83 case of lies

now their religion based on a ie .”

“what happened ?” elliott asked . he lay on the rug ,his head propped inhis hands , near  the fireplace , the book forgotten . it was almost nine , but he wasn’t feeling sleepy , he was fired up .

“a young man named hippasus leaked the secret .” pop said .” and you know what happened then ?”

“what ?”

“they killled him . set fire to a ship he was on near calabria  sunk it .”

“the pythagoreans did that ?” ellliott gasped .

“never underestimate the psssion of  a mathaemtician .” pop said “of course , the secret was already out . noadays we call those ugly numbers the irrational numbers.”

“we let those numbers in ?”

“and weven uglier things . the imaginary nubwers . the transcendents . the transfinites .”

\”poor hippasus .,” hismother said . she dog-eared herpage and went into the kitchen .

“those numbers aren’t ral . elliott said .” not like one andtwo .”

“prove they dopn’t exist and i’ll give youi a caoes .” his father said .

in this way elliott learned that what his intuition told him was only acceptable to other people if he could show them a proof . elliott became obsessed with mathematical proofs . he had found his own language his father couldn’t learn any more than ellliott could remember the conjugation of a sanskirt berb .

the proofs of the main theorems of mathematics containedabolute certainty, a certainty that existed nowhere else inhis universe of home and school .

a fever overtook him , the proofs burned into his eyes late at night .

proofs were the rewards of playing this paticular game of arithmetic , but he never forgot that other , more difficult games waited inmurk of the  futurre for him to discover .

“el ,” pop called .ellloitt put his memories aside . det his bowl into the stainless -steel sink , and went into the living room .pop never went  upstairs anymore ; the muscles in his legd had become too weak way . how strange. he was growing old as well as sick .

as he looked at his father carefully taking out the ad supplements , then putting the newspaper back in order sohe could read it in sequence , he felt again the burning pressure to work , to find , as quickly aas possible .pop was only fifty five , but he had been ill fo five years now and his sharp mind had c=hanged in some way hard to describe .it was as though only small things matteredto him anymore , the zeros , the ones .

his mother’s clock ticked on the m,antel , next to a picture of his father shaking hands with noam chomsky at a podium somewhere .

“i don’t knopw why , but i feel so cold .” pop said .

“ how about a bath ?”

“i need a littkle push .” elliott puished his chair into the adjoining bedroom ,pulled down the curtains , and got the water running in the tub . pop had a special tub where yoy opened the waterproof door and stepped in and sat down on the bench . so far , he could manage.

“ think i’ll go upstairs and do some work .” elliott said .

                              85 case of lies

“ you look tired . you haven’t told me about the conference at lake tahoe .”

“well , lots of predentations that didn;’t interest me much .

nothing new , really ,” elliott lied .

“did you see any old friends ?”

“i did see a couple of guys from MIT , but i didn’t know them well .”

“what are they doing these days ?”

“one works at laerence livermore lab in califirnia . the other one went tp los alamos .” he was used to lying about his activities , so the words came out very naturally .

“oh , physicists , thAt ‘s nice .

“by the way. i got paid on the consulting work i did last spring . it’ll keep us going until christmas .”

his father said ,” you have found such an interesting career , all this flitting about , doing your consulting .it’s wonderful that you can spens so much time with me .

“it’s my home . i doubt i could work  anywhere else , i wouldn’t want to leave you , pop . we e along .”

“my good fortune ,  that  you love it  here so much .”

“i do have to go town for a couuple of hours in he morning . gloria will be here  , though  . do you want anything special at the store if i leave before you’re up ?”

“how about some of those   p0aulewman chocolate wafers , those  ar  so good .”

“cookies it is .” elloitt said . he locked up , then went upstairs ,  to te scratched oak desk he had spread his papers  over all his life ,  to  the single bed with  with its heavy p[laid comforter , the closet door  was open ;  he puulled it shut , locked the bedroom , and leaned out the window toward  te gleam of seatle across the sound . cool air flowed in , and he breathed in deeply .

his thoughts went back to the man in the ski mask at tahoe .

                                   86 case of lies

doing something to his car  . he couldn’t avoid thinkng about it anymore . he went over the events of the night before again and tried to analyze them .

two possible presentd thewmselved ; either he was heading  toward another psychotic break , or the taho e shooter had found him and still wante something from him .

both  alternatives frightened him , it felt like his heart had tu rned  to a sack of cruished  ice . he slammed the window shut and checked the lock again , pulled the blinds .

then peered through  them onew last time , but all he saw was darkness .

                      chapter 7

placerville used to be a gold town back in the mid-eighteen hundreds . today , gold still can be gathered , especially in the summer , from tourist on their way 50 from the san francisco bay area toward tahoe , 250 miles of not much happening until  the steep peaks of the sierra take over . first there is the bay bridge to get across , then the long traffic jam of the east bay , then the new carquinez bridge where the delta country begins .