On The Threshold Of An Epiphany
Liam McShane, Lisa Latham, Max Goldman, and Malcolm Crawford at a moment of discovery
“Have you ever felt,” Malcolm Crawford told his wife, Paula, after a moment of reflection, “that there are inexplicable connections between people oftentimes completely beneath the threshold of our awareness? That ties me to you in some sort of cosmic dance, that we think we move randomly through life, but all the while we are tied to others like a net held together by strings.”
“What prompted this sudden feeling of mysticism?” she asked.
“Something just hit me,” he responded. “Just wait a second. I want to show you something.” He went into their bedroom and removed a large brown box from his closet, setting it on their bed. He began to search through a large stack of papers, one by one until this moment of epiphany overcame him. He had a photocopy of a student’s paper in his hand and then brought it back to the table.
“You know that I sometimes save copies of papers from students that strike me as particularly insightful or original, something which might challenge my students to think. Well, I’ve been trying to remember where I heard the name Liam McShane. Well here it is.”
He laid the paper out in front of her.
“Read the title.”
“The nature of political structure as a reflection of underlying interconnectedness in the space-time continuum by Liam McShane.,” she read. “Now that’s a mouthful.”
“I remember this young man now. He kept challenging me in class that the whole western paradigm of the development of political systems was a myth, postulated on a false Hegelian model of progress. That since all concepts such as progress were premised on a belief in linear time and since it couldn’t be proven that linear time exists, given multiple frames of reference and the physicality of time, to talk about political progress was to impose a construct of the human mind onto reality.”
“Could you speak more in layman’s terms please?” she asked.
“Well, it’s not important really. But I remember him now. He was a bright guy.”
Liam and Max arrived at the lobby of the Empire State Building Exactly at seven fifty-nine and Max could see his old girlfriend standing expectantly behind the revolving doors.
Liam had forgotten how attractive Lisa was, and aside from her impeccable clothing sense, she had the one quality, which he found most attractive, intelligence. She was well read, articulate and inquisitive. On paper, she would have appeared the perfect match for his friend, Max. But theirs had been a volatile relationship. Two years eight months and seventeen days they had gone out together and it ended in a restaurant, in one of the most dramatic arguments over a difference of opinion that Liam had ever witnessed. Lisa had gotten up from the table, after a disagreement over whether plants could have consciousness. She was pro and he was con. She stood in obvious exasperation and then threw her napkin at Max’s face and in a loud but controlled voice, scolded him, “I can’t believe I’ve wasted almost three years of life with you, someone who despite your physics degree from NYU is the most obtuse human being walking on this planet.“ The she walked out of the restaurant and out of Max’s life. Liam knew the argument wasn’t about plants. Despite all the common interests and similar perspectives they had shared, which had brought them together in the beginning, in the end, they couldn’t produce a lasting connection, which revealed a deeper and less obvious reality that people can’t be made to love one another. He understood that when people did love each other, what a rare and precious blessing it was. At these moments, he also remembered that he had loved someone once, and, for whatever reason, their relationship was not meant to be.
“Sometimes I think what a waste I’ve made out of my life,” Liam lamented. “I could have been a serious investigator or a researcher and I’m wasting my time filling out denial forms for medical payments.”
“Another one of your ‘woe to me’ lamentations. It’s not like you live in the third world and have truly significant problems. The Unites States has four percent of the world’s population and consumes forty percent of its resources. Even some of the poorest among us, by the rest of the world’s standards are extremely well off. Why is it when people compare themselves to others, it’s always the others who are in better circumstances than themselves and not those in much worse?”
“I was just making a random comment. I’m sorry,” Liam noted.
When they entered, the lobby, Lisa seemed genuinely pleased to see Max.
“I thought the way things ended. You’d never call me again,” Lisa told Max.
“It was pretty dramatic,” Liam interjected.
“Thank you for staying late like this to help us,” Max told her.
“No problem. I had unfinished work to do anyway.”
“It’s good to see you again, Lisa,” Liam greeted.
She hesitated a moment and kissed Liam on his cheek.
“So you want to see some offices. I don’t see why you would need me to let you in.”
“I don’t want to make a big production out of a five-minute visit,” Liam responded.
He opened his satchel and removed his black notebook. “Suite 3300.”
“I think the Jamison Foundation has the whole 33rd floor,” she told him.
“The Jamison Foundation,” Liam repeated and wrote it down in his notebook. “Do you have any idea what they do?”
“Why don’t we just go and ask them?” she proposed.
“No, I don’t want to be that forward. I just want to take a peek and come back downstairs.”
“You remember how risk averse Liam is,” Max observed. “He doesn’t do anything if he is not sure of the outcome.”
“You know you didn’t need me if all you wanted to do was go to the 33rd floor. You’ve got me a little curious as to what this is really all about.”
“He’s kept me in the dark as well. That’s one thing Liam is good at, keeping secrets.”
“Alright, we’ll go together and take a look. But I expect at least a cup of coffee out of this.”
“Sure we’ll catch a cup of coffee afterwards,” Liam answered her.
She led them to the elevators for the thirty-third floor. She kept looking at Liam as they waited for the elevators. Once inside Liam could see the small camera in the upper corner of the car.
He made note of this in his notebook. When the doors opened to reveal the lobby, they were all surprised and even overwhelmed, by a huge mural nearly fifteen feet wide of Saint George slaying a dragon and the dragon was lying on his left side with a lance straight through his heart.
They stepped outside the elevator for a moment and stood in the paneled lobby. On the adjoining wall to their left was a sentence in gold letters about three inches tall, reading, “Pursuing Knowledge and Enlightenment for the Service of the world.”
“You wouldn’t think they’d be so brazen,” Liam spoke almost inaudibly to himself.
“What was that?” Max asked him.
He scanned the offices for a minute longer, turning around nearly 360 degrees, and he made a mental note to himself to write down what impressions occurred to him, once they returned to the lobby.
“Alright, we can go now,” he firmly told them.
“That’s it. You just came up here to stand in a lobby for a minute,” Max told him.
“I found out what I needed to know.”
“I apologize, Lisa, for his off the wall behavior, but he hasn’t been taking his medication.”
Liam pressed the down button and they waited a few minutes for the elevator. Once the doors closed, Max began, “If you think I’m going to let you take me through this odd ritual and not offer some kind of explanation, you’re out of your mind.”
Liam pointed to the camera. “I’ll give you a simple explanation as soon as we’re at the coffee shop.”
Lisa seemed even more perplexed.
“You know if you wanted to play these cops and robbers games, you could have done this alone,” Max told him.
Liam simply responded, “I didn’t want to do this alone.” He turned to Lisa. “You’re sure you don’t know what they do?”
“I don’t keep tabs on every tenant in the building. It is one of the largest office buildings in the world, “ Lisa answered.
“There’s no one in your office who has mentioned anything about them.”
“Not that I can recall.” She paused a moment. “I remember one of the attorneys mentioning they paid for archaeological expeditions, whatever that means.”
Liam opened his notebook and wrote something down.
“You and your notebooks. You know he has a box filled with nearly a couple of hundred of these notebooks, if ever there was an obsessive compulsive.”
“It’s over two hundred now. He makes fun of me. But one day I may need those notebooks. I’m convinced of that,” Liam defended.
The elevator opened on the ground floor.
“There’s a coffee shop near here,” she told them. “I expect my cup of coffee.”
They walked two blocks to the west while Lisa, looking both expectant and apprehensive walked beside them.
“So how have you been, Max? You look well.”
“I’ve been all right,” he answered.
“You know I never thought you’d call me again, given the way things sort of blew up at the end,” she asserted.
“Things change,” he responded. “I’d been thinking about calling you for a while, and when Liam asked me if you were still working in the Empire State Building, it gave me an excuse. “
“How long has it been?” she asked.
‘Two years I think,” he answered.
“It’s been that long since you called?” she responded.
Liam opened the door to the coffee shop and she walked inside ahead of them.
“Maybe something good will come out of this,” Liam whispered. “You’ll get back together with Lisa.”
“She didn’t kiss me. She kissed you. She always seemed more your type than mine, like what’s her name,” Max affirmed.
“I told you never to talk about her. It’s a long time ago,” Liam answered.
“You told me not to mention her name. But it seems to me every woman you’ve been with, you’ve had any chance of being with, is like what’s her name, including Lisa. Melissa and Regina.” Max paused. “I guess, once you have been with a goddess, merely mortal women don’t measure up.”
“You’re not being fair. She was not a goddess,” Liam countered.
They found a booth near the back of the shop, and Liam and Max sat next to each other, with Lisa across from them. A young waitress approached and handed them all menus.
“Just a cup of coffee for me,“ Liam told her, “with a little non-dairy creamer.”
“I’ll be back in a few minutes to take your orders.” the waitress told them.
“OK, Liam. Now that we’re here, can you tell us what is going on?” Max asked.
But Liam was reluctant to say any more than he had. After a few moments of awkward silence, he resolved he had to tell them something, though he was perplexed as to how little he could reveal and still satisfy them.
“Let me put it this way,” he began. “Let’s say hypothetically, I’m doing research on an organization, which may or may not exist, and I’m gathering as much information as I can about this alleged organization.”
“What kind of an organization?” Max interrupted him.
“Well, a secret one,” Liam answered.
“Don’t tell me we’re chasing phantoms,” Max answered,
“I’ve probably already told you too much,” Liam noted.
“You haven’t told us anything,” Max complained.
“Does this secret organization have anything to do with the Jamison Foundation?” Lisa asked.
“Possibly,” Liam answered.
“I think I know what you’re getting at,” she responded.
“And what’s that?” Max asked. “I wish someone would clue me in.”
“I read a book by William Harvey called ‘Secret Societies.’ Yes I do read, Max. In that book he mentions a group calling itself the Brotherhood of the Knights of Saint George.”
“Yes. I always told you, Max, what a bright girl she was.”
“You don’t think this Jamison Foundation has anything to do with that?” she asked.
Liam didn’t answer her.
“You do, don’t you? And why would have this sudden interest in secret societies?” she noted.
“That’s a pertinent question?” Max added.
“Just call it a little curiosity,” Liam responded.
“You’ve found something, haven’t you? That’s what this is all about. Why else this sudden interest?” she proposed.
“You see what I mean, even the smallest sentence can elicit a whole library of meaning, depending on the mind of the listener,” Liam commented.
“So what did you find, Liam?” She moved closer to him. “What kind of object could elicit this kind of response in a mind as sceptical as yours?”
“I’ve already told you more than I wanted to tell you. Can’t you be satisfied with that?” he answered.
“To be frank and honest, no!” she responded. She seemed more cocksure.
“What may I ask that possessed you to read a book about secret societies?” Liam asked her.
“What is it? I don’t look like someone who might be interested in something other than lipstick and hair color. I read a lot of books. Yes, this face has a brain behind it.”
Liam remembered what also had made her relationship with Max so volatile, was her incisive tongue and her unsettling frankness.
“I have very eclectic tastes and William Harvey’s book is among them,” Lisa answered.
Liam hesitated a moment.
“Alright, I’ll tell you what I am thinking. But please keep this to yourselves.” He took a deep breath and continued, “The day before yesterday, I was walking near the Javits Center and I found in a pile of trash, which must have been there for months, a manuscript. It was buried beneath some other debris and it caught my eye.”
“What kind of manuscript?” Max asked.
“Well, I’ll show you,” he told them.
He opened the satchel, removed the manuscript from inside, and laid it on the table.
“Interim Report on Infiltration of Key Institutions,” Max read the title aloud.
“Don’t banter that too loud, Max. You don’t know who might be listening,” Liam cautioned.
“What is this?” Max asked.
“It’s supposed to be some kind of kind of report, an intra-organizational status report for an organization calling itself the Brotherhood of the Knights of Saint George, or the Brotherhood for short,” Liam explained.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Max remarked. “So what have you done with this thing?”
“Well, I took it to that political science professor at NYU, Dr. Crawford and he’s looking at it.”
“And you think some super-secret organization, even if it exists, would just leave an interim report lying around in a garbage heap on a Manhattan street.”
“I don’t know what to think, but he’s given a copy of it to the conspiracy writer Mark Ryan and Mr. Ryan wants to see me tonight to talk about it.”
“Liam, this is crazy,” Max counselled. “This is so unlike you, to be taken in by such things.”
Max began to leaf through the manuscript.
“What have we talked about many times, the standards for scientific certainty? All of the experiments I’ve shown you. You can’t give into the impulse to believe in something just because it comes into your life, and it appears on the surface to be true. Our senses are easily fooled as you’ve reminded me how many times in the last ten years.”
“I hope you don’t think I’m crazy, as well,” Liam turned to Lisa and told her.
“So this is what this is what this errand today to Queens was about?” Max continued.
“Part of it. There was an address scribbled on a piece of paper inside the manuscript and I went to the address today and found out more information.”
“This is fascinating,” Lisa responded as she looked at the manuscript.
Liam pulled the newspaper clippings and other information out of the satchel and also laid them out on the table and Lisa began to look at all of them with intensity.
“The nearest I can figure and it’s still pure conjecture, is that this reporter whatever his name is, the one mentioned from Hadleyburg, must have something to do with this.”
“Yeah, I think you’re absolutely right, Liam,” Lisa responded. “Look at this article here, That reporter was shot near the Javits Center by a mugger. That’s probably how it ended up in the garbage heap.”
“I’m glad you two seem to be getting into this, but it’s BS if you ask me,” Max asserted.
“You never did have an investigative mind, Max. You wanted to prove everything you always believed was true. But that’s all right.” She paused. “So what are you doing now, Liam?”
“I’m not sure,” he answered.
“We should go to Virginia and look this reporter up,” she proposed.
“We,” Max interrupted. “We should forget about all this. It’s an eight-hour drive from here to Virginia.”
“You don’t mind if I come along?” she asked.
“Sure, go right ahead.” Liam reluctantly agreed.
The waitress was standing patiently waiting for their orders.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Lisa apologized. “I’d like a tuna salad sandwich and a very small piece of strawberry pie.”
“A grilled chicken sandwich and a cup of herbal tea,” Max responded. Then the waitress left them.
“So both of you are planning to drive to Virginia tomorrow?”
“Yes,” Lisa answered. “I have some time coming from work. It’s an adventure Max, and an honest-to-God errand into the wilderness.”
Her enthusiasm was unexpected for both of them.
“Do you even have a driver’s license, Liam?” Max asked.
“Of course, I have a driver’s license,” Liam answered.
Liam looked at his watch and it was nearly nine o’clock.
“I’ve got to make a quick phone call.”
Liam rose up from the booth and walked to the back of the restaurant, where he found a pay phone. He removed a quarter from his pocket and dialed. It rang five times before Malcolm finally answered it.
“Hello.”
“Yes, Dr. Crawford. This is Liam again.”
“Yes, Liam.”
“Have you arranged that meeting?”
“Yes, he wants to see you in his apartment at ten o’clock tonight.”
“What’s the address?”
“143 West 23rd Street, number 16a.”
“So are you coming along, Professor?” Liam asked.
“No, I think I’m going to pass on this one, Liam. Good luck.”
When Liam returned to the table, the waitress had already delivered their food and Lisa was eating her sandwich.
“OK. He wants to see me tonight at ten o’clock at his apartment. I have the address right here. So, are you coming. Max?”
“No, I’m really kind of put off by this whole thing.”
“Your loss then. What about you, Lisa?”
“I’d love to,” she responded. “Just let me finish my sandwich and then we can be on our way.”
Liam returned to the booth and began to gather up the manuscript and other items to return them to his satchel. Max sat quietly, but his face projected that he was contemplating saying something.
“Come on, Max. Tell me what you’re thinking,” Liam encouraged.
“I’m thinking about possible cutbacks at the company. For you to walk into work tomorrow and for you to walk into work tomorrow and tell them you need some time off to run some fool’s errand into Virginia seems the kiss of death for your job. This comes as a great shock to me. The man, who keeps itineraries of when he changes his socks, suddenly throwing all caution to the wind and running off like Don Quixote, It’s like you’ve had some quasi-religious vision like Richard Dreyfus in Close Encounters and you’re running off to Utah.”
“It was Wyoming,” Lisa interrupted.
“Well, whatever,” Max responded.
Max ate a couple of bites of his sandwich and swallowed them.
“I don’t care what you say, Max,” Lisa responded. “I’m excited about this. You’re just afraid of changing your mind about things.”
“If we’re going to go, we better get going soon,” Liam told her.
“I ran into Regina a few months ago. She said you weren’t together and hadn’t been for a while,” Lisa told him.
“Things didn’t work out,” Liam answered. “The odds weren’t in our favour anyway.”
“Liam likes to consider scenarios,” Max explained.
“I remember,” Lisa responded.
“He’s become pretty good at predicting outcomes,” Max noted.
“That’s what I do. For Regina and other people, it’s too much for them. The constant planning and consideration of cause and effect is just too much for them,” Liam acknowledged.
“I find it fascinating,” Lisa responded. “How accurate are your predictions?”
“About seventy percent,” Liam answered.
“Have you thought of becoming an Actuary, or maybe one of those risk assessment consultants who oversee large projects?” Lisa asked.
“Too much math for me. I get bored with numbers.” Liam answered.
“Liam doesn’t believe statistics is a real phenomenon. It’s created by our brains.” Max noted.
“Everything we experience, “Liam responded, “is created by our brains.”
“So how long have you and Regina been broken up?” Lisa asked.
“So many personal questions,” Max attempted to deflect her.
“It’s OK, Max. I’ll answer any reasonable question she asks me. It’s been two years, eleven days, eight hours.” He looked at his watch, “Sixteen minutes.”
“For a man who doesn’t care for numbers,” she observed, “You seem to be completely aware of them. And there have been no other young women since then.”
“I’ve been out a few times with some women from work. Nothing serious,” Liam responded.
Lisa sat quietly for a moment as though contemplating something.
“It was a young woman, someone from a long time ago, maybe even in college. I think I figured something out. Who was she?” Lisa asked.
“Now, that I’m not going to talk about,” he answered.
“What was her name, Max?” she asked.
“I made a promise never to mention her name again,” Max answered.
“Who was she?” Lisa repeated.
“She was a goddess,” Max responded. “And you know what happens when mere mortals get involved with the gods. They can never go back to mortal women again.”
“I don’t appreciate this banter about my personal life. Things just don’t work out for me with any of the young women who have come into my life,” Liam responded.
“Well, is she married, this goddess?” Lisa continued.
“I wouldn’t know.” Liam was obviously very uncomfortable with this discussion of his love life.
“The irony of course,” Max explained, “for the man whose personal life had been a disaster, he has a rare gift when it comes to human relationships. He’s arranged fifteen marriages in the last ten years, mostly with people at work.”
“Again, Liam, you have special talents,” Lisa told him. “Don’t let these naysayers that surround you discourage you.” She paused. “How did you do it, arrange so many marriages?”
“Scenarios. I lay out scenarios. Imagine what I could do if I could actually see the outcome.”
“We’ve talked about the ethics of interfering in people’s lives,” Max added. ‘I told him I don’t think it’s right to play with people’s lives.”
“Max was always a naysayer,” Lisa responded. “That was one of our major sticking points. He had to be constantly setting boundaries. If you’re so concerned about fortifying walls, eventually you end up alone in your castle.”
“I wish I had a castle,” Max rebounded. “You’ve seen my apartment. I have a hovel.”
Their waitress brought the check and Liam took it from the table.
“I’ll take care of it.” Liam volunteered.
He again stood up from the table.
“I’ll give you one more chance, Max. Come with us,” Liam told him.
“No, I’m sure I’ll hear all about it once it turns out to be a bust.”
Lisa leaned over and kissed Max on the cheek.
“It’s good to see you again. Please call me.”
Then she joined Liam.
“No, I’ll stay here,” Max answered. “My life is already too complicated!”
As Lisa and Liam walked out of the coffee shop, the piercing sound of a fire engine siren nearly ruptured their eardrums. As the noise slowly dissipated and they began to walk toward the subway station, she asked him,
“Do you mind if I ask you a question?”
“Go right ahead.”
“When I told you after Max and I broke up to call me, that I didn’t see why we couldn’t be friends just because Max and I weren’t seeing each other, why didn’t you call me?”
“I didn’t think it would be right, for me to talk to you after that. I’ve known Max a long time and he would have seen it as a sort of betrayal.”
“It wouldn’t have been. I’m very excited about this whole little adventure.”
“I don’t know if you should be,” he responded.
“My life is pretty mundane. Get up in the morning, fix your hair, make sure your clothes are properly color coordinated and shoes. My God, what woman likes high heels. All so I can go to an office and have some middle age man leering after me. You, Liam, always talked to me like I had a brain.”
“I like to talk to everyone as though they have some intelligence until proven otherwise.”
“I’m kind of sorry that Max isn’t coming along with us. It’s like that scene from Close Encounters when Richard Dreyfus and Melinda Dillon remove their gas masks and realize there is no nerve gas and then decide to climb up the mountain. The others just were too afraid to come along. I wonder if people realize how many extraordinary experiences are missed because people a paralyzed by their fears.”
“You’re always this excited about things?” Liam asked.
“By this I am. I love to discover new things. I made a promise to myself over a year ago, about the time of my last breakup, that every day, I would earnestly try to learn something new.”
They both entered the turnstiles of the subway station and went to the southbound platform to wait.
“Can I ask you another personal question?” she asked.
“Sure.”
“How’s your sister?” she asked
“My sister’s great, as far as I know,” he answered.
“What is her name?” she questioned.
“Ellen. Her name is Ellen. She’s an elementary school teacher in New Jersey.”
When the subway train arrived, Liam gestured for her to enter first and then he followed her. The doors closed erratically and then the train, like a silver snake began to slither through the tunnel.
“I still don’t know what to tell my boss, if we decide to make the Hadleyburg trip and I don’t have a car,” he told her.
“I have a car,” she responded. “It’s at my sister’s house in Staten Island.”