know anything about the teachers? I mean, do you know if any of the professors has a secret?”
The moment she asked the question, she knew it didn’t sound right. It wouldn’t take Keisha much time to realize that there was a connection between both incidents. Keisha was about to say something when there was a loud knock on the door. They both looked at each other understandably and knew who it was. Keisha went to open the door.
Predictably, it was Denise at the door. She didn’t look surprised upon seeing Emily sitting inside her room and greeted both girls. Then she went inside her room without saying anything else. Emily wondered if Keisha would ask Denise about her newfound friendship with Mia, or her interest in evoking spirits and souls, but Keisha didn’t say a thing. Perhaps she stored it away for some other time.
Keisha turned back to Emily and asked, “You were saying something?”
“Never mind,” Emily said and attempted to leave the room.
Keisha tried to stop her, but eventually let her go. The night was still young when Emily entered her room, dragging the set of freshly arrived books behind her. They were stacked along with the other books in the corner, the sight of which only added to her misery. She cringed at the sight of them and turned her face away. Emily debated whether or not to look into the new box, but couldn’t figure out why the books were sent to her in the first place.
For now, there was nothing she could do. Emily checked her phone to see if Grace had called, but the screen was blank. Grace’s reluctance to call, even after two days, saddened Emily deeply. She gulped it down and called her instead. The response she got was similar to that of the other day. The line was not reachable and the connection was cut off soon after. She couldn’t contact Grace, and that was slowly starting to sink in. Emily contemplated if calling her family was a good idea, but then Grace would get into trouble if her family was unaware of her absence. Waiting for Grace to call her back was the only option left for her.
What do I do with these books?
The anxiety within Emily was genuine. Sitting alone in the glum environment of the room gave her some ideas, but a thousand random things ran through her mind. She decided to ignore them. She rummaged through the new books that were dropped at her door steps, but there was nothing extraordinary about them. Yet, there was one book that stood out from the rest. It was addressed to R. Keaton.
These books must belong to her, Emily assumed , but why are they delivered at my doorstop?
Something was not right and the nagging feeling kept lingering in her head. There was no way to get rid of them, other than to find out the truth that lay behind the anonymous sender of the books. Emily pulled out a notepad and decided to approach the situation from a systematic standpoint. She listed a few people she wanted to question about Mr. Gallagher, and with that thought in mind she went to bed.
Am I about to expose some big secret revelation coming or am I just making a mountain out of a molehill?
The next day she met Mrs. Skinner, who was the assistant dean. She was a middle-aged woman, strict and disciplined. She was a dedicated administrator and mostly kept track of anything that went on within the university campus. She had a fair amount of knowledge of university staff and every rule in the book. Emily was confident that Mrs. Skinner could provide her with some answers.
Approaching Mrs. Skinner wasn’t easy. She had an aura about her which made her unapproachable, and then asking about another teacher seemed like a mammoth task. But it was to be done and delaying it would only make things worse. Mrs. Skinner was not in her office when Emily arrived at the administration building. She was disappointed and decided to wait outside her office. She sat down on the brown sofa and her eyes rested on the cream walls that surrounded the waiting area. There were
Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, June Scobee Rodgers