Perilous Assurance

  ******

  "Hello"

  "Professor Shaw?"

  "Yes, this is she." Mattie didn't recognize the young woman's voice. Who would be calling her at seven o'clock on a Monday morning, two hours before her first class of the day. It couldn't be good, at any rate.

  "This is Sheila. I'm calling from the President's office," the woman cleared her throat and continued. "President Buckley would like you to come to his office at eight o'clock this morning."

  "All right, I'll be there." Mattie hung up the phone and walked back into the kitchen, setting her coffee cup in the sink. This could be very unpleasant. Should she call Fran and Jerry? No, no...they would want to go with her and speak on her behalf, and she didn't want them involved in this any more than they had been. She would talk to them later, after the meeting.

  She walked back upstairs and dressed in a long, loose, turquoise skirt and a white, pull-over blouse, then pulled on her usual brown boots. She brushed her hair and started to pull it back into a bun, then decided to leave it long. The cut was healing, but the bruise had gotten darker, and she sighed as she ran her finger softly over the slightly swollen area. Rummaging through her jewelry box, she chose large hoop earrings and inserted them as she assessed herself in the mirror over the dresser.

  Mattie headed down the stairs, grabbed her shoulder bag and cane and left her home, knowing that she was prepared for whatever might happen. She took her time as she walked down the sidewalk toward the quad and Administration Building, determined not to think too far in advance. She entered the quad and walked past the kissing rock, past her Arts Building and looked up at the Administration Building, the most impressive structure on the campus. She walked up the stone steps, pushed open the white door, and entered the foyer, turning left at the first office.

  "He'll see you in a moment." The secretary motioned toward a row of blue and burgundy striped chairs.

  "Thank you, Sheila." She went over and sat down in one of the chairs, resting her cane against its side. She adjusted her shoulder bag and folded her hands in her lap. A few minutes later, a phone buzzed, and the secretary pushed a button and picked up the receiver and held it to her ear.

  "Yes sir." She looked up and nodded at Mattie as she hung up the phone. "He'll see you now."

  Mattie stood and walked with her cane to the door of the President's office, and entered. The last time she'd been in here was in 'sixty-seven, when she was first hired. She calmly stood at the door and looked across the comfortably decorated office at President Buckley as he lit a cigarette with a silver lighter, and motioned curtly for her to have a seat in one of the three straightback brown leather chairs facing his desk. She walked in and sat down in the chair on the right end. She watched him as he picked up a newspaper, realizing that she felt devoid of any emotion, any real interest in arguing with this man in defense of her arrest. She was mostly just curious as to what he had to say.

  President Buckley exhaled a cloud of cigarette smoke and tossed the newspaper on the wide mahogany desk in front of him for her to see.

  "This is how you conduct yourself on my campus?" He glared at her, his face flushed, as he ran his hand through his short gray hair.

  Mattie leaned forward from her chair and peered down at the local newspaper's front page photo and raised her eyebrows, but otherwise, felt no emotion, as she saw the large black and white photo of herself, her hair disheveled, her face contorted in rage as she pulled at the gas-masked officer's arm amid the cloud of tear gas. The headline read: "Professor Joins Brooksford College Students' Anti-War Demonstration as Protesters Turn Violent." The photo had obviously been cropped as Samuel was not in the picture, nor was the officer's raised hand holding the baton.

  "President Buckley, I was coming to the aid of one of my students." Mattie replied calmly, and she knew that her voice was flat...monotone. "The protesters were not violent. What you don't see in that photograph is that the officer was hitting Samuel with a baton, and he was bleeding. He did nothing to deserve that response from the officer...nothing. I saw it all. Now, my student is in the hospital with a fractured jaw."

  "He was breaking the law, Professor." He picked up the newspaper and shook it at her. "Do you know that this photo was picked up by the AP and is on the front page of every major newspaper as we speak?"

  She blinked slowly as she watched him lean back in his leather chair and take a drag of his cigarette, looking at her with distain. He flicked the ashes in the glass ashtray to his right on the desk and held the cigarette between his fingers as he leaned forward and addressed her.

  "There are two weeks left in the school year." He pursed his lips. "You have been an exemplary instructor up to this point in your time at Brooksford." He exhaled. "The board has pressured me to keep you on. Therefore, I have no other choice but to reprimand you, with a written warning in your personnel file of termination if there is another incident, which I feel is far too lenient in light of your obvious disregard for our rules here. Your classes have already been cancelled for today and tomorrow."

  Mattie took a deep breath. "Sir, in that case, I wish to tender my resignation, effective at the end of the term." She looked him in the eye. "I have my exams to administer next week, and grading to complete for my students." He stared at her for a moment, his eyes narrowed as he took a drag of his cigarette.

  "I'll make it easy for you then, Miss Shaw." He sat up in his chair and spoke slowly, in measured words as he threw the newspaper into a trash can beside his desk. "I accept your resignation. However, I insist that it take effect in twenty-four hours."

  She raised her eyebrows at that. "But, sir...my students..."

  "You no longer have students here, Miss Shaw." He swiveled his chair and picked up a brown folder, effectively dismissing her. "Personnel will find a suitable substitute for the next two weeks. Leave your students' paperwork and your gradebook in your department's faculty office today and vacate the campus and your residence by eight o'clock tomorrow morning." He turned to the side and lowered his gaze as he took another drag of his cigarette. "The residence is expected to be left in good condition for the next tenant. Leave the key inside and the front door unlocked for maintenance to enter."

  Mattie stood and stared at the man without replying, then turned and walked out of his office, nodding at the secretary as she passed her desk on the way out. She pulled open the white door and stood on the portico of the Administration Building, gazing out at the peaceful quad, now bustling with students rushing to their morning classes. She took a deep breath of the warm spring air, and knew that she would miss this place, her home for over two years, as well as her dear friends, Fran and Jerry. But, she was content in her heart. She had chosen her side and she was all right with it. And, yes, she would go to Cape Breton, to Clay, and stay forever with him, if that's what they chose. She would wander the world with him, be a gypsy, a nomad. Wherever they went, she knew it would be their home. Her thinking had changed. He had changed it, and she knew she had made the right choice. She walked down the stairs resolutely and headed to the Stanley Arts Building.