Chapter 26: Behavior Unbecoming

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The cinder block wall of her dorm room was cool behind her as she sat on her bed studying from a book propped on her knees. She glanced at the phone as it began to ring again, then dropped her eyes back to her book. It had only been fifteen minutes. Sooner or later he would give up. He always did.

Temperance turned a page in her History of African Civilization textbook.

After five rings, the answering machine beeped.

"Tempe, I know you're there-"

No one had called her Tempe in nearly two and a half years. It wasn't who she was anymore.

She pushed the teal button on the box beside her, cutting off Russ's voice.

Seconds later the phone began to ring again.

There was a shriek next door and more pounding on the wall. Muffled complaints mounted.

The machine beeped.

"I looked you up in the campus dir-"

She pushed the teal button with relish. This time, she was rejecting him. Deliberately. It was satisfying to turn her back on him like he had when he drove away.

The phone rang. The machine picked up.

"I wanna tell you happy birthday-"

She pushed the button. Swallowed. No one else was going to say that to her today. But Russ had made his choice. He'd driven out of her life. He didn't have the right to barge back in whenever he felt like it, turning her carefully-ordered world upside-down in the process.

~ring~

She turned the page and read about cattle as currency.

~ring~

~beep~

"Tempe, please pick-"

Teal button. She knew she should mute the volume or at least set the machine to pick up on the first ring, but she couldn't quite bring herself to excise his voice completely. She didn't need him. She didn't want to talk to him, but she couldn't let him go, either. Infuriated by her weakness, she glared determinedly at her textbook. When the words blurred she blinked furiously and tried again.

~ring~

"Tempe, I know you-"

Teal button.

~ring~

"Just talk to him already!" The scream was accompanied by more banging on the wall.

~ring~

Next page. Images of preparation for the cattle jumping and comparisons to other rites of initiation into manhood. Maybe Russ would have benefited from such a ritual.

~beep~

"Tempe-"

Teal button.

~ring~

More pounding on the wall.

"What is uwrong/u with you, bitch? At least unplug the goddamned phone!"

~ring~

Page.

~beep~

"Temp, I miss y-"

She stabbed the button. He missed her? She missed them. All of them. Even him, damn him. She could never trust him, though, so there was no point.

~ring~

Her door flew open. The sound as it hit the wall ricocheted around the tiny room. A scowling girl stood there, hands on hips, and a crowd was gathered behind her, watching.

"I swear to God, if that phone doesn't stop-" The girl jabbed a finger toward Temperance as she shouted

"Get out of my room!" Temperance heard herself screaming, the way she wanted to scream at Russ.

"You unplug the damned phone!" The girl's hair bounced around her shoulders as she put her fists on her hips. "No one on this floor can get anything done, and I'm sure the next floors up and down are ready to set you on fire!"

~beep~

Temperance growled and slammed her fist into the button before Russ could say a word. The plastic cracked. Her breath came in bursts.

~ring~

"Make it-"

"Shut up!" Temperance roared, ripping the little machine out of the wall and throwing it at the girl, who swore and ducked. Temperance flung the nearest book after her. "Get out!" She sprang toward the door. "Get out!" She slammed the door against the retreating girls.

She sat back down, still breathing hard, her cheeks burning, her heart pounding. She reached for her textbook.

"In Hamar culture, before boys can complete the cattle-leaping initiation ritual, their sisters must volunteer to be whipped. They bear the pain and scars for their brothers, who owe their sisters a great debt and remember and care for them in difficult times."

She started giggling.

Then she was laughing. Then the absurdity bubbled up from her belly until she was consumed. She laughed until tears rolled down her cheeks, until she needed to go to the bathroom.

Until the knock at the door.

Two officers stood on the other side. One, African American and male, was from the campus police. The other, female and noticeably shorter than Temperance, wore Evanston Police Department patches.

Temperance answered their questions, but even her deep breathing was unable to keep her from chuckling occasionally.

Forty-five minutes later, she'd sobered from what she now recognized as hysteria. She'd come close to being driven to the hospital.

"Next week is exams," she'd protested.

"Well, Ms. Brennan, your safety and the safety of the others in this dorm takes precedence." She couldn't remember which cop had said that. Both had expressed the same sentiment at least five times.

She had apologized to the brown-haired girl, had been escorted to the R.A., an upper-classman named Crystal, and had been given orders to visit campus health services. In return for allowing her to remain in the dorm, she was to check in twice a week with Crystal, who would refer Temperance to help if she felt it was warranted.

"I hope you'll consider anger management, Ms. Brennan," the female cop had said on her way out.

"I don't want to have to come out here again," the man had added.

"That won't be necessary," she had said to them both.

It wouldn't unnecessary for them to return. She'd broken the phone. Anyway, Russ wouldn't call again until her next birthday.

Someone touched her arm.

"What?" she snapped, spinning around.

Crystal did not startle or back away. "I don't know what your deal is, and I don't care. But you'd better keep it together. I just went out on a limb for you. Don't make me regret it." She stalked away and slammed her door behind her.

Temperance stared at the cheerful door decorations and dry-erase board with perky cartoons, quivering with fury. Finally she turned and stalked out of the building. It was two hours and ten miles later when she returned to her room and her reading.

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~August 1995~

"Congressman Mel Reynolds has been convicted of multiple counts of sexual assault. Illinois congressmen have joined other members of Congress in asking for his resignation..."

Temperance stood and moved closer to the cafeteria television. Walter Jacobson had moved on to the next story. She reached up and changed the channel to WGN just as Congressman Reynolds' photo appeared. This report said nothing new, but it did confirm the first one.

"Can I drive you to the train, Temperance? Or maybe home?"

A shudder went through her, and she remembered his hands holding hers.

She hadn't read it wrong. He had been propositioning her.

The newscasters were shaking their heads about "another one" and listing off other politicians' names.

Temperance shuddered again, then returned to her table. She sat so her back was to the TV and ate her salad. The crunch of the vegetables seemed to chant, "Almost. Almost."

Her footsteps on the way to the lecture hall beat out the same chant.

After three hours of Dr. Howell's polysci lecture on governments, the need for oversight, and how things can get out of control in the absence of checks and balances, Temperance stood, stretched, and marched to the Rec Building. She looked through the schedule for a few minutes, then signed up for beginning karate.

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Posting Schedule: This story has 30 parts, which will post here and at LJ on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays so that the story will finish posting the week Bones comes back.

Author's Notes

Information from Temperance's hypothetical African textbook obtained from: "The Hamar" (2008). BBC Home.

An R.A. is a Resident Assistant, much like being the housemother at a boarding school, served by a peer.

The following are real people:

-Walter Jacobson, CBS affiliate news anchor

-Congressman Mel Reynolds

Thanks upon thanks to my wonderful betas and sounding boards: jsq, bluemorpho, and havocthecat. HUGE and effusive gratitude to my line-editor and prodder to make this story as good as I could at this time, and who went over this chapter four times, as well as offering encouragement and sounding board services while I planned and wrote for two years to Ayiana.

Feedback is most assuredly welcome.

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