Ray Bonn's name never occurred to her, as indeed it did repeatedly throughout every waking state, without being followed by a significant pause. He had been that kind of person -- one of whom the memory is always followed by a significant pause. These pauses were not initially filled by any thought at all. It was as though there were some kind of shuffling going on in her brain to an appropriate thought to think in his regard. But it was also as though there were some mechanism at work in shuffling certain thoughts back out of sight. Yes, there was definitely an aspect that must be thought about when she had time. Well, it was not as though she had not had the time these last months. But then... as Ray would probably have said, there is no such 'thing' as time. Time and space are just relations that specify how far an observed event is from the one who observes it. That is all there is to time. Those events and her observations of them had been a long time ago now even if sometimes it seemed like yesterday. But today it seemed again as though it had been a long time indeed, but she was using the term differently again... This event right now in this place and time, staring out through the landscaped shrubs and small manicured trees to the wooded cascades with their bare clear-cut patches out across the unseen reservoir was so awfully far from any of those events that mattered."One doesn't really have the privacy in these places to sit and ponder without being at risk for having one's medication upped, does one, Reverend?"The smiling reverend Randolph Etherington had entered and settled in beside her now."No. I guess that's true, but I won't tell. Am I disturbing you, Julie?""Oh no. There's lots of time until there isn't." She returned his smile."Penny for those thoughts." Then, "I won't turn you in. If we smile a little and insert a chuckle here and there, they'll think they have the dosage just about right." One of those deceptive chuckles was inserted here that defied her to not respond in kind.Her upper teeth grabbed a flabby lower lip that had once been so full and sensuous. Watching her, Randy added, "Ray Bonn, I'll bet."...More than four decades earlier Ray Bonn had published a book, having no illusions of grandeur. He just wanted to get his innovative alternative physical theories 'out there' where they could be evaluated. But in the process of an unusual promotion on his first attempt, he was ensnared in weird contractual commitments. In a Kafkaesque turn of events, he had been "duct taped" to a contract by a beautiful but quite capricious woman with whom he had become infatuated.
About the Author: The author was born and raised in Washington State. He and his wife currently reside down a private street of a serene wooded neighborhood in the greater Seattle area. Earlier they raised their children of whom they are very proud on a horse farm on the edge of the Cascade foothills. Mr. Vaughan took his degree in physics at the University of Washington in Seattle and did graduate study at the universities of Southern California and Washington. He spent thirty years in electronics research engineering, publishing numerous technical articles in the proceedings of conferences in his field, for some of which he received prestigious awards. Several patents have been issued on his inventions. He has also written many less technical articles and essays that have been published in technical journals, trade magazines, and high IQ journals. He edited an ultra high IQ society journal for many years and edited an intellectual blog. He and his wife were prominent figures in thoroughbred horse racing in the Northwest for many years. Not unlike his protagonist Ray Bonn, his avocation has been the investigation of more viable alternative theoretical explanations of physical phenomena. His interest in, and opinions concerning, the philosophy of science have motivated much of his writing. Yes, he is also a Seattle Mariners fan of which he is almost embarrassed, but he hopes that one day they may indeed win a World Series.