10 --- Where's Professor Kinky?

Things just didn’t seem right to me as I sat in the morning faculty meeting. Jason’s seat was empty in my sex education class earlier, and now Professor Kinkle’s chair next to me was likewise empty. I thought perhaps they were both at the Dean’s office having Jason’s suspension hearing. I scanned the faces of the staff at the table, but nothing was unusual and no one was looking at me.

I leaned toward Mrs. Johnson in the chair on the other side of me and whispered, “Where’s Professor Kinkle?”

“In the hospital.”

“Miss Lamb.” Dr. Clark tossed a folder onto the table in front of me. “We made just a couple minor changes to your next lecture. Nothing significant. But we made a note for you to tell your students that the campus police will be patrolling the park more diligently, especially nocturnally.”

“Is something wrong?” I asked meagerly.

“We can’t release details due to an impending investigation. Just let them know that specific areas will be observed diligently for a while.”

Those little group sessions of our department staff usually lasted a very few minutes, then everyone scattered in all directions like disturbed pigeons in the plaza. I wanted to catch one to asked about Professor Kinkle, but I found myself standing in an empty, silent room.

I snatched up the folder and read the note, but it gave no further information beyond what Dr. Clark had told me. Fanning my hot, flushing face with the folder, I took a very deep breath and my lips quivered and jaw vibrated as tears of anxiety blurred my vision.

Had I struck the professor with my car? I thought he had jumped free and fell only because he lost his balance. Why hadn’t he told them anything about me? Why were they making me wait without knowing what was going on? I felt for sure that I was going to be fired. But why wouldn’t anyone say anything, or at least look at me with some indication they knew something? 

I couldn’t understand how everything seemed so calm and like every other day all around me, while there was so much anxiety and shattering quakes going on inside of me. It was as though it was raining only on me and sunny everywhere else. I needed an umbrella, somebody to talk to. A friend. Was Xin still my friend after last night? More anxiety reeked through my guts.