Drew's Story
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Chapter 10
The past three days have been rough. Tor's gone to do some research in the university's library, leaving me with a list of shots he wants for the book. It's not a long list, but it's of things quite difficult to photograph. The type that you make dozens of shots and if you're lucky you may get one usable one, not a good one, but one that's usable simply because no one else has gotten better. But I want more. I work my tail off shooting roll after roll of film. Day melts into night, but I see neither. When my eyes get so blurry I can't see anything through the scope, I fall into bed for a few hours, make another pot of coffee, and then go right back at it. I'll rest after Tor gets back. The work keeps me from missing him so much.
At last! I pull the final print from the drier and look it over. This was the toughest shot I had to make. Out of over two hundred exposures, this is the only one I'd consider keeping. I'm not ecstatic over it, but it's far better than I've seen of anyone else's work. No way I'm ashamed of anything I've gotten. I'm expecting Tor most any time, so I open a beer and go out on the deck to relax. When I hear footsteps on the planks of the dock I think it might be Tor, but it's just one of the guys coming down to check on the research vessel, which means they're probably going out tomorrow.
I'm so glad to finally see him come around the corner of the institute, I yell, "Hey, Tor!" Then it hits me that's something's wrong. Any other time he'd be running, but his feet are dragging like he dreads coming back. He walks past me without saying anything, his face a perfect blank. I follow him inside and give him a hug. He won't look at me, so I put my hand under his chin and turn his head so I can see. There are tears in his eyes.
"Aren't you glad to see me? I've sure missed you." I try to kiss him, but he turns his head so my lips only brush his cheek.
"Don't, baby, " he whispers.
"What have I done?"
"It's not you, it's me."
"You're not in any trouble, are you? Hey, talk to me."
"I don't want to talk about it. Did everything go all right while I was gone?"
"Yeah. I got those shots you wanted, too. Want to see them?"
"After a while. I'm going to shower."
Tor always tells me what he thinks I should know, but he never shuts me out entirely when it's something that concerns both of us, and I know this does or he wouldn't be acting this way. There's nothing I can do because he's at the 'don't push me' stage, so I go back out on deck and finish my beer.
He finally comes out in a pair of Bermuda shorts and takes the chair next to mine. I bring him a beer and hand him the folder of prints. He gives me a sad little smile and opens the folder.
"Fantastic, Drew! You must not have done anything but work while I was gone to get shots like these."
"I didn't do anything else. That's why the place is a mess. But I wanted to have them ready for you." I point to one he's looking at intently. "I'm sorry about that one, but it was the best I could get."
"I've never seen a shot like this in all the books I've seen. The rest have been blurs, but you got some detail that proves most of the drawings of it wrong. This one shot will make the book. You're the greatest!"
"It took nearly three hundred exposures to get it, but I wanted it perfect because you want it so much."
Tor grabs my hand and squeezes until it hurts. When I look at him, I see tears again. "God! I don't deserve you, baby, 'specially now."
"A guy like you deserves more than me. I sometimes wonder why a fantastic guy like you loves me when you could have anyone."
His tears start flowing. "Don't, Drew. Please don't say that." He gets up and goes inside leaving me with a sick feeling. My imagination goes wild with the idea he's fallen in love with someone else and he's going to throw me out. I don't know what I'd do if I lost him. After all we've been through together, he's all I've got or care about.
I follow him inside. He's sitting on our bunk with his face in his hand. I sit down beside him and put my arm around him. "Please tell me what I've done?"
He grabs me in a hug then puts his head down on my shoulder and buries his face in my hair. I can feel his tears wetting my face. "Drew, oh, Drew. Forgive me."
"What is it? Is it somebody else?"
He pushes me back a little so he can take my face in his hand and look me in the eyes. "It wasn't somebody else, baby, least not the way you think. You've never asked me about my life before we met and I appreciate it, because it's too painful for me to talk about. Now I guess I'd better tell you some of it."
"You don't have to."
"I've got to. My folks are still alive, that is my father is. My mother died a couple of years ago."
"But you didn't say anything about it, or go to her funeral."
"I couldn't. I didn't know about it until yesterday. Look, let me start at the beginning so you can understand. I've always been queer." His voice is bitter. "I mean from the time I can remember I liked to be around the guys in our neighborhood. A guy who lived in the next block was my best friend. We used to wrestle around some after school for exercise. Anyway, my old man was heavy into sports and he never got over my arm. So when he saw Tony and me wrestling, he got a mat and put it down in the cellar and tried to teach me something about it cause he thought I'd found a sport I liked. I did, but it was more than that. Tony and I were wrestling one day and he started rubbing up against me. I got hard and stopped. Tony laughed and asked me if it was the first time. I said it was and he jerked me off. Then he made me do it to him. I liked it, so it got to be a part of wrestling for me.
"When he started dating he didn't want to mess around anymore. One time he fixed me up with a date, but he and his girl snuck off and left us. The girl I was with started fooling around and I didn't know what to do, so she got mad at me and left. Next day she slapped Tony and told him if that was the best he could do he could forget it. She and Tony's girl were best friends, so it got all over school I wasn't man enough to make it.
"After that I was getting put down by everybody in school until a senior stopped me one afternoon and said he'd heard I was a good wrestler, and what about a round. I mean for a varsity jock to talk to a sophomore was really something. So he went home with me. The folks weren't there, so we went on down to the cellar. I was big even back then, so I gave him some trouble. I was wishing the old man could see me with just one whole arm pinning this guy to the mat.
"When I let the guy up, he said he had to go, but he wanted to come back and work out with me again. I can still remember him standing there in his trunks, and thinking how beautiful he was, I was happy to tell him any time.
"A few days after that, some of the jocks got me up in a corner at break and were laying it on me about how sweet I am and don't I want to suck them and all. After that girl talked even the teachers didn't want anything to do with me. So they're laying it on me when the senior comes up and starts kicking ass. He tells them any of them that can pin him in a fair match like I done can call me a fairy. They know none of them can take him, so they shut up. I'd of died for him after that.
"He started letting me hang around with him and it made a big difference in how I got treated. The next time we wrestled it happened. I found the guy swings both ways and we start making it regularly. One afternoon we were playing around when the old man walked in.
"He went ballistic. He's got a mean temper anyway and he'd had a few on the way home from work. He screamed at us and the jock grabbed his clothes and ran out the back door. The old man started punching me around, yelling so loud I didn't even know what he was saying. Mom came down and tried to stop him, but he slugged her and laid back into me. I got him a few good ones for hitting mom, but he must of knocked me out, cause when I came to I was in the backyard and mom was holding my head in her lap.
"The old man threw a suitcase at me and grabbed mom and tried to pull her back into the house. When she wouldn't leave me, he slapped her around and dragged her in. I was sitting there dazed and he told me to hit the road, he don't want to see me no more. I remember walking down the drive and my mother coming out the front door and giving me some money and kissing me. The old man came tearing out after her and tried to kick me in the ass. I won't ever forget what he yelled at me: 'I won't have a cocksucker for a son! I wish you were dead, you one armed freak!'
"It was getting dark and I didn't have nowhere to go 'cause I didn't have any friends 'cept the jock and I didn't know where he lived. I couldn't go to none of the neighbors, cause any time the old man got on a tear they wouldn't even look out to see what was going on, so I just started walking.
"It was already dark. I walked a long time and I didn't know where I was, so I was standing on a corner trying to figure out what to do when a car stopped. It was Vince, so I guess you know the rest. I never saw my folks after that."
Tears come to my eyes, he's had it a lot worse than me. "I'm sorry, Tor. I understand why you didn't want to talk about it, but why did you turn away from me?"
I can't read his look. "That's not it, baby, but it's what you've gotta know to understand. I was in the library yesterday afternoon making some notes when this girl sat down across the table from me and started going through a stack of old newspapers. She folded one back and started reading it. The way she had it folded the obituaries were facing me. When I reached over for another book, I saw my mother's name in that heavy print they use. I grabbed the paper out of her hand and looked at the date. I can't believe it was two years old. God, the old man didn't even try to find me! She was pissed about the way I snatched the paper out of her hands and started to say something, but I was crying. She came around to my side of the table and said, "I'm sorry if I brought back a bad scene. Was it somebody you knew?"
"It was my mom. I didn't know 'til now. That's why I grabbed the paper."
People began to shush us, so she says, "Get your stuff together and lets go somewhere quiet."
She takes me to her apartment and lets me cry me cry it out. I thought that would be it, but she fixed me dinner and all."
Tor gives me a look I'll never forget. "I spent the night with her, baby. I'm sorry. It just happened."
I suddenly feel icy cold. Of all the things that could have happened between us, this is the last thing I would have thought of. "Did you?"
"I tried, baby. I guess I thought maybe if I could make it with a chick the old man .… Oh, hell, I was so messed up I don't know what I was thinking. She was determined, and when it didn't happen last night she said it was because I was uptight, so she tried again this morning, but it didn't happen then either. That's when she got pissed off and threw me out. My head's messed up, my work's not done, and worst of all, I've been unfaithful to you. What am I going to do, Drew?"
This last is a desperate wail I hope I never hear again, but I'm hurting, too. Hurting because I wasn't with him when he really needed me. Before, I've always been the one needed him. I wipe his tears and kiss him.
"I wish I'd gone with you, but I'm glad somebody tried to help. Quit worrying. You weren't unfaithful. Not in my book anyway."
Tor looks at me with hope. "Are you sure?"
"Of course I am, you big dope. If you can't make it with a determined chick, then I know you've got to love me as much as I love you."
He hugs me so tight I'm afraid he's going to bust a couple of my ribs. "I do love you, baby. You just don't know how much."
Tor is harder on himself than he ever is on anyone else. It takes a full week of special attention from me before he can believe my love for him hasn't changed, no matter what. But once he's convinced, he starts writing on the book so fast I can't keep up with the typing. It's as if a dam has broken. Even so, we take breaks more often. During one of them he says, "I've got to go back to the U and finish up that research. You want to go with me?"
"You know I do, but I'll never get the typing caught up. I can do it if I stay here."
"Oh. I . . . I thought I might try to see the old man. I don't know why, but since . . . " his voice trails off.
"Then it's better I don't go with you, the way he feels."
"Yeah. But if I knew you were close by . . . " he shrugs. "I probably won't bother. I've got a lot to do."
"When you going?"
"Tomorrow. That way I'll miss most of the weekend traffic."
It's one of those fantastic Indian summer days, so I fix a couple of sandwiches for my lunch and sit on the deck to eat. I'm just getting started when one of the new students at the institute comes down the dock and stops at our gangway.
"Is Dr. Torrence around?"
"He's at the university for a couple of days. What do you need?"
"I was redoing the slide show for Carl and the projector chewed up one of the slides. There isn't another copy, but Dr. Curtis said Dr. Torrence might have one."
As soon as he tells me, I know I have a similar shot in my files. "It's not Tor you want, it's me. Come on aboard."
"Are you sure? Dr. Curtis said . . . "
"It's fine if you're invited. Come on."
He scrambles aboard.
"Want a sandwich with me?"
He nods hesitantly. "If you don't mind. I haven't had time for lunch, sir."
I fix him a couple of sandwiches and get him a glass of milk which is what I'm drinking. "When we finish, I'll get my slide and we'll go up and run a copy. I'd do it here, but I don't have any solutions prepared. The copier up there works faster than mine, anyway."
"Thanks a lot, sir. You're the one does the photography, aren't you?"
"Yep."
"My dad sent me a camera for my birthday and told me to take some pictures of this area. We live out west so this country is new to me. Trouble is, I don't know how to use it. Would you maybe have time to show me?"
"You have tomorrow free?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good enough. If I can get the rest of my work out of the way tonight, I'll help you. You might come down about nine. What's your name?"
"Dave Andersen."
"Right, Dave; mine's Drew. Let's get that slide."
While I'm stacking our dishes in the sink, Dave looks around the cabin, then follows me down to my lab.
"Why do you live on a houseboat, sir?"
"Do me a favor and knock off the sir. My name's Drew."
He looks shocked. "But you're a professor, sir. My dad would kill me if he ever found out."
"Oh, hell, I'm not more 'an a couple of years older than you. I started college before I was seventeen. Besides, this isn't a classroom. If I help you, it'll be as a friend. Can you live with that?"
"Oh, yes, sir. I mean Drew. Thanks."
"Now I'll answer your question. Having a houseboat makes it easy for Tor and me to get where we want to work and we can stay there as long as we want." I grin. "Besides, there isn't any grass to mow."
"This has an engine?"
"Yeah. It's completely self-contained."
"I wondered since you're taking utilities from the dock lines."
Dave's an observant, intelligent kid, the first one I've felt completely at ease with in quite a while. "Tor and I did most of the work ourselves. When we got it, there was nothing but the outside walls."
"Must have cost a lot."
"Not with us doing the work. It's cheaper than renting an apartment somewhere, unless we're anchored out and have to run the generator for power." With the interest he shows, I give him a tour, including my darkroom and Tor's lab.
"This is great. I think it would be fun to live on one, if I could find one fixed up like this."
"It is, but sometimes it gets a little tight for room."
I copy the slide and Curtis comes in as I'm projecting it to check for flaws. "Thanks for helping Dave out, Drew. I was about to send him out diving in some cold water to make a replacement."
"No problem. Tor's out of town and I'm about caught up with my work."
Dave is right on time the next morning. Although of a different make, his camera is virtually identical to mine. He flushes with pride when I praise it, but pays close attention to everything I show him. I grab a roll of color film from my supply and show him how to load it and set the metering.
"Want to try it out?"
"I guess I could take a picture of the institute to show the folks where I'm spending the semester, but I'd like to get some of the beach, too. I don't guess you'd come with me and show me how you get some of those great shots."
I'm half expecting Tor any time, but I need a break and it'll be good to spend the day doing something different.
"You have a car? Tor's got ours."
He grins. "Sure. You tell me where to go."
Car isn't quite the word for it. When we get to the parking lot he jumps in the Jag XKE which Tor and I had admired a few days before. It reminds of a cartoon I saw in a newspaper once. It showed a school with the students' parking lot full of new sports cars, while the faculty parking lot was filled with Model T's. The engine lets out a throaty roar and he whips it around and out the gate. Despite the car, he doesn't drive as fast as Tor, so I put my head back against the rest and enjoy the wind blowing my hair, the sun shining down on me.
We make a few tourist stops for pictures, but when Dave mentions his old man has a thing for lighthouses, I direct him to the three we can make in the time we have, since there's no heavy traffic to hold us up. During our lunch stop, Dave opens up. His old man's a doctor and wanted Dave to be one, but when he flunked out in his second year of med school, he turned to biological science instead. He wants to go back home and teach when he gets his degree. Though I protest, he insists on taking a picture of me to send his dad so he can see one of his teachers.
Tor's not back when we get back to the institute and the kid's so agreeable to be with that I invite him down for a beer. He stretches out in the deck chair. "This is the best day I've had since I've been here. None of the other guys seem to like the things I do. I mean they're always trying to find some girls to make out with. I've got a girl at home and we've got an understanding, so I'm not playing around."
"I guess it does get lonely for you, then. What do you like?"
"I read a lot. I like music, too." He glances at his watch. "I'd better go; I've got some studying to do. I really appreciate your taking the time to show me around, Drew. I wish we could do it again."
"Maybe we can. Come back sometime. I know Tor would enjoy talking to you. If you want me to develop that film, I can do it tomorrow morning in the institute's lab. Meet me there about quarter past nine."
"Gee, thanks. I was going to mail it off, but if you do it I can put the pictures in a letter I'm writing my dad tonight."
I grab a bite to eat and hit the computer for a few hours to finish transcribing the stuff Tor left for me. After I go to bed I wonder what Tor's going to say when he meets Dave. I hope he doesn't jump to a conclusion like with Toliver since Dave's a good-looking kid with a great personality. I'd like to make more friends, but Tor's jealous and, except for a few like Gary, he doesn't like people in general. For that reason, I've stayed pretty distant. I'm not tired of Tor, that'll never happen, but we can get so carried away with our work that it would be nice to know a few others for diversion.
I'm waiting outside the institute for Dave when I hear the roar of the Jag. He comes running up a few seconds later, breathless. "Sorry, I kept you waiting, Drew. I went to early Mass." I'm a little surprised because he's wearing faded jeans and a pullover. I guess at the beach anything goes even for church.
Since none of his stuff is critical, I run it through the auto-processor a lot faster than hand developing. Dave's as puzzled by the negatives as I was the first time. Since I made him bracket a lot of the shots, I run a contact sheet and let him pick the ones he wants printed. It's a little after noon when we finish. He's so tickled with the pictures he can't wait to get them off to his dad. When he leaves, I realize I'm jealous of the relationship they have, because the one I had with my dad lasted such a short time.
I pick up our mail and go back to the boat, get a beer, and sit on the deck to enjoy the good weather I know is about to end. I'm reading when I hear Tor yell, "Drew!"
He's coming down the dock with his bag and briefcase, so I guess he's gotten his research finished. He drops his stuff and grabs me in a hug. "Oh, baby, I missed you."
"How was it?"
"Good and bad. Let me get a brew and I'll tell you about it."
He takes his bags inside and comes back with a beer. He pulls a chair close to mine.
"The research went great. The latest piece of information came in while I was there. I'd have missed it if I'd finished up last weekend like I planned."
"What's the bad news?" I'm immediately sorry I asked for Tor's happy expression vanishes; he looks like a whipped dog. He reaches for my hand and holds it like he's afraid I'll try to run away.
"If I ever had any doubts, baby, they're gone. It's just you and me. I . . . I went home."
"You actually went to see your old man?"
"Yeah. I must of been crazy to think he'd softened up any. Mainly I went because there were some things of mom's I wanted. I went this morning. The old man came to the door, looked me over, and said, "Who are you?"
"When I said, 'It's Greg, dad,' he said, 'I don't know anybody by that name' and slammed the door in my face. I banged on it, but he wouldn't open it again. I knew he was standing right behind it, so I yelled, 'You might have at least let me know my mother died, you miserable sonuvabitch.' That's when I got in the car and came home. Far as I'm concerned, you're the only family I've got, Drew."
I kiss him because he needs it. "I'm sorry it happened that way, Tor, but I won't let you down. I love you."
"I love you, too, baby. I'd die if anything happened to you."
When we go inside to eat, Tor picks up the contact sheet I did for Dave. "When did you get on a tourist kick?"
"Didn't. One of the new kids got a camera and didn't know how to handle it, so I gave him some help." Tor frowns. "Hey, don't get bent out of shape about it. The kid's straight. We took a run down the beach so he could get some pictures to send to his folks out west."
"Do I get to meet him?" Tor smiles. "If you're going to get to know a few people we should do it together. I know I've kept you to myself too much, and it's been lonely for you. I'm sorry."
"Who cares when you're around?"
"That's why I love you. You make me feel like nobody else matters, but it isn't fair to you. I guess I figured you might dump me for some other guy when you got tired of me."
"No way I'm getting tired of you. If you want to meet Dave we can have him down for a drink some evening. You'll enjoy him as much as you do Gary."
At the beginning of the next semester, Tor and I go up to the university so I can consult with Joynes about writing my dissertation and putting together a collection of my best photomicrographs. I come back home with his instructions on the types of photos to include, each to have a written detailed description of what each photo shows. According to Joynes, I won't have to do a formal dissertation, instead, with the permission he's gotten from the doctoral committee, I can write and submit a paper on the photomicrography techniques I used for each shot and why I chose to use that particular technique. I'm delighted that my photographic work will stand as my dissertation, that I'm not likely to go through what Tor did in defending his. Instead, Joynes tells me to expect a lot of questions on the techniques I've used and why I chose to use them.
Tor lets nothing interrupt me while I'm working. Now it's he who makes me take breaks and a day off now and then. By putting in twelve-hour days and sometimes more, I'm finished in just over five weeks. I plan to mail it to Joynes, but Tor says it's too important to trust to the mail, so we drive up to the U so I can hand deliver it.
Joynes keeps me in his office as he tears into the package and spreads my photos out on a long table. He scans the whole portfolio first, then goes over the shots one by one using a large magnifying glass. The entire time he's muttering short exclamations to himself, which makes me nervous. I know he likes a lot of my stuff and as my faculty advisor he's told me what to do, but I can't tell from his mumbling whether he approves.
Finally, he straightens up and asks, "Are you prepared to face the committee?"
"Yes, sir."
"I've let you run a little late for submission, but you won't have that many references in your paper to be checked out because I'm already familiar with most of them. The committee will see you Thursday two weeks from now. I'm going to suggest that you arrange to stay in town for several days and it would probably be a good idea to bring your camera in case the committee wants to see you at work."
"Thanks. Tor and I will be here on the Wednesday before, then."
"Give me a call and let me know where you're staying when you get in. Good luck, Drew."
Knowing I'll have it easier than Tor because my work is more technical than academic, I didn't think I'd get upset, but as time draws nearer for me to meet with the committee, I find it harder to concentrate on what I'm supposed to know. Tor's constantly reassuring me, but I'm having serious doubts. When we get checked in the motel and I call him, Joynes tells me the committee convenes at ten the next morning, that I should be a few minutes early and wait in his office.
After an early dinner, Tor gives me a sleeping pill and tucks me in for the night.
Dressed in a new suit, shirt and tie I bought for the occasion, I sit fidgeting in Joynes' office until he comes to get me.
When a professor I don't know looks at me and asks, "Am I getting old or are these kids getting younger?" I even manage a weak grin. Then the ordeal begins. I notice one of the committee members staring at me from time to time, then he shakes his head, which makes me even more nervous. For some reason there's something about him that seems familiar, but I can tell he's English from his accent, so I'm sure I've never seen him before. After what seems hours of answering questions and making explanations, I'm done in, but the English guy isn't happy and questions the authenticity of my work. Joynes turns purple. "We'll go to my lab and you can watch him work. Choose any specimen you want."
I'm glad he suggested I bring my camera, but it turns out what the guy was questioning was my use of dark field illumination. I start to explain the process as I set the microscope up, but the guy says to Joynes, "There's no need to go further, Dr. Joynes. I've seen quite enough."
"You questioned Drew's work, so you're going to watch him complete it." Joynes snaps back.
I finish the set-up, then shoot a live specimen I know Joynes had to pick, because while it can be a bit tricky, it's not an especially difficult one to photograph. After I develop the film and print the best exposure, I'm dismissed.
I'm sure glad Tor is waiting for me in the motel's bar, I need a drink bad. After I gulp down the first one, Tor asks, "How'd it go? I didn't think it would take so long since it's mostly your pictures."
"There were three people on the committee I've never seen. I don't think one of them is even at this school. He had an English accent and was the one asked me so many questions. He wasn't satisfied until I went in the lab and did a shot. It's a good thing Joynes told me to bring my camera."
"Damn! I didn't think they'd be so tough. I mean your work speaks for itself."
"Not when they want to know how I did it. Get me another drink. Shit, I don't care no more."
"Was Langford on the committee?"
"Yeah. Joynes, too. I was a little surprised. You know, with Joynes being my faculty advisor and all."
"I am, too. But with you being the first to take a degree in his field and him being the only teacher, I guess the others felt they didn't know enough about it. That was lucky for you. I know you can count on his vote and Langford's."
Tor drags me out of the bar before I'm totaled and after dinner, I crash. As long as I can feel his arms around me, I'm safe.
When I wake up I feel brain dead. Tor drags me out of bed and insists that after breakfast I walk over to the university's publishing house with him to deliver our manuscript. He finished it while I was studying for yesterday's ordeal. The director has us in his office talking with Tor about how he completed the expansion of his dissertation. He opens the box of photomicrographs I've done for it and picks up the phone after looking at just one or two. I almost go into shock when the guy who made me do the lab work yesterday walks in. I think he's as startled to see me as I am him.
"Well, Torrence, I certainly didn't expect you to be the same man whose photomicrographs the director has invited me to see." He frowns in thought. "One of the photomicrographs I viewed yesterday looked remarkably familiar. Were you perhaps in Dr. Joynes' seminar some years ago, or am I mistaken?"
"That's it! I though you seemed familiar. You were in the same class."
"Quite. It's a pleasure to see you again. Had I made the connection yesterday, I would never have questioned the authenticity of your work. It's some of the most professional I've ever had the pleasure to see."
"This is Dr. Hunter-Smythe," the director says. "He's spending his sabbatical year from Oxford studying methods of improving the quality of photomicrographic reproduction in academic publications. We are most fortunate in having a man of his calibre assist us."
"Be that as it may, I was honoured to be asked to sit on the committee to evaluate this young man's work."
He picks up my shots from the director's desk and spreads them on the worktable and turns on the light. The director joins him and they spend nearly an hour making comments Tor and I can't hear. They didn't invite us to join them, so we sit looking at each other. Finally they turn off the light and take their seats.
Hunter-Smythe looks at me. "Young man, the work I've just seen has led me to order advance copies of your forthcoming book for myself and for Oxford's science library as well. I'm pleased that most of the photomicrographs you submitted as your dissertation will appear in your book, for I was about to ask Dr. Joynes for a copy of your portfolio. He generously gave me a copy of that outstanding photomicrograph you made last year. I should think, director, that you would be wise to utilize this man's work in as many publications as possible.
"As I shall be returning to Oxford within a few days I shall not be seeing you again, Torrence. This is most unprofessional of me, but I will tell you now that I'm doubly pleased to have given you a positive recommendation last evening. May I congratulate you on your achievement."
I stand and take the hand he's holding out. "Thank you, sir. I'm honored that you think my work worthy of consideration."
When he walks out, the director looks at me with raised eyebrows. "I knew you were good, but he's found damn little else he's liked since he's been here. We're going to be putting a lot more stress on the quality of the photographic work we accept from now on, and it's going to be hard making our printers match your level of quality in the production runs."
While we're walking back to our motel, I ask Tor, "From what that guy said, do you think I passed?"
"If a guy from Oxford was on the committee and voted for you, I think it's safe to say you passed. I know Joynes and Langford voted for you, so that's three out of five. Hell, let's celebrate, Dr. Torrence!"
We have a great dinner and enjoy our evening together without stress taking its toll. I'm elated when the desk calls us to pick up a message. Tor comes back with an envelope, but I let him open it. He gives me the final result in a crushing hug.
To be continued...
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Posted: 09/14/07