The Last Storyteller (First Edition) | Page 67

Professor stopped talking and looked into the sea where a seagull was still diving for a mackerel .
" What attracted you to her ?" I asked .
Professor sighed and said : " Her eyes , how much peace I attained just by looking . Her eyes ; how wonderful earth felt when I looked into her eyes . Whenever we were alone she wanted to learn . I explained quantum mechanics , geophysical terminology , and English literature . I had much to teach and she was a fine student , with a flexible mind . She was never afraid to admit her ignorance . She asked many questions :
" `Is it necessary for there to be a difference between energy and matter ? May I join independent clauses by a comma ?'
" I wondered at her lust for learning . Once we were having get-together party , she turned away to ask me something about the transit effects of light and colour in Impressionist painting . One day she was holding a big bundle of books from the library . I asked when she got time to read all those heavy books .
" `I have always time , professor . This is the best way to prevent fear and loneliness .'
" I kissed her hand and said ; `I love it when you speak like this , I love your knowledge which sparkles in your eyes . How can I forget that evening when I delivered a lecture on astronomical history ?'
" She held my hand and said , You are a wonderful man . It is no wonder you have such success in your work !'
" I blushed at this , red as a boiled lobster . She smiled and said , Your modesty makes you all the more adorable .'
" She was an intelligent girl . I loved her mind . You know what made her distinctive from other girls ? Other girls were collections of body parts controlled by a mind , but she was a mind supported by body parts .
" She had only one dream in her life : that was to travel across space and visit the moon . Since her childhood she had been dreaming it . Once she told me about her childhood , spent in the poor village of India . Her secondary school Education passed in a blur of solitary break times , wandering the school grounds or sitting under trees with a pad and pen ; lunch breaks in the library , accompanied only by science fiction , right thumb sucked in deepest concentration , left gripping the pen . At home , after completing homework , she would spend her time in dreaming of space and moon . She passed exams with distinction but it was nothing for her . This
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