bb8VgwB
bb8VgwB
bb8VgwB
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
“Look at me!”<br />
I yelled.<br />
“Look at me!”<br />
Part V<br />
was looking forward to the new term, but Occupy<br />
I Central was upon us. The students were all on the<br />
streets, and numbers dwindled over a week until<br />
one day, no one at all showed up. No one, of course,<br />
except for the lovebirds. They appeared in their<br />
customary spot just as I turned my back. It struck<br />
me as a fine chance to apologize for my deplorable<br />
behavior over the summer; I called out, asking them<br />
to come closer.<br />
They did not respond.<br />
I called out again. They said nothing. They did<br />
not even look up. They just sat there: Joanna, with<br />
that same red scarf dragging on the floor.<br />
I was filled with a rage I cannot explain. My<br />
every failure rose to the front of my mind, my every<br />
shame. Everything I had done, to end up here in Hall<br />
44. I could not bear that they would ignore me. I ran<br />
towards them across the room, blind with anger.<br />
“Look at me!” I yelled. “Look at me!”<br />
I slipped on her scarf, I think. I hit my head,<br />
I think. When I opened my eyes the couple was finally<br />
looking at me, and their eyes were black and full of<br />
hate, and they knew me. They knew what I had done.<br />
Part VI<br />
I<br />
ran. I ran through the campus with rage and fear<br />
and those eyes dogging me. I ran literally into<br />
Winston, the most reliable and stupid member of<br />
my class. He saw my panic and took me to the side,<br />
offered me a box of Vita lemon tea. I begged him to<br />
tell me about the couple in Hall 44.<br />
He looked even stupider than he usually does.<br />
“How did you find out about them? We were<br />
told not to say anything.” But the fear in my eyes<br />
seemed to drive him onwards. “They loved each<br />
other, but they both lived at home. Lectures were<br />
the only time they could spend together.<br />
“Our last professor… he loved her work. Said it<br />
was brilliant, just like his own research. He became<br />
obsessed. Insisting that they had the same mind.<br />
Whatsapps all day and all night. He started following<br />
her home at night, begging to work together.<br />
The couple complained to the university.”<br />
“They fired him?”<br />
“No, no one would do anything about it. The<br />
Vice-Chancellor said they were ‘overreacting.’ So<br />
Joseph went to Hall 44 and confronted the professor.<br />
The professor pulled out a knife and stabbed him<br />
in the stomach. Said he was getting in the way of<br />
their research. When Joanna found Joseph, I heard<br />
the scream from across the campus. The way I hear<br />
it, she pulled the knife out of him and killed herself<br />
with it. They never saw the professor again.”<br />
18 HK MAGAZINE FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2014