Go to Page #1  #2   #3  #4   #5  #6   #7  #8   #9  #10   #11  #12   #13  #14

Zin Avenger LOGO

Awakenings Chapter 2: Realizations, Page 4

“Be careful Joe.  Poisoning is something that the authorities should deal with it.  Not reporting it can get you in big trouble.  I work with a lot of cops.”

Joe placed the glass with the lavender crystal coating on the counter.  “You asked for a sample of the wine.  This is the best I can do.  I have never seen crystals like this come out of a wine and coat a glass.”

Roger studied the crystals.  “You said that your customer reported strange visions?  If so, it may some kind of hallucinogen.”

“LSD?  Could these crystals be LSD?”

Roger laughed out loud. “Heavens no.  If this was LSD, then the crystals coating this glass might be enough to get all of San Francisco high enough to try flying out of windows.  There are lots of chemical compounds that can cause hallucinations.  I will take this back to the lab and run some standard drug screening tests.”

Somewhat relieved, Joe asked Roger, “How much will this cost?”

A sly smile came to Roger.  “The lab is slow right now.  I have idle equipment.  I can probably have results in a couple of days in exchange for a bottle of one of your library wines.”

Joe grinned.  “What did you have in mind?”

“I would like a bottle of your 1997 Old Vine Zinfandel.”

Joe got Roger two bottles of the 1997 Library Old Vine Zinfandel.  Joe then poured each of them a second glass of the Petite Syrah.  They then chit chatted about school and people they had gone to school with until Elise called the phone in the tasting room to remind Joe that dinner was about to be served.

Tuesday night was Joe and Elise’s traditional evening for relaxation.  School had not yet started so there was no homework to help the kids with.  Elise liked to read historical novels.  Joe tended to surf the web, having found a new interest in Latin and alchemy, amongst other things, Joe found the web to be a useful resource.  He was fortunate to have a high-speed connection.

Joe brought out the folder with the photos of the pages from his great grandfather’s notebook.  Looking at the reverse writing pages, he had a sudden inspiration.  His photo editing software had a mirror image tool.  He placed one of the pages on his scanner and clicked on the scan button on his toolbar .  The image came in clearly.  He found the mirror tool on the menu bar and clicked on it.  Sure enough, he could now make out a few simple Latin words.  He further used the photo editing software to clean up the image in order to make the writing more legible.  Unfortunately, the script writing did not lend itself to be input into an optical character recognition program; so automated translation was not an option.  By the time Elise came to find Joe to remind him of bedtime, he was deep into reading about alchemy.

Continued ...     Back to Page 3