The Resurrection Wager

Chapter 2

Chapter 2Thirty-eight year old, Paul Kingsman grew up as an only child in a single-parent home, on the north side of Boston. His father, a firefighter with the Boston Fire Department, had developed brain cancer and died when Paul was only seven years old.

His mother, Emma Kingsman, worked hard to provide for her son. Working long hours as a surgical nurse, she fought to balance the need for employment and the need to be at home for her son.

Paul excelled in school even though he had a knack for getting into trouble. He had been arrested twice in his high school years for minor juvenile offenses, but still managed to earn an academic scholarship to the University of Washington. While there, he completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in Quantum Mechanics. After that, he finished his doctoral studies at Berkley.

While at Berkley, Paul met Maureen Kraft, who was working on her Master's degree in Psychology. The two began dating, and two years later they married and had two children, Heather and Adam.

During these years, Paul made some remarkable investments with extremely good payoffs, several of which were so profitable and well-timed that an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission was started but never turned up anything inappropriate.

Paul's marriage only lasted four years before Maureen left him. She stated that his work and education had so absorbed him that she needed something else.

Paul returned to Massachusetts and founded The Kingsman Research Institute. Paul's small fortune from his investments and various grants provided funding for the growing institute.

The Kingsman Research Institute primarily studied Quantum Mechanics and how the barrier between space and time worked.

A year ago, Paul sustained minor injuries to his back and shoulder. This injury was the result of a car driven by Michelle Rogers, rear-ending him at a stop light near a shopping mall on the north side of the city.

Michelle was a high school math teacher in Boston and was also recently divorced. She was a stocky woman who stood about five foot six inches. She had long brown hair which she always wore pulled back.

After being married for six years, the doctors told Michelle and her husband Derek, that despite all they had tried, she was not going to be able to have children. Apparently, her eggs were not healthy and could not be fertilized.

The doctor told them that they had several options, including locating a surrogate egg donor, or adoption. While this news crushed Michelle, her husband came up with another plan. He moved out of their home and filed for a divorce.

Less than six weeks after the divorce was finalized, Michelle learned from a mutual friend that her ex-husband was an expectant father.

Following the traffic accident, Michelle and Paul had begun dating. Their divorces had, however, changed their outlook on life. Paul, while still committed to his work, took most weekends and evenings off, something he would have never have done before. He also had hired an assistant director of the institute who oversaw much of the ongoing research.

Michelle had also changed. While she once was very conservative in dress and behavior, she had become much more relaxed and almost reckless at times. This behavior change was one of the things that Paul was most attracted to since it fit his personality very closely. He often had difficulty imagining her as she had been. When she showed him photos of her previous self, Paul could not help feeling as if he was looking at a completely different person.

They had been living together for just over a year, and neither was in any hurry to try marriage again, though they both thought it was only a matter of time.

Michelle had come to accept that she would never be a mother, and Paul, having two kids already was not troubled by the idea.

Michelle was extremely fond of Heather and Adam and looked forward to the times when they came to visit almost as much as Paul did.