Page 13 of Songs of Summer

“Are you ready?”

“Not at all. I think I should wait out here.”

“Really?”

“Yes. You know me better than anyone. Just go in there and figure out if I would want this woman in my life.”

She held up her mood ring; it was black. He laughed.

“I need a little more than that.”

“If you meet her and she sucks, nothing lost, no drama! I’m doing so well right now. I just got that business improvement loan. I’m coming to terms with losing my parents, a little bit at least. We are engaged to be engaged.”

“Though we haven’t told anyone,” Jason pointed out. “If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it…”

Maggie smiled. He may be the most patient man in all of Ohio, but even Maggie was not sure why she still wanted their quasi-engagement to remain quasi.

“I know. I think I’ve been waiting for this. Like you said,I need to know where I come from before I decide where I’m going.”

“OK, then, I’m heading in.”

He ruffled her hair and motioned to a bench where she could plant herself.

•••

While it wastrue that Jason was particularly inept at lying, he wasn’t a bad actor. When he and Maggie had auditioned forRomeo and Julietin high school, he got Romeo, and she got the fourth handmaiden.

He stood outside of the door markedbeatrix silver, fluttered his lips like he learned in drama club, and got into character. One more flutter, and he rapped his knuckles on the door.

“Come in!” a gravelly baritone voice bellowed, leaving Jason to wonder if Maggie’s mom had a two-pack-a-day habit. That wouldn’t bode well for anyone.

A towering man in a bow tie rose from behind the desk to greet him.

Jason looked down from the desk placard that readbeatrix silverto the man behind the desk and back again. The man laughed and reached out his hand.

“Dave Weinstein. My office is being painted; you’re looking for Professor Silver, I presume?”

“I am.”

Jason looked around the small office, taking it in. At Case, some professors went all out personalizing their studies, filling their bookshelves and walls with photographs, important works, and memorabilia, while some didn’t reveal a clue as to who they were. Beatrix was somewhere in the middle. Herwalls held her diploma, a couple of awards, and a few black-and-white photos. Her shelves were, unsurprisingly, filled with volumes and volumes of literature. A wedding photo sat on the corner of her desk. It looked recent. The wall to his left was covered in cork and filled with fliers and events, both past and future.

“Do you have an appointment?”

“No, no,” he improvised, “I’m an old student. Just stopping in to say hello.”

“Oh, that’s a shame. You just missed her. She turned in her final grades and she’s heading east for a wedding, I believe.” As he said it, he motioned to the bulletin board.

Jason noticed what looked like a wedding invitation. He inched toward it to get a better look.

“Would you like to leave a note?” the man asked.

“Um, I’ll be in the area again in the fall. I’ll stop back then.”

“I’m afraid that won’t work either. Professor Silver is traveling abroad in the fall to England. She’s chairing the Kenyon-Exeter program for the year. Lucky gal!”

“Yes, very.”

“Did you go?”

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