description

The assignment was to describe a room in our memoir.

I had the room set up for studying.  It was in a former fraternity house that was converted into a rooming house.  I went home to find some boards from around the farm.  I tried to find some clean ones without many nails or splinters sticking out of them.  With the boards, I’d made a loft so my single bed was up in the air, and the desk on the left side down below.  On the right side was my chest of drawers.  I had the computer on the desk and a single chair. I had just enough room to sit on the chair and not hit the mattress. The desk had a drawer for pens, and a drawer for ‘stuff’. My books and notebooks were within reach. I had to step into it, twist a bit, and kind of wiggle. It was cozy. When I was in the chair, everything about it said “study.”

I had told Kevin that I had a lot of work to do, and he stayed downstairs and chatted with the other people in the house for most of the day.  About 9:30, he came up to my room.  He knocked apologetically, opened the door, and stepped in. “Hi, James!  So…how ya doin’?”  He said it slowly as if her were talking to a mental patient. 

                Without looking up I said, “I’m alright.  How are you?”

                “I’m good. I’m good.  Whatchadoin’?” Again, he said this with fake happiness or false interest--like he was on some kind of cartoon.

                “Well, I’m working on my project, like I’ve been doing all day.”

                “I just thought I’d come to see if you wanted to take a little break.”

                I thought for a minute and decided I probably could take a break, and maybe even should take a break. Hopefully after the break, I would come back to work with renewed vigor.

                “OK.  Yeah, I guess I can take a break.”  I turned my chair and faced him.  “So what have you been doing today?”

                “Just hanging out with Jeff and Jenny, and stuff.”

                “Oh, yeah? You got to know Jeff, huh?” I said with polite interest.

                “Yeah, we’re good buds now. He told me about his girlfriend and how she’s coming up next weekend.  She’s from Bettendorf, too, you know.”

                “Oh, yeah? Do you know her?” I said this as to show that I was listening.

                “Ha, ha, ha, no, James.  Bettendorf is a bit bigger than Newell.”

                “You remember that I’m from Newell?  I’m impressed.”

                “Well you, ah, told me about it today.  It was when I asked about that Greg Johnson guy. You know, our other roommate?”

                “Oh, yeah, that’s right.  You know he’s married.”

                “Really?  Well, I always thought that he would get married early.”

                “Yep. Married Lucy, his first and only college girlfriend.”

                “You know, James, this is how I remember us.  We would have these little chats at night when you would take a break from work and we’d share stories.  You know what?  I think we have really begun something here.  I think I’ve found a friend. Us running into each other yesterday was like fate.  Now I’ve found a friend. It’s wonderful. You know these nine years have gone by really fast.  Now I think we can be real friends.”

                “Yeah, it’s pretty cool,” I answered.  We talked about a couple other things until my mountain of work climbed back into my line of sight.

                “This is great, Kevin, but just like when we were at Iowa State, I still have some work to do.”

                “Ok,” he said, and zipped right out. It was like he was offended, or he didn’t want me to be offended, or something else, I don’t know what. Whatever it was, I didn’t have time to worry because I really had a lot of work to do.