‘He is my father?’ This is the thought that comes to Selene’s mind. He does not look like her father at all but she guess time really does change people’s appearance.
“Oh cool, the electricity is back. You won’t have to walk through the darkness anymore. Welp, good luck out there lady.” Cyrus felt relieved that the lights were back and with the girl he was trying to help not wanting to go with him, he just gave his remarks and left.
“Wait.” Selene held on to the back of Cyrus's clothes looking to make a request. “On second thought I would appreciate it if you would let me stay over for at least one night” On her mind she thought that maybe it would be safe since he is her father despite being from the past.
“You sure?” Cyrus just wanted to confirm but with her agreeing with the proposition they both went their way back to Cyrus’s place.
***
‘So this is his house.’ The house is considerably small but the inside is still pretty spacious.
“You wanna eat?” Cyrus offered her the food that he bought from the convenience store.
“Uhm, sure.” Why she agreed to eat there is a thought in her mind. ‘ I guess he sucks at cooking if he is only eating convenience store food.’
Back in the future Selene loves her mother’s home cooking but with her disappearance, she told her father that she does not want to eat whatever her father cooks. Since then all of them have eaten fast food and convenience store foods. With the past Cyrus showing that all he eats are just microwaved foods kind of justified her decision not to eat any of her father’s cooking
“Feel free to get cold water from the fridge.” The tap water here is not safe to be consumed so people buy water jugs to get drinkable water.
“Hey, Can I ask a question?”
“Normally yes but I only answer to people I know the names of.” Cyrus while sitting on the chair across the room just has a smug face waiting for Selene’s response.
“Fine, My name is Selene. Just Selene.” There is no way that she can say her full name because that would give her identity away to her father.
“Okay, I won’t pry your full name. What is your question?” With a cup in his hand, he proceeds to take a sip of his drink after responding the Selene.
“Where are your parents?” Selene is curious about her grandparents on her father’s side because she does not have any information about them while the grandparents on her mother’s side were pretty close with her.
“They are not here.” Cyrus with the question immediately stopped drinking and put his cup on the table. “I live alone.”
“So they live in a different house?”
“You could say that.”
The conversation led to a loud awkward silence as they did not know what to talk about next. While looking around noticed a notebook that looked like schoolwork.
“Hmm what is this?” With Selene pointing at the book.
“That’s just some supplementary questions I find online looking for college-level problems and answers.”
In the notebook, the question is written.
A person travels from Newcastle to Oxford by coach. Traffic is free-flowing and the coach’s speed is only limited by whether the road is flat (63 mph), uphill (56 mph) or downhill (72 mph). The coach ride takes 4 hours from Newcastle to Oxford, but the return journey, which follows the same roads, takes an hour longer. How many miles is the coach ride between Newcastle and Oxford? (Oxford Physics Problem Workbook 1, 2021)
“You found this online?”
“Yeah, it's from Oxford to help people prepare for the Physics Aptitude Test.
The question looks like a junior high school to a senior high school level problem according to what Selene is thinking. But what Cyrus says next surprised Selene.
“This is actually a college-level problem. You wanna try and solve it?”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Sure.” Selene is surprised that this is considered a college-level problem but she guesss it's a testament to how the future has different standards on what advanced questions are.
“Hmm. First, we need to think of the uphill, flat and downhill as x, y and z?”
“Yeah.”
“Then we need to create 2 equations based on each speed.”
“That is right.”
“ But aren't there too many unknowns? If we get the two equations it will be.”
x 56 + y 63 + z 72 = 4
z 56 + y 63 + x 72 = 5
“Well, ye it does look like there are 3 unknowns but only 2 speeds are too much but we do not actually need the exact value of the x, y and z.”
“Oh, we only need their sum. If we take their lowest common multiple of 504 we get to simplify the equation after flipping it.”
9x + 8y + 7z = 4 × 504
7x + 8y + 9z = 5 × 504
“So what do we do after that?”
“We add both equations resulting in”
16x + 16y + 16z = 16(x + y + z) = 9 × 504
“And that we will get?”
“We will get the answer which is.”
x + y + z = 9 × 504 /16 = 283.5 miles
“Woah amazing. You actually did that with ease.”
“Hehehe, I just happened to have taught physics before.” Back in the future, she was taught a lot by her father regarding physics. She remembered the days when both of them would happily try to solve equations together when she was smaller. It no longer happened when she became older so what just happened felt nostalgic.
“So what school are you going to be attending then?” Cyrus taking an interest in her intellect got curious about where she cultivated her knowledge.
“Uhmm. Because of my current situation, I doubt I would be attending any school.” Well, of course. She is not from this time so she can not exactly just stroll in and get enrolled.
“That is a shame.” Cyrus seriously thinks that it would be a waste for her intellect to not be utilized. “Actually, wait right here I am just going to make some calls.” Cyrus proceeded to go outside.
With Selene now alone in the living room, she looked around to gain more information about her current situation. There is no air conditioning in the living room unlike when she was still in the future. At least there is an electric fan, even if it is already night it is still undeniable how hot it gets so she sat in front of the fan in order to stay cool.
“Selene!” Cyrus shouted her name resulting in Selene jumping up.
“Yes po!” With Selene being surprised that Cyrus called for her, she accidentally responds like how she responded to her parents.
“No need to say po. We are the same age” Adding po in your sentence is a sign of respect to older individuals so since they are the same age he insisted that she not do that. “I have a proposition.”
“What is it?”
“What do you think about getting enrolled on the same school that I am?”
“I do not really want to bother you, besides I can't afford the tuition fee.”
“You do not need to worry about that, you will not need to pay for your tuition.”
“Do you mean like a scholarship program?
“Not exactly. Scholarship requires you to maintain a certain grade to retain your status but in this case, you just need to be recommended by me.” In Cyru’s current school, he has the reputation of being one of the best students so he gets the privilege of not needing to pay tuition fees and also the ability to recommend another person to be an honorary enrollee.
“I thought that this would be harder to approve because it does need the supreme student government president’s approval and she is usually always arguing with me but for the first time she immediately agreed with my proposal.”
‘He does not need to pay for his own tuition?’ That is what is on Selene’s mind right now. This confirmed to her that her father had pretty much always been gifted. What Selene might have shown earlier when solving the equation was impressive but in reality, she was falling behind in the future.
Everyone expected her to be good at physics because she is the daughter of the great Cyrus. To some extent, Selene does have some good aptitude with physics but people were expecting too much from her.
“Hey, would this require me to be as good as you?” Selene on the future actually asked her father almost the same question. “Dad, do you need your daughter to be as smart as you?” That is the question she asked him.
“Just do what you can do.”
Selene is wondering why is she surprised. She does not know why is she surprised that he gave the same answer. She did not like that answer back from the future and she also does not like it now. Selene does not like that other people are expecting too much from her but she does not like that her own father’s response sounds like he does not expect her to at least get close to his status.
“I guess you are not really expecting much from me huh.” Selene lost in thought accidentally blurted out what she was thinking.
Selene hoping that Cyrus did not hear what she said tried to look at him. What she saw was him staring at her. This got her scared because it looked like he had a disappointed look. He is not her father yet and he already looks like her disappointed father. Cyrus sat on a chair with him facing Selene.
“You know, what it looks like is that you are the one who is not expecting much from yourself.”
“What?”
“When I said just do what you can do, what do you think I meant?”
“That all I can do is not notable?”
“I did not say that. The reason I answered with that is because you know what you can do, and if you don’t then this is your chance to do so.”
Does this mean that her father does not think so little of her? She was afraid to ask about it when she was still in the future but now she is contemplating if she should've.
“It’s alright if you don’t believe me when I say you should just do what you can do but let me show you something.”
Cyrus and Selene went outside and walked some distance. Cyrus told Selene that he had some sort of a makeshift lab.
“Hey Selene, do you know that people call me an Idiot?”
“Huh? But didn’t you say that you are one of the geniuses in your school at least?”
“That is true, people do call me that but a smart person can still be an idiot.”
“That is kind of counterproductive.”
“Hehe what can I say except that I just do what I can do.”
Do what he can do huh, Selene is still pondering about that. Surely people have great expectations about people who are considered geniuses.
“Genius Idiot, that is what they call me.” Cyrus then opened the door and invited Selene inside.
“What is that?” There is some kind of contraption that has a lot of wires.
“This is the thing that I have been working on because I just want to do what I think I can do.” Cyrus kept on walking closer and closer to the contraption. “People do not believe me, they even ridicule me but that will not stop me for I will make sure that in less than 2 years I will finish this.”
“What is it?”
“A time machine.”