M is for Millie
Yes, another story from the 2007 Alphabet Fiction Challenge. How'd you guess?
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters.
Chapter 1
Academia is a community driven by communication… lectures, discussions, publications, correspondence, demonstrations. And the dark side of communications, of course… rumor, back stabbing, even slander and libel.
Mildred Ursula Finch was no stranger to any of the above. One did not become a department chair of a prestigious university without a thorough grounding in the fine art of politicking.
Therefore, she was less than surprise that the second thing she encountered at CalSci, right after the official, politically correct and overly jolly welcome, was an outpouring of gossip.
She spent the morning hearing about people...
Prof. Novich spent most of his paycheck on poker.
Prof. Eppes ditched class for consulting gigs.
Prof. Waldie played fantasy baseball on the super computer.
Prof. Eppes was a government spy. (Why he would be spying on CalSci was not explained.)
Prof. Fleinhardt was living in the steam tunnels.
One day Prof. Osaki was Going to Crack and Kill Everyone on Campus and Maybe Everyone in Pasadena as Well.
Prof. Eppes used way too much hair product for a heterosexual male.
Initially, the rumor that concerned her the most, after the steam tunnels (which were not safe for habitation), was the one that claimed that the new hire, Amita Ramanujan, had slept her way to two doctorates.
If that were true, two of her professors would find themselves at the EDD, trying to apply for unemployment through their new dentures. If the rumor was false, then one of her associate professors needed some protection.
Millie tended to take these stories with a grain of salt the size of the Salt Palace in Saline, Texas. However, this story came from outside her department, and she didn't see how a philosophy teacher would have an ax to grind with a student who had never taken a class with her.
So Millie did research. She read all of Ramanujan's published works… both of her doctoral theses, her master's thesis, her collaborations with Eppes and Keppler, even the girl's college admission essay and her letters to the campus newspaper.
The more Millie read, the happier she became. Not only did Ramanujan have a voice that was very distinct from Eppes and Keppler, she was obviously a brilliant young woman with a bright career ahead of her. Just the sort of person Millie should mentor.
Millie shrugged off original rumor. However, she kept the rumor-monger filed away in her mental file of things that she needed to beware of.