"Precisely."
"I hate to tell you, but history is full of people like you. We tend to judge them harshly."
"History?"
"Not the department. The phenomenon."
He sighed and shook his head. He accepted my card, leaned back, puffed on his pipe, began to study what I had written.
I wondered whether he really believed he was doing me a favor by trying to destroy my way of life. Probably.
"Wait a minute," he said. "There's a mistake here."
"No mistake."
"The hours are wrong."
"No. I need twelve and there are twelve."
"I'm not disputing that, but-"
"Six hours, personal project, interdisciplinary, for art history credit, on site, Australia in my case."
"You know it should really be anthropology. But that would complete a major. But that's not what I'm-"
"Then three hours of comparative lit with that course on the troubadours. I'm still safe with that, and I can catch it on video-the same as with that one-hour current events thing for social-science credit. Safe there, and that's ten hours. Then two hours' credit for advanced basket weaving, and that's twelve. Home free."
"No, sir! You are not! That last one is a three-hour course, and that gives you a major in it!"
"Haven't seen Circular fifty-seven yet, have you?"
"What?"
"It's been changed."
"I don't believe you."
I glanced at his IN basket.
"Read your mail."
He snatched at the basket; he rifled it. Somewhere near the middle of things he found the paper. Clocking his expressions, I noted disbelief, rage and puzzlement within the first five seconds. I was hoping for despair, but you can't have everything all at once.
Frustration and bewilderment were what remained when he turned to me once again and said, "How did you do it?"
"Why must you look for the worst?"
"Because I've read your file. You got to the instructor some way, didn't you?"
"That's most ignoble of you. And I'd be a fool to admit it, wouldn't I?"
He sighed. "I suppose so."
He withdrew a pen, clicked it with unnecessary force and scrawled his name on the "Approved by" line at the bottom of the card.
Returning the card, he observed, "This is the closest you've come, you know. It was just under the wire this time. What are you going to do for an encore?"
"I understand that two new majors will be instituted next year. I suppose I should see the proper departmental adviser if I am interested in changing my area."
"You'll see me," he said, "and I will confer with the person involved."
"Everyone else has a departmental adviser."
"You are a special case requiring special handling. You are to report here again next time."
"All right," I said, filing the card in my hip pocket as I rose. "See you then."
As I headed for the door he said, "I'll find a way."
I paused on the threshold.
"You," I said pleasantly, "and the Flying Dutchman."
I closed the door gently behind me.
Chapter 2
Incidents and fragments, bits-and-pieces time. Like- "You're not joking?"
"I'm afraid not."
"I'd rather it looked like hell for the obvious reasons," she said, wide-eyed, backing toward the door we had just come through.
"Well, whatever happened, it's done. We'll just clean up and ... "
She reopened the door, that long, lovely, wild hair dancing as she shook her head vigorously.
"You know, I'm going to think this over a little more," she said, stepping back into the hall.
"Aw, come on, Ginny. It's nothing serious."
"Like I said, I'll think about it."
She began closing the door.
"Should I call you later, then?"
"I don't think so."
"Tomorrow?"
"Tell you what, I'll call you."
Click.
Hell. She might as well have slammed it. End of Phase One in my search for a new roommate. Hal Sidmore, who had shared the apartment with me for some time, had gotten married a couple of months back. I missed him, as he had been a boon companion, good chess player and general heller about town, as well as an able explicator of multitudes of matters. I had decided to look for something a bit different in my next roommate, however. I thought I had spotted that indefinable quality in Ginny, late one night while climbing the radio tower behind the Pi Phi house, as she was about her end-of-day business in her third-floor room there. Things had gone swimmingly after that. I had met her at ground level, we had been doing things together for over a month and I had just about succeeded in persuading her to consider a change of residence for the coming semester. Then this.
"Damn!" I decided, kicking at a drawer that had been pulled from the desk, dumped and dropped to the floor. No sense in going after her right now. Clean up. Let her get over things. See her tomorrow.
Somebody had really torn the place apart, had gone through everything. The furniture had even been moved about and the covers pulled off the cushions. I sighed as I regarded it. Worse than the aftermath of the wildest of parties. What a rotten time for breaking and entering and breaking. It wasn't the best of neighborhoods, but it was hardly the worst. This sort of thing had never happened to me before. Now, when it did, it had to happen at precisely the wrong time, frightening away my warm and lissome companion. On top of this, something of course had to be missing.
I kept some cash and a few semi-valuables in the top drawer of the bureau in my bedroom. I kept more cash tacked in the toe of an old boot on a rack in the corner. I hoped that the vandal had been satisfied with the top drawer. That was the uninspired idea behind the arrangement.
I went to see.
My bedroom was in better order than the living room, though it too had suffered some depredation. The bed clothing had been pulled off and the mattress was askew. Two of the bureau drawers were open but undumped. I crossed the room, opened the top drawer and looked inside.
Everything was still in place, even the money. I moved to the rack, checked my boot. The roll of bills was still where I had left it.
"There's a good fellow. Now toss it here" came a familiar voice that I could not quite place in that context.
Turning, I saw that Paul Byler, Professor of Geology, had just emerged from my closet. His hands were empty, not that he needed a weapon to back up any threat. While short, he was powerfully built, and I had always been impressed by the quantity of scar tissue on those knuckles. An Australian, he had started out as a mining engineer in some pretty raw places, only later picking up his graduate work in geology and physics and getting into teaching.
But I had always been on excellent terms with the man, even after I had departed my geology major. I had known him socially for several years. Hadn't seen him for the past couple of weeks, though, as he had taken some leave. I had thought he was out of town.
So: "Paul, what's the matter?" I said. "Don't tell me you did all this messing?"
"The boot, Fred. Just pass me the boot."
"If you're short on cash, I'll be glad to lend you-"
"The boot!"
I took it to him. I stood there and watched as he plunged his hand inside, felt about, withdrew my roll of bills. He snorted then and thrust the boot and the money back at me, hard. I dropped both, because he had caught me in the abdomen.
Before I even completed a brief curse, he had seized me by the shoulders, spun me about and shoved me into the armchair beside the open window where the curtains fluttered lightly in the breeze.
"I don't want your money, Fred," he said, glaring at me. "I just want something you have that belongs to me. Now you had better give me an honest answer. Do you know what I'm talking about or don't you?"