The Royal Flower

Chapter 5 - Lab Assistant

Daniel

I did not know why I asked Carolina to be my assistant. I did not need anyone to help me out in the lab. I already had two graduate student assistants, who helped in the afternoons.

Even when I was still a monk, I was used to working alone. The rest of my brothers devoted themselves entirely to God, with prayers and quiet isolation. I served Him – I still do, in my own way – but I also loved science, especially biology. My forte was in molecular biology, particularly in genetics and genomics.

In my old monastery, I was the only one who felt this way. You can imagine that Catholic universities were happy enough to have me. I was able to add a religious slant to my biology lectures. I taught general biology to freshmen and sophomores and more advanced biology to my graduate students. It was during my stint at the university that I met Selina Hawk.

Selina Hawk wanted to be my lab assistant. She taught in the same university. I told her that I did not need one because my childhood friend Victor was already assisting me at the lab. I recommended my friend because he struggled to get anywhere with the less-than-stellar grades he had earned when taking Biology courses in college. I did not know that teaching at the university, and my own brand of nepotism would result in my heartbreak.

It was Selina who had introduced me to romantic love and physical lust. It had happened so suddenly. It was then that I was faced with the fact that I was weak. Her seduction was unexpected, but I found myself welcoming it. She was a beautiful woman. Even as my brothers from the monastery were disappointed in me, my secular friends thought that we were made for each other: blonde, blue-eyed, tall, and intelligent. At least, that was what they said. I could barely call myself smart during those times that I was too wrapped around her little finger. I could not call myself smart when it took me a long time to find out that Selina and Victor had seen each other. I could still recall every word from our last conversation.

“Daniel, I know you’ve heard –“

“That you have been making a fool out of me? After all that I have gone through?”

“You were never really out of the monastery, Dan.”

“Don’t call me that. You no longer have the right. I left the monastery for you. Why would you say I never left it? I can never go back.”

I had tried to keep my voice even. Years of being a monk had trained me to be quiet, silent, and patient. But with Selina, I was just any man. She had stoked my fire, and even then, it was not enough.

“I was looking for something else – someone who could give me what I needed. You were always in your lab or preparing your lectures. And when we do make love, you don’t know how to let go. You are still so controlled.”

“I hope you are not telling me that you left me because of s*x?”

She had the grace to flush. Selina knew what she was getting into. What did she expect from a virgin monk, tempted only by herself to leave his vows? Even if she could not imagine a life with me, why did she think choosing my childhood friend was her best move?

I left here there, standing in the middle of an empty university hall. I turned toward a noisy part of the school where she could not attempt to draw me in with her lies.

But why would I offer Carolina a tainted position? She was also obviously not trained for it. However, once she found out what a lab assistant was and how it was associated with science, she seemed up for it.

“I read more books than any other young lady during my time. I read more than the men did,” Carolina said, chin up and back straight. She looked delighted in her modern clothes.

I looked at her again, more closely this time. Perhaps it could work. I would have a reason for having her with me all the time. How else could I let a medieval flower loose in a modern town, no matter how small?

“Now, Carolina, I have a laboratory at home. It is in the basement. We will also report to the one in town, in the university I used to teach in.”

“Used to? What do you mean? Why?”

“I had to leave.”

“Why?”

“Have you not seen many people leave their jobs?”

“No. Most of the people I knew served to the death. Only people like me escaped their given roles.”

“Ah. Then, we are a lot more alike than I thought.”

“You noticed me,” she said softly. She was looking at me with her large, green eyes, like an innocent child who had so many things to tell.

I blushed, thinking of the things that I noticed about her. Carolina was undoubtedly innocent, but she was not shy. I believed her when she said she had never shown her body to any man. My mysterious guest was pragmatic and a little boyish, too. She was the opposite of graceful, feminine Selina. Carolina looked like she would not back out from a fight. Even when she had stripped off the towel from her body, there was no air of seduction. She just wanted to get it over with – to try the clothes I had bought for her.

Carolina was excited, like a child. It was strange because people from several centuries ago should have grown tougher and more mature at a younger age.

“You seem like a sheltered young woman, Caro. May I call you that, or do you have another nickname?”

She grinned at that as she attempted to organize her new clothes, folding them very neatly. I suspected that she knew how to cram clothes in a satchel bag or a piece of cloth. My guest seemed to have so much adventurous spirit in her that she could barely sit still on the soft couch.

By the way, everything in my house was chosen by my mother. She went shopping as soon as she found out that I was leaving the monastery. I was her only child. It made sense, but I felt ashamed at being pampered when I was supposed to know how to live a much simpler life.

“Caro sounds wonderful, Daniel. I know you would not have guessed, but here it is - the truth. My brother might have thought I was a hooligan, but I was a princess.”

By this time, nothing should shock me anymore. But, I was still struck by the irony. I was a scientist and a monk dealing with logic and faith. I was already a bundle of contradictions. Then, suddenly, I had to deal with a fairy tale in the guise of a time-traveling princess who turned into a flower? How would biology be able to answer that?