Neither Here Nor There by Nikki Harmon

Author:Nikki Harmon [Harmon, Nikki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780996537346
Publisher: Mt. Airy Girl Press
Published: 2019-10-11T06:00:00+00:00

A day later and I cannot stop thinking about the girl. I replay it over and over again and I’m sure she looked directly at me and asked for my help. During my prep time, I decide to do some research on Professor Patel. I look him up on Temple’s website and as soon as his face pops up, I have a hard time catching my breath. I sit back in my chair and try to relax. I read his biography, which I find to be quite interesting. He’s a biology professor but majored in physics at Harvard and worked for the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. He left there after 5 years and got a Ph.D in biomechanics at Princeton. Then he went straight to Temple University to teach. Interesting. I decide to scroll through his list of publications. It is a very extensive list, but I found the gap during his years at APL curious. Maybe his work there was considered their property and not his work. I am just about to open up their site when the bell rings for the next period to begin.

I teach my lesson on cell structure but I am not even listening to myself. In the back of my mind, I am running over Patel’s biography. During breaks in the discussion, I relive the memory of the girl and “help” coming from the oval of her mouth. Somehow, I am able to carry on with the lesson, to say the words, to teach the concepts and to keep up the actions of the “teacher”. The day ends, and before I’m done saying goodbye to the last of my seventh graders, I sit down at my laptop. As I start to go back to my page on Patel, I get a great idea and log into the Temple portal as an alum. I go to the student portal and select directory, turn on photographic view, filter for science majors and voilà ... ten pages of students, their pictures, names, class and major information appear. I increase the screen size and scroll through. I find the girl halfway down the first page. Amy Archeletta. She’s smiling in the picture, carefree and eager looking, with her brown hair waving around her face. Her freckles are visible even in the black and white photo. I switch tabs and go to Temple’s email portal. I send her a quick cryptic email.

Dear Amy,

We saw each other on Tuesday. I was going in and you were going out of the Science Building. I am an alumna and would like to learn more about what the Science Department is doing lately. Let’s meet for coffee so we can talk.

Best,

K. Thornton-Brooks

I hit “send” and cross my fingers. There was no immediate reply so I log off of everything and pack up for the day. My car ride home is a blur as I rack my brain thinking about Patel and what that group could have been up to. Jackson

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