Good Night, Oregon by B.K. Froman

Author:B.K. Froman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literary Fiction, Humor
Publisher: Morning West Publishing
Published: 2018-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

23. 1997

“SOPHIA! IS THAT you?”

I arrange my face into a smile and turn around in the hallway. “Dr. Klein, how are you?”

“I have corrections and suggestions for your dissertation, if you’ll follow me to my office.”

I trail behind him up two flights, neither of us speaking, but that’s not strange for scientific folk. Both of us are ensconced in our own thoughts rather than make small talk. “Wait here,” he says. “I’ll grab your file.” He unlocks his office, and I’m feeling relieved this will be a short exchange. I wasn’t ready for a long sit-down critique today.

Reappearing, he hands me the thick file. “Sorry it took a while to get back to you. I feel there are a number of gaps that must be addressed, particularly in the area of resources.” He relocks the door.

“Oh?” I frown. Now I’m interested in a longer discussion.

“It’s all in there.” He taps the folder and begins walking quickly. “I disagree about some points in your gravity model.”

I follow him. “But I modeled it using Dr. Slompka’s work—”

“Perhaps that should be revisited.” He waves at the file as we hurry down the hallway. “I was precise in my notations. Excuse my rush. I’m late for an appointment. Don’t worry. It’s all in there. We can talk, perhaps next week—no, it’ll have to be the week after—if anything is unclear.”

I stop walking. He doesn’t seem to notice. His back is diminishing down the hall. Maybe Mina was right about his ego and he’s punishing me. I flip open the folder. Red ink scrawls on each page: corrections, suggestions, diagrams, and notes. Some with exclamation points.

I am screwed.

“Oh,” he calls back to me, “good job cutting off that radio interloper. It took a while, but you finally figured it out. Way to stick with it.”

“What?” I look up from his notes. He waves, turns, and continues walking.

“Mierennueker,” I grumble. What a nitpicker. When I started the doctoral program, there weren’t any available teaching assistantships. I paid my own way and figured I could tell people to go to hell if they tried to make me kiss their ring or butt or whatever. But then I had to accept the custodian job and then the technician job to stretch my savings. I can’t take another delay; I’m at the bottom dregs of money. Maybe Kurt, the radio pirate, was right. “Never miss a chance to stick it to the establishment.”

Unfortunately, working for the department makes it hard to be an open rebel. And like kings and queens, the faculty have thumbs-up and thumbs-down power over my life right now.

I close the file and stare down the empty hallway.

Or do they?

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.