Better late than never

By the time he broke for a late lunch, his vocabulary and understanding of the Linear A language syntax was growing exponentially. After a break with the others in the Refectory, he returned to the study room with a new idea. He started pulling scans of other Linear A tablets off the internet and set about translating them as well. Hmm. Had he really just made a massive breakthrough? Everything he translated made sense, so he had to be getting the words right, didn’t he? He sat and pondered the matter for a few minutes leaning back in his chair and staring blankly at his computer screen.

He then sent an email to Professor Rawlins asking for an appointment to discuss his thesis. He returned to his study of random Linear A tablets from the net while getting increasingly fluent in the language. Or, at least, he thought he was. He supposed he could just be getting delusional and making it all up in his head. No, this was real. He considered the matter and decided that being too free and easy with the Minoan tablets would give away too much information that he would have difficulty explaining. He couldn’t very well tell everyone about Urasmian without getting locked up in the looney bin. Yes. A careful explanation based on comparing the two groups of tablets would explain his breakthrough perfectly well. Professor Rawlins got back to him about two hours later and offered a nine-thirty appointment time the following day. He accepted, then decided to call it quits for the day and headed home. The rain had stopped, of course, now that he wasn’t in any particular hurry.

He did enjoy having his parents back home, but at the same time, he found he sort of missed having the house to himself as well. Their holiday had really been the first time they had both been away together for more than just a weekend trip somewhere since his big sister had moved out last year. He sometimes wished he could afford to live on campus, but he had decided to leave his part-time job at Burger King when he began studying for his doctorate, so his finances were limited. His parents agreed with his choice to concentrate on his doctorate and were only too happy to support him, but the lack of a decent income still limited his options and his spending money! Plus, living at home would make it awkward if he finally met a girl who was interested in him. Living at home was seen as such a lame lifestyle for a guy.

Professor Rawlins was a forty-year-old thin woman who still kept herself in shape, unlike some of her male colleagues. She’d been married twice and was now dating an aging actor she’d met when some B-grade film had been made on the University campus involving an ancient Spartan Warrior coming back to life in the Twenty-First Century. It sounded lame even before seeing some no-name actors parading around campus like they were somebodies! Even the Professor thought the script sounded pretty awful! Her eldest child was a fresher at the college but was studying Law rather than Classics. The Professor seemed equally sad and elated at her eldest offspring’s choice of studies. The professor always seemed a little disappointed her daughter was not following in her footsteps but proud of her daughter for getting into Law School.