that with the Dean a while ago, Nick,” Elizabeth steps in.
“If Giles thinks it is wise, we shouldn’t interfere,” Matthew Dancey addresses his colleagues, doing precisely that. “All other graduate programs are represented by their directors; if he thinks that an assistant professor and a graduate student will do justice to our contribution to Medieval and Renaissance Studies—fine. The phasing out of Medieval Studies will have an inevitable effect on Early Modern Studies anyway.”
A low groan indicates that I am not alone in being taken aback by this bitch-slapping behavior.
“You’re getting a little ahead of yourself, I think, Matthew,” Elizabeth Mayfield says with awe-inspiring coolness, but Dancey ignores her.
“Maybe we shouldn’t stray from the agenda. I’m sure we all have things left to prepare for next week.” Hornberger doesn’t look at Elizabeth either, and she doesn’t pursue the issue, but Cleveland, for the first time since the meeting started, had an arrested look on his face when Dancey dropped that little bomb. I know that the ailing Robert Morgan is a medievalist, but one sick professor is hardly a reason to shut down a whole subfield.
On an unrelated note, I wonder why Cleveland does not come clean and announce that he has to be in Edinburgh, Scotland, for an award ceremony in which he might win a very prestigious prize. He is provoking Nick Hornberger for no other reason than that he can.
I look up and catch Tim looking at me. The question mark on his face is unmistakable, and it dawns on me that he wants to recruit me. I give him a mouth-shrug and a tiny nod.
“We could take Anna.” Tim interrupts the awkward silence as if he was talking about a trip to the mall.
“Which one is Anna?” Professor Westley, an aging hippy in a crocheted beanie, puts on his red-rimmed glasses and leans forward to scan the lower end of the room. He came late and missed our introduction, and since neither Hornberger nor any of the others can be bothered to fill him in, I half-raise one hand and wave at him, which makes Steve Howell and Dolph Bergstrom double up over their notebooks.
Spotlight on Anna.
“Hi, Anna!” Westley grins and winks at me. “I thought you were a new grad student!”
“No offense, Anna—Dr. Lieberman—but she knows nothing yet about the program, how could she represent it?” This is a token objection; Hornberger himself is not convinced by it, so to clinch the matter I ignore my thumping heart and speak up.
“I could do my shtick on why Renaissance Studies is a great subject. That’s the main point of the exercise, isn’t it? And I do know a little about job-hunting in English Lit.”
I haven’t looked at Cleveland at all during this little intermezzo, and I won’t.
Hornberger, looming handsomely but uncomfortably at the head of the table, makes a bid for control as a low hubbub wells up in the room. “Dr. Lieberman—Anna—would show a great deal of collegiality if she agreed to take over a composition section. I know it’s short notice, but we’re in a tight corner, so—”
“Nick, why are we in a tight corner?” Elizabeth interrupts him. “The teaching schedules were drawn up last spring. We had everything sorted out.”
Hornberger pokes his keyboard as if it was a pile of dog poop. “One of the comp sections is without an instructor,” he declares almost triumphantly, reading from his screen.
Dancey launches a smooth attack on me. “Anna, we’d be eternally grateful to you if you would help us out of this predicament.”
I hadn’t expected the policy of shut-the-fuck-up to become so hard to stick to so early in the game. Teaching composition is the equivalent of army boot camp, except you’re both the drill sergeant and the recruit. It is a crazy amount of work—I know this from experience, and I really, really do not have time to repeat it.
The problem is, I really, really have no choice.
“Well, sir, I was hop—”
“I’ve asked Dr. Lieberman to make up for Bob’s class in the graduate program. She has kindly agreed to do so, and I think you’ll find, Matthew, that the change has already been entered in the course schedule. Asking her to agree to yet another change would really be playing fast and loose with a rookie, and I don’t think we ought do that. Wouldn’t be ethical.”
Not a single glance at me during this little pièce de résistance. I hate that Cleveland makes me feel like a high-school freshman who needs protecting from