“Excuse me, miss, aren't you one of my students?”
More than one of her former teachers had asked Theresa this as she sat in the library of the Lycaeum with her.....whatever the polite word was for this kind of relationship was.....Professor Yusef Ad-Din. Every time Theresa beamed and said no, Professor, I am no longer your student but I once was, and indeed I am now a colleague of sorts: the Research Assistant of Professor Yusef Ad-Din.
After years of stalling, Yusef had filed the papers that very morning to employ her, and Theresa was already there with him, doing what Research Assistants do. Getting the books her Professor wanted, finding the pages that appeared most useful to him, and then, while the Professor read more-deeply, sitting there in case she was needed.
“Ah. Pity he's still looking for a fairy tale,” was their near-universal reply.
“He has one more attempt left,” she would respond, “then he will consider the conventional wisdom confirmed.” She was careful to always phrase it this way. Professor Ad-Din was never chasing a fairy tale, he was merely testing the conventional wisdom. What could be more scientific, more academic, than that? Sometimes the conventional wisdom was wrong, after all.
How can they be so rude with him sitting right there? she wondered. Has his mad quest lowered his reputation that badly? Or are they merely as absent-minded as he when not around their students, and literally don't see him sitting right there?
Theresa did, however, note some sincere delight at her reply. They were glad he was moving on, it will be nice to have him back. She had to stop herself from muttering he never left.
It was with surprise that Theresa noted the messenger delivering a letter from the Knights of Crux Anasta, an order whom she knew Yusef greatly respected. She took the letter for him. “I'm his Research Assistant,” she explained to the messenger, "I can take that." The messenger seemed to accept this.
Deciding that reading his letters was proper for both a lover and a Research Assistant, and surely she was both, she read the letter first. Her eyes widened. Her tone....Why so hostile to him? Theresa thought. He'll need to see this. Damn it, my first letter I read for him and already it's something I need to bother him with.
“Yusef?” She was a bit nervous; it was the first time in near-forever that she had called him anything other than Professor in public.
“Yes, love?” responded Yusef, without looking up from the book.
She beamed at his term of endearment, but her face immediately darkened as she dropped the letter in front of him. It was beautiful to Theresa to see his eyes dance from the page in the book to the letter, to see his eyebrows raise as he digested the contents. “I'm sorry Yusef...Seems there's a problem.”
“Yes,” he replied. “So it seems. I will take suggestions.”
“When I have one I'll tell you.....”
More than one of her former teachers had asked Theresa this as she sat in the library of the Lycaeum with her.....whatever the polite word was for this kind of relationship was.....Professor Yusef Ad-Din. Every time Theresa beamed and said no, Professor, I am no longer your student but I once was, and indeed I am now a colleague of sorts: the Research Assistant of Professor Yusef Ad-Din.
After years of stalling, Yusef had filed the papers that very morning to employ her, and Theresa was already there with him, doing what Research Assistants do. Getting the books her Professor wanted, finding the pages that appeared most useful to him, and then, while the Professor read more-deeply, sitting there in case she was needed.
“Ah. Pity he's still looking for a fairy tale,” was their near-universal reply.
“He has one more attempt left,” she would respond, “then he will consider the conventional wisdom confirmed.” She was careful to always phrase it this way. Professor Ad-Din was never chasing a fairy tale, he was merely testing the conventional wisdom. What could be more scientific, more academic, than that? Sometimes the conventional wisdom was wrong, after all.
How can they be so rude with him sitting right there? she wondered. Has his mad quest lowered his reputation that badly? Or are they merely as absent-minded as he when not around their students, and literally don't see him sitting right there?
Theresa did, however, note some sincere delight at her reply. They were glad he was moving on, it will be nice to have him back. She had to stop herself from muttering he never left.
It was with surprise that Theresa noted the messenger delivering a letter from the Knights of Crux Anasta, an order whom she knew Yusef greatly respected. She took the letter for him. “I'm his Research Assistant,” she explained to the messenger, "I can take that." The messenger seemed to accept this.
Deciding that reading his letters was proper for both a lover and a Research Assistant, and surely she was both, she read the letter first. Her eyes widened. Her tone....Why so hostile to him? Theresa thought. He'll need to see this. Damn it, my first letter I read for him and already it's something I need to bother him with.
“Yusef?” She was a bit nervous; it was the first time in near-forever that she had called him anything other than Professor in public.
“Yes, love?” responded Yusef, without looking up from the book.
She beamed at his term of endearment, but her face immediately darkened as she dropped the letter in front of him. It was beautiful to Theresa to see his eyes dance from the page in the book to the letter, to see his eyebrows raise as he digested the contents. “I'm sorry Yusef...Seems there's a problem.”
“Yes,” he replied. “So it seems. I will take suggestions.”
“When I have one I'll tell you.....”