The Grantville Gazette Volumn II Read online

  "Show us what you did and why." Werner demanded promptly. "If we can understand it, then it won't seem so mysterious or out of reach."

  Beulah smiled hugely. "That I can do. Can we have both students and faculty present?"

  "Yes, I think we should. I'll set it up for tomorrow so you have a chance to sleep and I can take care of some other things today."

  "Would Phillip be one of those things? Is he all right?"

  "He is struggling with this. I hope he will be calmer by tomorrow. Get some rest now, Beulah. I will send a message to you tonight about the class." He didn't want her to ask about the other things he needed to address today. He was on his way to a meeting with the other deans. News spreads quickly in a small town. He had a feeling there would be more than just medical school faculty and students at the lecture Beulah would give tomorrow. He thought about warning her but dismissed the idea. She and the others needed to understand just how serious what had happened was to his people. Part of him also wanted to know how she would handle such a surprise. It was not very Christian of him, Werner thought, as he watched her leave the garden.

  Chapter Four

  September, 1633

  1

  Mary Pat flopped back onto the bed in their room at the inn with a loud moan. "The roads are awful. I should have just found a horse."

  "I can sympathize, but you got Veit to Grantville safely and he's doing well. I'm sure your sacrifice of more road time was worth it." Beulah's cheer sounded a little forced to Mary Pat. She sat up and looked across the room to where Beulah sat.

  "Okay, what's wrong? Start at the top and fill me in. I've only been gone a few days. How much worse could things have gotten?"

  "Just about everything has gotten worse, actually. It's become pretty clear that we managed to offend the entire university in a matter of minutes. Werner and I talked the morning you left. Werner suggested a lecture to the faculty and students to explain what had happened and what we did and why." Beulah's tone was discouraged.

  "Sounds like a good idea. What happened?"

  "First, a lot more than just the med students and faculty showed up. The other three deans and some of the other faculty and students were there as well. I've given lectures for years. Never given one like this. They kept interrupting with questions. That usually isn't a problem for me. Tells me the students are still awake and paying attention. This time, though, the questions were a problem for a couple of reasons. It was pretty clear that they don't have a lot of basic concepts. I had Ann there to draw some of this out, you know how good at sketching she is, but I thought we were going to be dealing with a few dozen people not nearly two hundred, so the drawings didn't help as much as I'd hoped. They had to be passed hand to hand and by that time, I'd gone onto other points. Points they also didn't understand sometimes. I'd have killed for an overhead projector or even a large blackboard and some colored chalk. The gist is that it is pretty clear that a lot of the basic principles we are counting on them to teach, they just don't have."

  "From talking to Balthazar, I had thought things were further ahead than that."

  "Well, they aren't. I wish I had talked to him in more depth about this. It was also pretty clear they shouldn't have sent me. Everyone from the students to the deans were ridiculing things I had to say. One of the law school faculty even got up and walked out, saying he saw no point in listening to anything a woman had to say about science. I think some of the others would have walked out too, but then they'd have missed their chance to laugh at Ann and me."

  "What, they laughed at you?" Mary Pat was off the bed and pacing angrily now.

  "Oh, yeah. I had to slap 'em down a bit, which didn't go over well either. Their ideas of science don't have anything to do with the experimental method, trust me. They are more about authoritative sources and since they don't believe a woman can be an authoritative source of anything scholarly..." Beulah paused. "To be fair, there weren't that many who were in need of a serious attitude adjustment. The ones from the law school were the worst. All that training in rhetoric certainly made things interesting. I was about to strangle them. Their dean didn't have any control over them at all. I'm not sure he even wanted to have any control; he seemed very much on his dignity, if you know what I mean. The arts dean, Wetzel, at least made an attempt to rein in his students. Werner's students and faculty just looked grim and angry and resentful. They had enough of a background to get at least some of what we were talking about, but that just seemed to have made it worse. It has made them more aware of what they don't know, not less. They don't understand "vacuum" and why negative pressure is necessary for the lungs to work properly. Nor do they have a very thorough knowledge of the circulatory system, much less what happens to the cardiovascular system during a shock state. Trying to explain why it was a medical emergency and why we had to act that quickly didn't quite get through. I had to keep going over things that a high school student would have known and backing up to explain basic science."

  "I was afraid of this. I spent some time in the library the last few days. It doesn't have very much but I got enough to get a sense that they may know less than I thought they did. I can't blame them for being upset about it but they still shouldn't have treated you that way."

  "That isn't all. Poor Hayes has had quite a time of it the last few days. I think he's about frustrated enough to give up and go home. Faculty are suddenly too busy to meet with him and Ann. Since we demonstrated that we know things they don't, the faculty and students don't want to give us their books. They want ours. I had read some things in teaching theory about the received view of knowledge, where the greatest authority had the knowledge and therefore 'truth.' They may hate the fact that this knowledge came through women and that it doesn't agree with their worldview, but in a way that just makes them more determined to get their hands on our books. They all want to go to Grantville and raid the library. Immediately, if not sooner. Since Hayes is the only male, they think he has the authority to just hand them the books and can't understand why he is letting women stand in their way. They also don't understand why he wants to spend time looking at their material. Right now, I'm not sure either. Hayes is ready to pack it up and go back to all the other projects he has in Grantville. He's even muttering about walking the distance if there isn't a way to get back sooner."

  Mary Pat gave a low whistle. "Wow. How's Ann doing?"

  "The schedule we had has been effectively destroyed already. We've been lecturing and dealing with upset people instead of finding out what we need to know to move forward. Ann hates disrupted schedules. They aren't letting us anywhere near their patients at the moment. She and Hayes haven't been able to do anything to evaluate the material they came to look at, either. Ann is an experienced educator. She is none too happy with how the lectures are going and how we're being treated. Neither am I. The urge to snarl at them is getting pretty intense. That wouldn't exactly help."

  "So where do you think we should go from here?"

  "Good question. I hate to say it but maybe Mara was right. We should have just started our own med school from scratch."

  2

  A discreet consultation with the proprietor of the Black Bear a few days later had led to Beulah reserving the best private room at a local restaurant. The room looked nice and she had paid for a good dinner. Maybe I should have ordered more booze. Question is, for them or me? At least the white wine is really good. I have a feeling we'll be drinking quite a bit of it tonight.

  The idea was to get away from the university environment and the other deans and faculty to talk about the future of the joint med school in a more relaxed environment. After the last week, Beulah wasn't too sure there was a future. She'd known it would be hard to pull this off but she hadn't realized it would be this bad. To make matters more interesting, Veit was due to come back from Grantville in a few more days, a week at the outside. Human nature being what it was, she was absolutely sure he would be talking about what he saw there, maybe even exagge
rating a bit. At this juncture, she couldn't see that making things anything but worse. The Jenaites were convinced by now that Grantvillers were out to steal their herbal knowledge while depriving Jena of the up-time knowledge they craved. Rumors were flying all over town. Jena's mayor had hinted about the political consequences of Jena not being treated as an equal just this morning, for Pete's sake. She'd given Mike and James a heads up the day Mary Pat had come back, but things had deteriorated since then.

  James had told her yesterday that in the last few days the deans had already contacted him over the radio. And Mike. And Balthazar. When they found out a woman was running the hospital, they had just plain had a fit. James, Mike and Balthazar had all told them the same thing: We're sorry to hear that but Beulah and her team have our full confidence. We're sure this can be worked out. So much for their end run around the women.

  Wish I had a Tums right now, the way my stomach is churning. This mint tea just isn't getting it.

  Predictably enough, Ann was the first to arrive. She was positively twitching. Beulah hadn't ever seen her do that much smoothing and hair checking before. Her eyes had darkened with her agitation until they were almost as dark a blue as Beulah's. As far as Ann was concerned, this trip was an unqualified disaster and she wished she had stayed in Grantville. She wanted to go home. So did Hayes. Neither of them had been shy about telling Beulah that.

  Phillip seemed solidly in the you-are-withholding-information camp. He wanted the information and he wanted it now. Werner was still trying to work with them but he didn't seem to really trust them. Kunz and Willi weren't talking much, so Beulah wasn't sure where they stood. They had both somehow managed to be too busy to do much more than say hello in the halls in passing. Mary Pat had sarcastically begun calling them Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Beulah had put a quick end to that but she couldn't change what Mary Pat actually thought. Mary Pat deeply resented the treatment they were getting. While Hayes thought they had better things to do and Ann just wanted to go home, Mary Pat was ready to get in their faces and demand respect. Beulah had done that in her younger days. It usually didn't work but Mary Pat was too pissed off to listen to any words of wisdom on the subject. If it was only herself she perceived as being attacked, she would have restrained herself. Beulah knew that part of what had pushed her over the edge was the way she saw Beulah being treated.

  Beulah firmly quashed the Tweedledee and Tweedledum thought that flickered through her head when Kunz and Willi walked into the room together, both garbed in sober dark brown clothing. Mary Pat followed hard on their heels and gave Beulah a speaking look. Beulah gave her a tiny frown, none of that Tweedle stuff now. After the good evenings were said all around, Hayes walked in and then Werner and Phillip. More good evenings. Then silence.

  "Please everyone, have a seat. Supper should be here soon. I hope everyone likes fish. Felix, could you start serving please?"

  Felix was a thin sixteen-year-old who would be their waiter tonight. He was apprenticed to the tavern keeper and had only recently started serving in the parlor. Beulah had arrived early while he was finishing setting up the steam table for supper. Supper looked good. There was salad to go with the fish, some wonderful smelling bread, cheese and fresh fruit. She had taken a few minutes to chat with him and set him at ease. He seemed pretty nervous. He'd been surprised when she'd apologized for being so early and volunteered to leave if she was in his way. While Felix deftly slid plates in front of the diners and poured the wine, Beulah struggled to find small talk that would help ease the tension a bit without any success that she could see. She was trying to pass the time until Felix left before they could get started talking about the school. When he took a position near the steam table, she realized he wouldn't be leaving. So much for privacy. Might as well get this over with.

  "I need to ask you straight out. Is there any future for a joint med school with Jena and Grantville? Or have things gone too badly to repair before we could even really get started?"

  Werner took a sip of wine to give himself a moment to think. "I don't know. I had wondered if you called this meeting to tell us you were leaving. There certainly seems some sentiment for that among your party."

  "I realize things haven't gone as any of us thought it would. I want this to work and so do the rest of us. More than that, I think both Jena and Grantville need this to work. Perhaps what you are hearing is frustration and disappointment. I'd like to talk about what can get in the way of being successful at this and how we can remove barriers so that we can build something to benefit us all."

  "Pretty words Frau Professorin, but that is not the message your actions give," Phillip said. "You say you wish to be colleagues. You say we can contribute to a partnership. You say many fine things but you don't bring your books to share with us, you ask to see ours. You don't treat us with respect. You don't talk to us as equals."

  "And you do?" That was too much for Mary Pat. "I've seen nothing but a lousy attitude since I got back. Okay, so we did something you couldn't do. So we did it in public. What else could we have done? You've been choosing to ignore everything we've said and done or put the worst possible spin on it. Respect, my ass. You are the ones who haven't treated us with respect. Respect is earned, buddy. You think that walking out on a teacher in the middle of a lecture, being rude and laughing at her entitles you to respect? I've got a news flash for you. It doesn't. You've taken one incident and blown everything out of proportion. We didn't mean any disrespect to you and I think deep down you know it. This just gives you an excuse to quit so you won't have to face things you don't want to see. And take the easy way out by blaming it all on us."

  "That is untrue," snapped Kunz. "We have acted in good faith. We welcomed you to our town and you repay us by shaming us, withholding your knowledge and taking over. That is not a partnership."

  "Let me address those points one by one. I think they're important." Beulah said. It should also keep our resident hotheads' mouths shut while they cool down a bit. At least Werner has a hothead on his side to deal with, too. "We do see you as colleagues. We wouldn't want to shame you anymore than we like you treating us disrespectfully. Actions are important. I hope you will have seen from our actions that what you thought was shaming was actually simply an attempt to save a young man's life. We truly did not intend to shame you."

  Ann spoke up next. "We didn't think to bring the books because we didn't know what you had or what you knew. It took quite a while before Dr. Abrabanel was ready to practice in Grantville and he hadn't been trained at your university or even in this country. That was part of the reason for the trip here. As for not sharing our knowledge, it isn't that simple. The things we have to show you can't just be learned by opening up a book and studying the text. If you do that, it will just be more confusing. There have been almost four hundred years of advances in medical care between now and our time. If all we did was give you the books, it would be like giving a beginning student the texts to study for their last set of exams. We need to figure out what you know and what you don't and then put the information together for you and help you integrate it into your practices."

  "It doesn't help when you won't even let us look at your books so we can actually figure out what we have to work with here," growled Hayes.

  "That is the attitude I am talking about," snapped Phillip. "You helping us, not us helping each other."

  Hayes snorted. "You haven't given us a chance! We brought two gardeners along to learn about the botanical gardens and how you use them. You could be showing us something we need to know. Instead, I get nothing but the runaround from everybody I talk to. No one will let any of us anywhere near your precious books. We have to know what we are dealing with before we can make any plans."

  "We didn't believe that our books had anything to offer you. We have seen the books Leutnant Flanagan shared with us. We have seen something of what you can do. Where do we and our students fit in to that? It will not be, as Beulah said that first day, a matter of us lear
ning a certain amount and then being ready to teach it to our students. Ann is right. It is more complicated than that." Werner looked at each of his faculty in turn. "I don't know if we are ready to merge our schools. Yet we have no real choice. How can we live with ourselves if we don't learn what they have to offer? Are we so proud then? So angry? What is that next to those we might help, the lives we might save?"

  Beulah said slowly, "It sounds as though you've been concerned about this since before we even got here. And we haven't been concerned enough about it."

  Willi looked up from shredding a piece of bread. Beulah didn't think he'd taken a bite of food yet. "It is not easy to see what is in those books. How do I take care of my patients now? There is so much more to know."

  "The books... I thought I was helping by giving you the copies of the books. Instead I just made it worse. I'm sorry. I only meant to help."

  "You did help, Mary Pat." Werner used her first name deliberately. "Without that, we might not have realized there was such a problem until much later. Perhaps we were ready to make certain assumptions given any excuse."

  "Which brings us to the start of this conversation," said Willi. "Does the joint venture have a future? For myself, I too wish to learn what you have to teach."

  "This won't work at all unless we are all for it. Does everyone agree that we want the merger to work?" Beulah asked. There were nods around the table. "Okay. We have some issues here already to address. How about starting tonight by identifying what we think the problem areas are and then we all take a few days to come up with possible ways to solve them before we meet again?"

  "An excellent suggestion. We could all use some time to think and for tempers to cool." Werner glanced around the table. "Let us each take turns bringing up one issue until we have covered all our concerns."