The next morning was foreboding with dark gray skies and an ominous feel in the air. The kind of feeling that indicates very unsettled weather. It had a stillness about it that sent shivers down my spine. The feeling always foretells of Tornadoes. I hoped that the weather would settle and the feeling of uneasiness would go away but it always seems that when the weather is ugly so is the world in general. I had a bad feeling as I walked out my apartment door for class that the day was going to prove to be as ugly and ominous as the sky.
When I got to school Cherry Spence was pacing outside Emily's door. Cherry is a sweet girl of 19 who seems more mature than her years. We had gotten to be friends earlier in the semester. She was always insisting that I go to the cafeteria with her or to job interviews. She's used to doing things with people as she comes from a large family so it seems weird to her to do things alone, just the opposite of my reasoning. I don't like being alone because I'm always alone. "Hey, what's happening?"
"I need to change my class schedule for the fall. I have Jane for ASL 3. I need to change it to Betsy's class," Cherry said.
"Why are you pacing?"
"I don't like the weather. I don't want to drive home in it. Remember I live over an hour south west of here."
"Yeah it does look bad. Does Emily know you are waiting for her?"
"Yes! Some guy, who looks important and she are in a meeting with Sally. Emily looked surprised to see him. Doctor something was his name."
"Uh Oh," I murmured.
"What?"
"Was the name Dr. Piersall?"
"Yeah, Yeah that was it. Who is he?"
"Emily's boss, the Head of the Humanities Division for the School. He normally stays at the main campus. Emily doesn't see him bit maybe once a year at staff meetings in August.
I take it you know about Emily's surprise?"
"Yep, what a surprise! I guess I won't be trying to get her back for scaring the living daylights out of me for awhile.
"Why would Dr. Piersall be here, now?"
"Oh, I bet you don't know about the shooting. Last Friday a man looking for Emily was drunk, got mad and took a revolver to her door. Dr. Piersall is probably here as part of the investigation to find out what happen. I just hope Emily finally got around to telling him about the baby before now."
"Wait, how long have you known?"
"About 8 weeks but I was sworn to secrecy until Emily was ready to tell people herself. A lot of things happened and she kept putting off telling her boss. Now he's here and she has to tell him. It will look like she was trying to hide the fact she's pregnant from the school when in fact things just got away from her."
"Why did she tell you? I know you talked to each other a lot but I didn't think you were that close."
"We weren't THAT close. I did most of the talking when we talked because I never knew what to ask her. I thought that if I talked eventually she'd input something. It didn't work that way though. The truth is I sort of saw something I shouldn't have and put two and two together. Presto, I opened Pandora's Box and found out about the pregnancy. Since then we have been close but I still don't know Emily that well. She is opening up to me some now but in general I still have to pry things out of her if I want to know anything."
"Wow," Cherry remarked as Jane went by looking pretty worried herself.
Cherry waved Jane down, "Things okay?"
Jane looked at Emily's door, "No, Not a good day."
Jane moved off without waiting for Cherry to say anything more. Cherry looked at me quizzically.
"I don't have a clue," I replied. "Oh, why do you want to repay Emily for scaring you. What did she do?"
"Finals week I was sitting in the student lounge trying to study. I heard a noise and was trying to ignore it and focus on my reading when suddenly the lights flashed. I jumped out of my skin. I looked up and there was Emily grinning at me. She asked if she scared me. I said yes. She then proceeds to pump her arms up and down in Victory. I told her she was bad and I'd get even."
I laughed, "Sounds like she got you good. I doubt scaring her will do any harm if it is that kind of thing. Stress is another matter altogether. It might even be good for her if you joke with her because as long as she's laughing she can't be stressing." "Yeah, you're right," Cherry answered as Thunder resounded through the building.
We were both leaning against a wall outside Emily's door. We could hear voices just not make out what was said, at least I couldn't. I didn't ask Cherry if she could. Cherry is a good girl and wouldn't dream of eavesdropping. We both jumped when we heard the sound of someone opening a door. The door didn't open but the knob turned.
"Dr. Piersall was my first college professor. I had him for Grammar. He loves the writer, John Gardner, who wrote "Grendel." Grendel is a the story of the monster from the epic poem "Beowulf." We had to basically dissect the story of Grendel for Dr. Piersall. I hated that story. Back then Dr. Piersall had mainly gray hair with a touch of brown and a goatee. Last time I saw him he had started dyeing his hair dark brown and still had the goatee. My mother was a friend with his wife, Lenore. They were in a sorority together. I think she ran a bookstore for awhile but I could be wrong."
"How did your family know them? I thought you lived more than two hours from here."
"My father was a professor for the college at the main campus for 31 years. It was only after he retired that my family moved to where they now live. I continued to live in the area of the main campus until 2 years ago when I moved closer to my parents. So I know a lot of the professors from the main campus. I also know a lot of the secrets from the main campus, like the Catholic Priest who taught Ethics who also was boinking one of the Science Laboratory Professors. She was married too. Everyone knew about them, I think even her husband," I said with a laugh. "Then there was the Math Professor whose husband was a minister. Her husband got involved with one of his parishioners and ended up breaking up both their marriages. He was kicked out of his church conference after it all came out. Later he and the other lady divorced and he remarried the Math Professor." This college could be its own soap opera between all the affairs, murders and scandalous things that happen. That's why I'm worried about Emily's little problem. The school has been trying to clean up its reputation. An unwed, pregnant professor might not sit too well with the image the school is now trying to project. And considering what happen on Friday, I'm sure Dr. Piersall will be less than happy."
"Ew not good."
"Nope not good," I signed as the door finally opened and Dr. Piersall sauntered out of Emily's office looking grim and refined at the same time.
"Rachel Stevens, what a surprise," he said recognizing me.
"Hello, Dr. Piersall. How are you?"
"I'm fine. Tell your mother and father I said Hello."
"I will," I replied looking past him towards an ashen Emily who sat at her conference table not saying anything to Sally. "I have to get back to Campus. Have a good day," He stated as he walked towards the door out of the building.
I didn't reply. I didn't really want him to have a good day if he had been less than nice to Emily regarding her situation. Sally left Emily's office also looking rather grim. I followed Cherry in.
Cherry signed what she needed. Emily signed the papers for the course change without comment. I exchanged looks with Cherry and we both sat down at the table. Emily's eyes went back and forth between us. "I guess I'm stuck with the both of you?"
"Yes," we both signed simultaneously.
Emily rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine, I need these papers copied. And these papers filed," Emily said thinking she'd put us to work instead of us making her talk.
"No, what happen?" I said.
"You don't want to know."
"Yes I do. I have a vested interest in this situation. So talk."
"Not much to say. He wasn't happy that I hadn't informed him earlier about my pregnancy. He was really unhappy about what happened last week and how it pertained to me. But there isn't much he can do. It's not like he can fire me for being pregnant nor for what happen Friday since I had no way to know that would happen. I wasn't here when it happened. All he can do is on my next promotion say I'm not deserving of it. However, he can't do that indefinitely."
"Jeez, he'd hold your pregnancy against you even though you are a great Teacher?" Cherry questioned
"He can."
"The question is will he?" I asked.
"That is debatable. You know the situation so it's up to him," Emily responded as Sally came in with a printout from the TTY.
Emily read it without much expression, before signing a reply to Sally. Sally disappeared again. "Jack's sister. He seems to have disappeared."
"How?" I asked somewhat dumbfounded.
"Okay, I give. Who is Jack?" Cherry asked looking confused.
Emily and I met eyes before she turned and signed to Cherry, "The father and the man who shot out my office door last week."
"Oh!" Cherry mouthed.
"Joanna only knows that the police lost track of him west of Laramie, Wyoming. It seems he called her yesterday. She contacted the police and they went after him. I'm surprised she called the police since she always bails him out of trouble."
"Does she know about the baby?"
"I don't know. I've not told her. I don't plan to tell her. I want Jack out of my life. Right now I wish someone else was the father of this child or that there wasn't a child at all than for Jack to be the father."
"Well he is and you have to live with that. I know you didn't want the baby to start with but now do you really wish you weren't having a baby?"
"Ask me tomorrow," she replied.
I laughed, "Playing Scarlet O'Hara, today."
"She had a pretty good thing going didn't she?"
I had to laugh again considering Jack's resemblance to Clark Gable, "Yeah, Rhett was a NICE on the eyes."
Emily shook her head. She was well aware of my thoughts. "Not what I meant."
"I know. Now, how about going to Lunch with us. I'm sure Cherry is hungry and I want to know how your Doctor's appointment went yesterday."
"Sounds good. I'm always hungry," Emily answered smiling brightly for the first time since we'd sat down.
Cherry laughed as we dashed out the door into the rain.