In a Moment : Chapter 1
In a Moment
by Johannes Silverfox
Entry 1:
It’s been a while since I’ve written anything in this journal, but something happened to me today that I don’t yet feel comfortable talking about with anyone else. I received an email this morning from my World History 301 professor with the assignment details for this semester’s project. I read it carefully, then gasped. “Reginald Silver’s my partner?!” I said out loud in my empty dorm room. I didn’t know him personally, but then again, no one on campus did. Why a scion of the famously wealthy Silver family had decided to attend this rather isolated technical university rather than a member of the Ivy League or another prestigious school was a complete mystery and the subject of occasional idle speculation.
He isn’t hard to spot; all you need to do is go to the university library and he’ll show up eventually: a tall, brooding, immaculately dressed silver fox carrying a stack of books and a laptop. I’ve observed that this particular laptop doesn’t seem to be made by any of the major or minor manufacturers that I know of, so it’s likely a custom build. Once he arrives, he sits alone at the same table each time, flipping through his books and typing rapidly. When he’s finished, he immediately leaves and heads either to class or wherever he lives off-campus.
To my knowledge, he’s never been seen outside the library or the lecture halls. If he has any friends or acquaintances here, they’re being very quiet about it. If he’s dating anyone, he’s keeping that even further under wraps. I have to admit that I’ve felt some degree of fascination due to all of the mystery surrounding him, but he has never seemed even remotely approachable in any sense of the word, his face a mask of intense concentration at all times.
While I was pondering all of this, my phone buzzed. I glanced at it and saw a text from an unfamiliar number:
- Is this Alexander Winter?
I blinked and chuckled. “Well, Mr. Silver, you certainly don’t waste any time,” I said quietly.
- Yes, it is. Are you Reginald Silver?
- I am. When will you be available to meet regarding our project for World History 301?
- Well..3:00 will do, I don't have any classes after that.
There was a brief pause on the other end.
- That will suffice. Meet me at that hour at the library.
I chuckled, shaking my head as I put the phone down. I didn’t know what to expect, but it certainly wasn’t that, I thought as I folded and stowed my laptop. It was about time to head to my only lecture of the day, Network Design and Architecture, which would end not all that long before 3. Fortunately, I had already showered and had something decent on. “It won’t be decent compared to what he’s wearing, though,” I said in a low mutter. With a rueful sigh, I grabbed my coat and laptop bag, put on my sunglasses, and headed for class.
Being an arctic fox has its advantages, especially in this weather. I just need a light coat most of the time, as my winter fur takes care of the rest, even when it’s well below freezing and most of my fellow students are bundled up and trying to get somewhere warm as quickly as possible. This particular day, I was just strolling along, enjoying the pristine stillness of a western Massachusetts winter, my fluffy white tail wagging as I breathed in the cold, crisp air. Even with shades on, the glare of the snow did hurt my eyes a bit, but I arrived soon enough at the School of Computer Science.
I made it to the lecture a few minutes early, finding my normal spot and making my usual preparations. I double-checked to make sure I’d submitted my homework and had the PDF of the textbook ready just as Professor Honig arrived, a portly badger who always has a mug of coffee in his paw. He grumbled a few pleasantries and started his lecture immediately. Now, I usually don’t have much trouble paying attention to him as he knows how to keep students engaged. Yet, this time, my mind was wandering, speculating incessantly about my impending meeting with Silver. I kept racking my brain trying to remember any other details about him that could potentially be useful. I was trying to recall if I had ever observed him talking with someone else at all when the professor’s voice sharply cut in.
“Since Mr. Winter is paying such close attention, I’m sure he could inform us about whether OSPF uses UDP or TCP as its transport protocol,” he said, glaring at me.
“Ah…it doesn’t use either as it…puts its data directly in the packets,” I said, thankful that I had studied that part. He grunted, his expression unchanged.
“And what are the multicast addresses used when there are multiple OSPF routers on the same subnet?”
Okay..multicast..those are all 224s..oh shoot, did I ever read this part…224, 224..
“Well?!”
“224.0.0….5 and..6..?” I said, throwing out whatever my mind came up with. He raised his eyebrows, shook his head, and said nothing else as he resumed the lecture. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, refocusing on Professor Honig as he continued pontificating on the intricacies of OSPF, calling upon some other inattentive students now and then who weren’t as lucky. I was able to pay better attention, but I could tell I was getting increasingly nervous as the lecture went on, and I was only somewhat relieved when the professor abruptly closed his laptop and grabbed his coffee.
“You know my office hours if you need me for something. Now, get outta here,” Honig said, his usual method of concluding a lecture. I put my things away and took a deep breath; I don’t know why (now or then) I felt so anxious at that moment. What was the big deal? I’d meet with him, we’d hash out the project, then probably just email back and forth until we had a paper ready, meeting in person again only as needed. We’d get the job done, probably get an A or A+, and that would be that.
I thought all this over while walking to the library, which is a sizable but more practical than ornate building, located close to the center of the campus. I looked around the entrance as I approached, on the off chance that Silver would be waiting outside, but unsurprisingly, there was no one there. Thus, I headed inside, looking about carefully, but I didn’t see him there, either.
The library has three open floors supported by white pillars and joined by steel spiral staircases on both sides (with an elevator in the middle). There weren’t all that many other people about as I continued looking around, which made me feel somewhat relieved. Silver’s usual spot was just behind a pillar on the second floor, so I headed there via the closest staircase, feeling increasingly tense with every step. I could feel my heart pounding in my ears as I reached the top.
I looked about, feeling frustrated at my anxiety. I didn’t see anyone, but my ears flicked at a sudden, short noise nearby. I sighed, took a deep breath, and headed for the pillar.
When I rounded it, I found Reginald Silver fixing his golden eyes on me; it took my breath away for a moment. He was wearing a white button-down shirt with a dark tie, adorned with a silver tie clip. As he stood to greet me, I noticed his black slacks, formal dress shoes, and silver cuff links. His surprisingly fluffy black-furred tail with a white tip swung slowly behind him, streaked with silver hairs. He was very handsome up close, as if he had stepped off a magazine cover; his outfit looked like it cost more than a year’s tuition here. Now, I’m rather short, and while he isn’t the tallest individual I’ve ever met, he felt like the most intimidating. However, his expression was quite neutral, if not curious.
I don’t know how long I stared at him, captivated by his beautiful eyes and his striking vulpine features, his dark nose framed by the dark and silver hairs that ran throughout his face and his large, black-furred ears that rotated towards me, his countenance now somewhat quizzical. For a moment, I felt a very strange sensation, as if our eyes were locked together.
“You are Alexander Winter, I presume?” he said in a deep, rumbling voice. That snapped me out of my reverie, and I nodded, feeling rather embarrassed.
“Yeah, that’s me..and of course, you’re Reginald Silver,” I said, internally wincing; that didn’t come out the way I intended. He smiled for a split second, however, as he offered his paw and I shook it as hard as I reasonably could, noting how gentle and warm it felt. Yeah, I probably held onto it for a bit too long, but I don’t think he noticed..maybe. I hope.
“Indeed,” he said evenly. He quickly sat down and I did the same opposite him, looking at his immaculately trimmed claws; he was likely a frequent patron of a spa/grooming service that was far more expensive than anything I could ever dream of affording. “Do you have any ideas about a topic that we can pursue?”
Right to business. “Well, I have given it some thought, and I thought that a..general starting point would be taking parts of the history of Mesopotamia and relating it to current and/or recent events in the countries that that area is now..occupied by?” I had been considering something like this since the project was assigned, but decided to punch it up a bit on the spur of the moment.
He looked straight at me, his eyes narrowing and I thought for an agonizing moment that I had made a terrible mistake. There was a brief silence as we regarded each other, and then he smiled very briefly.
“A very interesting proposition, Mr. Winter. My idea is along similar lines, but taking the entire Middle Eastern region and correlating the history of Palestine and how it has affected said region throughout its entire history.” I slowly blinked, shaking my head.
“That sounds..heck, that sounds more like a graduate thesis, to be honest,” I said, trying to keep my face relaxed. “I know you probably could pull something like that off, but it’s just..”
“Too ambitious for a junior-level paper?” He looked bemused at the thought, his tail wagging slightly. “While I am grateful for your compliment, I will also state that you should not sell yourself short, Mr. Winter. From what I have heard of your capabilities, such a venture would be within the realm of possibility, albeit at the expense of all of our other obligations.”
“Possible, but not practical,” I said, leaning forward and smiling slightly. Where had he heard anything about me?
“Precisely. I am certain, though, that we should be able to find a way to scale this down to a more feasible level while also providing a sufficient challenge for us both,” he said, leaning forward a bit as well. “Does that sound like an acceptable proposal to you?” He looked at me, his face unreadable, but he seemed ever so slightly excited at the idea.
“Yeah, I think that’ll work. Let’s hash it out,” I said, pulling out my laptop. Over the next five to ten minutes or so, we managed to narrow it down to something that wouldn’t destroy all of our free time over the next several weeks. While he didn’t seem completely satisfied with it, he was surprisingly more amiable than I had expected.
“Very well, then,” he said when we had finished. “To begin, we should have enough time at the moment to take notes from these.” He took the first two books off the stack next to him and gave them to me. They were both thick tomes about Palestinian history, which I raised an eyebrow at, which he happened to notice. “Hmm? Is something amiss with this selection?” he said, tilting his head slightly.
“Umm..well, I wonder what you would have done if we had..ruled out tying Palestine into this project completely,” I said, wondering where I was going with this line of thought. His eyes narrowed momentarily.
“I would still find a way to make use of these texts,” he said carefully. “While the main subject matter would not exactly pertain to our thesis, there would likely be other useful bits of information that could be gleaned about related events occurring elsewhere in the region, along with references to other books that would be more directly relevant.” I blinked a few times.
“Shoot, I..didn’t think of it that way,” I said, feeling slightly chagrined. He smiled for a moment, then gazed at me impassively.
“When you have brothers like mine, Mr. Winter, it is imperative to be able to cover every possible angle.” He paused. “Do you have any siblings?”
“Ahh..yes, an older sister,” I said, surprised by the question. “She lives in Toronto and works as a fashion designer.”
“I see. It is possible that you might understand my perspective, then.”
“Yeah, I think I see what you’re getting at,” I said, chuckling slightly to try to hide my uneasiness; whatever I had thought he’d be like, I was not prepared for making small talk.
“Good,” he said curtly. “As much as I would like to continue our discussion, we should use this time for studying the material.” He opened his laptop and stared at it, placing both of his paws below the keyboard. After a moment, he opened the closest book and began flipping through it, typing notes every so often. I shrugged and did the same, though my mind kept wandering back and forth between the history I was trying to absorb and the silver fox sitting in front of me. I knew about his older fraternal twin brothers, Alphonse and Bartholomew, and that they would become joint CEOs of Silver Enterprises when their father either died or stepped down, but otherwise, all I had heard of them were salacious and spurious rumors banded about by the tabloids.
From what he just said, it seems likely they were always argumentative with Reginald and probably not nice to him, overall..they were also likely their parents’ favorites. I’m glad Jessica and I were able to resolve that particular issue in our own lives, I thought, stealing glances at him. I sighed and re-focused myself on my work; spacing out and woolgathering wasn’t going to impress him at all. We worked for a while in a comfortable silence, which was only slightly broken by the turning of pages and the tapping of keys.
Around 4:00, he suddenly stopped typing and looked at me. “Where did you grow up, Mr. Winter?” he said gently as he closed his laptop.
“Well, my sister and I were born in Buffalo, but we grew up near Toronto..since our dad is Canadian and our mom is American, we have dual citizenship.”
“Interesting..and you have passports for both nations?”
“Yeah..it’s a bit of a pain when traveling abroad, but it’s not too bad. It’s not like we go to Europe or Asia or wherever all that often, anyway,” I said, wondering why I was admitting that so readily to someone who probably travels overseas regularly.
“I see..and have you been to Europe?” he said smoothly.
“Yes, a couple of years ago, my family and I went on a European tour, starting and ending in Germany.” There was a brief flicker of emotion on his face as I finished my sentence.
“I see.” He paused. “I have been to Germany several times and I know the language well..but I do not enjoy speaking it.” I thought about asking him about that statement for a moment, but his grim expression put the kibosh on that.
“Um..okay..um..where else have you been in Europe?” He smiled ever so briefly.
“The south of France. Beautiful scenery, relatively isolated, calm, peaceful..an excellent location for going on a vacation.”
I smiled and nodded. “I’ve never been there, though it does sound quite lovely.”
“Indeed so. I..highly recommend it,” he said, looking directly at me. Our eyes met and I started feeling even more bashful than before. I even felt a brief temptation to take his paw, but, of course, I did nothing. He very suddenly stood up and put his laptop and books back in his very expensive-looking bag, looking the slightest bit frazzled, though I might have imagined it.
“Forgive my haste; I nearly lost track of time, and I need to go immediately to my next lecture,” he said quickly. I stood up as well, not knowing what else to do. He took my paw and shook it vigorously. “I am quite glad to meet you, however, and I will contact you shortly to arrange our next meeting concerning this project.” With that, he let go and walked swiftly away..all I could do was gape as he disappeared down the staircase, his beautiful tail swaying behind him.
I sat down again, shaking my head in wonder. That had gone..surprisingly well. This was shaping up to be a really interesting project in more ways than one. While Reginald wasn’t exactly the friendliest person I’ve ever met, I felt like I’d gotten to know him a bit, which was a lot more than most people on campus could say. I decided to stay in the library and finish my homework before heading back to the dorm.
After doing so, I came back here and started writing this entry while everything was fresh in my mind. I didn’t worry about anyone walking in, as my roommate is very rarely here; his minor is apparently couch surfing. The space is mostly my own to do as I like, which isn’t all that much, but it does feel like a home.
(I was going to continue, but then I realized I was late for D&D. It was an..interesting session, to say the least. More about it in the next entry.)