Episode XII

“Dr. Pettigrew,” Dennis called out from his small desk. “You wanted the mean and the mode on these test scores, correct?” A few moments later he called out again, “Dr. Pettigrew?” When the TA received no reply he stood up with a sigh and started to maneuver out of his cramped office, moving stacks of papers as he did so. “I’ll never get to my programming homework at this rate,” he muttered to himself. He was already exhausted from having been at his grandfather’s hospital bed for too many nights.

Just as he approached Pettigrew’s office he heard the professor exclaim quite loudly. “Blast it all,” echoed in the narrow hallway. The smell of melted plastic wafted out through the open door as Dennis strode into the extremely neat room. The surface of the professor’s desk was quite visible, only masked by a computer monitor, two stacks of papers, and a smoking telephone. Dennis stared at the phone in disbelief.

“W-w-what happened?” he managed to stutter.

“What Dennis? Oh, that?” Dr. Pettigrew sighed evasively. “I’m not really sure what happened—perhaps the phone and electric lines crossed?” As he spoke his hand twitched under the desk and Dennis thought he saw a bit more smoke. Sure that he must be mistaken he just chalked it up to his tired eyes.

“Perhaps,” Dennis replied doubtfully. “Would you like me to arrange for Maintenance to come out?”

“Yes, please do. You can just use your cell p—your cell, or walk over. I’m sure you’re ready for a break anyway.”

“Thank you, sir. I’ll be back soon.” Dennis turned around and exited the office, his original question completely forgotten.

“I know you will Dennis.” And with that comment Pettigrew turned back to the large stack of papers on his desk. After destroying the last set of assignments at home he had decided to be especially careful in the office. Of course he had already blown it twice, and once with young Dennis in the room. If only those idiots at the phone company— He broke off his musings as his favorite red pen exploded. “Blast it all!!” he exclaimed. If only they had just replaced his cell instead of asking those annoying questions. He swore that he would kill all the second rate cell makers when he ran the world. It wasn’t his fault the unit had exploded, not really.

Quite mystified about his employer’s phone Dennis was nonetheless glad to have even a short break. As he absently wiped the tears from his eyes he reached into his jacket pocket so that he could use his cell to call Carry when he remembered that the phone battery had finally died the night before. Of course the salesman had told him that the battery should outlast the phone, but for some reason it hadn't. Dennis was at a loss to explain the battery's failure and had simply decided to obtain another one.

Though frustrated the young computer major immediately set his mind to figuring out what he could do at that moment. He soon remembered the phone store in the Student Union building. They would surely have a battery he could buy, and it would only be a short distance out of his way to the Maintenance offices.

* * *

The saleswoman, a junior business major was quite friendly, perhaps overly so, but Dennis just smiled and allowed her to lead him to the battery section of the store, noting that her nametag read Julia. After a few minutes of searching they found one that would work. When Julia noticed that the packaging was slightly damaged she wanted to look for another, but Dennis was satisfied. Knowing that the battery should at least allow him a quick call before he plugged the phone in to recharge it Dennis quickly snapped it into place.

As Julia rang up the purchase Dennis called his girlfriend’s cell phone and left a short message. Just as he shut off the phone he felt a very sharp tingling in his fingers and ear. Then he heard a feminine voice quite similar to the clerk’s. “Dang he’s so cute; too bad he's already taken. I wonder what it would be like to kiss him.” With a shock Dennis felt his cheeks turn red and looked up to see the girl surreptitiously staring at him. “What did you say?” he rather shakily demanded. “Wow,” he heard the voice muse, “he’s even more cute when he's embarrassed,” even as the Julia replied that she hadn’t said anything. Quite unnerved Dennis signed the credit card receipt and left the shop without picking up his copy of the receipt.

Once outside the young student leaned against the wall with a sigh of relief. He wasn’t at all sure what had happened, but he thought that he had been listening to some of the clerk’s thoughts. While the implications scared him at first he realized that this might be just what he was looking for. He certainly wouldn’t quit working for Dr. Pettigrew, but now he had a special skill that he could use to help defend the city against crime, if only he could figure it out…