The Blackfire Protocol by Clifford Beck - HTML preview

Chapter 16

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It was two days later that the spring semester began, and Frank’s schedule was full. During his first semester, he carried fifteen credits, and when it came time to register, he did so again. His courses included Pre-law 2, Introduction to Criminal Justice, The First Amendment, The History of World War II, and U.S. Military History. He felt that these would somehow tie together at some point, but for now it was simply a mix of what he had to study and what he wanted to study. As he went from one class to the next, he tried to stay clear of the science department, knowing that Ava was likely teaching or preparing lab specimens. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to talk to her; he wanted to avoid any emotional situations where his newfound feelings would show through. But what he wanted to avoid most was a confrontation—her in hysterics while he stood, with an absence of anything meaningful. Often in the presence of emotional pain, there is little if anything that can be said to vanquish the cause of such heartbreak, be it grief or the end of a relationship. Certainly, some are more equipped to cope with it than others, but the issue was how Ava would react. Frank simply didn’t know, and that was what he was trying to avoid.

Most students struggled with the more complex issues of law, but Frank ate it up. He loved the idea of using logic to twist the truth into a well-crafted lie. So many people walk out of the courtroom either free or wealthy based on this line of thinking. In Shakespeare’s play Henry VI, he wrote, ‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.' Now he understood those words with startling clarity. Fortunately, there are many other fields of law to

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pursue, and Frank would have plenty of time to consider all of them. But now it was time for lunch, and his stomach faithfully acted as his alarm, and having left class for the morning, he made his way to the campus center. It was always crowded as other students pushed their way into the cafeteria, with some going to the bookstore. Having had a change of mind about the class they were taking, decided to drop it and were attempting to return the textbook. Finding his way through the crowd, he managed to get in line at the cafeteria and choosing what he thought would be safe to consume, paid for his meal, and found a table. As someone who preferred relative solitude, Frank found it difficult to find a place amongst the sea of students. They seemed to stretch on with the motion of waves as they stood and sat almost in an intentional pattern. Finally, he found a seat at the end of a table at a far corner of the cafeteria. Making himself comfortable was not easy, as he began to feel overwhelmed by the constant hum of human activity, but he was only there for one reason, and it was not to socialize.

As he began consuming his lunch, he heard a familiar voice calling him from not far away. Immediately, he put a face to the voice. It was Ava, and having seen him from across the cafeteria, she rushed over and sat across from him carrying a lunch tray.

“I called to you,” she said. “Didn’t you hear me?” Frank did, in fact, hear her, but choosing to ignore her, hoped that she would somehow mistake him for another student. The idea was ridiculous. After the night they spent together, she knew him on sight and

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apparently could recognize him from a distance as well.

“I’m sorry,” he replied. “I guess I’m a little spent from class, and being around all these people stresses me. I didn’t mean to ignore you.” Ava looked at him with caring eyes and, leaning forward, whispered in his ear.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I understand. I’d give you a kiss, but it wouldn’t really be appropriate here.” Sitting back, she addressed the matter of stress. Having received a Master’s degree, she was quite familiar with its effects.

“You think this is stressful?” she continued. “Wait until you get to grad school.”

Of course, Ava was right. Graduate school is always more demanding, but Frank knew that in order to get where he wanted to go he would have to earn, at least, a Master’s degree, possibly a Ph.D. What he was keenly aware of was that the farther one goes in their education, the farther one goes in life, and the path he chose promised to take him as far as he wanted. All he needed was the will to follow it, and a sense of will was in no short supply.

They finished lunch together and weaving their way through the crowd left the campus center. Once outside, they engaged in a bit of small talk as they planned out the coming weekend. If their respective workloads permitted, they would spend Saturday and Sunday together with the night in each other’s arms. In all honesty, he would have been just as happy being alone for the weekend. As during his first semester, he seemed to find the first week rather stressful and found that a bit of solitude offered a

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great deal of peace and relaxation. It helped him to get his head together before the second week began. While Ava’s presence would bring its own pleasures, it was solitude he thrived on.