Read Online Higher Education by Lisa Pliscou - Free Book Online

around.
    â€œSometimes I really wonder about this relationship.” Click-click.
    â€œWell, sweetie.” Gently I remove the pen from her grasp. “Is everything else okay?”
    â€œOh god yes. We spend all our time together.” Now she tinkers with her knife and fork. “I had to tell somebody, though. My shrink appointment’s not till tomorrow, and I thought I’d go crazy if I kept it inside another minute.”
    â€œWhat are friends for?” I stand up. “Excuse me for a minute, will you?” I walk toward the telephone, repeating the UHS number in my head as I extract a dime from my pocket.
    â€œYes, can I help you?”
    â€œI’m calling for the results of a pregnancy test.”
    â€œDid you bring your sample in this morning, hon?”
    â€œYes.” I loosen my hold on the receiver. “They told me I could call after four-thirty for the results.”
    â€œWhat’s the last name?”
    â€œIt’s Walker. W-a-l—”
    â€œHang on a minute, hon.” She puts me on hold.
    While I’m waiting I hear the toilet flush in the men’s room. Seconds later a man emerges with a hand at his crotch, having not quite finished zipping his fly. He sees me and glares, sinking his jowls into his collar.
    I nod. “Nice day, isn’t it?”
    â€œFor you maybe.” He stumps off, wiping his hands on his pants.
    â€œYeah.” I grimace rudely at his bald spot, and then the phone clicks.
    â€œHello?” says the voice.
    â€œYes?”
    â€œYour test came out negative, Mandy.”
    â€œI’m Miranda.”
    â€œOh, right. Let me look at this again.” In the background I hear a voice saying, “Leukemia, I guess.” Someone laughs. “Miranda? Walker, right?”
    â€œYes, that’s me.”
    â€œRight. Sorry, hon. I was looking at somebody else’s chart.”
    â€œAh.” Do I know anybody named Mandy?
    â€œAnyway, your test came out negative too.”
    â€œThat means I’m not pregnant, right?”
    â€œThat’s right, hon.”
    I let out my breath, softly. “That’s great.”
    â€œBut only as much as can be determined within the first two weeks.”
    â€œOh.”
    â€œIf you still haven’t gotten your period in the next week or so, you might want to come back for another test.”
    â€œOh?”
    â€œJust to be sure.”
    â€œI see. Thanks.” I hang up.
    Back at our table Angela is back to capping and uncapping her pen. “Wanda, I feel fat. Let’s go play squash.”
    â€œNo thanks.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œI hate squash.”
    Click-click. “How about racquetball then?”
    â€œI hate racquetball too.”
    â€œThere’s a five-thirty aerobics class at the IAB.”
    â€œI wouldn’t be caught dead in an aerobics class.”
    â€œAll right, we’ll go jogging.” Click-click.
    â€œCan’t.” I take the pen away from her again. “I’m due at Robbins by six.”
    â€œBut Wanda, we’d have so much fun zooming around together. Besides, I just bought a new Gloria Vanderbilt jogging suit at the Coop.”
    â€œSweetie, you hate to exercise.”
    â€œThat’s true.” She brightens. “Oh well. I tried, didn’t I?”
    â€œYep. Hey, do you know anybody named Mandy?”
    â€œMandy? No. Why?”
    â€œNo reason.” I slip a dollar bill under my coffee cup and start gathering up my belongings. “Let’s go.”
    As we walk along Mass Ave I feel myself pierced by the soft keen melancholy of impending Cambridge twilight. The sidewalk is crowded with late-afternoon traffic, mostly students streaming in and out of the copy shops and ice-cream stores.
    â€œI don’t suppose some course or another had a paper due at five o’clock?”
    â€œFine Arts 13.” Angela looks over at me. “How did you know? Philip’s been