The knocking seemed to be taking place on a very distant door. Slowly, and I mean very “despacito”, it pulled me back to the world of the living. I got up, shuffled my feet all the way to the door to open it and find Gina standing there with a worried look on her face.
“How did the presentation go?” I mumbled.
“What’re you taking about? It’s Sunday. Ray are you OK? You look worse than yesterday. And what’s that smell?”
“Sorry, lost track of time. You wouldn’t believe what happened after I left last night.” And then it hit me. “Wait, what did you say? What smell?”
“The tobacco stench. Did you start smoking?”
My eyes opened wide and I grinned, “You can smell it?!”
“Jesus Ray, I’m sure your neighbors two floors down can smell it. But it isn’t the typical cigarette odor, it reeks more like pipe tobacco. Oh my God, don’t tell me you’ve picked up pipe smoking.”
“It is the smell of pipe tobacco. How did you know?”
“My grandfather used to smoke pipe and I learned the difference between the smell of cigarettes and the scent of pipe tobacco when I was little. Ray, what’s going on? The security guard downstairs told me they didn’t find anything on the surveillance tapes(1) and that he’s worried about you. When I asked him why he was telling me this he said you had recently added me to the list of people to call in case of emergency and that he thought I should know this. What were they looking for in those tapes? What aren’t you telling me? But please, before you say anything go brush your teeth; it’s past noon but your morning breath is killing me.”
“Sorry, I’ll be right back.”
I went over to the bathroom and from there I asked her where were the kids and to what did I owe the honor of her visit on a Sunday afternoon.
“My sister picked them up after breakfast this morning and something told me that it would be a good idea to check up on you. You didn’t look too well yesterday and as soon as I talked to your Scottish friend downstairs I realized my hunch was right on the money.”
After brushing my teeth I put on a fresh shirt and went back to Gina.
“I thought you didn’t babysit coworkers,” I said with a smirk.
“I was checking up on a friend not a coworker,” she said without missing a beat, as usual. “Now, is there anything you would like to share with me? Something about certain surveillance tapes, perhaps.”
“You better sit down,” I said. “There’s something I didn’t tell you about the dreams. Einstein was never part of them. He’s been visiting me… I know this sounds absolutely crazy. I thought it was all a figment of my imagination until a few minutes ago when you noticed the tobacco smell. He’s the one who’s been smoking pipe during his visits. Well, in his earlier ones, until I told him to stop smoking in here(2). Building security has been checking the surveillance tapes since the first day he showed up. The fact they haven’t found anything in them isn’t the strangest part of the story, the truly bizarre aspect of all this is that nobody but me seems to be able to see, hear or notice the guy. Well, until now that you smelled his pipe smoking.”
“Wow… I don’t know what to say Ray. This is worse than I thought.”
“What do you mean worse…?”
“Well, I thought you might be suffering from exhaustion, or maybe a virus, not that you were having hallucinations. Yesterday you told me that Professor Murdock thought you needed professional help. Was he referring to these Einstein visits? Does he know about it?”
I nodded in the affirmative and went over to my room to pick up Einstein’s handwritten note. When I came back to the living room I handed it to the Gina.
“He gave me this during one of his visits. The professor checked the handwriting and it matches the real Einstein’s. These are not hallucinations Gina. The fact that you can smell the pipe scent is proof of that.”
“Does the professor think that all this is real?” she asked.
“Not exactly…”
“Raymond Young, spit it out.”
“He thinks these encounters might be schizophrenic in nature, and has an explanation for everything that has happened(3). But he hasn’t been in this apartment and thus hasn’t been exposed to the pipe smell.”
“Ok, let’s invite him over and see if he can come up with one,” said Gina.
(1) For more details on the surveillance tapes check out Chapter 5: Der Depperte and Chapter 7: Desperately Seeking Subtitles
(2) Read how Ray tells ‘Einstein’ to stop smoking in his apartment in Chapter 13: A Not So Silent Night
(3) Take a look at Professor Murdock’s explanation in Chapter 10: The Akashic Records and Chapter 11: The Professor Calling
