more environmentally-responsible way." It should be noted that she's drifting toward the front of the store with Lee trailing behind. Maybe it's to check out…maybe it's to pick up some coffee and enjoy the conversations with a cup of joe in-hand.
Lee glides along with her, and slightly behind, because there's not enough room to be shoulder-to-shoulder yet. "Creditable." he says. "I've had a lot of run-ins with various companies that didn't have a shred of conscience, it's nice to hear one is trying to do the right thing. So are we going to be out of oil before too long or is that just a myth?"
"The way things are going, shifting to more green tech…we're definitely prolonging the lifetime of the Earth's fossil fuel reserves, and I definitely don't think you or I will ever see the gas run out, but it will, eventually. Of course…there are efforts to go back to what are dead fields…and coax every ounce out using new technology that wasn't around at the turn of the last century, that is, the 19th to 20th century transition, but…" She stops herself while she pours a cup of the coffee, smiling at Lee. "But listen to me rambling on. I'm sorry…sometimes, I just…get a little caught up in my work a little." And of course, she doesn't mention that she does what she does because the job is basically digging around in the ground all day, something she's unusually comfortable with.
Lee says, "Hey, I wouldn't ask if I wasn't interested." And indeed, he does seem interested, spryly asking: "The idea is that there may be oil, or some similar substance, that could be just as useful, left in old oilfields that we just don't have the cost-effective technology to extract?"
Alex replies with, "Well, it's oil. It's just that in the 40s and 50s, when it seemed like gas was flowing like water, they tapped the field, ran it until they couldn't get anymore, and then moved on. Basically, they just stuck a straw straight down into the glass, and when they had sucked up all they could, or when the pressure making it explode out of the straw ran out, they pulled it up and were done. But there's still quite a bit stuck on the sides and bottom of the glass, and now, they can drill deeper, and even sideways, as well as having new chemicals that can be sent down into the big underground reservoirs to bind with the oil, get sucked up, and then separated later."
Lee seems to follow, "That's where you come in. Do you get to travel a lot? I assume up to your thighs in muck most of the time, but still." he joshes as they get to the front of the store and can actually be at a normal conversational proximity.
"Well, for the most part, we're based here in New York. Collaborators from overseas fly in here for weeks at a time, though at some point, we'll have to travel over there." With that, she lets the mug she's drinking from dip a little, looking out the window, with a look of concern on her face. She quickly shakes it off however, and turns back to Lee. "And you'd be surprised. Right now it's all a lot of plannting, theoretical work stuff. It's more 'can we do this.' We're not quite to 'let's go and do this.'"
Lee ahhs. "Lab tests and such? Well, that's terrific. Say, you know, maybe you could come in and talk to some of my students at some point. Last year at science fair there was a lot of pressure on the girls not to participate. Peer pressure, really. You probably had some yourself. Some of the other teachers didn't really do anything about it, didn't push back. If they had someone who could say, you know, here's what I do with my scientific knowledge…they might identify with it a little more. It wouldn't have to be anything elaborate, just you and a few students who were interested?" he urges, persuasively, green eyes alight with enthusiasm for the idea.
It hardly takes a lot of prompting to get her to agree with that. "Oh hey, that's a good idea!" she says, smiling brightly. "I didn't really have a lot of role models of my own when growing up. I sort of…had to figure things out on my own. But it wasn't really until college that I found out I wanted to do what I do do." At that, she stops herself, looks up out of the corner of her eyes with a pensive look on her face. "Yeah, that makes sense. Didn't want to say too many dos, you know." Of course, she doesn't let on that it was at college that she figured out just what ELSE she can do, thanks to that dang San Andreas Fault. Just a moment later, she digs around in her bag o' wonder, and pulls out a small silver case, with a cross inscribed lightly into the surface; from within, she procures a business card, stating: Dr. Alexandra Lambert, Ph.D., Petroleum Engineer II, Altlantic Oilfield Exploration, ORS, Intl., and of course, her email and cell number.
Lee says, "Thanks." He takes out his index-cards-and-binder-clip PDA and writes out his own e-mail and phone number on it, as well as his name, passing it across to her "Where'd you go to school?"
"Well, the first four years were at USC. The next five were at Texas. I know, sort of a strange combination, but you'd be surprised at how few schools in the country offer a pure petroleum engineering degree any more. The shift is toward more biochemical, and less traditional, meaning gas, oil, chemical plants, and all that fun stuff." She takes his index card, looking up at him with…let's say a curious look, that's the nice way to put it. "Yourself?"
Lee says, "I went all the way across to the West Coast too. UCLA. I loved it out there, all the sun, I learned to surf, got pretty good at it too!" He clips her business card to the index card stack with the binder clip and tucks it away in his coat. "Still, the city is home. Now you're from Louisiana, right? I can tell by the accent. I learned French so I could study Balzac and Hugo."
That revelation makes Alex smile a bit, and she slips into her other language. "(Yes…my parents own a bed and breakfast in the French Quarter, not surprisingly. I learned French because…well, it was spoken at home!)" she answers in French.
Lee also slips into French - not only is his accent more European by far, it also has almost stiltedly impeccable grammar. "(That sounds like a happy childhood, or at least one that smelled like coffee!)" he states, lifting his own mug. "(My own parents foisted a comic book shop on the city and me. Shall we say, I rebelled?")
"(It seems so…improbable!)" she replies, smiling a bit. Lee clearly seems like the rebel sort on the outside, and now, well, that's a definite yes. "(And yes, I've got quite the caffeine addiction you might say. Tea and coffee both…I've attempted to break from it, but it's like the SO that just…won't take no for an answer, or maybe it's the one you can't help but go back to because it's so sweet. It basically powered me through college…all 9 years of it!)"
Lee laughs gracefully, switching back to English: "Excellent. There's actually an excellent Lebanese coffee stand only a few blocks from here, you can often find me there, and I recommend the coffee highly for that extra jolt…well, it was nice speaking with you, Alex. You can count on me to call you!"
"Pleae feel free!" she says, also switching back to English. "For now though, I'm just about ready to go fork over some cash, take these books on home, and find places for them on my shelf…that, and do some work. It never ends sometimes, I swear. I leave work to go home and…work!" She gives Lee a friendly smile as they both begin to excuse themselves for the moment, other things needing tending to!