The Seducer: A Gone From Daylight Inspired Story - 9. William Harker's Journal: Entry 9

§ §

Tuesday, September 11, 1989

Well, I must have well and truly screwed something up with Dr. V.

After class I trailed after him to ask a ‘question’ about something on our quiz, but he brushed me off. I asked him why, expecting to get a snooty professorial ‘I’m too busy for you’ kind of answer, but instead got, “Have you ever heard of ‘Publish or Parish,’ my young friend? No? Well, suffice it to say that it is my current reality. I simply must complete this paper for peer review or I may well be needing to stay with you and your roommate in your dormitory! Good evening, Mr. Harker!”

Before he was completely gone, he turned and suggested that I ‘entertain the idea’ of visiting the Salon Rouge toward the end of the week. He and Desmodius would make the attempt to be there.

Firstly, how would I manage to get myself up to the City without a car? Secondly, how was I to get into the Salon Rouge without an ‘escort’? I find that whole idea of going up there all by my lonesome pretty disturbing, actually!

I’m not sure I can ‘entertain’ such an idea, honestly. It just doesn’t seem realistic. That was until I heard a voice behind me as I was walking back to my dorm. It was a female voice, which really surprised me! I’m really not used to being called upon by strange ladies, particularly attractive ones. I’m no Casanova, that’s for sure.

“William Harker? Um, hello!” She was quite a pretty girl too! Long auburn hair, your typical denim co-ed student attire - black denim, as it were. She also had those luminous eyes I’d come to know fairly well since being in Dr. V’s company. In her case, they were a brilliant green. It was because of those eyes that I recognized her as one of the many faces I saw at the Salon Rouge!

“Um, hey there!” I replied like the dork I am.

“We share Dr. Valahi’s class,” she said.

“Um, cool! Uh, you seem to have me at a disadvantage, Ma’am,” I stuttered.

“Oh! Whoops. Hehehe! I’m sorry! I’m Rochelle DeSeine, at your service!” She smiled and I swear something inside melted.

“Well, good to meet you then,” I held out my hand to shake which she readily took and shook - really cold hands!

“Oooh! Are you chilly?” I asked. I couldn’t help but think of the hands I shook at the Salon Rouge.

“Not especially. I really liked your presentation on the possible outcomes if Yugoslavia falls apart! Do you really think it could lead to war?” She asked as she fell in with me to walk . . . wherever I was going! I didn’t know exactly at that moment.

“Um, that’s what Dr. V thinks. He told me about the ancient rivalries and vendettas that still haunt the member states of Yugoslavia that the regime has managed to keep in check all these years. The Iron Curtain wasn’t that great for most of the countries behind it other than the USSR, but Yugoslavia might be an exception. That’s my opinion, for what it’s worth.” I managed to vomit up all of that and I’m still amazed by it!

“Wow! You sound like you really have been paying attention! Hehehe . . . Dr. V? I hope he doesn’t catch you calling him that!” Rochelle teased.

“Heh, well . . . he, sorta, gave me permission, I guess.” I felt a little bashful at that. The rapid rapport that the Professor and I have struck up over these past couple of weeks has been, well, to borrow one of his favorite words: ‘Extraordinary’.

“Wow, again! You seem rather young to be fielding such an esoteric upper-division class and getting in on a ‘first-name basis’ with the Professor! Are you something of an overachiever?” Rochelle playfully bumped me and, stupid me, I damn near tripped!

But she caught me before I fell! She moved so fast, I barely had time for my knees to give out!

“Oh, Geeze! I’m so sorry, Wil! I sometimes forget my own strength! I do a lot of, er, . . . swimming! It beefs up the upper-body strength, ya know.” She explained. I was glad for the explanation, the speed of her save and then the incredible strength she had at righting me to my stupid feet reminded me, peculiarly, of the parking attendant at the Salon Rouge!

“Gosh! I guess I should swim more myself then! You have a lot of that upper-body strength! I’m a good 160 lbs!” I chuckled . . . nervously.

“Oh, heh. Like they say . . . ” she said making ‘muscles’ with her arms, “. . . swimming makes the easiest champions!”

“Well, I’m this way, off campus. I’ll see you Thursday if not before, K?” Rochelle DeSeine said as we parted. I was sorry to see her go. Our awkward meeting was, kinda, fun, actually! She’s a very cool girl!

But, she left me again with another mystery to ponder . . .

“Oh, I almost forgot! I thought I remembered you from somewhere other than class!” She turned and I swear on my unborn children her green eyes glittered in the dark with their own light!

“Weren’t you at the Salon Rouge the other night? I thought I saw you there and was quite surprised that I recognized you from class!” Rochelle slurred her question in a weird way.

“Oh, yeah . . . yeah, I was there. You go there too?” I found this coincidence unsettling. Am I not the only student Dr. V’s introduced to this strange hidden place?

“Quite often! In fact, I was headed there myself on Friday. Did you want to come with?” She offered pleasantly.

“Um, sure! If you don’t mind. I . . . don’t have a car, see,” I shrugged. It’s pretty lame not having a car in California, let’s be honest!

“I don’t mind at all! You’re over at Section C, right?” She asked after my dorm building. That would have been an obvious thing for her to know - that’s the underclassmen’s dorm.

“Very good. I’ll be by, oh . . . 8 PMish. Until later!” I could see her give a little wave and then she was off.

Things just keep getting stranger and stranger!