Page 46 of Rewrites of the Heart

“Oh, my God,” JJ heard one of them say, as she nudged the other, “there she is now. Let’s get out of here.” The other student gave her a quick glance as if to confirm her friend’s observation, they both giggled, and then hurried down the hall.

Click. Click. Click.The accelerated rate of her heels indicated her growing concern of what could possibly be on the door. When she finally saw the large, clear, crisp, color image plastered on her door, her knees turned to rubber and she dropped her messenger bag.

“I don’t believe this. This can’t be happening to me.” A student photographer had captured the jumbotron image of her and Kenn in their passionate kiss. The photo was large and thanks to some editor at the UNO’s student newspaper,The Daily Digit,was now on the front page and distributed campus-wide.So much for putting the horrendous incident behind me.

Above the photo was a headline:Professors In Love.Below the photo was a brief explanation:History professors, Kennedy King Cooper and J. Jordan St. Clair share an intimate moment in front of the entire UNO stadium as the Fighting Fingers win their first football game in five years (See the Sports Page for more details on the game.).

“Why me?” The words came out as a whimper. It was really all the energy she could expend at the moment. Her whole world was unraveling at a most alarmingly brisk rate. She sighed heavily and leaned her head on the door. Her initial reaction was to hit her head against it, and, in fact, she did raise it. But she stopped just short of the fulfilling the action.

“With my luck,” she sighed, “I’d break the window. And the school newspaper would have a field day with that.”

Instead, she settled for ripping the page from the door. She dragged herself into her office and immediately closed the door behind her. All she wanted was a few minutes alone to pull herself together before she had to face her class.

And Kenn. God, she had to look Kenn in the face. She tossed the page in the trash can and unceremoniously dumped her messenger bag on a chair.

It wasn’t until she walked around to sit down that she noticed them. The unexpected appearance of a thing of beauty made her smile, despite her gloomy mood. She tilted her head and squinted one eye, just to make sure she was seeing what she thought she was seeing. A crystal vase of bright yellow roses sat in the middle of her cluttered desk.

She pulled the card stuck in the middle of the arrangement and opened it. It contained only two words:I’m sorry.She laughed to herself. Even though the sender hadn’t signed it, she knew who it came from.

“I am, you know.” She knew the voice even before she looked in the direction of it. She pivoted to face Kenn.

“I lost control,” he said, “I was totally out of line.”

She watched in fascination as Kenn closed his eyes tightly, winced, and appeared to tense every muscle in his body. His arms quickly and instinctively protected his face, and he raised his left knee—as if he expected to be kicked in the lower part of his body.

“Go ahead,” he said. “I’m ready for it.”

She moved swiftly out from behind her desk to stand directly in front of him.

“What are you doing?”

“Preparing myself for the lashing you’re about to unleash on me.”

“What?”

“You know, you’re going to tell me I’m a pompous ass—no wait—make that an audacious pompous ass, a sexist elitist, and who knows what else. I’m ready for it.”

“Now, why would I do that?” She dropped the card and placed her hands on her hips.

Not changing his stance one bit but beginning to totter a little unsteadily, he answered, “Because you did it when I first met you at the bookstore, then again at the café, and you were especially effective at your sister’s. And this is a much larger transgression.”

He paused. “Have you seen the front page ofThe Daily Digityet?” He whispered the question and moved his hand slightly as if making sure his eyes were completely covered.

“Yes, as a matter of fact, the damned thing was taped to my door.” She took several steps to her trash can, pulled it out, and tried to smooth the page out. “See?”

She watched with curiosity as he slowly moved the two fingers that covered his eyes. He nodded quickly, then put his fingers back in place. Then out of seemingly nowhere, she laughed. The robustness of its sound startled even her. But she couldn’t stop.

“What’s so funny?” He again deliberately moved his fingers.

“You are.” Trying to catch her breath, she continued. “You…look…you look like a giant flamingo practicing tai chi.”

Allowing his body to relax, he dropped his arms and put his leg down.

“And really, this whole situation is funny. Hilarious, really,” she said between her now uncontrollable laughter.

The pieces of the puzzle of the last couple of weeks were finally falling into place for her. The full effects of Saturday’s incident, and the time the two of them had spent teaching and visiting in each other’s offices struck her. But what really grabbed her attention was her uncontrollable laughter. It had felt good…extremely good.

“Damn it,” she finally said out loud, massaging her forehead with her hand. Kenn returned to his flamingo-performing-tai-chi posture.

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