Up in the Stars

And Another

Here comes immortal number two!

So much emotion in one day for our poor Enid.

Sometimes I feel bad putting her through so much, but it's just so fun, lol!

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She had two hours between her first class with Dr. Easton and her second and final class of the day.

She spent that time trying to understand the morning's events.

As soon as she escaped the lecture hall, her mind flooded with questions.

Why had he held her back to ask her those things?

She told herself he must be trying to learn each of his new students' names.

But then what about the question of her other professors?

And why did she feel so strongly toward him?

It felt as though each of her nerves were alive when she was in his presence.

The two hours flew by as she pulled apart the moment over and over again, trying to make sense of it.

She decided in the end that she must just be even more unaware of American patterns and culture than she thought.

The first American she had ever met was Sean Jefferies, a poet and artist that her father had had a brief fling with when she was nine.

She hadn't realized at the time that they were romantically involved, too interested in learning about his experiences in America to notice their interlaced hands resting on the table.

He had taught her about football that was played with your hands and the otherworldly taste of a freshly baked apple pie.

She grew attached to him over his four month stay, but he left that October with a tight hug and a promise of letters.

The same pattern continued throughout the years to follow.

Brilliant, talented men from across the world would appear in the doorway of the estate, often at a strange hour of the day.

Her father would welcome them in with warm hugs and bashful smiles.

They would disappear into her father's room and she would listen to their joyful giggles until the record player began and drowned them out.

During his stay, the gentlemen would support her relentless curiosity by answering her questions about their exotic careers and faraway homelands.

Bradley, a man from Iceland with a curling mustache taught her how to ballroom dance.

Jonathan, a Nobel prize winner from Sweden, gifted her with a rare first edition of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

She'd love them until their time was up and they were saying farewell.

It would be just her and her father for a few months and then a knock would sound from the front door again.

From her safe estate on the coast of Wales, Enid experienced the entire world.

The clock tower chimed happily in the cold air as she made her way to the literature building on the north side of campus.

Her two hours spent on the bench in the courtyard across from the library had left her freezing.

She sighed with relief as she stepped into the heated entrance way.

The large atrium was decorated grandly with golden plaques of notable alumni and glittering lanterns on the walls.