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Professor Said Mathematicians Failed 50 Years — But Truant Freshman Girl Cracked It in Class

Professor Said Mathematicians Failed 50 Years — But Truant Freshman Girl Cracked It in Class

Chapter 26

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Later that night, while Ren slept fitfully, Reese sat at her own desk with her laptop open, searching every version of the Ashworth conjecture and Edwin Hartman's name she could think of, determined to find something, anything that might help. She found almost nothing: a few dry academic citations, a dead link to an old departmental archive, nothing that could stand up in front of a committee.She finally gave up around 2:00 in the morning, frustrated, and sent a message instead to the one person on campus who seemed to know more about the university's history than anyone alive. Dorothy Pruitt didn't answer until morning, but when she did, her reply was short and pointed: Come see me before the hearing. Bring Ren. I may have found something.Reese read it three times before waking Ren to show her, neither of them yet understanding just how much that message would end up mattering.That same evening, her phone rang while she was folding laundry: a number she didn't recognize at first. It was her Aunt Margaret's neighbor, calling from the hospital in a voice that shook more than it usually did."Your grandmother's had some chest pain," she said. "They brought her in a few hours ago. She's stable, but they want to keep her overnight for observation."Ren sat down hard on the edge of her bed. "Is she okay? Can I talk to her?""She's resting now. The doctors say it isn't a heart attack, thank goodness, but they're adjusting her medication again. It's going to cost more than the last round, I'm afraid."Ren closed her eyes. "I'll figure it out.""I know you will, honey. You always do. She just doesn't like worrying you with all this business at school.""She's not the one who should be worried," Ren said quietly, staring at the wall without really seeing it.After she hung up, she sat very still for a long time, the folded laundry forgotten beside her, the weight of everything pressing down at once: a suspended scholarship, a stolen notebook, a grandmother in a hospital bed three hours away, too proud to ask for help even now.She called the hospital back an hour later, once visiting hours had technically ended, and asked the nurse on duty if she could just listen if her grandmother was awake. The nurse, kind enough to bend the rules a little, held the phone up so Ren could hear her grandmother's breathing: slow and even, asleep."She's resting comfortably," the nurse said. "You did the right thing calling. Sometimes that's all a person can do from far away.""Can you tell her I called when she wakes up?"
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Professor Said Mathematicians Failed 50 Years — But Truant Freshman Girl Cracked It in Class

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