but today he was struggling to keep his focus. His game was off. Sage stood in front of the podium facing the class. He had begun to feel faint but did not want to elucidate to his students that he was not quite himself. He looked at his watch.
“Class, read chapters 20, 21, and 23. See you Thursday,” he said, uncharacteristically softly.
Murmurs and mumbles were heard as some students attempted to garner meaning behind the short class. Others seemed to be excited that the colloquium had ended early. Sage gathered his belongings and hurriedly headed back through the hall. He focused on the security checkpoint and then aimed for the parking lot like a bloodhound hot on the trail of an escaped prisoner’s scent.
“You all right, Professor?”
Not hearing the guard, Sage mumbled, “You too, Hal.”
Hal frowned, stared at Sage’s rapidly departing back, and returned to leafing through the other materials on his desk. Sage arrived at his vehicle, unlocked it, and entered. The heat permeated his clothing, and the seat was already warm. He shut the door, started the engine, and immediately pushed the maximum cool button on his air conditioner in an attempt to battle the early morning Phoenix sun. The engine purred, and the radio softly played. Sage drove off, headed for home.
Once home, Sage removed his shoes and loosened his tie. He sank into the couch and palmed the remote. After powering on the television, his hand leisurely flipped through a few channels until his eyelids grew heavy. He was short on sleep; his head bobbed, his lids became more burdensome, and he began to doze. He did not fight what his military counterparts referred to as the sleep monster. He let the beast win.
Chapter 6
Sage’s rest was light, and he vacillated between sleep and the occasional click of the channel button on the remote. The television had paused on a science channel as the sleep monster continued to best Sage. This was one of the few times Sage’s desire to always win was not overwhelming; he did not fight. On the television, a show about love, relationships, and sex played. Sage listened but gave the show less than a proper amount of attention. As the show continued, Sage heard something about sexual relations. This got his attention, and he opened one eye a bit more than the other and began to half-listen.
The show addressed a scenario regarding men and women and their relationships. It mentioned that when men and women were involved in couples, and they spent time apart that particular and peculiar biological things occurred. It went on to discuss that upon the man’s return to the woman or her rejoining him—his body generated an abnormal amount of sperm. Some of those sperm were designed for hunting and killing any foreign sperm that may be within the woman. This grabbed Sage’s attention; he slowly sat up and then increased the volume of the television. He listened attentively, and at the next commercial, he walked to his office and logged onto his computer. He quickly pulled up a web browser and began to research the term killer sperm. In his research, he started to find anomalies but realized that no one was really addressing the issue of killer sperm. Not many seemed to care.
Some of the articles located addressed the fact that killer sperm worked by utilizing enzymes to destroy foreign sperm and did not seem to possess the ability to impregnate a woman. But he focused on one particular point: the point that the sperm seemed to differ when the man traveled or the couple had been apart. This took Sage down a path of discovery, and he was enjoying the research. He continued to dig into articles and found a few more links on the various scenarios.
He leaned back in his chair and relaxed. He let his head slowly fall back, and he stared at the ceiling. His mind was racing. He began to develop a radical hypothesis—that perhaps killer sperm could indeed impregnate a woman. The scientists had said no, but he thought, Does anyone really track all those little sperm? How could they? In his mind, he questioned whether these killer sperm could generate children. But his thoughts began to revolve around the question: “What if those children grew up to be serial killers or just killers in general?” In his mind, this made sense as a hypothesis since killer sperm was simply designed for the purpose of hunting and killing.
He reached for his smartphone, placed it on his desk, and hit the voice-activated function. “Call Parker.” The phone rang three or four times.
Parker was a slim and fit Asian man in his early thirties. He answered on the other end.
“Hello?” Sage said. “It’s me. How’s it going, my man? How’s business?”
“Business is good. Dang, bro, it’s been a minute. How the heck are you? I haven’t heard from you for a while…How are you holding up?” said Parker.
“I’m good, man. I think I’ve stumbled onto something. But you are going to think I’m crazy…my bad, bro. Apologies.”
Parker paused. “Okay. Try me, bro. You know I’ve dealt with my fair share of being called names and people questioning my mental stability.”
Reluctantly, Sage said, “So you know I’ve been going through a lot and dealing with this situation…and it has been one hell of a struggle. But I stumbled across something that got my brain thinking. I’ve got this idea about killer sperm.”
“Oh, geez, I’m listening…There’s part of me that wants to laugh, but you are brotha from anotha mutha and one of my best friends.” He paused. “I’m awfully short of those these days. I’ll humor you. Let’s hear it.” Parker fell silent.
“Okay, so it’s a little bit nutty…” Sage emitted slowly.
“Easy, Sage,” mumbled Parker.
Sage’s tone immediately went to an apologetic one. “Sorry…What if people were destined to be who they are?”
“What do you mean? Aren’t we all destined to be someone?” Parker questioned.
“What if other forces were at work?” Sage stated.
“Other forces? Bro, I have said there were other forces for years.”
“I know, bro. I am taking a page out of your book.”
Parker laughed and said, “Don’t read that book before bed.” Parker continued to chuckle but tried to control it. “Okay, but what does this have to do with killer sperm? What the heck is killer sperm anyway? I have heard of sperm killer—”
Sage interrupted, and his irritation was apparent in his tone. “Hey, man, I thought you said you’re going to humor me. I know where I’m going with this, and it is going to be a bit radical…Just hear me out.” He paused ever so briefly. “So I was checking out this special about sex—”
Parker interrupted, “Man, it’s about time you get back out there. How long has it been anyway?”
Sage was thoroughly irritated, and he did not hold back. His tone became defensive sprinkled with a touch of aggression. Parker had hit a sore spot. “Come on, man, you know Vickie was my girl. I would never…”
Parker, in an attempt to mollify the situation, said, “Bro, you know I’m just giving you a hard time. I just want to see you get back out there.”
Sage let his annoyance show just a bit more. “When was the last time you got some…Wait, we’re getting off topic,” he said. Sage hesitated briefly; he attempted to return the conversation to the original track. “So I was watching this special about sex, and it talked about killer sperm—”
Parker
