Chapter 67

“May we come in professor?” Aiyana inquired as she stood at the entrance of the classroom with Scarlett. She had tried to talk Scarlett into skipping the class but failed.

William nodded carelessly without looking in their direction, vaguely aware of two women walking into his classroom as he bent his neck to carry on talking about ‘The Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’ by John Donne.

“So let us melt, and make no noise,

No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;

'Twere profanation of our joys

To tell the laity our love.”

William Gardner looked up from the little book he was absently reading from. He did not need to read the poem; he knew it like he knew how to breathe. Every word of every poem ever read seared into his brain. But, for the sake of his students who usually felt intimidated by such a display he held the book in front of his face feigning to read rather than merely recite the poem from memory.