Skinner
was late for his next class. The grad student who was to run the class and
experiments fell ill. He decided at the last minute to teach it himself. He
usually had a quite standard routine for his days and teaching this class took
him out of his way. He was going a different route than he usually took between
buildings due to the change in his schedule. He noticed a nice young man being
escorted by two security guards, making their way towards the front entrance to
the quad.
The young
man suddenly appeared to recognize him and started to shout his name. This made
Dr. Skinner quicken his pace. He wanted nothing to do with and young man who
was under custody by campus security. He was almost out of ear shot when he
heard something he hadn’t heard in years. The boy was shouting it at the top of
his lungs.
“PROJECT
PIGEON!” over and over again. He stopped in his tracks and called to the
security detail to wait. The boy wanted to blurt out all sorts of things he was
told was top secret information the last time the doctor had spoken to his
military liaison. He convinced the guards to let him interview the boy in
private in the security office.
When they
were along the boy produced a copy of his Top Secret report on Project Pigeon.
He was very upset to say the least and asked many questions until he was
convinced that the boy just wanted to deliver the file to him and to listen to
what his uncle speculated.
The boy’s
name was Jim Crenshaw and his uncle was the one who had the file. The uncle
worked for the Pentagon and had top secret clearance. It still unnerved Skinner
that a copy of his files would fall into the hands of a sixteen year old boy.
The tale
the boy told was one of utmost admiration for his newly departed uncle who’s
dying message was “Skinner”. When the boy looked through his uncle’s things he
found the file and put two and two together to get five, it seemed to Skinner
at first. He then left his home and family and drove over a thousand miles on a
motorcycle to deliver his uncles dying message and the files.
The boy
was named Jim Crenshaw and Skinner could not just turn the boy away after all
he had done to fulfil his uncle’s dying wish so he convinced the security men
to release Jim into his custody. He then brought him home completely forgetting
his class and the following faculty meeting later that afternoon.