The Enigma Factor

            He checked the requirements one more time, going down the list to make certain each portion was correct to the specifications. Good, one more testing run and trace verification and it would be done. He would send it to Buzz with notes on process that would likely be ignored.

            As the test was running, he again drifted to thoughts of Mom and her dedication to him and giving him her knowledge, such as her logical approach to systems and her belief that there existed systems on top of systems as technology achievements continued to evolve.

            It had been just the three of them for much of his life. After Granny passed, then the two of them remained in this house. Such a pair of focused and secretive ladies he doubted he would ever meet again. He really had little idea about his European family roots.

            The story he’d been told was that Granny came from Poland as a young woman at the tail end of WWII. She had said she’d brought Mom along to be born in America. That was her proudest achievement, she’d always said. Of course she said it in Polish, German, French or English, depending on which language she wanted him to work on. As such, the household had always been multi-lingual, reading, speaking and writing. It had helped him though, and he missed the conversations with them. Programming though was always in English, always with process, and always focused. Like mother, like daughter. Where Granny had left off training him, Mom continued until her last breath. But the family, their involvement in the war, and other relatives were totally unknown to him. Jacob had tried some Googling, but he simply didn’t have enough information to go on.

            Jacob had been told that Granny was born in Poland in 1925 but came to America when she discovered she was pregnant after believing she would never be a Mom. Too many years of working, programming, struggling, prior to coming to New York, he suspected, caused the silence on her past. There were no details about her early life and definitely no mention of family. Granny was strict in wanting her daughter Julianne and then Jacob to learn the right way of doing things. She was delighted with Jacob’s ability to let fingers fly across the keyboard of his earliest computer. She taught him a lot about working through various programs. She had learned from the ground up, so her teachings were invaluable. Mostly she loved him and let him find his own way from within a grounded framework.

            Mom was like a younger carbon copy. Mom taught him even more as her work took her to different levels in systems design and security aspects. She too never spoke of his father but indicated that Jacob was a product of an intense love affair during an extended trip to Europe in her twenties. Granny had sent her to a special learning symposium, not to fall in love, she’d often mentioned as she hugged her daughter. Life was saving money and a relatively frugal efficient lifestyle, which Jacob continued to subscribe to. College for Jacob had been the focus for a long time with no loan debt. The one bump in the road was during his college application where his birth certificate only listed Julianne. The discussion on that was a wall of silence that never collapsed despite repeated queries.

            The testing completed as he glanced at the screen. He zipped it up and sent the files to Buzz, confirming the Friday payment of drinks and dinner. Actually he was looking forward to a night out on Friday. He rarely went out, feeling that dating was a bit expensive until he could provide for a lady. Plus, no one had really caught his eye other than a mild appreciation for pretty intelligent women. Besides, now Buzz would buy and he could continue to save.

            Jacob crashed into a dreamless sleep. He awoke a scant four hours later to an unforgiving alarm. Jacob dashed through the shower. As he shaved off the morning shadow, he had no problem looking at himself in the mirror. He had helped Buzz last night, or this morning rather. Chuckling, he imagined the look on Buzz’s face likened to biting into a lemon, when he reviewed the code and commentary. Maybe Buzz would learn a bit, Jacob thought, with the final comb of his thick dark hair.