***** Vol.3 Chap.34 A subliminal call *****

Frank looked around and glanced towards the library and noticed the statue of the former President Copenhagen in front of the library. He wondered why he never saw the statue before. Perhaps he was just not looking around enough before.

He stared at the statue, marveling at the sculpture. The head was exquisitely done and the curly hair was carved perfectly, accentuating the distinguishing nose. The ubiquitous smile was permanently captured on this popular face. Tucked under his left hand was a big and heavy book. I wonder what book was that. Perhaps the unabridged Webster’s Dictionary? The by-laws of the University? The campus budget 50 years ago?

His right hand was outstretched with an open palm. Was he giving a blessing to the campus? Or making an oratorical remark to his audience? Or making a pitch to the legislators about how great the university was?

The long graduation robe made him look distinguished, emphasizing his constant stress on academic scholarship. The statue was slightly taller than real life watching over the campus, over every student, over every faculty, and over every administrator and encouraging everyone to push to the limits of their capability.

As he gazed at the statue, the curly hair seemed to lengthen beyond his ears.

That is funny. He thought to himself. He shook his head and looked again.

Instead of standing tall with outstretched hand, the statue gradually lowered itself while lengthening itself from behind. What was lost in height was compensated by what was gained in depth. The whole statue was now lying down. The book that was under the left hand had shrunk and disappeared while the hand enlarged. The outstretched hand retracted slightly. Both hands slowly moved forward and placed closer to the shoulders. The graduation gown seemed to be stretched backwards. The gown stretched and stretched as the base of the statue disappeared.

He rubbed his eyes and looked again. He took his glasses off, cleaned them, and put them on again. The statue was still stretching. It seemed to resemble a crouching animal.

As he stared at the changing statue, the face morphed; the distinguishing nose became more rounded, the curly hair became long, ruffled, and unruly, the eyes were enlarged and penetrating; the lips were enlarged with fangs showing. In short, the statue had become a crouching lion with the head held high and tall.

I have seen this image before. He was puzzled.

Revelation suddenly dawned on him. What he was seeing was an image of the Sphinx from a distance. There was a deep stir within him as he finally realized what he was seeing. There was a powerful reaction within him, although he could not put his fingers on it.

What does this mean? Why am I seeing the Sphinx now?

As He looked again at the statue, the morphed lion seemed to continue to grow. It grew and grew and grew. The base of the lion spread towards the nice grassy field in front. The base of the lion now consumed the entire grassy field. As the lion grew, the surrounding buildings seemed to shrink and shrink and shrink.

One of the lion’s paws moved. It motioned for him to come. But he was frozen in place and could not move. The paw beckoned him to come again. He hesitated. The paws moved the third time, summoning him to come. He wanted to go, but found his body unwilling and totally not under his control at all.

The lion made no further attempt to move. But he thought he saw a drop of tear rolling down the cheek of the lion’s head. The drop of tear sparkled in the sunlight as it rolled down the lion’s face, which had become very sad.

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It’s been too long since I’ve been back to visit the Sphinx and my dear wife Catherine’s cemetery. He thought, feeling sad as well.

The image conjured up many pleasant memories of the past. He remembered many field trips during elementary and secondary schools in his earlier years, running around the Sphinx and the other statues in his youth with his friends, and meeting Catherine, his beloved wife who had passed away twenty five years ago.

He savored the time he had with Catherine during those romantic nights where they had sneaked out on the class field trips. They would sit under the Sphinx holding one another’s hands, enjoying one another’s company. Then there were the summers when he and Catherine were playing hide and seek in the desert, running around like butterflies among the tourists.

They would dress in the native costume and stand to pose with any passing tourists who would pay them money. At the end of the day, they would share an ice cream cone together in some hide-away place. In fact, they saved up enough money for him to purchase the latest model of a home computer at the end of the summer. Catherine, on the hand, spent all her money on her prom dress…

The image of the beckoning Sphinx kept replaying repeatedly in his mind.

Ah, those were the days.

He and Catherine got married as soon as they graduated from high school. Catherine wanted to be a librarian and studied Library Science. He wanted to be a computer scientist right from the start.

Those were the happy days. He smiled to himself.

The four years of undergraduate studies flew by. They had no children and did not want any. The university work was not hard at all, and he and Catherine would often sneak into the desert near the Sphinx without paying admission and frolic their youthful energies among the statues because their good friend from high school Barak oversaw admission then.

Somehow, the Sphinx seemed to be a special place for them. Whenever they were there, they felt so close to nature, to earth, to God if there was one. They felt more at home in the desert than at their apartment.

After graduation, they moved to Cairo. Catherine started work at the local library while he continued graduate school with the National University of Egypt. He took an interest in artificial intelligence (AI) immediately and checked out all the reference books in artificial intelligence in the library. What meager salary that Catherine made, if there were any extra, he would spend on AI books and upgrading their computer. Even though they were living in Cairo, they made frequent trips to the Giza desert.

During his last year of graduate studies, He was rather busy in preparing his dissertation on artificial neural networks. But a tragic accident had taken Catherine’s life. A careening car going at high speed after a bank robbery turned the corner and broadsided the bus that Catherine was riding. The force of the impact was so great that one side of the bus was bashed in and nearly broke the bus into two. The fuel line was severed and the leaking fuel was ignited instantly, causing a gigantic fireball. All on-board were instantly incinerated beyond recognition.

The loss dealt a serious blow to him. Instead of his usual cheerful personality, He became sullen and withdrawn and kept mostly to himself. Instead of dealing with his loss, he channeled all his energy into his studies. He would hardly go back to his apartment at all. Rather, most of the time, he just ate and slept in the laboratory.

After graduated with honors, his advisor suggested he took a faculty position in the United States to get away and have a change. Subsequently He came to the Carniegie Institute and was there ever since.

“Good afternoon, Professor Abdulcizi.” A passing student yelled to him.

“Oh, hi George, doing alright?”

“Doing great, just not enough hours in a day, that’s all.”

“I know what you mean.”

“See you.”

“Bye.”

He looked over towards the library again. The statue of the former President Copenhagen was still standing guard over the campus as usual. He shook his head, but could not shake the nagging feeling within him.

Was that really an image of the Sphinx that he saw just a moment ago, or was that just an illusion in his mind?

I must be working too hard. I should take a break sometime. He told himself.

Yet the images of the transformation of the statue into the Sphinx kept replaying in his mind and he wondered if and what was the underlying message.

What was it about the Sphinx that had so enchanted him throughout his life? The Sphinx had always been a part of his life until he moved to the United States. He had had little thought about the Sphinx for a long while. Why suddenly the image of the Sphinx surfaced in his mind now? He shook his head again.

Well, I think it is time to go back. He slowly stood up and walked towards his office. Before he turned the corner, He looked back towards the statue. Professor Copenhagen was still standing tall with the usual stern face, watching over the activities of the campus. He shook his head again and walked into his building.