***** Vol.3 Chap.23 The luncheon *****
Frank saw a line of people moving towards the ballroom where lunch was served.
“Doctor Chen, would you like some lunch?” Frank asked May-Ling.
“Oh, of course. Where is lunch?”
“Follow me. I have a feeling those people there are going to the same place as we are. Do you have your coupon ready?”
“I should. Thanks for the reminder.” She fumbled around and finally located the lunch coupon. Holding on securely in her hand, she followed him to the ballroom door. A couple of seats were open at one table close to the front.
“Doctor Chen, how about that table over there?” He pointed to the table.
“Sure, please lead the way.”
They made their way to the table.
“May we join you folks?” He asked as they approached the table.
“Sure,” a young lady replied.
Frank and May-Ling came around and sat down and found out that the young lady was Kristin Sobinowski.
“Hi, my name is …”
He held out his hand but quickly withdrew when he recognized Kristin.
“Kristin, we meet again. This is Doctor May-Ling Chen.” Frank said.
“Hi, nice meeting you, Dr. Sobinowski,” May-Ling said.
“Oh, call me Kristin.”
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“Call me Frank.”
“And call me May-Ling.”
The server came with the salad. Frank asked for a cup of coffee.
“You two are the panelists this morning?” Kristin asked in between bites.
“Yes. You told me you are one of the speakers as well. When is your session?” Frank answered.
“I am presenting a paper right after lunch. That is why I came early to eat to make sure that I save enough time to get ready.”
“Please go ahead and eat.”
“By the way, that was an interesting talk this morning.”
“You attended the session?”
“Of course, it is a plenary session.”
“I am afraid you have us at an advantage. You know what May-Ling and I did, but I am afraid I know nothing about what you are doing.”
“Oh, I am doing research on dolphin behaviors. I will present a paper on my dolphin observation for the past two years.”
“Really? Can you give us a quick synopsis?”
“Basically, I found dolphins are gregarious and as a species, they are cooperative among themselves.”
“Are you saying that there is no aggression among the dolphins?”
May-Ling’s ears perked up. Up to now, she was concentrating on eating the salad with her fork, which was quite a novel experience for her.
“No, no aggression.”
“Wow.”
Frank said as he finished his salad.
“May be there is something we can learn from the dolphins.” May-Ling remarked.
“There are a lot of things we can learn from the dolphins.” Kristin replied.
“Frank, maybe violent behavior is not in their genetic coding?” May-Ling asked.
“Well, that is a good supposition. Maybe they are not programmed to exhibit violence.”
“Can your program confirm that?” Kristin asked.
“No, I can only find correlations. That means that you got to find me some violent dolphins first. I cannot confirm what is not there.”
“Well, you got a point there.” Kristin said.
The servers brought the main entrée of lemon chicken on wild rice, garnished with cilantro. After all the airline food, this tasted so good to May-Ling.
In the meantime, the lunch speaker has started the talk. The subject of the lunch speaker was not that interesting to May-Ling. So, she was sitting there enjoying the food. Without realizing it, she cleaned the whole plate in no time.
“I got to get ready for the session.” Kristin told Frank and May-Ling.
“It is about that time, isn’t it?”
“Well, nice talking to you both.”
“Same here.”
After lunch, May-Ling was getting tired, not having rested well since she arrived. So, she told Frank that she would go back to her room for a rest.
“Do you have any plans for dinner tonight?” Frank asked May-Ling.
“No.”
“How about joining me for dinner tonight?”
“I would be delighted. I don’t know anyone at this conference.”
“That makes two of us.”
A lie, of course.
“Where should I meet you?”
“How about at the registration desk around six o’clock?”
“Great. I will see you then.”
“Rest well.”