neighborhood who are yearning to become published writers.â (It was Octavia who gathered this, but I saw no point in saying so.) âThe person teaching it last year and this year is named Kevin Oakwood, a writer Iâve never heard of. And thatâs about it. The only one of these fields with a woman running itâthatâs probably not the right termâis Modern. I think that may be a part of the trouble with Haycockâhe hated professional women, or so it seems. And two of the three assistant professors are women. I did learn that thereâs a lot of turnover in the junior faculty; two on tenure-track linesâI hope Iâm impressing you with my newfound lingo âwere new last year and stick together. It was over the promotion of one of the assistant professors whoâd actually stuck around a while that the war of the sexes broke out in the rolling fields of New Jersey.â
âProfessor Haycock took his cue from Tennyson when it came to women,â Kate said. âHold on a minute while I get a book. Itâs a quote too suitable to Haycock to miss.â Kate left the room, then came back, turning the pages of a bookâthe poems of Tennyson, I was detective enough to deduce.
âHere we are: âWoman is the lesser man, and all thy passions matched with mine / Are as moonlight unto sunlight, and as water unto wine.â Thatâs from âLocksley Hall.â And, to do Tennyson and Haycock full justice, we ought to add another couple of lines from âLocksley Hallâ: âHe will hold thee, when his passion / Shall have spent its novel force / Something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse.â â
âWas Tennyson serious?â I asked.
âAh, youâll have to ask a Tennyson expert that. But Iâll try to brush up on that exalted poet. I used to quite like him, but I never admitted it; he wasnât the accepted cup of tea when I was young, and probably isnât now. But he could write neat lines.â
Kate paused, as if reminded of something. âBut you know, he did write one famous line that still bothers me after all this time; itâs one of his prize bits: âNow lies the earth all Danaë to the stars,â from a lyric called âNow sleeps the crimson petal.â An immortal line, beautiful. But what disturbs me is that Zeus came to Danaë, whose father had locked her up to prevent her getting pregnant, in a shower of gold. The Greek gods always found a way to screw the women they were after. But the stars do not affect the earth in any way; the earth does not lie vulnerable to the stars. So itâs a weak, fanciful metaphor, though a gorgeous one, describing a clear night in the country.â
There was a pause as I took this in. âYou know, Kate,â I finally said, allowing an edge to creep into my voice, âthere is no doubt that youâre going to be a big help to me in this case.â
âIâm glad you appreciate that.â Kate grinned. âLeave me the lists of courses and faculty, the whole thing, and Iâll be ready to talk about it in a more coherent way then, when Iâve got the whole department and faculty straight.â
âSo I guess I should be going now,â I said. I, who usually couldnât wait to be on my way, seemed to be lingering. I gathered up my notes and the book Iâd been reading from.
But Kate held up a hand. âYou have to realize that youâre likely to do better than I would in this particular investigation. Iâd be handling too much baggage to be able to see the situation with any clarity. Iâve been an academic for too long. Iâm unlikely to view things in a new light. Iâd have expectations and knowledge of how an English department works on the inside.â
âThat sounds like an advantage to me. Iâve learned as an investigator that you canât know too much about a situation; you
Aj Harmon, Christopher Harmon