Bell, Book and Dyke - New Exploits of Magical Lesbians by Barbara Johnson Karin Kallmaker Therese Szymanski & Julia Watts

Author:Barbara Johnson, Karin Kallmaker, Therese Szymanski & Julia Watts [Barbara Johnson, Karin Kallmaker, Therese Szymanski & Watts, Julia]
Language: por
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 2

"Professor Carnegie?"

I paused on my way out of the classroom. "What can I do for you?"

Greg, one of my favorite grad students, looked uncommonly nervous. "Your last notes, I'm afraid I can't read part."

"Handwriting that bad?" I took the paper he proffered as I slipped my reading glasses onto my nose.

Consider Shaeffer and Pollard, I'd written, then... I blinked. The rest was unintelligible. It looked like... but couldn't be... the script from the book that I had been studying for a week now. What on earth had I been thinking? More importantly, why hadn't I noticed?

"Oh for heaven's sake," I said, letting my chagrin show. "I must have been really tired." Unbidden, I temporized, "It's shorthand. They're letter groups formed into single characters."

Greg seemed satisfied but I was stunned at what I'd just blithely said. Looking at what I'd written, I was flabbergasted to realize I could read it. "It says this is very good work." Which was, in fact, what I had written.

We talked a little bit more, but inside, I kept asking myself how all of a sudden the damn book was now understandable to me. I knew no such code. Osmosis had been thoroughly debunked by science, so I didn't believe that, either. Where had this knowledge come from?

My obsession with the book was inexplicable. I hadn't told Kylie about it because I couldn't explain it myself. I was missing hours and hours of my time and the more I told myself I was dozing off, the more I knew it wasn't the right answer. I've never been big on meditation but that was likely closer to what was going on. If I told Kylie she'd worry that I ought to be having an affair with a real live person, not a book.

"How are the ribs?"

I spun around to face my neighbor, and felt myself flush as I remembered Kylie's succinct assessment: hot and gay. "They're fine. I'm fine."

"Good. You know, the other morning I didn't realize at first that there are two of you."

I stuck my hand out for a proper introduction. "Hayley Carnegie. You met my sister, Kylie, I believe."

"Over my magazine and your water bill. Aurora Lowell. You're twins, aren't you?" She shook my hand and gave me another of her evaluative stares.

"Yes. Identical, though most people can easily tell us apart." I abruptly wanted to explain how Kylie's spirit had always flared brighter. I let the classroom door fall shut behind me, finally, and turned toward the main doors. Aurora matched pace with me.

"So you never pretended to be each other?"

"No. It wouldn't have worked. We never dressed the same, at least, not after our parents divorced."

"They didn't do that Parent Trap thing, did they? Split you up?"

"As a matter of fact, they did, for a couple of years." Neither of us had been the same and the bond between us had taken years to recover from the separation.

Aurora didn't voice the scorn over parental choices that showed in her eyes. Green eyes, green like a deep river.