Chemical Reactions

Part 10

Three months later...

Over the next three months, you did not get to see Robert and whilst you worked on your thesis with Dr Lawrance in the experimental department and another professor in the theoretical department, you struggled with the mere fact that you could not run your ideas past the man you were now connected to more deeply than you had ever thought to be possible.

You knew that, at least physically, Robert was far away from you now and, yet, emotionally, he was so close since, just as he had promised, he wrote to you, week after week.

His letters were detailed and poetic, handed to you by no other than Dr Lawrance himself and, whilst Lawrance hated to be the middle man in all of this, he also knew that he had no choice.

"He writes to you more often than he writes his wife" he told you after a month or so had passed while, truthfully, you still had no idea where he was.

"You aren't reading those letters though, are you?" you asked your professor who, reluctantly, shook his head.

"I admit that I have read the first two or three letters to ensure that there isn't anything in them that concerns me or the security of the project, the nature of which I know you are somewhat aware of. But then I became to realise that the content of Robert's letters has nothing to do with physics at all so I stopped reading" Dr Lawrance then admitted with blushing cheeks and, of course, you could not help but cock your eyebrows.

"Robert has a habit of being romantic. I am sorry Dr Lawrance" you stammered, concerned by the fact that your professor was now very aware of your personal life.

"We live in a time of turmoil and scarcity so, please, don't apologise for engaging in a little pleasure now and then" Dr Lawrance responded before warning you that, if he had any reason to believe that you were going to engage in treason, he would report you as well as his colleague to the authorities for investigation.

"I understand, doctor and I can assure you that you have nothing to worry about" you reassured him which is also when he handed you yet another letter from Robert which, as usual, you could not help but read in a haste.

As such, you quickly handed Dr Lawrance a letter for Robert that you had prepared in the past week, responding to his previous poems and admissions of love and desire for you before, quickly, hiding away in one of the empty laboratories to tare open the envelope.

The letters...

"Even now, when I am so far away from you, in my mind's eye, I can see your smile. I can hear your laughter. I can taste your lips. This is when I realise how much I need you, my love" he wrote, amongst other things, in his past letters, the contents of which always made you blush.

With every word you read, your heart was filled with warmth and desire for him and, when you read through his writings every week, you took comfort in what he wrote to you, knowing that he missed you just as much as you missed him.

It was those words of his, from a man like him, that made you feel special and powerful. He was a man who was so utterly important to this country now and, out of all the women in his life, he seemed to desire you most which was evidenced by his writing.

His letters were always several pages long and, every week, you received at least one of them, making you wonder how much time he spent in between work to think about you. According to Doctor Lawrance, it must have been several hours at least seeing that no one else received this much correspondence from J Robert Oppenheimer, not even his wife who, in his letters, Robert said he did not love anymore and yet, he could not leave.

"I must retire now, or I will be overcome with love for you which is a feeling that has been rather unfamiliar to me for quite some time now" he thus said at the end of his last letter to you to which you responded with great enthusiasm.

You too wrote to him every week and, with every letter you received and every letter you sent, your feelings for Robert were growing stronger.

Your letters were also slowly becoming more intimate and sexual in nature and whilst Robert had no problem with being explicit, you struggled a little more with the idea of being open about your needs.

"I have very little power to resist the urge to kiss you again and convey my feelings for you with my body atop yours. I want to be one with you again and fight a great conundrum this night and every night, until we are together my love..." Robert told you on several occasions before you built up the courage to do the same.

"I cannot wait to see and feel you again Robert, but I can promise you that you are all I am thinking about when I am alone, wishing that my hands atop of my bare skin were yours" you thus wrote back while also telling Robert, in your final letter to him, that you were struggling to come to terms with his prolonged absence.

"It is in these quiet moments where I write you that I realise the depths of my loneliness and yet, I do not feel sad. I know that if it were not for the intensity of my feelings for you, I would not long for you the way I do" you wrote just last week which was the letter Robert had now responded to with only a short note, being the letter you received today.

"My love, I cannot bare another moment of being without you. Without you, I ache and this letter marks yet another step in my quest to illustrate to you just how important you are to me. These lonely nights will not build upon one another any longer and threaten the integrity of the foundation of our love. I will not allow it. It has been three months since our last encounter and I must see you again. I will be visiting the Four Seasons on Lane Street next week. Meet me there at noon on 3 March. Room 452. Yours always, Robert" was what it said and, since Robert told you that he had taken a room at the hotel that day, you knew that you had to drop everything else and meet him there. It was a chance you could not pass up and did not want to miss out on although, unbeknownst to you, you were being watched and so was Robert.

In fact, as soon as Robert made the booking at the hotel, General Groves' security team contacted the receptionist of this luxury accommodation and ascertained the room number assigned to J Robert Oppenheimer for his impending visit.

The General's team advised the receptionist that this was a matter of national security and since the receptionist could not deny providing the army officials with the information they had requested, the room number was given to a team of infiltrators.

As a result, the room was bugged with two listening devices, due to the concern that, perhaps, Robert was passing on secret information to you and the soviets.

This, of course, was nonsense though as General Groves' assigned personnel was soon to find out when listening into your somewhat personal encounter with Robert and, yet, it would life changing consequences for you both...

TO BE CONTINUED. PLEASE COMMENT AND ENGAGE!