rights, he should consult Dr. Ilman first. But then he remembered what awaited him in Stockholm, and he saw Emily’s enthusiastic face, and he knew that no imminent heart attack or stroke could keep him from the prize that would solve everything.
He took Emily firmly by the elbow and started her toward the house. ‘Tell me, liebes Kind ,’ he said happily, ‘what are you going to wear when you curtsy before the King?’
It was 1.51 of a hot, sunny afternoon when the telegram from the Swedish Embassy in Washington, D.C. , automatically typed itself out on the tape of the electric receiving machine in the telegraph room located on Colorado Street in Pasadena, California .
The harassed fat girl at the machine hardly read the message, as she snipped it free. Expertly, using the cutter on her finger, she sliced the message into short lines, moistened them, and neatly glued them to the blank. The message formally prepared for delivery, and before her, she suddenly realized the import of its contents.
‘Migawd,’ she said aloud, ‘twenty-five thousand dollars!’
The two men at the counter overheard her. One, the skinny young man in frayed blue suit who was an employee of the telegraph office, turned away from the pencilled words he had been counting and asked, ‘Who got rich?’ The customer, across the counter, a middle-aged man with rimless glasses who resembled a lesser bank executive, also displayed interest.
The fat girl lifted herself from her chair with a grunt. ‘It says here—somebody in Pasadena—never heard of him—just won the Nobel Prize.’
She went to the counter and showed the telegram to her skinny co-worker. As he read it, he whistled. He handed the wire to the customer, who pushed his glasses higher on the bridge of his nose, and said, ‘If I were you, I would not wait to deliver a message of this importance. I would telephone it to the party concerned.’ Importantly, he began to read the telegram.
FOR YOUR PART IN THE DISCOVERY OF ANTIREACTIVE SUBSTANCES TO OVERCOME THE IMMUNOLOGICAL BARRIER TO CARDIAC TRANSPLANTATION AND YOUR INTRODUCTION OF SURGICAL TECHNIQUE TO SUCCESSFULLY PERFORM A HETEROGRAFT OF THE HEART ORGAN INTO THE HUMAN BODY THE NOBEL FOUNDATION OF STOCKHOLM ON BEHALF OF THE ROYAL CAROLINE MEDICO CHIRURGICAL INSTITUTE OF SWEDEN IS PLEASED TO INFORM YOU THAT YOU HAVE TODAY BEEN VOTED THIS YEARS NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINE STOP YOUR SHARE OF THE PRIZE WILL BE A GOLD MEDALLION AND A CHEQUE FOR TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS STOP THE AWARD CEREMONY WILL TAKE PLACE IN STOCKHOLM ON DECEMBER TENTH STOP DETAILS FOLLOW STOP HEARTIEST CONGRATULATIONS STOP
The message was addressed to DOCTOR JOHN GARRETT NUMBER FOUR HILLSIDE TERRACE PASADENA CALIFORNIA. . . .
As usual, the drive from Pasadena on the ever-crowded freeways to the Miracle Mile section of Los Angeles took Dr. John Garrett longer than he had expected. What made the trip even slower, this early afternoon, was the fact that Garrett was deeply engaged with his thoughts, with the new speech that he intended to deliver tonight, and with the rights and wrongs of it.
By the time he had arrived at Western Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, and parked the black Jaguar (his first lavish purchase, on payments, after his sudden ascent to prominence) in the familiar petrol station, he had made up his mind (no matter what Dr. Keller advised him) that he would present the new speech unedited and unexpurgated.
Striding the short distance to the seven-storey medical building, Garrett observed his reflection several times in shop windows. He was not displeased with what he saw: an arresting, forceful young man of resolution. He had almost forgotten his pleasure, a decade before, when Saralee had shown him an article based on a poll taken by the American Institute of Public Opinion on the average American male, and he had learned that he conformed
He took Emily firmly by the elbow and started her toward the house. ‘Tell me, liebes Kind ,’ he said happily, ‘what are you going to wear when you curtsy before the King?’
It was 1.51 of a hot, sunny afternoon when the telegram from the Swedish Embassy in Washington, D.C. , automatically typed itself out on the tape of the electric receiving machine in the telegraph room located on Colorado Street in Pasadena, California .
The harassed fat girl at the machine hardly read the message, as she snipped it free. Expertly, using the cutter on her finger, she sliced the message into short lines, moistened them, and neatly glued them to the blank. The message formally prepared for delivery, and before her, she suddenly realized the import of its contents.
‘Migawd,’ she said aloud, ‘twenty-five thousand dollars!’
The two men at the counter overheard her. One, the skinny young man in frayed blue suit who was an employee of the telegraph office, turned away from the pencilled words he had been counting and asked, ‘Who got rich?’ The customer, across the counter, a middle-aged man with rimless glasses who resembled a lesser bank executive, also displayed interest.
The fat girl lifted herself from her chair with a grunt. ‘It says here—somebody in Pasadena—never heard of him—just won the Nobel Prize.’
She went to the counter and showed the telegram to her skinny co-worker. As he read it, he whistled. He handed the wire to the customer, who pushed his glasses higher on the bridge of his nose, and said, ‘If I were you, I would not wait to deliver a message of this importance. I would telephone it to the party concerned.’ Importantly, he began to read the telegram.
FOR YOUR PART IN THE DISCOVERY OF ANTIREACTIVE SUBSTANCES TO OVERCOME THE IMMUNOLOGICAL BARRIER TO CARDIAC TRANSPLANTATION AND YOUR INTRODUCTION OF SURGICAL TECHNIQUE TO SUCCESSFULLY PERFORM A HETEROGRAFT OF THE HEART ORGAN INTO THE HUMAN BODY THE NOBEL FOUNDATION OF STOCKHOLM ON BEHALF OF THE ROYAL CAROLINE MEDICO CHIRURGICAL INSTITUTE OF SWEDEN IS PLEASED TO INFORM YOU THAT YOU HAVE TODAY BEEN VOTED THIS YEARS NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINE STOP YOUR SHARE OF THE PRIZE WILL BE A GOLD MEDALLION AND A CHEQUE FOR TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS STOP THE AWARD CEREMONY WILL TAKE PLACE IN STOCKHOLM ON DECEMBER TENTH STOP DETAILS FOLLOW STOP HEARTIEST CONGRATULATIONS STOP
The message was addressed to DOCTOR JOHN GARRETT NUMBER FOUR HILLSIDE TERRACE PASADENA CALIFORNIA. . . .
As usual, the drive from Pasadena on the ever-crowded freeways to the Miracle Mile section of Los Angeles took Dr. John Garrett longer than he had expected. What made the trip even slower, this early afternoon, was the fact that Garrett was deeply engaged with his thoughts, with the new speech that he intended to deliver tonight, and with the rights and wrongs of it.
By the time he had arrived at Western Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, and parked the black Jaguar (his first lavish purchase, on payments, after his sudden ascent to prominence) in the familiar petrol station, he had made up his mind (no matter what Dr. Keller advised him) that he would present the new speech unedited and unexpurgated.
Striding the short distance to the seven-storey medical building, Garrett observed his reflection several times in shop windows. He was not displeased with what he saw: an arresting, forceful young man of resolution. He had almost forgotten his pleasure, a decade before, when Saralee had shown him an article based on a poll taken by the American Institute of Public Opinion on the average American male, and he had learned that he conformed
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