The Signs of Fate

Tobias Arkson got into the BonArt Museum and started to pace the familiar corridors to cool down. His excitement was visible, he was about to meet one of the most brilliant and well-known archaeologists of the country, and he wanted to look confident and mask some of the nerves and anxiety he was experiencing.

He was early, so he decided to get into a new exhibit he had not seen on his last visit there, busy as he was taking down notes for his thesis on Pre-Colonial Artifacts. The new exhibit, sponsored by Professor Arthur Glide, displayed recently acquired indigenous artifacts found in the tropical forests. He was starting to feel at ease, but his pace was still rapid, and his wrist-rubbing nervous tic had made a comeback at the worst possible time.

He stopped to take a look at some photographs of the team that had recovered the pieces, when some drawings hanging at a corner caught his eye. They were some kind of signs, resembling Egyptian hieroglyphics. He had studied extensively on the subject back at university, but he had never been able to find any study or paper on those particular signs that were so familiar to him since he was of a very young age. To his surprise, he could perfectly understand the inscriptions, but there was no translation provided to confirm it. As if in a trance, he continued looking at the photographs and carvings of the same signs shown on them, and he inadvertently started to roll up his sleeves and rub his wrists more frantically. His habit to hide his arms completely abandoned him altogether, immersed in his thoughts even more than he usually was. A noise pulled him out and into reality and he felt there was somebody standing near him. He turned around to see Arthur Glide in the flesh.

The anxiety and the nervousness he had been trying to hide, and the astonishing discovery of those signs, together with the sight of somebody he was so eager to meet, made him dizzy and before he could sit down, he felt himself fainting. Slowly the lights around him started to cloud and the sounds were not clear enough for him to hear. He felt himself slipping away and falling down all in seconds, and he passed out.

Arthur Glide had been busy making arrangements for his upcoming expedition to the Amazonian forest. He had been eager to raise the funds required for the trip since his last trip there almost two years before. The lack of an assistant only made things the more difficult, which was clearly reflected in the condition of his office. He had to literary throw stuff down from the sofa to be able to help Tobias sit to recover.

Tobias woke on a sofa, at the professor's office, utterly embarrassed and still feeling faint. He was beginning to apologize, but the professor was very excited about something, and started to talk to him very fast. He could not understand anything he was saying, as he was just trying to regain his force and stand up. After a couple of minutes, he was feeling himself again, and was able to speak:

"Professor Glide. I'm so sorry. It's a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance", he said.

"Yes. Yes. Arthur Glide. Pleasure. I couldn't help but notice... since your sleeves are rolled up..."

"Oh..." Tobias begun to roll his sleeves back down and buttoned his cuffs in a quick motion as he was mumbling part of the introduction speech he had so cautiously prepared and rehearsed on his way there. "My name is Tobias Arkson. I was born in 1997 and I've graduated from the KLW University ten months ago, majoring in Archaeology Studies. I've been following your career since I was in high-school and I was very excited to learn the museum was looking to hire someone to assist you..."

The professor was perplexed and seemed to have something else in his mind altogether, which was reflected by the confusion look imprinted all over his face, so Tobias proceeded:

"The position for assistant researcher. I've applied two weeks ago through the museum's Head of Communications. My name is Tobias Arkson. Didn't Mrs. Swanson tell you we'd scheduled an interview for today?"