Disaster strikes. Somebody has gotten into Franks project. What’s next? Why would anyone want to do something like that?

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If you haven’t read the previous stories about Cindy, Bobbie, and the rest and how they arrived where they are now, you should probably read them. Start with An Incremental Journey, Cynthia and the Reluctant Girlfriend, Cynthia and the Dumpster Diver, Cynthia and the Moment of Truth, Cynthia and the High School Years — Parts 1 & 2 & Bobbie and the Glass Ceiling.

I have researched the Spell’s—R-Us Universe diligently and cannot find anything that violates it, other than that The Wizard is a bit kinder and gentler than sometimes reported. Don’t get me wrong. Given an opening, The Wizard could resort to some of his more ironic and nasty transformations. I’m sure that could happen at any time.

Holly did an outstanding job of fixing my punctuation errors and occasional wanderings into gibberish. She does a great job figuring out what I really meant.

This work is copyrighted by the author and any publication or distribution without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.

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Randi and the College Professor, Chapters 8 & 9
 

Chapter 8 — Things Start to Go to Pot

“So, how are things going down there? Still think you’ll be able to get back here by Thursday night?” Randi asked.

“I don’t understand what happened, I mean I understand what happened, but I don’t know how. Whole sections of the programming have been erased. In other areas, stuff has been changed. It’s just a bunch of gobbledygook. We backed everything up; however, something got into the backup, too. It’s like a virus got into our computers and randomly ate or changed the programs.

“I’m a physicist, not a software engineer. Fortunately, I have hard copies of all my notes. The software guys are going to have to rewrite all sorts of stuff. This is a real mess, but I am not going to miss this weekend with you, regardless. Besides, we need to talk to our families about setting a date. Do you still feel the weekend before Thanksgiving is right?”

“The only problem is that it’s not soon enough. Cindy and Bobbie are due towards the end of October. Doing the math, the doctors say around October 30th or 31st. That would give them three weeks to try to fit into their dresses. Ginny said she will be able to take some extra time off from teaching practice and school. I have a feeling that Gramma Naomi worked some magic out there.

“About this weekend, I’ve already purchased the food, and my pack is ready. The weather forecast is for clear and cooler. It should be nice.”

“I love you, Randi. I just wanted to let you know in case you haven’t figured it out.”

“I love you, too, and I have definitely figured it out.”

Randi didn’t hear anything more until Tuesday night. She knew Frank was extremely busy, and didn’t want to take him away from his work. Then a text message on her phone stated things were continuing to work out. She texted him back before sending him a longer email. The computer was just an easier way to send longer messages.

The next morning Randi reviewed some papers on super-sized organic molecules based on the spherical carbon based molecules that had been developed over the last few decades, feeling there was a good chance that they could be used as the basic structure for organic nanobots. She thought there was the possibility of creating what might be termed a super-enzyme that could be programmed to alter small sections of DNA.

Her study was interrupted by the ‘ding’ letting her know that she had an instant message. It was from Cindy. “Call me ASAP.”

“Hi, Cindy, what’s going on?”

“I’m not sure. Remember when I put in the good word to Avery about Frank?”

“Yes, Frank told me he had a very positive letter from Avery. Avery had seriously wanted Frank to talk to him about coming to MIT to work with him on a joint project on controlled fusion. Frank was really encouraged that Avery wanted to work with him.”

“Well, that’s what Avery thought — until this morning. He called Frank this morning to discuss something, and it was like Frank didn’t know what he was talking about. He said he had no intention of moving to Boston, and that his fiancée hated it up there. Besides, he had an offer to go to Caltech that was just about finalized.”

“WHAT! I never said anything like that.”

“I know. Avery asked him why you had changed your mind. Frank said Avery was crazy. He didn’t know any woman from your home town, and he certainly didn’t know anyone named Randi Lewis. His fiancée was Betty Brown, and they had been engaged for more than six months.”

“That’s preposterous. He never even dated her. I found that out thirty seconds after I met him. I read his mind. That was before I promised not to do it again without his permission. He was thinking about asking her out. There was something about Frank right off, and I felt he was a very nice person.

“Silky and I accessed the data base, and discovered Betty Brown uses her body to get what she wants. She has used some of the best plastic surgeons around to enhance her appearance. The worst thing was, she had decided to make a move on Frank after she had been ignoring him.”

“Something’s going on,” said a worried Cindy. “The information in the system now is quite different. Either she is infiltrating the system, or changing reality, or both. I haven’t been able to contact His Wisdom. He said something the other day about some meeting in another universe. I’m sure we can contact him if there is a real emergency. Let’s just see what we can find out before we call him.”

Randi felt a bit of a panic setting in. “I’m going to call his mom. Maybe she knows what’s going on. I’ll keep you posted.”

As Randi dialed the Deere’s house, she had a feeling of impending doom. If things were going as badly as they seemed, they probably weren’t going to get any better.

“Hello.”

“Flo, this is Randi. Have you heard anything from Frank?”

“I’m sorry, who is this?”

“Randi, your future daughter-in-law: Randi Lewis.”

“I’m sorry, but I certainly don’t know any Randi Lewis, and you are certainly not my future daughter-in-law. Sweet Betty Brown is going to be my daughter-in-law.

“What is this: some sort of joke? Randi Lewis? I know that name. You were that horrid little girl in my second grade class. You haven’t changed a bit, have you? I’ll thank you to not call this number again. Your little pranks aren’t very funny.”

Randi just stared at the phone as tears started to form. Silky jumped up to the computer desk, then leaned over and softly rubbed against Randi’s face.

“What are we going to do, Silky?” Randi sniffed as she hugged Silky to her.

“I don’t think there is any question that that woman is behind this. If she has been able to influence his parents, there’s no telling how far and deep she has gone. The last thing we need to do is jump into this thing without knowing how deep the water is.

“We need to find out how much she knows about us. I think it’s time we had a meeting of the families.

Esmeralda Mather led the meeting, “We don’t have any record of Betty Brown until about two years ago. Based on what Randi and Silky have told us, it appears as if she has been able to infiltrate the system and change the data, at least what references her, at will. There’re no indications that she has affected any other data, however.

“Marissa, Cindy and I have done an in-depth search and can find absolutely nothing about this woman having magic abilities. If she doesn’t, someone very close to her is a very strong practitioner of magic. The problem is there is not very much information at all. It appears as if she may have grown up in a parochial girls’ school and had very little contact with the real world until about three years ago. All sorts of things could have gone on in there and we may never have learned about them.

“Then there is this other thing. Anita Clemens advised us of a powerful force that was in New York City the same time Randi and Frank were there. In light of what’s been happening, we don’t think this is a coincidence.

“Randi, you have something to add?”

“Guys, don’t give me a bad time about this, but I wasn’t in the most objective mode while I was down there ….”

“Yeah, you were shagging Frank all weekend,” Martha interjected.

“Marti, this is serious business,” Marissa scolded. “If you can’t act like an adult, you may leave the meeting now.”

“Sorry.” Marti slid down in her chair a bit, but she couldn’t suppress a giggle.

“You were saying, Randi?” Esmeralda tried to get things back on track.

“The first night we were there, I woke up feeling a chill. It wasn’t cold, and we had the doors to the balcony open. As I was closing the doors, I heard a woman in heels walking away. I looked and saw a silhouette rounding the corner. I didn’t think much about it at the time. Then Anita and the Wizard told us that there was an evil force in the area, and they weren’t able to pin it down.

“The next night, I had a strange dream. A woman was trying to take the ring from me. She was grabbing at it, but couldn’t seem to hold it. Then she said it didn’t matter, because she was going to get it soon enough, just like she was going to get him. She said the ring was hers, and she had to have been talking about Frank.

“I felt the same chill again, too.”

“Was the balcony door open?” her mother asked. “Shit, she could have been in the room. Did you see her? What did she look like?”

“She was blonde, rather attractive, but her eyes were colorless. Oh crap, it was Betty Brown. I’m sure it was. The first time Silky and I looked her up, that was her description! There was a picture of her and a summary of her activities at Princeton. I know now I was already attracted to him, and I knew then that Frank could do better. So, I took over.”

“Everyone here knows what happened with Cindy and Don fourteen, fifteen years ago,” Marissa had taken the floor. “This is not the same sort of thing. We are not dealing with multiple universes or parallel Earths; at least I don’t think so. We are dealing with an unknown, but apparently powerful witch. If this was something we couldn’t handle, His Wisdom would be here leading us on. I think he knows exactly what’s happening, but wants us to figure it out.

“I don’t like this one bit because my daughter is involved; however, I need to be objective about it. This could be happening to any of our children. We are looking at some pretty strong mind control, and we need to find out for sure who is doing this, and then we need to fix the problem.

“Since I found out about this organization, I have been impressed with the power and abilities our members have demonstrated. Surely, this group should be able to counteract what one or even a couple of misguided practitioners of magic are doing. We need to have a plan, and then we need to act. Now, here’s what I think ….”
”ƒ
Chapter 9 — Making Corrections

Teaching classes was something that many graduate students had to put up with. Frank knew that teaching, regardless of the level, would not be his main occupation. He wanted to work in research. Once he received his PhD, he still might do some instruction, but research was where it was. Regardless, he was stuck with teaching a freshman level class in physics for non-physical science majors. Some called it ‘no pain’ physics. They called it that because calculus was not required. A good knowledge of algebra, trigonometry and geometry would get one through.

Most majors in the biological sciences required the class. Frank could remember other professors talking about the fresh crop of wide-eyed female students who were experiencing one of the more difficult classes they would have as lower classmen. He remembered several of them talking about ‘getting lucky’ for the favor of a passing ‘C’. Frank didn’t have to worry about that. Betty was everything he could want in a woman.

He could remember seeing her in a class similar to this one. She had caught his attention right away. At first she had ignored him, but something had happened the previous semester. She’d had a band of sycophants, but suddenly she sloughed them off, and she was his. He couldn’t even remember how it had happened, but whatever had, they were soon an item. He couldn’t even remember asking her to be his wife, but he knew he had. He hadn’t given her a ring yet, but she didn’t seem to mind. She said when she found the right one, she would let him know.

He had trouble with that pet of hers. Ferrets were cute in their own way, but they smelled, and this one had a mouth full of teeth that seemed a bit threatening. Cats were much nicer. He wasn’t sure why he thought that, because he never had had a cat for a pet.

Well, it was time to start class. He was aware these students were not concentrating heavily on the hard sciences; however, there were still some things they needed to have a good foundation. It was time to ask a few questions.

“Some psychologists say that students lose twenty to thirty percent of what they learned the previous semester over the summer break. Let’s see if that’s the case. Would anyone care to tell me, in simple terms, what Boyle’s Law is about?”

There was some shuffling of feet, and a few hands went up. About three rows back from the front an Asian woman raised her hand. “Yes, Ms. …?”

“Park, Sylvia Park. Boyle’s law states that at a given temperature, as the pressure on a gas increases, there is a corresponding decrease in volume. In other words the pressure times the volume is a constant.”

“Very good, Ms. Park; now, will someone tell me how Charles Law fits into all of this? “Uh, Ms. Park, you’ve already answered a question. Let’s let someone else answer.”

“Dr. Deere, that was my sister. I’m Rachel Park.”

“Well, this should be fun. So, you are twins?”

“Actually, we are triplets.”

“So where’s your other sister? She could answer the next question.”

“We don’t have another sister, but our brother Melvin would be glad to answer another question.”

There were a number of not too suppressed laughs and giggles from the rather large class.

“While we are having some fun, I better explain that I am not officially piled higher and drier. My degree won’t be officially bestowed for a few weeks. So for the time being, Mr. Deere will do.

“Okay, Rachel, tell us about Charles Law.”

“Charles law states that the pressure of a confined gas increases or decreases directly proportionally to the increase or decrease in temperature.”

“So what you are saying, is that if I have a gas at zero degrees Fahrenheit and raise the temperature to one hundred degrees, that the pressure would be one hundred times greater.

“No sir, you have to base the temperature change from absolute zero. One would use the Kelvin scale for Celsius, or the Rankine scale for Fahrenheit.”

“I think you are in the wrong physics class, Ms. Park.

“Let’s keep this in the family, Mr. Park, what is absolute zero?”

“Sir, Absolute Zero is the theoretical temperature at which all molecular activity ceases. Nothing can get colder.”

“And, what temperature is Absolute Zero?”

“It is approximately minus 273.15 degrees Kelvin or minus 459.67 degrees Rankine.”

“Excellent! So, zero degrees Fahrenheit converts to approximately 255.4 degrees Kelvin, and 100 degrees Fahrenheit converts to 331 degrees Kelvin. Dividing 331 by 255.4 we get approximately 1.3. What that means is if we raised the temperature of a confined gas from zero degrees Fahrenheit to one hundred degrees Fahrenheit, the pressure would increase by a factor of around 1.3.

“Now, I have a little quiz for you. I know you can program your computers and calculators to do the math, but I want you to set up the calculations and do the math, i.e. go through all the motions. It will help shake the cobwebs loose. This is just for me to see where everyone stands. These are the types of problems you would have had in your high school chemistry and science classes.

“You may leave when you have completed the quiz. For Thursday, read chapter one and complete the exercise at the end of the chapter.”

The Park triplets completed the quiz in about half the allotted time. They were sitting far enough apart that there was no way they could have copied each others’ answers. They turned in their answers almost simultaneously. They stood there for a moment while he glanced over the answers. Of course, they were all correct.

“What are you doing in this class,” Frank whispered. “This is obviously not a challenge for you.”

“Rachel answered, “We’re music majors. We’re just taking this as an elective. Someone told us that you were a real cool guy and a great teacher, so why not take a class that stimulates the mind a bit? Besides, we haven’t decided on our minors yet.”

“Who recommended me? I might want to thank them some day.”

“It was Randi Lewis.”

Frank pondered the name for a while. “That’s odd; for a moment I thought I recognized the name. No, I don’t remember any Randi Lewis. If I knew her, I would surely remember.” His eyes lost their focus for a moment and the last sentences were in a monotone.

“She’s put a good block on him, but it’s not that good. I think we can get rid of it. However, there’s no need to do it now. She has made several mistakes. We know he recognized your name, Randi, because he said ‘she’. We never told him you were a woman. Apparently, there are some words and phrases that kick-in some commands.” Charli, Marti, and Tom were briefing the rest about their encounter in the physics class.

“Betty doesn’t know that much about shielding, and Frank was pretty much an open book.

“Sorry, Randi, but I never promised not to read his mind. I stayed out of the personal areas as much as possible. Once we get this mess straightened out, he will be strictly off limits.”

“I understand, Charli. It’s quite alright. I’m sure he’ll forgive you once this is over,” Randi said. “Obviously, the disguises worked quite well. Good work on those, Mom. I think you’re almost as good as His Wisdom.

“So, what else did you find out?”

“Marti and I picked this up right away. Betty has convinced him to move to California. He’ll be gone as early as January. They are very interested in his work out there. We need to act fast. If we don’t hit her with everything the first time, she may gain strength. We need to overwhelm her. Maybe it’s overkill, I don’t mean we are going to kill her, but we are going to have to have some major control here.

“Both Anita and His wisdom think she’s strong, but I have a feeling she’s relatively untested. She makes little mistakes.”

“I would have to agree with Charli on that,” Randi said. “I think she put a sleep spell on Frank and me at the hotel, and then tried to take the ring. I think she knows that it is special, but doesn’t know the whole story.

“There’s this thing about the data base that has me concerned. Why is it so different from what it was when I first looked her up?”

“I’ll venture a guess,” Sally offered. “I think she has just come into her power recently, and she is basically self-taught. She probably has pretty low self-esteem, and used her early powers to procure cosmetic surgery to enhance her appearance. More recently, she has discovered how to make more natural alterations in her appearance. I think the next step will be altering others, both mentally and physically. I don’t think she has a clue as to how strong she really is.

“If she is self taught, she’s probably thinking primarily in the offensive sense. Her defensive skills are probably not very well developed. I have a feeling she may not be aware of how much magic there is out there.”

“Why do you feel she’s self taught?” Tom, Randi’s brother, carried the magic gene, but was not able to perform any magic.

“I think the main reason is that we don’t know anything about her. If she were trained, the system would know about her: her parents, schooling, strengths, etc. She’s unknown to us, and until recently has had little impact. The system has failed to pick much up about her.” Sally was a lot like Marissa, in that she came into her magic talents relatively late in life, but once she had found out about them, had blossomed.

“Did you find out anything else?” Marissa asked.

“Yes,” Charli said rather eagerly, “they’re going to dinner tonight at a restaurant near the medical center. It’s called Chapin, and it’s right across the way from a rather large cemetery. I checked it out on Google Earth a little while ago.”

It was decision time. “Let’s do it tonight,” Randi offered. “We are not going to have many opportunities, and tonight should be as good as any. What do you think, Mom?”

“I think you’re right. Let’s do it.”

Frank escorted Betty into the upscale Mexican restaurant. It was quite nice, in spite of the eeriness created by the large cemetery across the street. Once inside, the eeriness was quickly forgotten. If tonight was like the others, they would have several drinks, perhaps a bottle of wine with the meal. After dinner, they would go to Betty’s place and make wildly passionate love to each other. Frank’s thoughts had a little hiccough. Make love? Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t remember the last time they made love. He was sure they had. After all, they had been engaged for six months, and Betty was an incredibly sexy woman.

Yes, now he could see her sexy body and those incredible breasts that jutted from her chest. They reminded him of Madonna and her metal bra, except these jutted forward without any assistance from a metal bra. They must have made love, and done it many times. He couldn’t be having these thoughts of her unclothed body unless they had.

The waiter escorted them to a nice table to one side of the nicely decorated dining area. Betty refused the waiter’s offer to take her jacket, the one with the fur collar. They ordered margaritas and some guacamole and chips.

Frank realized something was wrong with the margarita. It seemed almost watery. He thought back to the margarita he had had at a restaurant a couple of weeks before. That one had been much better, and they had enjoyed it very much. He wondered why he’d thought about that, and why he hadn’t ordered one like that now. Maybe Betty didn’t like them that way, but he was sure he had shared one made that other way with someone.

“Frank, I can’t wait to get to California. I wish we could do it sooner. Are you sure we can’t leave before Christmas?”

“It’s not possible. I have certain obligations to fulfill, and the department and I have to come to an agreement about some proprietary matters.”

“I wish you could hurry it up. Winters are so cold and miserable around here. I want to look for a home in the Pasadena area: something worthy of a Caltech professor.”

Their discussion was interrupted by the arrival of some students. They hadn’t been watching closely, but the students were being directed to a table close to theirs.

“Oh look, it’s that nice Dr. Deere.”

Frank looked up to see the Park triplets with some friends, sitting a couple of tables away. He didn’t know which of the girls was waving, but he smiled and acknowledged them with a nod.

“So, who are they?” Betty had a bit of an edge to her voice.

“The two oriental girls and the boy are triplets. They are in that freshman physics class I teach. They are pretty sharp. I don’t know who the other two are.”

Betty glanced at the five youths, and realized that two of them were looking rather intently at her. As Dinner continued, the group of five seemed to be carrying on a rather animated conversation; however, each time Betty looked their way, at least two of the students were looking at her. At first, she didn’t think much of it; by the time dessert arrived she was beginning to feel a bit paranoid.

About midway through dessert, she began to feel her paranoia was warranted. She looked up, and all five were looking at her. She didn’t like to practice any of her talent when she was around others; however, her unease was beginning to really get to her. She cast a spell designed to direct attention away from her, but the group continued to look her way. This was not right. They should have forgotten that she and Frank were there.

“Frank, I’m not feeling well. I think I would like to go home.”

“Sure.” He called for the check.

Betty noted that the five were also getting their checks. The two oriental girls were still staring intently at her. She tried once again to cast an obscurity spell, but all it did was cause their waiter to ignore Frank and his attempt to pay his bill. Finally, he had to get up and go to the waiter.

“I’m sorry sir; I thought you had left.”

“No, we’ve been trying to get your attention for the last ten minutes.”

The waiter fumbled around for a few seconds and finally found the check. Frank gave him a credit card and returned to Betty.

“I don’t understand it. The service here is usually very reliable.”

The waiter finally returned with the credit card receipt for Frank’s signature. He dashed off the signature and helped Betty to her feet. As they passed the table with the five college students, the students rose to their feet and followed closely behind.

A number of women were standing near the cars in the parking lot, and Betty suddenly realized that one of them was the woman she had taken Frank from. The woman stepped forward.

“Betty, it’s over. Remove the spells and put things back the way they were.”

“Like hell I will! He’s mine. I saw him first, and you have no business taking him away from me.”

Frank looked at the group starting to surround him. He turned to the five who had followed him and Betty out of the restaurant. They had changed. One of the girls was dark complected and quite beautiful. The other one was a stunning redhead; however, he realized she was quite young. The three boys had also changed considerably. Two were adolescents, and one was a man in his twenties. The latter had blonde hair and reminded him of someone he knew, but he just wasn’t certain who.

“Betty, what’s going on? Do you know these people?”

“Shut up, Frank! I’ll take care of this. Don’t move!” Frank did exactly as he was told.

“Betty, there are too many of us, and we are much more experienced than you are.” Marissa was going to play the ‘mother role’. “Frank is not yours to do anything with. You need to remove the spells you put on him and his family right now. We are far stronger than you. Don’t try to do anything you might regret.”

Betty took in the group that was fast becoming a crowd. She suddenly sensed something that she had never experienced before in her relatively short life. There had been something about the woman she had taken Frank from. She had sensed it that night in the hotel room. She had seen the ring that Frank had given her, and knew she must have it; however, try as she may, she couldn’t remove it in spite of the spell she had put on the two. It was bad enough that the two had been making love, but she knew she could erase his memory of the woman, and she was certain there would be some way to get the ring.

She hadn’t thought much of him when she first saw him. He’d just been another nerdish professor. She was just realizing how strong her power was, having found out that she could get men to do things for her. Sometimes it took just a mental ‘push’; however, there were times she found that a quick fuck plus a ‘push’ would get her what she wanted. It had taken a few years, but several plastic surgeries and much dental work later she had achieved the appearance she wanted. It took more than a little facial reconstructive work. The first class breast enhancement surgery finally got her the body she wanted. She found a not so gay cosmetician, who in exchange for her favors, did some excellent hair styling and coloring for her.

Well, Betty obviously has Frank under her spell. It’s going to be interesting to see what this previously unknown witch can do against the family of witches. How much help, if any, are they going to need from The Wizard? What’s all this ‘messing’ with Franks mind going to do to him?