Scott: Better Late Than Never

So I’ve been thinking about these characters lately and I think I can feel a story developing somewhere.

Marko is a retired professor of philosophy.  He moved from the Ukraine almost 40 years ago but still has a strong accent.  Unlike most Ukrainians, he is warm and jolly.  He is very accomplished in his field but is quite humble – always willing to learn from those around him.  Judith his wife of 38 years, an American he met while getting his PhD at Berkley, recently died of cancer.  She was a simple woman who didn’t understand most of the thoughts that constituted her husband’s livelihood.  The role she gladly accepted was one of support – dealing effortlessly with the trivialities of life whilst Marko wrestled with the ”big questions.”  After her passing, Marko was left unprepaired to face the insurance and the payment plans and other aspects of adult life he had been postponing for the passed several decades.  And so, he decided to go back to school and take those GE credits he never got around to (Berkley really doesn’t care about that when you’re published at age 20) along with his two kids Daniel and Liz.  The other students in his Math 1030 class never would have guessed the extent of his scholarly claut by the way he freely admitted when completely lost in the most simple of linear equations. 

A natural flirt, after the sting of his wife’s death wore off he fired his guilt and could be seen in various stages of wooing with all his female professors, married or not, although always with the most gentlemanly of intentions.  He began to give his company freely to a blind and brilliant professor of Literature named Edith, whom he suspected of being in love with him starting several years prior to his wife’s death.  Although a man of complete physical fidelity, Marko on occassion admitted during his marriage what now seemed like an elephant in every room they shared: that they (Edith and he) seemed perfect for one another.  “How unfortunate,” faculty members would often say in the absence of parties involved, “they didn’t meet before Marko married Judith.”

But after giving love a formidable second chance, Marko was forced to break Edith’s heart when he realized two things:  1)  He liked Edith’s seeing-eye dog more than her (“Marko, be honest – are you using me for my dog?”  “Yes.”) and 2)  He loved his wife more than he would have ever suspected while she was alive.  Her simple sweetness was a kind of brilliance few women possess in academia.

He retires from flirting and surrounds himself with dogs as his life fades into the memory of his unlikely soul mate.

more on Liz and Daniel later…