Fathers Of The Atom

It was growing too dark to see very well. But I didn't need my eyes to guide me. After all, I'd lived here for more than two years. With no difficulty at all I remembered the beaten earth streets of our fanciful "Atomville". It was still there, just at the junction of "Proton Blvd" and "Electron Way": #1 "Radiation Plaza". And they say that scientists have no sense of humor. Magnus did his best to discourage such flippancy. He insisted that we had a most serious task to perform here. But Ede refused to be cowed by our youthful European genius. Teller can be very stubborn at times. He does, after all insist upon being called Edward. He wanted so very badly to be an American. Ede would stomp about on his wooden foot brandishing his cane. He hated being Hungarian. "My name is Edward," he would insist with a forced smile, "It's a fine American name!" I suppose it was his way of expressing his dismay. It's not every day that an eminent naturalized American physicist is overlooked in favor of a much younger foreigner. Poor Ede. And I never even told him how much General Groves would rather he had been Director of "The Manhattan Project" than Magnus. Leslie once described Magnus as, "The most brilliant, disorganized son of a bitch I ever worked with." But then Leslie was a Quartermaster Corps soldier and such trivial matters as schedules and deadlines were important to him. They never were to Magnus.

Teller was always convinced it was because Magnus was German that he was chosen to lead the Project. "Much more romantic than being Hungarian," he mourned to me once while in his cups. He was almost snarling. "I hate him!" he cried, draining his glass.

"Why?" I wondered, honestly baffled.

"Because he's not the same as you or even I," Teller whispered. "He's different. Look at the way his mind works, for God's sake! He sprints forward and the best we mere mortals can do is to stumble after him marveling at his superiority."

My body didn't seem to want to cooperate when I stepped out of the Jeep into the cold night air of the Pajarito Plateau. But I forced myself. There was no sense in putting it off any longer.