Lessons in Chemistry

How many times? Get your nose out of the dirt.

I'm sorry, Sister.

One day your curiosity will lead you down a path you can't come back from.

"And die in an instant, in the middle of the night.

His eyes are on the ways of mortals. He sees their every step."

That will be a demerit for tardiness, Calvin Evans.

Now, where did we leave off?

"There is no deep shadow,

no utter darkness where evildoers can hide.

God has no need to examine people further

that they should come before him for judgment."

Eyes on the board, please.

The verse reads, "The Lord is the maker of them all."

Sorry to interrupt, Sister Beth Ann.

- - Children.

Now, we just finished the meeting with the bishop.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith are ready to take him home.

Jeremiah,

there are some very special people who have come back to see you.

Say hi.

Jeremiah. Hi. Let's walk outside.

- Thank you. - God bless.

Back to your compositions.

"The Lord is the maker of them all."

All right, boys. Load her up.

Same order for next week?

If you can double the output, I'll make it worth your while.

Thank you.

Careful. Don't spill any hooch. The bishop will kill us.

- Hey... ...bring me another empty one. - Yeah.

Use this as a strainer.

Bottles go over there when they're filled.

Oh, Calvin. There you are.

Everyone is really impressed with the work you're doing down here.

I think it's time to increase production.

Is that the temperature gauge?

Yes, the one you mentioned.

That's great.

Now, what else do you need?

Put that over here. And careful.

Take it off your arm.

Put that on that second stove.

- We're running out of room. - Yeah, we need more crates.

- Holy shit, it's a limo! - Language.

It's a Cadillac!

I bet he's a professional baseball player or a movie star.

What do you think he's here for?

Don't kid yourself. I bet he's here for me.

In your dreams.

Calvin.

Calvin, I wanted to take a moment to discuss your future.

You've become indispensable to me, and that should be rewarded.

Which is why I'm excusing you from your daily chores.

Is something the matter?

Who was that man who came today?

I had a feeling he was here for me.

He was here because of you.

I knew it. He-He's my father, isn't he?

Calvin, I'm sorry.

I told him everything about you, and he saw you.

But he doesn't want you.

I'm sorry, Calvin.

But... But what if I-I could just talk to him.

- He'd see I'd be... - No.

Look, I... I care about you too much

to subject you to those hateful, selfish people.

It's bad enough that you have to carry their brokenness in you.

That you will be burdened with it,

no matter how good you are, no matter how hard you try.

Try and act natural but distinguished.

How much longer is this going to take?

Would it be good to do one with the whole lab?

You worry about delivering us another tennis trophy

against those sons of bitches from JPL.

- Let Dr. Evans have his moment. - Of course, sir.

Those... Those cables on the electrophoresis are inverted.

No. I don't think they...

Dr. Evans, lean a little to your left. I'm catching a shadow.

I'm certain that I checked.

Goddamn it!

These samples are... are useless. This is no way to work.

There's too many people, too much noise, too many unnecessary distractions.

- Dr. Evans, I can assure you... - You are completely right.

Tell me what you need.

I need my own space. No chemists, no lab techs.

None of this attention. I just... I just need quiet.

By the time you get back from Boston, you'll be all sorted.

Robert, you'll see to it.

Yes, sir.

Make Hastings proud. And then hurry back.

Fame only lasts as long as you give them something to write about.

So you can see now that every living thing on our planet,

- from lichen to mice to Harvard students... -

...forms its proteins from the same set of 20 amino acids.

RNA and DNA may be comprised of only four nucleotides,

but their chaotic processes indicate that life is born of random,

infinite permutation, not stable and efficient amino selection.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Dear Dr. Evans, I have no background in chemistry.

And yet, after listening to your lecture, I felt compelled to write.

I find your work fascinating. Downright exhilarating, in fact.

But I think your research may be overlooking the mysteries

of the divine.

What if God is a spontaneous generation?

What if the missing link between nucleotides and early life-forms

is in fact a force that science alone cannot explain?

I simply share your affinity for questioning commonly held beliefs.

Respectfully, Curtis Wakely.

Oh, that can go at the end table there. Thank you.

Dear Mr. Wakely, Reverend Wakely?

I'm unclear when you are bestowed the title.

As if it bears stating, I am a staunch atheist.

But regardless of one's views, only an intellectually dishonest person

could watch a chromosome undergo the metaphase of cell division

and still believe that an all-powerful bearded man

in the sky designed it that way.

But please, convince me otherwise.

I've never been one to shy away from a good debate.

- - Yours, Calvin Evans.

Dear Dr. Evans, Thank you for your response.

I have never had the pleasure of watching a chromosome in metaphase,

so I will admit to my bias.

But I believe that the mystical

and the natural are not fundamentally opposed.

The way I see it, science is the how and religion is the why.

Rather than argue this with you,

I thought I would leave it to Charles Darwin,

who proved that science is the how and the why.

Do you hear that? Is that Charlie Parker playing?

Ah, yes. My archnemesis. The other Charlie in your life.

- Oh, my love. It's no contest. -

Ooh, these people got taste.

Probably can't hear over the music.

Uh, Harr, we should go back.

Nonsense.

No, he's a white fella.

I am. Uh, how can I help you?

Hmm.

Welcome to Sugar Hill, neighbor.

Oh. Thank you. Come inside.

- There you go. - Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

So...

Oh, was that Parker I heard you playing?

Oh, yeah, good ear. It's the B side actually.

Don Byas's single. Here. Take it. Give it a listen.

- I couldn't. - Mmm.

She only says that when she's definitely gonna do something.

I don't mean to pry, but, um, how did you end up in this area?

Oh. I-I-I, uh... I found this place on one of my runs actually.

What kind of run?

Just jogging. You know, exercise.

- Oh, must be a white-people thing. -

We're only 5.2 miles from where I work, so...

Is the work that's 5.2 miles away the Hastings Laboratory?

Um, yeah. I'm a chemist there.

Huh.

And what... What do you do?

I'm a resident intern at Kaiser Hospital.

Huh. Yeah.

And I'm a legal aid in the offices of Hollis, Morrison and Douglas.

Oh. Oh. Oh, this is gr... this is great.

That's great. I, um... Yeah. You know, I...

They did some press on me, and ever since then,

I've been getting all sorts of correspondence.

You know, religious threats, proffers of marriage.

Even though my parents are dead, people pretending to be my family.

They seem to have confused being a chemist with being a, uh, Rockefeller.

What, um... Can you... I don't know. Can you help me with this?

Well, firstly, I'm a legal aid and... and not an attorney.

- Smartest attorney you'll ever meet. -

But in my non-legally-binding opinion,

well, we could issue individual cease and desist letters.

Yes!

I would love for them to cease and then for them to desist.

- Okay. -

I'd like you to meet my new secretary...

- Well, hello, everybody. - Hi, Gracie.

- Aha. -

So you're the girl Harry Morton's chasing after.

Gracie, this is Harry's secretary.

Oh, really? Well, you're silly to chase after him.

She's much prettier.

- Really now? - She hasn't talked to you

in over a week,

- she assumed you must have died. -

That's all with that woman.

I will call her when I am good and ready. Excuse me.

I have the answer.

- I have the answer. - Me too.

I got the answer.

- - Just call on the doctor.