Next morning, in the hotel Montmartre-St Pierre.
Grey light creeps through the window.
Three phones ring at once.
Carl Linnaeus answers his first.
You! says Carl Linnaeus. About time too. Yes, I'm fine. I should have seen it coming? What do you mean, boy? No one saw it coming. No. Yes. How is the jaundice? You should never have gone to London. Give my love to your mother. And .....thanks for the call, son. Goodbye.
He ends with a barely disguised air-kiss.
Meanwhile Hui Zhong is talking to Granny. Yes, Granny Zhong. No, Granny Zhong. Fine, Granny Zhong, that's your opinion. It's ECOLOGY, Granny Zhong. It's very important. We'll be staying.
Gaius is trying to return his missed call with fumbling fingers, having cut it off somehow.
Who was it anyway?
He hopes it was Arthur, using someone else's phone, because his battery (as usual) has died.
Hello? Gaius? It's Océane. I'm just outside. Are you all okay in there?
Of course, says Gaius. Come in, if you're out there.
No, I'm going out to buy candles, says Océane. You can all have the day off. See you tonight.
Who was that? asks Carl.
Océane, says Gaius. I was hoping it would be Arthur.
Is Arthur a relative? asks Carl Linnaeus.
My right hand man, says Gaius.
Oh, says Carl. That was my son who just called me. Carl Linnaeus the Younger.
Pretentious name, says Gaius.
You can talk, says Carl Linnaeus. Isn't your nephew Pliny the Younger?
Exactly, says Gaius.
The two famous men nod empathetically.
My son's a good lad, says Carl, but I must say he never quite lived up to.....expectations.
Did he publish? asks Gaius.
Yes, he published "Supplement of Plants: A System of Vegetables".
Well, that's certainly something, says Gaius.
What's a System of Vegetables? wonders Mai-Mai, looking up at the bed sheet.
If only she had a pencil.
She could start her own system, beginning with radishes, which are round, red, white, bitey.
She gets out from under the bed sheet and opens some drawers.
He was enrolled at Uppsala University at age nine, says Carl Linnaeus. Tutored by my best students. At twenty two he became a professor, and inherited my place as Head of Practical Medicine.
Hm, says Gaius.
Many people were of the same opinion, says Carl. Because he passed no exams.
Do either of you have a pencil? asks Hui Zhong. Mai-Mai wants to start her own System of Vegetables.
Carl and Gaius beam with the goodwill of the learned, who love to encourage scientific projects in the young.
But will either of them have a pencil?
You can bet that's not likely.
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