Sneak preview, “The Hunter”
Here’s an excerpt from “The Hunter,” one of the stories included in my soon-to-be-published collection, Lunch Break:
…….
The classroom windows were open to the life-laden air of New England’s early summer. Patches of sunlight waltzed with shadows of leaves across open textbooks and pages of notes. The young woman speaking at the head of the class paused, looking up from her lectern and over the faces on which the sun would soon fully shine.
“In summary, class, courage is a requirement for achieving and maintaining values great and small—the greater the value and the less certain its achievement, the greater the requisite courage. Courage is a concomitant of principle, a form of integrity, a necessity for achieving the proper end of all ends—man’s life. . . . Next week, you will be tested on the material we covered today, but remember that you are, and will be, tested every day of your life by reality itself. Your reward for passing my test will be a good grade; your reward from reality will be the greatest happiness possible to you. Class dismissed.”
A murmur of voices rose, punctuated with squeaks of desks and scrapes of moving chairs, subsiding again as the students filtered out. Two remained. A dandelion-haired girl, whose unfolding beauty had raced a day ahead of spring’s pace, gathered her belongings and, after a moment’s hesitation, followed her peers. An awkward boy, preoccupied ostensibly with making a few extra notes and arranging his materials, watched her leave. He unraveled his lanky frame and ambled slowly towards the door.
“David?”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Is there anything you’d like to talk about?”
Her most intelligent and studious pupil had spent another day in class staring absently out the window and tracing distractedly in the margin of his book. His glasses, which usually magnified a bright liveliness, today revealed only clouds of frustration and melancholy.
“Ms. Ralovna, have you ever wanted something so much that you were afraid to go after it?” he asked.
She looked to an empty chair in the back corner of the room where, in another classroom, in another time, another boy had sat.
“David, do you remember the discussion we had last week about the difference between living and not dying?” She watched with delight as a pinpoint ray of understanding pierced his clouds.
“If you’ll excuse me, ma’am—” His words had barely escaped a flurry of thought as he departed in an altogether altered state of distraction.
The professor collected her books and her briefcase. Before closing the door, she stopped and gazed again at the empty chair. A pair of girls who were passing in the hall at that moment waited until they were out of earshot.
“Did you see the look on her face?”
“It’s my opinion that Dr. Tatiana Ralovna has a lover.”
“And she’s meeting him tonight.”
“I wonder what he’s like.”
“He’s probably an accountant.”
“And what will they do?”
“Talk in impassioned whispers about the philosophy of mathematics.”
They giggled and changed the subject to shoes.
….
Stay tuned for launch of the collection, Lunch Break, which should be out on Kindle within the next week, and then in paperback within two weeks or so thereafter!
