Blink of an Eye by Ted Dekker Read Free Book Online

his right, a dance squad performed flips in short skirts. The Faculty Club building stood beyond them, bordered by a manicured glade. He’d been inside on four occasions, each time for an event that required his attendance. Receptions in honor of his awards, mostly.
    Like the one scheduled for Thursday evening. The American Physical Society and the American Institute of Physics had named him something or other of the year, and, like it or not, the graduate dean was obligated to acknowledge the award. Thinking about it now, Seth wondered what would happen if he didn’t show. He wasn’t feeling too social after yesterday’s fiasco with Baaron. He envisioned two hundred faculty dressed to the nines with champagne glasses raised and no one to toast.
    â€œSeth!”
    He turned to see Phil—a third-year undergraduate and the epitome of a nerd with glasses, pocket protector, and pimples—run up behind him. Phil was among half a dozen down-and-outers that Seth felt truly at home with.
    â€œHey, Phil.” He slipped his hand into his pocket and rolled the Super Ball between his fingers.
    Phil slapped an open crossword magazine in his hand. “You ready?”
    â€œSure,” Seth said. “Let me see it.”
    Phil held the page up, displaying a four-inch-square crossword puzzle. Seth made quick mental notes of the puzzle’s pattern—black squares, white squares, numbers. Category: GOOD MARKS.
    â€œOkay.”
    Phil withdrew the puzzle and glanced ahead. “So where you going?”
    â€œMeeting with Dr. Harland. You?”
    â€œTo the cafeteria. Okay, ready? Seventeen across, ten letters, clue— expropriate .”
    â€œ Commandeer ,” Seth said.
    Phil flipped a page, checked the answer, and continued. “Good. Twenty-four across, seven letters, clue— horse back in the pack .”
    Seth considered the clue for a second. “That would be also-ran , Phil,” he said in his best game-show voice.
    â€œNever heard of it,” the younger student said. “Three down, five letters, clue— subdues .”
    â€œThree down? Tames .”
    â€œFinal answer?”
    â€œ Tames , Phil. It has to be tames .”
    â€œHow do you do that without looking?”
    â€œI did look, remember? The M intersects with commandeer and the S intersects with also-ran ,” Seth said.
    Phil slapped the magazine closed. “I heard you told Baaron a few things.”
    â€œYou heard that?”
    â€œYeah. True?”
    â€œTrue.”
    Seth saw that Phil was watching the dancers now. Seth decided long ago that women had an inexplicable effect on his mind, minimizing its ability to process thought in logical constructs. Without fail, females turned Seth into someone he really didn’t think he was, someone lost for clear thoughts and words.
    Phil, however, would kill to sit alone on a bench with a girl. Any girl. He aggressively denied the desire, of course.
    Phil saw Seth had noticed and ducked his head. “See ya.”
    â€œSee ya.”
    He headed off, hands deep in his pockets, head lowered.
    They had named the philosophy building Moses—ironic but appropriate considering its current occupant. Seth had always thought that the chair of philosophy, Samuel Harland, PhD, was the spitting image of Charlton Heston with his dirty blond hair and soft blue eyes. He was the only man in the place worthy of the building’s name.
    He knocked on the department head’s office door, heard a muffled “Enter,” and stepped in.
    â€œGood day.”
    â€œHave a seat,” the professor said.
    Seth sat. “That bad, huh?”
    â€œUnfortunately, yes. Baaron is seething.”
    Seth paused. If there was one person in his life he could confide in, it was this man. “You wouldn’t expect the academic dean of an esteemed institution such as this to let a little folly get under his skin.”
    â€œYou wouldn’t,” Harland