The older man looked down.

“I did make a discovery in the last few weeks though. People have been dropping by to see me: Colleagues, former students, and friends. The all wanted to ay goodbye. I heard a lot of stories.”

The older man paused and looked out his office window. The younger man waited for him to go on.

“You know, not one of them said anything about my scientific work. They talked about I affected their work and their life. They talked about me as a friend, a teacher, even a rival.”

The older man turned to the younger man and smiled.

“I discovered that it is who you are that people remember you for, not what you did. That makes it easier for me to find happiness in my new life.”

The Box

The older man looked around the office.

“That reminds me . . .” The older man got up, walked over to a shelf, and took down a small box. “I almost forgot to take this.”

The younger man watched as his mentor brought the box back to his desk. Written on the side of box was “Billy’s Big Discovery”.

The older man continued. “This always reminds me of my mother” For a second his eyes seemed to glow. “She did this the day I decided to be a scientist”.

“I made my first big discovery on the beach and she put it away. I’ve never looked at it since. I didn’t want to untie her knot.”

The older man tried to untie the knot, but in the end, he had to cut it with a knife. He took off the lid to look inside.

“It doesn’t look very impressive now, but it was very important to a five year old boy.”

One Final Discovery

The older man continued to look into the box. His brow furrowed and a puzzled expression settled on his face.

“That odd . . .”

The older man started to examine the object more closely. He motioned to the younger man to come closer. He shows him the object in the box.

“What do you make of that?”

The younger man looked into the box. Then back at his mentor as if to ask what he should be seeing. The older man motioned him to look again. Looking back into the box, the younger man gave a start.

“Do you see it now?”

“Yes. Yes I do.”

“Do you know what it means?”

“We were wrong.”

“Yes we were.” The older man laughed. “Oh well, it is only 40 years of my work down the drain.”

The younger man said, “But, we have some hope now”.

The older man smiled. “Yes we do”.

The younger man gazed at his mentor and said, “Not everyone gets to make such an important discovery”.