The Art of Reasoning

Chapter II: Wake-Up Call

Riiiiiiiiing, riiiiiiiiiiing.

I opened one eye, lifting my head slightly. The alarm clock on my desk at the foot of the bed glared 7:00 AM at me in garish green block-numbering.

Riiiiiing, riiiii-

"M'hello?"

"Carol, are you seriously still in bed?" I sighed. It was way too early in the morning for anyone to sound that cheerful. At 7:00 on a highschool day I'd be wide awake and on the bus, but seriously, it's college… the day gets kicked back four hours, right…? "The Mass is at 11!" my mom informed me, as if I had not told her that yesterday.

"Mom, it's still 7," I complained. "Don't worry, I'll get up. Anyways, I'm going to the High Latin Mass in town today, and that's not till 4."

"Right, well, I'll call back later today, tell me how it goes!"

"Sure thing."

Click.

Mothers.

Two hours later I dragged myself out of bed with a reproachful glance at my still-sleeping roommate, who didn't have a mother who called at 7 to make sure you were up for Mass. Not like there isn't the 9:00 PM mass anyways, I thought, attempting to work the brush through my constantly-tangling wavy brown hair. It might have been easier to manage if it were shorter than halfway down my back, but I was used to long hair, so I lived with it. There was nothing to do until Church, so I lounged in the desk chair in my dorm and flipped up the screen on my laptop.

I was still signed in on AIM—sometimes my computer randomly restarts for reasons I will not understand, but apparently not last night. My typical away message stared at me… "Sleeping. I do not dream, for dreams are meant to be of higher things, and there is no higher thing than Heaven itself." Blinking next to it was the usual im from Ava;

Silenthaze: -poke- you still sleeping? o.O

No, does it look like I'm awake?

Atheshar: heya

Silenthaze: finally! Sheesh woman!

Atheshar: when do you expect me to get up, before God?

Atheshar: lol

Silenthaze: rofl

By habit I went to check my email… some junk from joinedinfaith, my yahoo group, and that was all. Resignedly I hit delete and wondered when Dr. Noone was going to email us our Philosophy grades. Not on Sunday, duh Carol, I ranted to myself. I even wandered over to Taiar, though there wasn't anything new there either.

Atheshar: it's your turn to post

Silenthaze: I don't know what to say -.-

Silentaze: there is nothing for me to do

Atheshar: psssh.

Taiar was an online fantasy writing roleplay I'd joined; Ava was the admin, which was how we'd met. She lived practically on the other side of the country, but it didn't stop me from knowing her better than people two doors down the hall. Being a quiet writer-type individual tends to do that to you.

I clicked around online and made myself some tea (my roommate was still sleeping, but Rachel lets me use her microwave anyways). Green tea. It's better with honey, but sugar from the caf made do. 10:30 rolled around before I dragged myself off to get changed into my usual khaki pants and t-shirt. A glance out the window told me it was definitely going to rain—that's what you get for mid-October weather—so I added a raincoat on top of it, my old green one from Coventry High with the music note on the back. I am such a band dork.

Was is probably the more appropriate term. There isn't much room for amateur flautists in a college with a decent Music school, not if said flautist happened to be a Biochemistry major. A thought which reminded me that I had Organic Chem homework awaiting my attention after church, and almost elicited a groan.

10:55 and I was taking the steps of Regan Hall two at a time to get to the bottom floor (an art, I assure you, that all on-campus college students should learn to master!). One good thing about going to the Catholic University of America was that the chapel was, literally, thirty seconds out of the door. And that was if you were a slow walker.

As usual, the gathering song organ music was thrumming away through the open doors on St. Vinny's. It was always going, pretty much, even if Mass wasn't being celebrated. Apparently the Music School students use it to practice organ, or at least that's what Abby told me the first day when I asked about it. Going anywhere on campus from my dorm required walking past the chapel, and it was always pleasing to hear someone pounding away on the organ. Sometimes it was music I recognized, sometimes not.

On occasion I'd wanted to go in, but I never did. Maybe I thought the doors would be locked, or whoever was in there wouldn't want to be disturbed.

To be perfectly honest I wasn't really paying attention for most of the service, just going along with the by-now daily routine. I had a German test the next day and found myself attempting to translate everything into the language… and annoyingly frustrating habit, but one I couldn't shake.

"The Lord be with you." Und du auch.

Gah! Frau Gaddy should give me bonus points for this, I thought glumly, trying unsuccessfully to beat the German out of my brain.

"Hey, Carol, what was up during Mass?" Amy fell in beside me as I went walking to brunch at the Pryz, pretty much the only food court on campus. Catholic was pretty small, around 800 or so students in a class.

"German getting to my head," I said. "I kept trying to translate it."

"You should have tried to test out of Spanish," she teased me. "Then you wouldn't have to take a language."

I groaned, taking the steps up in the Pryz two at a time. "If I had to take one more year of Spanish, I'd sick up," I said in a conversational tone. "I like German."

"Only because you can pronounce those sounds," Amy shot back. "How you get your mouth around them I'll never understand."

"Was sprichst du?" I said. "Ich konne aus English nicht sprechen."

I seriously think I would have ducked, if I knew she couldn't really throw the apple at me or we'd get kicked out of the Pryz and get evil looks from the staff for a week. You do not want to get evil looks from the staff… trust me.

"So whatcha doing today?" she asked, taking a bite of said apple.

I shrugged, messing around idly with my canned pears. "Not much. I have an o-chem lab to get ready for on Wednesday, but that's all. Oh, and Sean's taking a bunch of us to Latin Mass at St. Mary's, and I thought it'd be neat, seeing as I've never been." Canned pears are usually good, which is saying something considering it's Pryz food, but I wasn't particularly hungry. "Why?"

Amy shrugged. "Well, if you were free, there's a presentation over at the Music School, open stage, and I heard Dr. Noone is going to pull out his harmonica for it." Blast, now I wished I hadn't promised going to St. Mary's. Dr. Noone was unbelievable on that thing. 6'4" guy, you'd never think it until he brought it to class one day and played.

Never judge a philosopher by his figure, I thought smugly.

"Great," I muttered aloud. "Well, tell me how it is, ok? I have to run and get that chemistry done before Sean takes us to Mass. I want a full report on the harmonica, mmkay?" I said, fixing her with a mock-stern brown-eyed glare.

"Yes, Carol," she said meekly, but she was grinning as I waved and left.

When I walked by the door to St. Vinny's, it was closed again, but the organ music was still playing. Wonder what Music School student is practicing on a Sunday afternoon, I thought, and almost went to check if the doors were open.

Then I remembered the chemistry homework awaiting me upstairs, and turned towards my dorm with a sigh, already reaching for my Cardinal keycard.

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Disclaimer: I own Phantom in none of its permutations, derivations, or other forms; music, art, literature, etc. Credit belongs to Mr. Leroux, Mr. Webber, and Mrs. Kay, and all others of which I am not aware but who deserve mention.

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