Reading: "CATACLYSMAL" (A.Glass 2017)

The cab pulls over at the curb, Jansky pays the driver and exits the cab, quickly darting across the footpath she enters through the bar door. Jansky then walks towards the bar, pulling up a stool she sits down. Beside her is a man, formally dressed, drinking from a Martini glass. He turns and looks at Jansky.

“Hey Elly”

“Hello Josh...” She replies, briefly glancing at the man sitting beside her. Jansky looks up at the barman. “...Double Scotch and ice please.” She requests, as the bartender places the ice into a rocks glass and administers two shots of Scotch whiskey.

“Fancy seeing you here. A random event in the cosmos. How did it go, tonight?” He asks smiling.

Jansky tilts her head leaning her elbow onto the bar, pushing back blond strands of her hair. She sips the whiskey.

“Part of the schedule, late night talk show first, then the seminars thereafter and various network morning shows.”

He holds up his cellphone scrolling at the electronic book reading App.

“Downloaded yesterday...”

She leans over and holds up her glass, the man also leans in her direction and taps her glass.

“...apparently written by the sexiest physicist on the year.”

Jansky rolls her eyes while she takes another sip from the whiskey, with her left hand she pushes up her mid length skirt close to her upper thigh revealing her lace edged stockings. The man looks down.

“I can see why,” he says with a smile.

She pushes the skirt length back down. “It wasn’t a competition, just some silly article written for an online business publication. Something you'd read,” she replies with a grin.

“Hey I'm not disagreeing, but good looks and brains...That's what you got Elly.”

Holding the glass with her left hand she dips her right index finger into the cold amber fluid, at the same time she thinks about her ex-husband and the coming divorce settlement. Withdrawing the wet finger, now soaked with an aged whiskey, she places it against her lips. Briefly licking the remnants, Jansky places the glass down onto the drink coaster, she turns and faces the man.

“That a-hole wants to settle with two investment properties that we joint purchased, both tenanted, offer is half rental plus I get the third one that hasn't got a tenant.”

“Markets are bad at the moment, especially the oversupplied property market, with this current investigation into pension funds running losses on their portfolios to offset gains in the stock and bond markets. Investment property was the tax dodge on their other profits. The market becomes a bubble with empty apartments across the city.”

Jansky picks up her glass. “Yeah and prices are beginning to tumble, especially downtown, anyway, if I don't settle, we go to court...” She takes a large sip from her glass. “...Josh, I'm not going fight this, it's going to waste my time. That's what he wants, this lying, cheating ass-wipe. Plus my lawyer ain't cheap...”

“And your new book! You just came away from a late night talk show, you've got seminars coming up, university talks...Elly Jansky is famous. Your ex-douche is nothing.”

Jansky leans across and kisses the man on his right cheek. “Thank you.”

He holds up his glass indicting to the barman from another Manhattan cocktail, he then looks at Jansky who is smiling, her expression is one of a sincere appreciation towards her lover. The bartender places down in front of the man another cocktail.

“Fucked up at the moment, the world, with the military build up in Europe and the South China Sea...Middle East conflicts. It's a new Cold War.”

Jansky tilts her head back drinking the remainder of the iced whiskey. She places the empty glass back down on the bar.

“Sure is...”

“What's the physics community opinion on it?”

“Cold War part two?”

“Yeah”

“Well, we have Russian, Chinese physicists and scientists all stuck in the middle...It's just like the last one. The question is, how many will come across to America or Western Europe before things get serious...Rumor going around at the moment is they may scrap the H-1B visa very soon. We could have, globally, countries closing up their boarders around the world,” Jansky replies.

“It's all ready happening, starting with Europe...But Elly I'm curious...What is the scientific community's viewpoint on War? We know a lot, but we don't know how to stop wars...”

“Maybe it's an inherent human trait.” Jansky nods to the barman holding up her left index finger indicating for another whiskey with ice.

“Really? A war gene?” The man replies, as he sips from his drink.

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Reading:  "CATACLYSMAL"  (A.Glass 2017)