Bethany
didn't see her cousin Julia Johnson all that often, but she idolized
her. The fact she was six years older set the stage, but Julia was also
a sort of golden girl. She was in anyone's eyes beautiful, and she was
also friendly, funny, and kind to her little cousin.
When the
families got together at Bethany's for Christmas (they lived in
Scarsdale), Julia at the dinner table told of the recent developments
in her life. She was in her second year of a Ph.D. program at M.I.T. in
physics. In recent years Bethany had learned that Julia was very smart,
something she hadn't perceived so well before due to the age
difference. At Yale her interests had taken a scientific bent, and she
had set her sights on theoretical physics.
Yet as smart people
advance in their education, the winnowing process finds them with
smarter and smarter peers. At M.I.T. she was doing OK in her courses,
but to take the next step she needed some creative insights, and they
had been slow in coming. She was starting to rethink her career options.
For her part, Julia was as surprised as everyone else to hear of the
newly intellectual Bethany.
As
Bethany lay in bed that night, she thought of her distress at not
having original ideas. A silly idea came to her. What if she gave Julia
some of Cyrus's magic potion?
Bethany suggested the next day
that they head off to the movies, just the two of them. Julia was
enthusiastic, and in the car they each confided that they were eager
for a break from their families.
"Julia, I want to tell you about something, but I'm afraid you'll laugh
at me."
"Why would I laugh at you?"
"You'll think I'm into kooky pseudo-science. No better than horoscopes
or telepathy."
"Oh?"
"But
it's not an accident that I'm suddenly a good student. You've got to
admit that's a real surprise, right? Given who I was before?"
"I'm not sure; I always thought you had it in you," the older girl
said, but without much conviction.
"Yeah, but I didn't care before, right? I just wanted to be popular."
"Well, yeah, that seemed to be more where your interests were."
"Can you keep a secret?"
"Of course."
"Would you be surprised to hear I'm not a virgin?"
Julia laughed. "I wouldn't have been surprised to hear you were doing
it back in 8th grade."
Bethany
wasn't quite sure what to think of that. She wasn't that much of a
slut! But she let it pass. Julia didn't know about the norms in
Bethany's school; one thing she'd learned from Mr. Sacks was that there
were other ways of looking at the world; what she thought was the way
things always were was often just one way things could be.
"The secret is more to do with who I'm doing it with."
"Oh?"
"A teacher."
"Hmmmm." After a brief pause, she said, "Like, as an ongoing thing?"
"Yeah."
"Do you feel good about it?"
"Yes!"
"Is he married?"
"No."
"You're sure?"
"Absolutely. We meet at his place all the time."
"OK, I guess that's good evidence. So, he's inspired you to want to be
a good student."
"Well, yes, but not the way you think. Or at least not originally."
Julia waited for her to continue.
"I
have this high school buddy who's a real, total nerd. You won't believe
this, but he figured out that men actually encode their mental state in
their semen, like in the prostate gland."
"Oh!" Julia smiled.
"Yeah, I know it sounds crazy. But what's more, he found a drug that
lets the cervix decode it!"
Julia laughed out loud. "That sounds like a great pick-up line for a
nerd!"
"I know, I know, that's what I thought at first. He offered to help me
with my chemistry. But it actually works."
"Did you sleep with him and then knew more chemistry?"
"No, I didn't sleep with him, but I found out he'd done it with someone
else and she got way better at it."
"You ever hear of the placebo effect?"
"Yeah,
I have. I know -- I told you it's going to sound crazy. Extraordinary
claims require extraordinary evidence. But it's not just some general
improvement in the ability to learn. You can get specific facts about
the guy's life. I took some before I lost my virginity. Boy was that a
mistake."
"Taking the potion, or losing your virginity?"
"Both!
Especially losing it to him, the creep. But given he was a creep, I'm
glad I took the potion." She hesitated as ugly memories churned within.
Julia looked over at her, waiting for her to continue.
"I found out what he really thought of me."
"Uh oh. I wonder if that's something I'd like always want to know."
"I
thought that was very useful. I knew where I stood. Then when I started
doing it with my teacher, I found out that he's a decent guy, and
that's well worth knowing."
"So after you do it, you get their memories?"
"Yes."
"I don't know, Bethany, this is really hard to swallow."
"Look,
I knew you'd think I was nuts. But I was listening to what you said
about grad school yesterday, and how hard it was. What would it be like
if you could actually know what your professors know?"
Julia's
smile vanished. "Oh, if I knew what Dr. Wilson knew, I'd be in great
shape. And you're saying I could learn it by sleeping with him?" She
glanced over at Bethany skeptically.
"Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying. I know you don't believe me, but
there's a way to test this. Experimental validation."
"I don't think I want to try to seduce my professor to perform an
experiment."
"Sure, but... is there anyone else you're sleeping with? I mean, it's
none of my business, but you could try it with him."
Julia smiled. "To know what Carl is thinking? That would be
interesting, that's for sure."
Bethany hadn't heard anything about Carl, but she knew the older girl
had had a series of boyfriends.
"Listen, I'll get some. You can try it. You have nothing to lose."
"How do you know it's safe?"
"I suppose I don't in the long term. But I know I've been drinking a
lot of it, and nothing bad's happened to me."
Julia
changed the subject, and Bethany knew she just didn't believe her. All
she'd accomplished was to make Julia think she was a flake.
But the next morning, as Julia was about to head back to Boston,
Bethany collared her and dragged her into her bedroom.
"Here
it is," she said, producing a little vial. "Just watch." She shook it
and poured half into another empty vial, which she drained in one gulp.
Then she handed the half-full original container to Julia.
"See,
nothing bad's happening to me. Try it some time with your boyfriend.
You take it within three hours, and then when his semen hits your
cervix, pay attention to your thoughts."
"Bethany..."
"You've got nothing to lose, right? If nothing happens, you can think
I’m a nut."
"Well, OK," she said with a sigh. "I'm a scientist. And you've given me
a falsifiable theory and a way to test it."
Julia put the vial in a dresser drawer, intending to keep it as a
quirky gift from her well-meaning little cousin.
But
she found her thoughts moving in unaccustomed directions. However crazy
it was, Bethany's potion weighed on her. It was sort of like reading a
fortune cookie; you didn't really believe it was your fortune, but it
was sometimes interesting anyway.
She found herself thinking
about it the next time Carl was over. What did he really think of her?
Carl was in his second year at the Sloan business school earning his
MBA. She'd been in plenty of relationships and knew the limitations.
You shared secrets to a certain point, but she knew how much intimacy
to expect from any given man.
Sex was happening. She gave
herself a lovely orgasm as she rode him, then let him flip her onto her
back so he could have the freedom to fuck her just the way he wanted.
It was the arrangement they had settled on, and it worked. She felt
Carl's excitement building, and she smiled up at him, caressing his
back. She always tried to pay attention during sex, but sometimes
things get into a pattern and you take things for granted. This time
she concentrated. She felt his cock swell within her just before he
moaned his ecstasy. Of course his semen was spurting up inside her.
She'd never felt the stuff actually spurting out with any guy, so she'd
stopped thinking about it. She naturally focused on the parts of him
she could see and feel. But now she imagined what it would be like to
know his thoughts. Bethany's fortune cookie said it would be at that
very moment she would know.
As they got up the next morning, she
asked if he'd go with her to the art museum for a special exhibit. He
turned her down without trying very hard to come up with an excuse.
Then he didn't call her for a week.
When he did, they got
together again, and on the surface things were just the same as always.
But she was troubled. She reminded herself you couldn't expect a guy to
want to do everything you did. And one of you would want to spend more
time together than the other; that's the way it always worked.
As
she got ready to join Carl in bed, she felt a yearning. With a shrug
and a smile, she got out Bethany's vial. She turned her back so Carl
wouldn't see and drained it. It had no taste, just like she'd said.
Julia wondered if it was just water.
She was having fun and it
felt good as she rode her boyfriend, but because of her anxiety about
the relationship and the thought of Bethany's potion, orgasm always
seemed just out of reach. She finally faked it, and hoped she'd done a
decent acting job. She'd never faked it with Carl before, though she
had some practice from earlier lovers.
He eagerly flipped her
over and began his earnest, goal-directed mating. She tried to act
relaxed the way she would if she'd just come, though she was still
feeling excited and hungry for release. Just having a guy doing it to
her was primally satisfying, and it was more intense when she hadn't
just come herself. She looked at him, wondering what made him tick --
what would she learn if there was a potion that did what Bethany
claimed? He adjusted slightly to get a deeper penetration and began his
final approach. Somehow the angle he picked was just right, and her
pleasure built rapidly as each thrust stimulated her perfectly. She
gasped as orgasm seized her as he rammed in and out of her with his
final thrusts. His huge gasp meant it was almost simultaneous, which
made her smile. And then --
She was pretty and sexy, but her
boobs were too small. She was naive and idealistic, wanting to advance
pure knowledge, and she wasn't smart enough to make it in physics. He
pretended to be interested in cultural things for her sake, but it was
a big stretch. He liked TV sports, and he wanted to be rich and have
expensive stuff. He liked porn, both stories and hard-core magazines,
but knew she'd never go for any of the kinkier stuff. He'd have to dump
her by the end of the year, and it was hard to pretend to be an
earnest, curious guy. However, the fucking was so good he was motivated
to hang on as long as he could. Oh, yeah, and there was a bunch of
stuff on advanced finance, international business, and marketing.
Carl's diminished phallus oozed out of her as he slid off to the side.
"Is something wrong, honey?" he asked.
"No, everything's great," she said with a smile.
"You came twice in a row there -- you've never done that before."
"Yeah,
I guess I did," she said, her mind still reeling. He looked very
pleased with himself. She stole glances at him as they lay entangled.
There were no huge secrets, no betrayals. If he knew what she thought
of him, he'd probably be offended too. But she also knew that as soon
as she could get him out the door in the morning, she'd never want to
see him again. He thought she was naive and an intellectual lightweight
-- that's what hurt the most. Later, she reflected that a big part of
it was that she was afraid he was right.
Julia
apologized profusely to Bethany for doubting her and begged her to get
some more. She drove down to Scarsdale just to rendezvous with Bethany
and pick it up.
She desperately wanted to know more physics, to
understand it at a deeper level. She'd been studying hard the past year
and a half, harder than she ever had before, but it just wasn't enough
any more. Could she really learn physics from sleeping with professors?
She liked sex, and didn't have any grand romantic notions. Why not give
it a try?
Being hit on and ogled was just part of Julia's life,
and she had developed graceful ways of deflecting attention. Probably
all she had to do was stop actively pushing men away and give a subtle
positive sign or two.
It was ridiculously easy to get the
postdoc Ken Davidson into bed. When he unloaded his sperm in her pussy,
thoughts entirely different from Carl's swirled through her brain.
Mostly he was thinking of physics -- string theory. She not only got
his tangible thoughts on the subject, she got some of his creative ways
of thinking about it -- weird geometric metaphors abounded.
He
thought the sex was fantastic -- he'd had only a few relationships in
his life, all problematic in one way or another. She hinted that a
reprise was possible if he kept it quiet. So they did it several more
times, and each time she could confirm that he hadn't told another soul
in the interim. Each time she soaked up more of his knowledge of
physics. She felt a little guilty; was she just using him? It's true
she wouldn’t have encouraged him if she wasn't after his knowledge, but
she did feel a genuine attraction. He was a nice guy and sexy enough.
He certainly enjoyed their encounters. She tried to ignore the evidence
as long as possible, but she knew he was really hoping they'd become a
couple and get married soon. She'd told him over and over that it was
just a fling, but that didn't stop him from hoping.
Professor
Hong Chen wasn't too hard either. He was married with three kids, but
he didn't feel much guilt banging the beautiful American any time she'd
spread her legs for him. He wasn't going to let her slack off on any of
the coursework and certainly wasn't going to take her on as a grad
student, but if she wanted to get laid he was happy to oblige. She was
of course absorbing his tremendous knowledge of the field. His
brain-space was entirely different from Ken's. His main mental habit
was careful categorization of everything he read, remembering details
and seeing connections among them. If Ken had a geometric approach,
Hong's was more like a multidimensional mathematical almanac, featuring
tables within tables.
Julia leaned against Professor Rajiv Singh
as they looked at the journal article together. Her right breast was
against his arm, her right thigh pressed firmly against his left.
She realized he was saying more about the study he was showing her than
he really needed to. He was enjoying her attentions.
She
leaned forward, ostensibly to get a better look, and her right hand
landed on the chair right between his legs. She slid it back towards
him ever so slightly to feel the warm bulge between his legs.
"Julia," he said. "You should stop doing that."
"What?" she said innocently, removing her hand.
"You are my student, and while your attention is flattering, the
Institute's policies are very clear on the subject."
"Oh,
OK," she said, giving him her most soulful face. "Sometimes it's hard
for a girl to be around a sexy guy so much without getting a little
carried away."
"That's OK," he said, trying to hide a smile as he returned to the
physics at hand.
With
the knowledge she was gaining an immersion in the mental habits of
different men, Julia's grasp of physics deepened. When she made
appointments with other professors, they were newly impressed with her
ideas.
Professor Ian Wilson was the prize, but the obstacles
were many. He didn't take new grad students and was even less
accessible than most of the faculty. But Professor Rosen put in a good
word for her, apparently, and she managed to get an appointment.
She
laid out a few of her recent ideas. He seemed to think she hadn't
completely wasted his time and was willing to meet her again.
The next problem was that the married professor was not so easily
parted from his scruples.
She decided to try a variant of what her cousin Bethany had described
to her.
After
a series of ambiguous gestures and touching, neither of them could deny
that Julia was proposing something sexual. Her hand stroked the front
of his pants.
"Miss Johnson," he said with a sigh.
She flipped up her skirt to give him a brief view of her vermilion
panties.
Time
for subtlety was over. If she didn’t succeed this time, she'd never
have another chance. "I'd like to make you happy, and I'm pretty good
at it."
"Oh, dear," he said. But he didn't fight with her as she
unzipped his fly and fished inside for his penis. It was not entirely
hard, but she knew how to fix that.
"Miss Johnson..." he said once more.
"It
would just mean a lot if I could give you some pleasure, that's all. I
swear!" she said, descending with her mouth to his organ.
"It's not right!" he said, though he didn't try to pull away. "My
wife..."
"It's not really sex," she said with her most winning smile before
returning to licking his sensitive tip.
"Oh,
dear," he sighed as his erection hardened. "When you put it that way,
it's very hard to say no," he said. After a pause, he said, "You know,
dear, that if you aren't careful you might get something in your mouth
you don't want there!"
How sweet! She looked up briefly and said, "But I do want it there --
right there!"
"Oh,
dear," said the brilliant string theorist once more. "Oh, I must say,
it really does feel quite wonderful. Oh, my. Careful! I think, oh my,
oh no, oooohhhhhh!"
With his third spurt safely in her mouth,
Julia pulled off. She put her finger up to signify, "I'll be right
back" and made a break for the ladies' room. From her pocket she pulled
the blunt-ended syringe and sucked the professor's precious bodily
fluid from her mouth. Plunging the pointy end up into her pussy, Julia
squeezed the bulb, trying to shoot the stuff right onto her cervix.
The
memories were dimmer than when the sperm shot straight from cock into
her pussy, but they were still there. She got some physics, but she was
most interested in a hook to get him to teach her properly. She smiled
when she found it. While the great man was married, sex with his wife
was a very occasional thing. His secret was that he adored girls who
were about 10 years old and was troubled that his thoughts towards them
were impure.
Julia had fun remembering what her life had been
like at age 10. Acting the part was easy enough, and he lit up like a
little boy when he caught on. He was soon screwing her properly and
regularly with great enthusiasm.
Ian
Wilson's mental playground for doing physics was filled with music and
language. He loved poetry, and poetic phrases danced in shifting
algebraic collections, the emphasis always on movement and sound.
Ken
had the geometric shape, David had the links to the relevant obscure
mathematics, and Ian had the motion. Julia herself added something too
-- a synthesis that made sense from her second-hand mental habits of
geometry, millions of factoids, and musical algebraic motion.
There
were two other professors whose seminal influences she very much
wanted, but one was in Tel Aviv and the other in Toronto. But she
learned who their grad students were and which was working on which
project. At the Munich conference she managed to locate them. After one
rejection, she managed to seduce one grad student from each professor,
and by spending two nights with each one, she got what she needed.
As
the outlines of the theory first came to light, excited ripples spread
out from M.I.T. across the world of physics. There was still a great
deal of work to be done filling in the details, but she had the
fundamental insight down. She had stood string theory on its head and
the path lay clear to a Theory of Everything that was also in some ways
a Unified Field Theory. It was the holy grail of physics. M.I.T. deemed
it sufficiently original to grant her a Ph.D.
Her achievement
was so remarkable that top-notch investigative reporters took an
intense interest in the case. They learned from her professors at
M.I.T. that she had slept with many of them, but no one claimed she had
stolen the idea from him.
It didn't take long for them to come
knocking on Cyrus's door. His discovery wasn't as fundamentally
important as Julia's, but it had immediate practical implications that
would make Cyrus a very rich man.