Havik: Inside Brilliance

Evan spots her English professor, William,
parking his Jeep in the lot of Santa Barbara
City College. He throws a leather bag over
his deerskin jacket and strolls toward his
classroom. With his blond dreadlocks and
scuffed cowboy boots, Evan thinks he could
be one of the students. He waves to a passing
redhead and gazes out over the harbor.
Evan, a nineteen-year-old sophomore,
heads to the classroom with her blue dress
accenting her curves, hoping someone will
notice. She thinks how lucky she is to attend
a seaside college on a bluff overlooking the
Pacific and to be studying with William. She
knows without the money from her father’s
life insurance policy, she wouldn’t be going
to college anywhere.
William’s World Literature course is by
far her favorite class this fall; the intricate
plots of conflicted émigré lovers seem worlds
removed from the small town of Cambria
where she grew up. Evan loves reading these
stories and has decided to be an English lit
major, maybe even a writer. She’s thinking
of making that declaration to William. Evan’s
mother wanted to be a writer when she was
in college, then gave up that dream when
she married one—Evan’s father.
William has told the class he’s thirty-five
years old. Evan considers the average student
is barely out of high school, except
Linnea, the leggy Swedish exchange student
who seems to be his girlfriend.
The classroom door opens, and Linnea
strides out, heading for William.
William frowns, stops twenty feet from
Clouds
Fiction
Russel Doherty
Santa Barbara, California, USA
Evan, and waits. Linnea calls out as she
gets closer. Evan can hear her loud, accented
voice. “I thought we were having lunch
today.”
Evan wonders if she could use their relationship
in a story.
William’s eyes bounce from Linnea to Evan
and back. “I can’t really discuss that here.”
He’s fierce and quiet.
“What is happening between us? You keep
acting as if we are not lovers.”
“You told me everything changed.” William’s
voice rises. “You left in the spring saying
it was over, you would be staying home
in Sweden. So I moved on. Now you’re back
and basically telling me you’re in charge of
my relationships. That’s just not true.”
By the slump of her shoulders, Evan can
tell Linnea is at a loss. She thinks this means
William is available. Her mind starts slowly
calculating.
Linnea storms past Evan, back into the
classroom. William looks at Evan and shrugs
like he doesn’t understand. He walks by Evan
without saying anything.
William opens the door to the classroom.
Linnea runs out crying, holding her backpack
in her arms, bumps him aside, and keeps on
going. William enters the classroom. Evan
follows and sits up front. She decides to try
and talk to him after class.
Evan knows William’s wildly popular World
Lit class is attended by a cross-section of
students who mostly come for the easy A.
She wants him to know she’s different. She
loves the animated discussions caused by the
29
assigned novels: Bel Canto (South America),
A Bend in the River (Congo), The Alexandria
Quartet (Egypt), The Unbearable Lightness
of Being (Eastern Europe). The novels reflect
the culture clash of outsiders inhabiting a
society vastly different from their own. Evan
feels the storylines call out to her, begging
her to follow. William is her guide to this
mysterious universe.
She’s amazed by the lives lived in the
novels. In her discussion group, the languages
spoken, modes of transportation, dress,
housing, socialization—especially mating
habits—are all loudly dissected with the fervor
of anthropologists. Evan feels she’s found
her tribe.
She remembers William saying he has lived
this story of failed assimilation. He’s told
them his marriage ended because—as an
outlier—he tried desperately to fit into the
mostly male-centric, open-marriage faculty
culture, and failed. When he described to
them the descent into romantic hell experienced
by Tereza and Tomas in The Unbearable
Lightness of Being, he stressed, “This
is giving you a warning; watch out for your
heart.”
Evan knows that William likes to date his
students. She thinks about being that student,
just like her mother dated her father—
her professor at UCLA.
William starts in with today’s lecture.
“Some of the other English professors teach
the standard great themes of today: climate
and economically caused migrations of peoples,
multicultural clash of values, or polit-