"While today being 'well read' is a virtue lauded by scholars and those we deem to be the most intelligent, in the 18th century it was regarded as dangerous. Those who allowed themselves to be consumed by the dreaded novel were considered to have 'reading fever' 'reading rage' or even 'reading addiction'."
Elizabeth stared at her computer, trying to think of a way to expound upon this subject enough to write an entire paper. Truth be told, she wanted to be in the thralls of 'reading fever' right now rather than writing her senior thesis. She was nearly there, she was so close to graduating she could almost taste it, but she still had a month and this monster of a paper to go.
"I'm headed to the library." Her roommate, Leah, popped her head into Elizabeth's room. She saw Elizabeth sitting with her chin in her hand, looking a bit frazzled. "Still stuck on the opening paragraph?" Elizabeth nodded. "Well, once you have that, the rest of the paper will come."
"I know, but I have to get it right or the rest of the paper will be garbage."
"You have lots of time to work on it. I can't believe you started so early." Elizabeth grinned. Leah was right to be surprised. Elizabeth had perfected the art of writing a paper the night before it was due and pulling in fantastic grades. But this was one paper that she knew she had to do properly and actually spend some real time on.
"Will you be studying or will Ethan be meeting you there?" Elizabeth asked her. Ethan was Leah's boyfriend. They hadn't been seeing each other long, but Leah was already pretty invested. Leah winked.
Elizabeth grinned at her and Leah headed out the door. Elizabeth turned to her computer again. She stared at the screen for fifteen minutes. She looked through her notes. She read one of the articles she was planning to use. Then she gave up.
"Leah's right, I have plenty of time. Maybe the best way to get ideas about reading rage is to experience it myself." She tried to convince herself that it was okay to give up for now. She sidestepped away from her desk and eyed her bookshelf slyly as though she was being watched and the person watching her was giving her a disapproving look.
"Don't look at me that way." She said, talking to her imaginary critic. "I promise to pick one that's professor approved." That being said, she reached for As I Lay Dying rather than something that was more like mind candy, that was entertaining but had less substance. She held up the book for all to see and then frowned. "I can see that you're going to disapprove no matter what, so I'm just going to ignore you." And with that she flung herself on to her bed and began to read.
She had only read a few pages when she heard a knock on the door. She looked up, a little irritated that she was being interrupted. She wasn't expecting anyone, her boyfriend, Matt, had a late class and most of the rest of her friends were doing what she was supposed to be doing, studying. She sat still hoping that whomever it was would go away, but a second knock came. She groaned and got up to answer the door.
She grumbled to herself on the way to the door. "Is this any way to treat a college student just weeks away from finals? Some serious studying could (should) be going on in here." She laughed at her self as she saw the irony of her irritation and opened the door.
It was someone she had never met before, and yet… Elizabeth and the stranger stared at each other silently for a moment. The stranger was looking her over, his eyebrow raised in surprise. Elizabeth gaped at the man who looked completely familiar though she had never seen him before. The stranger was the living embodiment of what she had imagined one of her favorite book characters to be, though perhaps a little older, and with one big exception. He had short red hair, was tall and had warm brown eyes and freckles. And he was handsome, very handsome. She knew that it couldn't be him, he was a fictional character. He wasn't real except in the imagination of every child, and many adults, around the world. And even if he did exist, there was no way that he would look exactly like Elizabeth had imagined.
The stranger smiled as Elizabeth continued to stare. She caught herself and smiled back. He continued to stare and wasn't the least bit self-conscious about it.
"Can I help you?" She asked him.
"Actually, I'm here to help you." Ah, a British accent. Now all he needed was a wand and he would be perfect. Her imagination ran wild for just a second and then she snapped herself back to reality and realized what he had just said.
"I'm sorry?" What could a perfect stranger possibly want to help her with?
"You're my favorite character in a book I've come to appreciate, but I hate the way it ended for you. I'm here to see if we can change that." She gaped at him.
"What?" What was he talking about? Was this some sort of frat pledge? Was he selling something? Was he drunk? She looked around trying to see if some of his buddies were hiding around the corner laughing their butts off, but she didn't see anyone.
"What are you looking for?" He asked, looking around too.
"The other people who are in on the joke."
"What joke?"
"Whatever you're trying to pull on me, well, it's not a good time. I'm supposed to be writing a paper. There are a couple of girls down the hall who would think this is hilarious, though." She made as if to close the door, but he put his hand to the door and stopped her.
"I'm sorry, Elizabeth, I probably should have put it a little more delicately. This must be a little hard to believe." She laughed. Surely he hadn't thought she was stupid enough to believe such a story. She wondered if she should be offended that he thought this ridiculousness was going to work for even a second.
"It's not just a little hard; no one would believe you. Did Matt put you up to this? Is that how you know my name?" If it was Matt, she was going to have a few words with him. He knew that she wasn't fool enough to believe this.
"Your boyfriend? No, we've never met."
"Then how do you know he's my boyfriend?" Matt should have found someone who wasn't going to give him away so easily. "You can tell him that this was a good try, but he should have picked a time when I wasn't so busy. I don't have time to play along right now."
"Are you sure about that? You don't finish your paper for a couple of weeks, which suggests that you aren't working terribly hard right now." He grinned at her mischievously. How did he know that? And why did he think it was so funny that she claimed to be working? "Surely you can spare a little time."
"What are you talking about? I'm going to finish that paper this week so that I can edit and work out the weak spots." She said argued.
"Are you?" He said, raising that eyebrow again. She flushed.
"Yes." She said firmly, making up her mind then and there to finish it before the week's end, just to spite this stranger. To her surprise, he laughed.
"This is just too much fun. You're just as I imagined you, but it's so much better in person." Was he making fun of her? "May I come in?" He asked her.
"I don't think that's a very good idea. I still don't know what you're really after and I don't trust you, despite the smooth accent. Is that real, by the way, or is that part of the act?"
"It's as real as yours." He countered, grinning. She grinned back, not being able to help herself. He sounded crazy, but he was very charming.
"Touché."
"Well, if you're unwilling to let me in now, I'll have to come back another time. Good luck with your paper." He walked down the hall with Elizabeth staring after him. Perhaps it hadn't been Matt after all, he wouldn't have gone to all this trouble just to play a joke on her. After he was out of sight, she closed the door, thinking what a strange conversation that had been, and instead of returning to her book, she went back to the computer and put in a few good hours on her paper.
Elizabeth didn't expect to see the stranger again, she felt like she had been firm enough in letting him know his little joke wasn't going to get anywhere with her. So, she was surprised to see him the next day as she and Leah were leaving the library. Leah was off to her next class and Elizabeth was on her way to find something to eat. The stranger appeared beside her as soon as Leah was out of sight.
"Hello again." He greeted her, clearly happy to see her, and enjoying the look of surprise on her face.
"It's you." Elizabeth said a bit miffed. How had he found her?
"Yes, I told you I would be back. Are you ready to talk to me yet?" He asked her as though it was inevitable that she was going to believe his story. He hadn't taken her obvious disbelief as real, which made her wonder if there wasn't something more serious behind this joke.
"I don't believe we have anything to talk about, perfect stranger who's name I don't even know."
"I beg your pardon. I'm George." He said it so naturally. Elizabeth stopped walking and looked at him.
"You can't be serious." Elizabeth said, looking incredulous. George looked surprised by her reaction.
"What? Why not?" He was very, very good. His reactions were all so natural that she wondered how long he had been doing this. Perhaps he was some sort of professional impersonator and someone had really put a lot of time and money into tricking her. Maybe the real joke wasn't the story he had told her about changing her story, but the very fact of himself.
"Now I know this is some sort of joke." She laughed, but George looked confused. "Alright, I guess it wouldn't hurt to play along. What would you like to talk about?"
"You changed it." He told her as though she had a clue what he was talking about.
"Changed what?" She began walking again and he kept pace with her.
"The book. You spent a lot of time on your paper yesterday instead of procrastinating and you may finish your paper earlier than expected. Before, you were supposed to take longer."
"Before?" She asked, but he kept talking.
"That's great news. It means that the entire thing is changeable and that I'm not here for nothing. We weren't sure about my ability to change anything, you see."
"Hmm." Elizabeth made an indistinct noise, not understanding anything he was trying to tell her. She kept walking and George kept up with her, not noticing that she thought he might be a bit crazy.
"But now that I know, we should get started." He kept using the word 'we' as though she was in on the joke with him.
"Alright. You just let me know how that goes." She said, continuing to walk, hoping that he would understand that he was on his own with whatever he was trying to do.
"Well, I can't change anything. It has to be you. I'm just here to help you."
"Help me to change what?"
"I can't really tell you. It's probably better if you don't know, anyway."
"That's convenient." She rolled her eyes.
"I feel like I'm getting a bit of skepticism from you." He was amused, Elizabeth could see it in his eyes.
"Do you? That's strange. Well, let's see if we can pinpoint the problem. You come to my apartment looking and sounding like that and tell me your name is George, you tell me that I'm a character in a book, and you tell me that we have to change the future. Do you see anything in that to be skeptical about?"
"I may have gone about this the wrong way." He said, realizing how it sounded. "I'm afraid that I was a bit enthusiastic when I arrived at your door yesterday. We weren't sure if I was going to make it at all and I was so excited that it had worked that I didn't think my way through what I was going to say to you. That, and I wasn't quite expecting…you."
"Who were you expecting?"
"Oh, I was expecting you, I knew that Leah had just left and that you were alone, but you look different than I imagined. The author didn't describe you in detail, she just said that you had dark brown hair and that your eyes were a clear blue. The rest was left to the imagination and I was imagining someone a little less…" He trailed off, lost in thought. She was...what? Too tall, too menacing, too American?
"A little less what?"
"A little less…pretty?" He said it almost as though it were a question.
Elizabeth hadn't ever given her appearance much thought. Yes, she had dark brown shoulder length hair as George had said, but her friends would have balked at the description of her eyes. They weren't just clear, they were the lightest blue one could imagine, a deep contrast to her hair. Her skin was pale and she was tall and thin. Thanks to braces when she was younger, her teeth were straight and white and her ever present smile was welcoming and warm. She supposed that she could be considered pretty.
"You said that I was just what you imagined." She accused him.
"I meant your personality."
"Oh." They walked in silence for a moment. Elizabeth had no idea what to say to him, and he seemed to be thinking things over.
Finally, he said, "you and Leah have been friends for four years, right? I think I remember reading that you met on your first day of university."
How did he know that? Elizabeth glanced over at him. She was uncomfortable, he shouldn't have known anything about her, they had just met. Had he been watching her, talking to her friends? Was he dangerous? He knew more about her than he should have if he was just playing a simple joke. She changed routes and instead of heading back to her apartment, she headed to the student union building to get something to eat. She didn't want to be alone with this guy. He didn't seem to care that they had just changed directions. They made it to the student union and Elizabeth stood in line and bought some food. George seemed amused at what she was doing for some reason. He watched her closely and sat with her when she had everything she needed.
"What are you really doing here?" She asked him bluntly. She wanted to get everything out in the open so that she knew how to deal with this guy and get rid of him. "And please don't treat me like a child. Just tell me the truth." He considered her for a moment. It was clear that she wasn't going to believe what he had told her, so he was going to have to change tactics.
"Okay," He said, thinking for a moment. "I'm here because a…friend told me about you. You're getting ready to graduate but you don't have a plan for what to do after you've finished. You've been taking care of your roommate which has been draining on you. And you've been lonely since your parents moved to Guam. Once I heard, I…volunteered to come and see if I could help you."
All this was true. Her father was in the military and had recently been stationed in Guam, which was much too far away to visit often. She had been worried about what to do after graduation, her options were limited. She had an internship with an advertising agency which she did two days a week after class, but it wasn't what she wanted to do, she wanted to work in publishing. But most of those jobs required more education and she wasn't sure if she was ready to go to grad school yet. And then there was Leah. She and Leah had been best friends since they had been paired up as roommates their freshman year. As they had gotten to know each other, Elizabeth realized that Leah had been through a lot and needed all the friendship she could get. And she did worry about Leah. But why would someone be telling all of this to this person sitting across from her? Which one of her friends would have recruited a random stranger to check on her?
"A friend of mine told you all that? Which friend?" She asked suspiciously.
"I don't think I should tell you." He said evasively, not meeting her eye. He was acting even more strangely now than he had been with his crazier story. She couldn't figure him out.
"Well, what did she want you to do? Surely she didn't tell you how to help me?"
"No, I don't know how to help you. I'm here to keep you company and to help you come up with some ideas."
"I have plenty of company."
"But not mine." He said cheekily, grinning. Elizabeth couldn't help but smile. He was right, she didn't know anyone like him. "So, let's begin."
"Okay. Do you happen to have a job lined up for me for when I graduate? A BA in English isn't the most marketable degree." She said jokingly even though it was the truth. She had decided on a degree in English because she wanted to do nothing more than sit around and read books all day. But she had discovered that there weren't many jobs like that.
"Sorry, no. I have no idea what you m…graduates do to get a job. But I'd like to help you with your roommate problem." Out of all her problems, that was the one he wanted to focus on, the one that wasn't really a problem at all?
"I don't have a roommate problem. Leah is great."
"Yes, she's nice. But you've been looking after her."
"I haven't been looking after her." Elizabeth argued, "I've been a friend to her."
"Semantics." George was grinning. He seemed to enjoy it when she got defensive.
"I suppose I should stop interacting with her and just think of myself all the time?"
"Certainly not. I wouldn't want you to disappear altogether, and that would change the book, I mean situation completely for everyone. No, we're going to have to be more subtle than that. Yours is the only outcome I want to change, with some small exceptions. Everyone else's needs to stay the same."
He was talking crazy again. Elizabeth eyed him suspiciously.
"This would be a lot easier if you'd just believe my first explanation. Then we could really get something done rather than tip-toeing around pretending like this isn't happening." He told her.
"It would be even easier if I just recognized that you're some sort of crazy stalker and I called the cops on you." His eyes widened.
"Are you afraid of me?"
"Not really. I know self-defense." She said, trying to sound tough.
"No, you don't." He said, his face tightening slightly. He suddenly looked tired. It was the first time that she had seen anything but a smile on his face and it was unnerving. There was something wrong here. But instead of making her feel afraid of him, it made her feel concerned for him. Was he okay?
"But I can scream really loudly and I can run faster scared than you can mad." She tried joking.
"Now, that I believe." He smiled again. She was relieved.
"Great. Now, I have to go to class, so…" She was trying to hint that she had to go and that he should run along, but he smiled and stood up with her.
"Okay. Where are we going?"
"We?" Surely he didn't think that he could come. He wasn't invited.
"Of course. I don't really have anything else to do, and it will be fun to see what you Yanks do at University. Don't worry, no one will notice I'm there."
"You're a little hard to miss." She told him, looking pointedly at his bright red hair.
"Trust me."
She didn't trust him, but she shrugged. The worst that could happen is that he would be asked to leave and she could pretend that she didn't know him. They walked to her class and he stepped away for a little bit to visit the men's room. Class started and she didn't see him come in, so she assumed that he had realized that he shouldn't be crashing her class and left.
"Who's this Hemingway character?" She heard whispered in her ear as she packed up her things at the end of class. She jerked away from the whisper, startled, and saw George.
"What?" She asked. "Everyone knows who Earnest Hemingway is."
"Do they? I gathered that he's an author from your class. Is his stuff any good?"
"You must be joking." She said, incredulous. Earnest Hemingway was one of the most widely recognized American authors, surely he had been mentioned in whatever school George had been to. He grabbed her copy of Islands in the Stream, which they had been discussing, and flipped through it. "Didn't you have to read any American Literature in school?"
"I'm afraid not." He laughed for some reason.
"Well, why don't you take that and read it. It's not his best work, but it's still pretty good." She indicated to the book he was holding. He shrugged and kept hold of it.
She had finished her classes for the day, so she headed back to her apartment, wanting to continue writing her paper. Since she had actually figured out which direction she wanted to take with her paper and had begun writing, it would be easy to continue where she had left off. She would be able to finish in the next week or so and then could spend her time editing, like she had planned.
"You're on your way back to your apartment to keep writing your paper, aren't you?"
"I am. How did you know that?" He smiled at her without explaining and she rolled her eyes at him. He still wanted her to believe his explanation for why he was there, but it was just too crazy.
"I'm going to let you carry on and I'll entertain myself for a while. You've made good progress and I wouldn't want to get in the way."
"It's thanks to you I've made good progress." She mumbled as he walked away.
"What was that?" He stopped and turned to look at her, smirking. "You're going to give me some credit for your sudden desire to finish?"
"More like for my sudden desire to stubbornly prove you wrong." They both laughed and he changed directions and continued walking with her, enjoying a few more minutes with her.
"I like your obstinance. It's one of the reasons your character was so endearing. It's too bad you can't pass that along to other people." He mused. Elizabeth shook her head and they parted when they arrived at her building.
Why would anyone want to pass stubbornness and pigheaded desire to do what she had decided to do on to other people? If anything, Elizabeth felt that there were times when it would have been better if she had been a little more flexible.
She walked up to her apartment and started working on her paper. Five minutes later Leah came in.
"Hi." Elizabeth called out. Leah popped her head around the corner and saw her friend hard at work.
"Hey. Look at you getting some writing done." Leah said, surprised.
"Yeah. I finally figured out my angle and how to present it. It's coming fast now. I should be done in a couple of days."
"That's great. But does that mean that you don't want to come out tonight? Some of us were planning to go dancing." Leah did a little dance move to entice Elizabeth to go out with her.
"Tonight?" She had so much work to do, how could she possibly go out?
"Today's Friday, you know, the weekend?" Leah said, rolling her eyes. Elizabeth didn't always pay attention to details when she was focused.
"Oh. I've lost track somehow. No thanks, I want to keep going on this now that I'm in the groove."
"Oh, come on. It will be fun." Leah tried to convince her.
"Sorry."
"We're graduating soon, your paper won't matter so much next month once you have that diploma."
"Can't."
"You look like you could use a break."
"I'm good, I just started."
"You have plenty of time to write that, one little day isn't going to hurt you."
"Nope."
Leah draped herself over Elizabeth's keyboard. "Please, please, please." Elizabeth playfully pushed her away.
"Not tonight. Maybe tomorrow." And she when back to typing.
"Matt is going to miss you."
"Why don't you take him with you. He could use some company."
"I should have known. You never do anything I want." Leah complained facetiously. If anything Elizabeth was very accommodating when it came to Leah and she knew it. Elizabeth's stubbornness did show itself occasionally and when it did, Leah knew that she didn't have a chance of changing her mind.
"Because I'm tenacious?"
"Stubborn was the word I was looking for." Leah teased.
"Well, some people think that my stubbornness is a good thing."
"That can't be true. Do you remember that time we got in a fight over orange M&M's? That was the most ridiculous display of obstinacy I've ever seen."
"Orange goes on top because it's the best M&M color." Elizabeth said, looking like she was ready to reargue the issue all over again.
"See, look at you. Don't you think a little softening would be good for you?"
"There are times when it's a good thing to stand your ground, Leah." Elizabeth said, looking serious. Leah was surprised by Elizabeth's turn of mood when they had been joking just a moment before. Elizabeth wasn't quite sure herself what had happened to change her mood, but she knew that Leah could use this advice. She always seemed to be giving in to everyone, conceding when she should be arguing, accepting defeat when she should be claiming victory, taking the blame when she should be standing up for herself.
"Maybe you're right." Leah agreed, appearing to be lost in thought. Throughout their friendship, Elizabeth had been careful to be optimistic and uplifting to Leah, especially after finding out that Leah had had a rough childhood. Elizabeth usually let other people do the criticizing and nagging. She wanted Leah to have somewhere she could go to always feel good about herself. After all, she was just Leah's roommate, not her mother or her teacher or her boss; she had the luxury of usually only having to give positive reinforcement. But there were times when Elizabeth couldn't help herself giving Leah some advice, and Leah was always very good about listening since Elizabeth didn't give it often.
"See, there you go again, always agreeing with me." Elizabeth joked, trying to lighten the mood once more. Leah pushed her playfully.
"I guess this means we'll have to find someone else to drive us home." Leah complained.
"Sorry." Elizabeth said, but not really sorry at all. It was someone else's turn to play designated driver, or they could take a cab. Elizabeth was happy that it wouldn't be her problem that night.
"Fine. I'll leave you alone. You're a lot more fun when you're not thinking about your future, you know." Elizabeth stuck her tongue out at her friend as Leah walked out the door.
Elizabeth called Matt to tell him she wasn't going anywhere that night and then continued to write, taking short breaks to stretch and grab snacks, but she had been making real progress and didn't want to lose any momentum. She worked late, though not late enough to be awake when Leah returned home.