His eyes were locked on the painting; its colors captivated the man to the point where he could not pull away. Images of happiness filled his head, tears began to run from his eyes down to his jaw and dripped off splashing on the white marble floor. It had been a long time since he had ever felt happy; his parents were both brutally killed when he was only a child. His grandfather had taken care of him since the incident; with no other family to look to his grandfather was the only thing that he had left.
From behind, a woman about eighteen years in age sprang through the doorway of the Roman Museum. She placed her hand on the man’s shoulder and said, “Come on, John, were going to be late if you don’t stop staring at that painting.”
John didn’t answer; he merely kept staring at the picture mysterious effect. “John…are you even paying attention to me.”
“Oh of course I’m listening Ariadne,” replied John turning his head slightly towards the young woman
“Then why didn’t you answer me?” asked Ariadne folding her hands elegantly waiting for an answer. “I don’t know this painting was making me feel somewhat happy,” said John
“But nothing has ever made you happy at least since your parent were…”
“Yes that’s true, shall we be going then…to meet your father,” interrupted John, quickly rising and making hast to the door. Reluctantly Ariadne stood as well and brushed her dress down, smiling seductively at him then walking over to take his arm.
The sun blazed down on the umbrellas of the Greek Isle Restaurant. Sitting partially in shade was an old man reading a newspaper, with a shot of vodka sitting in front of him. The man’s name was Timothy Beckett, a successful computer genius who had created the first android in 1989 about 12 years earlier. Now they were used on unmanned missions to Mars, because they required much less energy than most of the other robotic units that were used in previous years.
Ariadne yelled across the crowded space, “Daddy!” The old man looked from his paper to a young girl with beautiful sky blue eyes, wearing a skirt with a white shirt and a pink sweater pulled tightly over. Timothy stood and gave a smirk at her, Ariadne quickly rushed over with John apologizing to the people she had run into just moments before. Timothy opened his arms and caught her, hugging her he said, “Oh its good to see you angel…”
“Oh daddy, why do you still call me that I’m not that little girl who used to run around in that white tutu anymore,” replied Ariadne giving her father a look of annoyance. “Yes you are right, but I still refuse to let you go and grow up on me.”
“Too late…Dad this is John the guy I was telling you about on the phone,” said Ariadne hoping that two men would get along, considering they had nothing in common. “Hello John, I’m Ariadne’s father and I’ve heard a lot of good things about you, which I hope are true.”
“Don’t worry sir, I don’t know exactly what she has been telling you but I’m sure that it is true,” implied John looking incisively at Ariadne.
Ariadne smiled sweetly at John and sat down on one of the plastic chairs placed around the table. An orderly gentleman approached the table and asked for their orders. Timothy replied, “I’m ready to order, but I’m not quite sure if my daughter and her boyfriend have even seen a menu yet.”
The waiter jumped from his feeling stupidity run through his face, and quickly darted off to scavenger for two menus. Ariadne smiled and began to giggle in her seat at the display that the poor man had just put on. Timothy looked at her disgraced and said, “Ari, how could you make laughter at someone else’s expense!”
“I’m really sorry Daddy, but did you notice the way he scrambled around realizing he had forgotten to bring us menus…” replied Ariadne, but was quickly interrupted by her father.
“But still the laughing was not needed, he already felt bad enough,” said Timothy fluffing out his newspaper and putting it in front of his face ignoring what Ariadne had to say. Ariadne looked at her father, and then glanced over at John. She grabbed onto his arm and rested her head on his broad shoulder. John tried to comfort her by patting her knee. “I didn’t mean to laugh, but I couldn’t help it,” said Ariadne with tears beginning to build in her eyes, so she began to grip John’s arm harder hoping to ease her pain. “Don’t worry too much about it, I’m sure your father didn’t mean to go off on you,” replied John putting his head against hers.
Suddenly the waiter emerged again with two menus in his left hand, breathing heavily he handed them both to John. Ariadne then began to rise from the protection of his arm and reached for her menu. It was maroon in color and was beautifully bordered with a gold trim, inside was a plastic cover for each page. Even though the prices were high, they didn’t seem to faze John, for even with his parents gone John had managed to grow a substantial wealth from being under the protection of his grandfather.
Glancing through the elegant menu, Ariadne found what she wanted to order, it was called duck ala’ king. She folded the menu and set it in front of her with silverware just to the right, reaching for her glass of water, she noticed the diamond ring on her finger and she remembered the night when John proposed to her. John glanced over to Ariadne and noticed tears dripping down her face. “Ariadne are you alright…” he waited for an answer. Instead, she put her hand on his cheek and kissed him passionately.
Timothy folded his newspaper and noticed the two, he simply said, “That’s just like me and your mother used to be like, I just wish she was still here to see how beautiful you’ve become.”
“Oh Daddy, stop it you’re making me blush…”
“You know how much I like to see your face go red,” said Timothy rubbing his hand over his face chuckling quietly. John staring at Ariadne simply said, “You look even more beautiful than I could have ever imagined.”
“Come on, please stop all these compliments and I can’t stop blushing, I’m going to the ‘ladies room’ – excuse me,” replied Ariadne holding her face with both hands, trying to block the site of her red appearance.
Ariadne pushed her chair back and stood up; adjusting her purse on her arm, she began walking down the long row of tables lined up on both sides of her. Timothy watched her disappear into the restaurant; he then turned his attention to John. “So, have you had any problems with your latest research project?” asked Timothy resting his head on his hand.
“My company does a lot of research in a wide range of fields Tim, is there something in particular you might want to discuss.”
“Now that you ask, I was actually very interested in that TransWarp Cell your company is recently developing, here you talk about it in this paper…” Timothy picked up the newspaper he was reading and handed it to John across the table. On the front was a picture of John standing next to a large cylindrical tube with two large rings of titanium wrapped around both ends.
“Well I remember doing this story, but I also had to increase security around the complex because of it!” exclaimed John pushing the newspaper back to the other side of the table. “To be honest I wanted to know more about it, in some ways I actually need it my new robotic suit I’ve created for space has had some problems with power,” said Timothy rubbing his hand along his mouth.
“It can only stay powered for an hour or less based on the power system I have for it now,” said Timothy lifting his head up from the support of his hand.
“I get it, you think this new cell might be able to power your suit for an extended period of time,” said John with a concerned look on his face.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” replied Timothy confused by the look that John was giving him now. “Unfortunately your idea is more in likely good, its just that the cell my team has developed is the size of a human torso or a good size dog. It wouldn’t work for the purpose your intending for it until we make a smaller version of it, that’s just as powerful,” said John with his eyebrows raised high.
“Well of course that’s possible, but it could be years before it is possible Tim,” said John moving the fork on his napkin back and forth. “If I said we might be able to do it sooner, would you induct me and some of my people onto the project…I can even give you access to the armor research that my scientists are working on, now!”
“When will you be back in the states?” asked John
Timothy thought about the question for a few moments, and clinched his face trying to remember all the appointments he had in the next couple of days. “Well I have to fly to Germany tomorrow afternoon, but I should be in New York early Monday morning,” replied Timothy shifting his head slightly to the right, waiting for John’s answer.
“I can send a car to the airport for you and it’ll bring you by my building. I’ll get all the research transferred there and we can go over it then.”
“That sounds excellent, I’ll have Chris my chief technician upload all the schematics to my laptop and I will have all of my research to show you at our meeting…” said Timothy feeling pleased at the plan that had just been arranged.
From behind John, Ariadne elegantly strutted up and put her hands on his shoulders, she bent down and kissed him on the cheek, “So, what is going on you two?” asked Ariadne smiling sweetly.
“Nothing honey, we were just telling each other stories about the research we’ve been doing lately,” said Timothy pulling the newspaper from the table and setting it on the chair next to him.
“Sounds as if you two were having a blast then…” said Ariadne folding her hands in her lap. “Yep – we were having a gay old time, like most rich men!” said John sarcastically.
Recently cleaned windows reflected the suns brilliant rays onto New York’s bustling streets. Police cars could be seen easily outside the Trinity Tower the home of Trin International the company John had founded more than five years earlier, in that time he had developed the faster-than-light super computer. When he was gaining massive amounts of stock he began to acquire most of them from a conglomerate at the time called Microsoft. From that stock, he ended the vast empire and incorporated it into his newly emerging enterprise. Now with more than one hundred and twenty billion dollars to throw around, John was considered the richest man on earth.