The Claire Project

Chapter 3

Zenrad had a notoriously rigorous hiring process, and was well known for selecting only the brightest and best candidates in the scientific community. Will wanted this job badly. The position promised the candidate their very own private lab in the high tech facility, and first line access to get published in all the best research journals.

Naturally, Will had been a bundle of nerves since he began the process. Somehow, he had managed to navigate several long interviews and soon rose to the top of the prospects gunning for the job. He was quite proud of this accomplishment, that of all the brilliant minds he was up against, they chose him for the position at Zenrad.

When he tried to convey this to his father, he had hoped that his dad would share in his pride, but his father only seemed puzzled by Will's choice to move to the company's facility in Wyoming. From his perspective, he couldn't understand why Will couldn't have stayed on the East Coast while making a distinguished career for himself. He would have preferred Will to follow in his footsteps as a neurosurgeon, or even to stay on permanently at John Hopkins.

Will was not surprised by his father's stance on the matter. He had learned long ago that his father's opinions could not be helped. The problem wasn't that Will and his father didn't have a close relationship, it was more like neither of them knew how to have a close father-son relationship. They both tried, in their own ways, but the efforts always fell short somehow.

This was part of the void left behind after his mother had died unexpectedly in an accident when Will was only 10 years old. His mother had been the glue that held the three of them together as a cohesive family unit. Her love and warmth had bridged the gap between Will and his father effortlessly, making up for what they both lacked. Without her, they had never quite recovered. They had both turned in on themselves, his father became married to his work and Will to his studies.

Losing his mother just as he was entering the awkward stage of adolescence was an especially difficult blow to Will. As an introverted child to begin with, Will already had a hard time making friends, but he was also gifted and so he was put on an accelerated curriculum, which only further set him apart from his peers. Without his mother's gentle guidance, he never even bothered trying to fit in. He entered high school several years early and graduated early without making a single friend.

In college it was less painful to live such a solitary life. There were others like him there, people so passionate about science that little else mattered to them. There at least he established a camaraderie with his fellow students, although he always declined when they invited him out after they left the lab. The study groups he attended were enough for Will in the socialization department, and he preferred to spend his evenings alone quietly reading in his apartment.

But he had taken his studies as far as he could and now his time at John Hopkins had drawn to a close. He was an adult now, even if he didn't really feel like one. He had grown up almost in spite of himself, but he had finally reached an age where he was considered an adult by everyone around him, an adult with a doctorate, nonetheless. Learning has always come naturally to him, but now it was time for him to put his knowledge to use.

He felt an emptiness within himself, one that he was sure he could fill if he could manage to use his talents to contribute to the scientific community and to the world. It was no small task, and the pressure he placed on himself to succeed was the one persistent feeling that filled him as the driver pulled up to the Zenrad gates.