Meeting Max

Meeting Max Read Free Page B

Book: Meeting Max Read Free
Author: Richard Brumer
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India. It means thank you.”
    “Don’t tell me you speak the Malay—um, uh, language.”
    “Only a few words, just like my Hindi.”
    “So, you’re a woman of few words?” Rick smiled.
    “Yes, few words and strong sentiments,” she answered, giggling. “When I was in Munnar, I stayed at a lovely inn. There are no luxury hotels in Munnar, just cozy guesthouses up in the hills surrounded by spice trees and wild flowers. I had a cottage with a private bath and a small porch. I took tea in the afternoon, and all I could smell were cardamom, pepper, clove, and cinnamon trees. It was like meditating with my eyes open. There were only nine other guests, and breakfast and dinner was served in an open setting in the clean fresh air. It was so spiritual, and I felt so close to God. You would love it!”
    “I’m sure I would. I don’t think of myself as a spiritual person anymore, but I miss the spirituality I felt when I was young. It made me feel good, like I wasn’t alone, but I had to believe the truth my mind told me was real, that there was no God.”
    “That’s so sad,” Elena replied. “We’re different that way. I believe in God.”
    “Maybe you and I are different, but just because you believe in something doesn’t mean it’s true.” Rick hoped he didn’t sound too cocky. The last thing he wanted to do was disappoint the beautiful woman beside him. “Tell me, Elena, where did you grow up? What was your education like?”
    “I grew up in Forest Hills, New York and went to Kew-Forest High, which was a private school. I believed in reform Judaism and still do. I always go to the synagogue on the holidays, and I still remember Rabbi Math.” Elena paused momentarily, as if reminiscing about the rabbi, and then continued. “He was a good man and a friend of our family.
    “Let’s see…then I moved to Manhattan and went to Columbia University for my Bachelors and Masters in Journalism. After graduation, I did some freelance advertising work, which I hated, and then landed a job with US News and World Report in DC, which I hated a lot less.
    “I left that job when they decided to reduce publishing to only once a month. I still do some freelance work that I have to get back to in the States. I traveled a lot for a while and became interested in the progressive movements in the subcontinents, and I have an idea for a book. You’re from New York, aren’t you?”
    “You said a lot in a few words. I could hardly keep up. How did you know I was from New York?”
    “I can spot a New York accent anywhere. Are you from the city?”
    “Yes, the upper east side, but I grew up in the Bronx. After high school, I planned to study political science at NYU, but changed my major to the natural sciences. I got my PhD, and now I teach at my alma mater.”
    “Ah, a purveyor of knowledge. How nice,” she commented, giving him a thumbs up. “What subject do you teach?”
    “Biology. I took a circuitous route to get there. I had to deal with some major personal challenges when I was a young student at NYU before I got my head straight.”
    “Personal challenges? Do you mean you were a product of those mind altering days of the seventies and eighties?”
    “No, nothing like that, just a relationship issue. I examined my life from time to time, a suggestion that Plato espoused,” Rick said, smiling. “It sometimes made me see things in a new light.”
    “Plato, eh? And how did this self-examination and new light change you?”
    “Well, among other things, I realized that political science was not for me. It never was. I discovered my real passion was in the sciences, biology in particular, but, for awhile, I was living in the depths of some kind of existential malaise.”
    Elena raised her eyebrows and looked at Rick with squinting eyes. “You lost me there.”
    “I mean, I learned that I had to be responsible for the things I chose to do in my life and those choices would govern the kind of life I would have. I

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