Read Online Capitol Reflections by Jonathan Javitt - Free Book Online Page A

good, budding scientist, Jamie would duplicate the results and then expand his testing. If the experiments continued to yield consistent results, there were people who would pay a great deal of money for Jamie’s discovery.
    Kucherlapati could have his Nobel Prize. Jamie wanted to cash in and give his blue-collar parents a beautiful home as a retirement present.

    Henry was his usual ebullient self as he squired Carol and Heather into his Oughty-one digs. Carol was a tall blonde with sparkling blue eyes; Heather was brunette, five-foot-five, with deep brown eyes and a tan worthy of a Sports Illustrated model. Both girls wore haltertops that barely contained their assets and displayed them to maximum advantage. In the fifteen minutes they had already spent talking with Henry, they had imparted only the information that Carol was majoring in physical education and Heather planned to go to hotel management school.
    When it came to women, Henry was a devotee of décolletage and had minimal appetite for intellect. The two girls wanted nothing more than an invitation to Cottage for House Party Weekend. Henry promised them that if they could pass the “Jamie test,” they were in.
    “It’s time to take a night off, Mr. Robinson,” declared Henry in an insistent tone of voice as he entered their room. “If I see you screwing around with those plants for one more minute, I shall thrash you to within an inch of your life.” Henry feigned drawing an invisible rapier from his belt and lunged forward, left arm poised above his head for balance, right arm straight and perpendicular to his body, as if ready to skewer his roommate. Henry was also a member of the fencing team.
    “Come, come,” he said. “Let our mirthful endeavors begin.”
    Carol and Heather giggled … and then giggled again.
    “Actually, Henry,” confessed Jamie with a forced smile, “I’m at the critical phase of seeing if I can crossbreed two kinds of pea pl—”
    “Wonderful!” shouted Henry. “I’m glad you’re in the mood.”
    Henry grabbed Jamie’s wrist and yanked him from his chair.
    “But I can’t—”
    “Yes, I know!” interrupted Henry. “You can’t say no! It’s party time! Girls?”
    Heather reached into one of the bags she and Carol carried up to the room and produced two bottles of vodka and one of tequila.
    “What’s your pleasure, sweetie?” she asked Jamie. “Or would you like me to mix them together with some fruit juice?” Heather began pouring some Hawaiian Punch over crushed ice in a tall glass, adding equal amounts of the two clear liquors. “Just think of me as your slave for the night, okay?”
    “My slave?” said Jamie, swallowing nervously.
    “You talk too much, Jamie,” Henry remarked good-naturedly.
    “Shut up and drink.”
    “Well, uh, I dunno. Maybe I could—”
    Heather interrupted Jamie’s stuttering by bringing the tall, cold glass to his lips and placing a straw in his mouth.
    “That’s pretty good,” Jamie admitted. “But I don’t taste any alcohol.”
    “That’s the idea!” said Heather.
    “I think we just found a party animal!” squealed Carol, drinking straight from the tequila bottle while handing the second fifth of vodka to Henry.
    “Be careful, Heather,” cautioned Henry. “Beneath that lab coat beats the heart of a genuine Don Juan.”

    Jamie blushed. He took a long pull on his drink. “I guess a little break wouldn’t hurt anything,” he said, eyeing Heather’s long, tanned legs.
    Looking up into the girl’s face, his blush grew deeper.
    “You can not only look, sugar—you can actually touch if you want to.” Heather pushed Jamie backward gently until he fell clumsily into his chair. She then proceeded to sit on his lap, stroking his hair and face, occasionally scratching his skin with long, manicured fingernails. Jamie felt things he barely imagined before.
    Henry and Carol had meanwhile made a serious dent in the contents of the vodka and tequila bottles