Through the clearing, up the muddy slope and across the gravel. Took the path to the left, and I saw the house. A brick-red roof with some really old windows - as if they had come from decades ago. The house of Jan Sklowitz, a chemist from Austria. He had travelled around the world for the past 20 years, and has finally landed up here to conduct a certain research.
We first met while I was jogging around this estate. He was an old man of eighty-nine (yea he left Austria when he was sixty-nine), but still full of energy and vigour. I believe it was the fifth time while I was jogging where he ran up to me and said he liked my youthful energy. We stopped to talk, and he told me many stories of the things he once did when he was young. He had been an athlete, not a very successful one, but an athlete nonetheless. He loved Chemistry since young, and now was living in a secret house in this estate. Then he showed me the clearing which I was to walk many more times in the future. He had stopped jogging since that fateful time after he showed me his house. However, we do keep in contact, and today was one of the days where he had a discovery to show me.
I entered his house as it wasn't locked. It never was. His working room, sleeping room as well as dining room was all on the third floor. After all they were the same room - and he lived there. Thus I guess you could call it his living room as well if that pleased you. Jan the old chemist had been single his whole life, and never really had any companion for a long time. The room was dark, musty and messy with research papers all over. As I entered, Jan beckoned to me. He pointed out of the window where a vast field spread out beneath us. There were pieces of rope separating the field into little squares, making it look like a grid. Twenty-six by twenty-six. Jan called them A to Z. I couldn't understand the significance of it at first, but Jan soon explained.
"See that field yonder? I've been waiting twenty years just to find this!" he exclaimed.
I was puzzled. I knew nothing about this. Of course I knew even less about Chemistry but that wasn't the point. "What are you finding," was all I could manage.
"The elements of the Triangular Table!"
Now this was new. Even though with my lousy knowledge of Chemistry I knew there was no such thing as a Triangular Table. Sure, perhaps he was too advanced for me - but I had this feeling this poor old guy had finally gone bonkers at the ripe old age of eighty-nine. Maybe I'll ask Grace Chong about this Triangular Table when the holidays are over and see what she says. However I had to remain respectful.
"Whatever is that!"
Jan took a deep breath, and sighed. "While I was still in Austria, I had dreams every night. Or rather, strange dreams every night. In it I saw a vast land that looked nowhere like Austria, as well as bright specks of.. elements, I believed. It looked as if it came from another world altogether, where everything was dying. Also as I dreamt I saw triangles flying towards me - and three symbols appeared, not unlike those you see in the Periodic Table today. Tm, Te and Ls; they were. Whenever I woke up, I could feel a strong sense of mystery. There was this mystic power calling to me. This is how I began searching the world for these three elements."
I was now totally convinced he was bonkers. But what he did next surprised me.
Jan took out three canisters, and in them lay some sort of a.. precipitate. A fine powder form. Two were blue, one was pink. "Here," he said. "Have a look."
I examined them. The blue ones had labels Tm and Te. The pink one was labelled Ls. I asked him if that was the significance of the grid - because that must have been where the names had come from. Jan shook his head. He repeated that the names had came to him in the dream, and had no link whatsoever to the grid in the field. He told me that both Tm and Te came from Row R, Column I (RI for short) and Ls came from RG.
"Very fascinating," I said. "Have you tested their reactions?"
"Apparently," Jan replied, "Tm and Te are cations, while Ls is an anion. They seem to produce very strange results when I put them together in the test tube. Thankfully I was still careful enough to do this experiment in the basement where oxygen was scarce, otherwise I might have died."
"What?!" I could only muster that.
"Yes. Te and Ls reacted pretty violently, sparking off a great blue flame. Somehow I suspected it was the lack of oxygen that killed off the flame. As for Tm and Ls, it produced a colourless solution. It was like, somehow, they were just simply one compound. I tried Tm and Te together just for the fun of it but it couldn't mix and stayed apart from each other."
"Well," I joked. "In that case could you tell me what are their oxidation numbers so I can go tell Grace Chong that all she has taught me was rubbish?"
"Tm's oxidation number seems.. high at +6. Ls's oxidation number also seems low at -6. I think Te's should be +4. However, both the cations are 2+ and the anion is 2-. It's somewhat like Ca(2+) and O (2-)."
"In that case, one mol of Tm would react with one mol of Ls."
"Absolutely."
"Could you show me the Te-Ls reaction again?"
"You're mad. This is going to be like a JW reaction - and JW doesn't just stand for any random initials. It stands for the two newest elements in the Periodic Table, namely jeenium and wayneum. And as you know the further down the Periodic Table it gets, the more violent the reaction. Or at least that's how theory goes. The reaction between jeenium and wayneum almost caused the whole lab to be blown up - only it didn't because there was only fire and therefore the lab got BURNT instead of BLOWN."
"Jokes."
"In any case I'm not going to show you the reaction."
"Whatever."
At this point in time I felt suddenly tired upon discovering so much. Seemingly just in the nick of time the housekeeper Arven came into the room. She came once a day, according to Jan, just to make his all-in-one room a little more presentable. But everytime she leaves it was as if Ctrl-Z had been hit. So there wasn't much of a help there - but Arven comes everyday anyway.
Arven is actually a widow - her husband was a judge called Marcel Jell. Or something to that effect - and Marcel by name, muscle by nature. He was a very strong guy, but unfortunately wasn't fair in the courts. Marcel soon incurred the wrath of a local gang, which had some strange initials that I had forgotten. Anyway it was a case that concluded long ago and whatever happened, it certainly did not please the gang. One night as Marcel left the courtroom to go home, he met the gang right outside the courtroom. They had the most surprising of weapons to deal with him - pineapples. However, they did bring a whole truckload of it and that ultimately led him to his death. The gang members did not escape and are now all in jail. Sentenced by another judge, of course.
Since then Arven had been a widow. Okay I am sidetracking. Nevertheless the next morning I received a call. It was Jan, telling me to come again.
I went to his house in the afternoon, and this time Jan looked very excited.
"These elements really don't belong in the Periodic Table. I found that only Te seems remotely connected to the Periodic Table with some of its Periodic-like properties. Still, Tm and Ls are very strange elements - like in my dream. They do not react with any elements in the Periodic Table, like Te doesn't. And what's more, they do not contain any Periodic-like properties. The mystic powers that pulled me to them had to come from them. I am beginning to suspect that they do belong to another Periodic Table after all. I will name it the Triangular Table, as it was so called in my dream."
He then brandished a piece of paper. He said in a soft tone, "I also have this, regarding to their reactions. I have indicated them in their natural forms - not the ions."
The paper read:
Tm (s) + Ls (s) --> colourless solution, no efferverscence.
Te (s) + Ls (s) --> blue combustion, violent reaction.
Tm (s) + Te (s) --> no reaction.
"I haven't named the compound that comes out, of course," he continued as I studied the paper.
"Why is that?"
"I'm not sure if I should go back to Austria to present my findings. After all, I am getting old and might not live to do so if I hesitate."
"Why not research a little more into it? Is this all you know?"
"Sometimes it doesn't really pay to be inquisitive. I should hand it over to the new generation to find out. They might know more about it than I do. Even if they do not, they will find methods to discover their true identities."
I stood for a while and pondered in silence.
"Very well. The choice is yours."
Now we were both silent. It was never an easy decision to make - to take it or leave it. Personally if you started something it's only natural you want to finish it. And as Jan's life was approaching its end, it was only right he had some accomplishment to his name. An achievement that could go down in history. Perhaps a Nobel to be given to him post-humously. Who could ever say when it comes to this?
"Please leave. I think I'd research a little more."
I obeyed him, and the whole of next week I visited him daily, but only because he invited me. I did not wish to disrupt his all-important work. It was just as well that school reopened, but I couldn't mention a word of this to Grace Chong. I just felt it might be good to keep silent about this matter. This soon went to the back of my mind and I dismissed it totally.
About two weeks after my discontinuance of visits to his house, Arven called me. She said Jan was weak and needed to see me immediately. I told her I had training and my coach was a total bastard - and therefore I really couldn't make it today. I could go tomorrow, if Jan wanted. Arven seemed to hesitate, and called me back just fifteen minutes later that it was now or never because Jan was feeling weak. Against my better conscience, I wanted to put my mind to training and therefore rejected her request yet again. It was to be the worst decision I had ever made.
Nevertheless I kept my promise and went back the next day.
Through the clearing. Up the muddy slope. Across the gravel path. Left. Then the house.
Somehow it seemed quieter than usual. That's really hard to imagine. As I walked towards the house Arven just came out. She said, "I was with the poor old man the whole night. He's gone, and he doesn't want anybody to know about it. No burial, nothing. I've put him in the basement. And he did tell me that he wants you to have this." With that, she thrust me a thick wad of notes. I recognised it as all the chemistry notes he had taken from the reactions of Te, Tm and Ls. I thanked her and went back home. The tears then started. I knew I had caused the poor man to die without any peace. I should have known it long ago! Why couldn't I have understood his situation!
It took me one whole hour before I could calm down - the duration of a Chemistry Common Test paper that I could never seem to pass. I looked at the papers eventually, and all that I saw was mostly stuff that I had written above. The reactions, descriptions, physical properties, and the chemical equations. However, there was something new. A paper clip held the fascinating note to the list of equations.
The paper now read:
Tm (s) + Ls (s) -->
Te (s) + Ls (s) -->
Tm (s) + Te (s) --> no reaction...or conclusion
And the clip that held the little notepaper to the equation list read: "Tm + Ls"
The handwriting was weak and blurry, but I made it out anyway. A strong voice in my head told me to go back and so did my gut feel. It was already late at night, and I really couldn't go back to his house this very moment to find the answer for Tm and Ls. Instead I slept through the night, as well as in class the next day. Kennet Low and Neoh Terh Ling both had fits but I was too sleepy to care. Fatigue from this business had worn me out real bad. After school the first thing I did was to get right back into Jan's house. It was eerie even though it was bright daylight. I just couldn't entertain the thought that Jan was lying lifeless in the basement while I was going into his lab to find out the result of the reaction. I just couldn't.
Nevertheless I climbed up two flights of the spiral stairway to the third floor. His room door was closed. I opened it and it creaked. It seemed real loud when comparing it to the silence. The floor was slightly dusty, and I could see some black ink on the parquet floor. There was a marker with the cap left over lying on the floor. And there were words, yes words, on the floor.
I stared at it for an instant, then breathed out the words, "Rest in peace, Jan Sklowitz. You are a true scientist."
On the parquet floor, through the one-day layer of dust, was the answer to the equation. It was obvious that the handwriting came from a weak hand, and probably it was shaking. I had no doubt it had to be Jan's. The equation was there once more, only the answer was there to be deciphered. No wait. It didn't have to be deciphered. It was all there, just that it was slightly unclear. The final answer to all the mystery surrounding the elements of the Triangular Table. It would be a great breakthrough for the scientific world.
Tm (s) + Ls (s) --> tliomios (s)
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