Truth and Other Lies by Maggie Smith

Author:Maggie Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orange Hat Publishing
Published: 2022-01-28T21:38:05+00:00

NINETEEN

Becca had warned me not to contact Professor Stein, said I could make the situation worse by interfering. But I didn’t agree. After all, Stein had introduced Jocelyn at the rally as “my dear friend.” The two of them had marched in the streets together. Of course she’d want to help. I phoned, explained I was a member of Jocelyn’s PR team, and we made a date to meet at University Hall Wednesday afternoon.

A plaque on the wall outside her door read Dr. Rhoda Stein, Professor of English. Two voices seeped through the walls, one low and steady, the other angry and shrill. The door sprang open and a student barreled out, almost knocking me over. The girl lowered her eyes, whispered an apology, and hurried down the stairs. When I peeked around the corner, Stein was leaning back, hands clasped behind her head, eyes fixated on the ceiling.

“Professor? I’m Megan Barnes. Is this a bad time?”

She sat up straighter. “No, just delivering unwelcome news to a would-be author. I could use the break.” She took another look at me. “Wait. You’re the girl from the rally, aren’t you? The one who attacked that skinhead? When you called, I didn’t make the connection.”

“I gave Jocelyn my contact information, and we met together for lunch, and, well, it’s a long story, but I’ve joined the team handling the publicity for her memoir.”

“That’s so her. She meets you. She likes you. She folds you into her life.” She motioned to a chair across from her desk. “Take a seat. But I remember you from somewhere else. Weren’t you in one of my classes a few years ago?”

“A survey class on American women authors. I analyzed Gone with the Wind for the final. You gave me credit for calling out the racism but took off points because I labelled Scarlett anti-feminist.” I smiled. “You said I’d ignored the reality of her situation, said she’d used the only avenues available to her—her beauty and her brains—to survive.”

“As women have done throughout history.” Stein folded her hands together. “Well, we’re not here to discuss Scarlett. You wanted to talk about Jocelyn. Does this have to do with the tweets? How’s she coping?”

I wasn’t surprised Stein had heard the rumors, but I was surprised she hadn’t contacted her friend. “The team’s trying to deal with the fallout. I wondered if you could shed light on Jocelyn: her background, her history. The more I know, the better I can help her. You two have been friends a long time, right?”

“God, yes. Back at Columbia, we were inseparable. We even roomed together one year in the early seventies. Fourth-floor walk-up in Greenwich Village.” Stein scrutinized my face. “You remind me of her in those days. Not your features so much as the way you present yourself. The way you gesture when you talk.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond, so I moved on. “It must have been a heady time. I mean, all the protests over the war, the women’s movement, Watergate.

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