True to the Professor's words David did return with a can of pop. Pepsi, not diet of course, however he at least managed to get her a straw of sorts. The Slurpee straw with it's spoon type end wouldn't but much use in a small can of cola. David handed it to her along with the straw. His big hands dwarfing her tiny hands as he did so. What took him less than his one hand took her two to catch. It was also no surprise that after handing over the can her own hands were a bit black as well. She held up her hands in defense to the professor who cursed looking down below the desk before handing over a small package. It was a take out package moist hand wipe along with a paper towel and a toothpick in a seal plastic bag.

Beth cleaned up herself and the offending can with the wipes while the professor leaned over the desk and neatly trimmed the long straw down so that it would fit nicely into the can for her. She thanked him for his kindness causing him to blush.

Professor Tandy refilled his brandy glass. She had not even seen him empty it which is quite the feet when one considers how big a brandy glass was. Like most she had seen them on television but unlike television he didn't swirl the brandy around before sniffing it. He just tossed it back all in one glup.

"I suppose your wondering what that phrase was?"

Beth didn't speak she just nodded her head.

"It's only fair I suppose. To give you a better idea we really have to start a few years ago. I had my tenyear already by then. Me Robert Tandy who everyone used to tease. You see my last name just happens to be the same as a series of computers."Beth looked blankly at his reference.

"Ah before you time I guess." He took another slug of brandy from the glass.

"I was youngish and cocky I suppose. As a part of my course in advance psychology after my students had in their dissertations I give them one more assignment. Elaine used to joke that it was my way of making them think so far out of the box they would recognize the box. Ah Elaine..." He drifted off and looked at the picture shrine on the shelf.

Beth waited in silence for a minute before she felt compelled to interrupt. "Professor?"

"Ehh? Oh yes where was I?" he tried to hide the emotions but she could see how full his eyes were.

"You give your students an assignment?" She asked tentatively.

"I give them lots of assignments?" He asked puzzled for a second before he got it"Oh right! Yes yes. Let's see it was about six years no.. can't be that long? Seven maybe eight? My how time flies."Beth sighed this was going to be a long long story."As part of the course I give them a final assignment of sorts. What I try to do is break them of thinking of the normal and narrow views of a psychologist. It's one thing to have the person spill their life at you and give out text book answers. It's another to actually understand what they really mean. Everybody lies." He just stopped talking looking into the half empty brandy glass.

Beth waited while he seemed to collect his thoughts."Profess.."

"It was about seven years ago I guess. A young and upcoming student, brilliant in some regards, not so smart in others. I usually just ask the class to give me idea on how to better improve society as a whole through the use of their future practice." He paused as he swirled the glass once before kicking it back and then refilling it."Most of what I get is papers on how they can help politicians or lawyers with some of their hard choices to make better ones. Actors and such. Pure drivel as far as I'm concerned. Half the papers are more of how they will make the kids rich. Mostly just fantasy papers." He popped the glass cork off the bottle to refill and already full glass and was surprised to see it full.

"David was different. His paper was a laughable idea. The use of deep hypnosis to in essence reprogram a convicted criminal to be a more better person. Canada as whole doesn't really enforce a death sentence like the states do. This leaves us with prisons almost overflowing with criminals who will never see the light of freedom again. A drain on our resources."

Beth nodded as she understood the idea and thought it would have merit.

"Pure nonsense as you can't reprogram the human mind like a computer and hit reset. I laughed my self silly and would have given him a failing grade if not for Elaine. Oh Elaine.." He just stopped as he turned to look at the picture again.

Beth sat in her seat and waited. It was clear that Elaine was his wife but something had happened. She didn't know what but he obviously loved her far more than most people did. A love like that was painful to watch. She wanted to one day have a husband that loved her so one day.

"She was still my secretary back then. A brilliant woman from the first day I met her. I remember it like yesterday, the first time I saw her in this very office. Back then I had this old and beat up black metal desk and the selves were full of paper none of it relevant to anything I was working on. I had a computer on that old desk and more than a few piles in the outer office. It wasn't that I was sloppy it's just that things piled up. I really didn't notice but the dean did. Dean Dean Marks. Gods how we used to tease that bastard behind his back. He had the name for the job that's for sure."

Beth wanted to interrupt him and tell him to get to the point but she also felt she had to listen to him ramble on. It was like sitting down in front of the fireplace on the couch in her old nightie as a little girl with Grandma sitting beside her telling her of the days of old.

"I didn't really know about this inner room not really. I just thought of it as a storage room for paper. I had been with the university for tenyear and just kept throwing paper into the room just like my predecessor did. After awhile it was hard to do that. A good shove with your back into that old solid door and toss in. Gods what a fire hazard that was!"

Beth looked to the door it was an antique glass and wood door much like the one she came into the outer office through.

"That is the new old door. The original is long gone thanks to Elaine. The first day I saw her she was standing in the door looking completely lost. I guess Dean had told her she would be a secretary of some sort. Seeing the mess of my office and the fact that it was a little messy probably shocked her. I didn't think it was that bad truth be told. I could get to the desk and computer. So you had to walk a little sideways big deal."

He paused a moment and drank some more out of the glass. For Beth it was like watching an old movie in her head. She could picture this woman standing in a doorway in a cream colored suit with a purse slung over her shoulder also in white. The woman was professional looking in matching heels not to high and not to low. Her purple and pink high collar blouse with its old fabric fake tie her hair in one of those neat buns on the back of her head. Beth was still trying to learn how to do that, every bun she tried came apart after two minutes. Buns were not her mothers strong suit either.

"She stood there in the door for a minute or so before I noticed her. I asked her what she wanted and she told me. I'm ashamed to admit I got a bit angry. Maybe it was my attitude, maybe it was the shock but I put that poor woman into tears as she ran from my office. Dean was not in his office when I stormed in. I found out later he left the campus the day he assigned her to be my secretary the letch!"

Another good gulp and refill.

"I thought I was rid of her and even said good riddance I think. As she was not there when I got back from that waste of a trip to Dean's. I grabbed my bag and hurried off to teach my class. At lunch nobody was there either so I shoved the door a few times to toss some papers in an attempt to clean up the office. It was no good the door wouldn't move at all. I'm not sure why I thought to do that. Maybe it was my try at getting into the good graces of Dean again."

She thought differently but didn't say so.

"When I got back that evening from my last class that ran more than a little late I found this inviting backside on the floor of my office. Elaine had gone home and changed into a pair of jeans and a large sweater. It was a grey thing with a rival's university logo on it slightly stained. I dropped my bag as this woman was stuffing garbage bag after garbage bag with all of my papers. I yelled at her to stop what she was doing but she completely ignored me. I thought she was being stubborn. I mean here was this woman who just wouldn't listen to me. A part of me found it nice. My mother was like that."

She hoped he wouldn't describe his mother.

"She wasn't of course she just had her discman going with earphones in her ears. I found out later she was looking at each file for the date and it if it was older than a year into the bag it went. That's not to say she wasn't stubborn. Gods that woman was stubborn! Oh Elaine."

The old man shed tears openly as he went to drink from his glass. He was a little surprised to find it empty. The bottle he was using was also empty. He reached into another drawer and pulled out a fresh bottle. It was a store style bottle of rum. The professor concentrated on filling the crystal style decanter with the store brand rum. When the bottle was empty he put the empty bottle behind the desk where she couldn't see before he poured into his brandy glass again.

"I think she spent most of that night working away at the papers. Since she wasn't listening to me I had left and went home. The next morning when I got to my office there was two men hauling garbage bags out of the office to a blue truck where they were emptying them into the back. It was a recycling service. Upon entering my office I was shocked to see that I could not only see the desk but the floor of most of that outer office as well.

It wasn't completely clean yet but she had made a huge dent into my mess. What was even more surprising was that the papers I needed were on my desk in neat and organize piles. I had always thought my students punctual up to that point. In reality since I was always late they were too. That first morning I got to an empty class a good five minutes before it started. And it stayed empty till about ten minutes after when the first of the stragglers came in. They were surprised to see me there.

We settled into a routine of sorts. I could come in she would have the papers ready for me and off I went to class. Elaine would sit around that office cleaning and organizing what papers she found that were in the last year and go to work doing whatever secretary's do I suppose. I found out that I had a small table and a chair where people could sit. It's covered now but I can assure you there is a small table out there. Elaine kept it neat and tidy somehow. She even put a plant in the window. It was ugly but she said it brightened up the place.

If I was in the office she would sit in the chair doing whatever and I could grade papers at the desk. At first we didn't talk. Gradually as time went by we did. Little things mostly at first. She was divorced from her first husband. Their son spent most of his time with his father but lived with her. She blamed herself for the fail of her marriage. She went on and on about how if she had not bugged him or tried to change him they would still be a couple. I still don't think so. She was her own woman Elaine. I think it was more that she wouldn't bow to him than anything that caused them to fight. Her name was Elaine Penny. She had reverted to her maiden name after the divorce.

I guess I was something of a sap as I was coming back to the office one day with a rose in my hand for her when I heard this awful ripping noise. I dropped that rose and ran to the office scared for her. When I got in she was in her jeans and sweater again. At the door to the inner office was the gardener, sorry, grounds keeper. He had an electric chainsaw in his hands and was cutting the center of that door out.

I yelled out at the top of my voice "What the hell are you doing?" or some such. That woman just turned to face me with this smile on her face, that lovely smile of hers, and told me that none of the maintenance guys could get the door open telling her to leave it alone. She got tired of trying to get them to help so she talked to old Willy. It wasn't his name but people called him that. It was his idea to open the door with the chainsaw. Poor guy almost got hurt when the door popped and covered him with paper.

Oh the look she gave me at that point could have melted steel. I fell head over heels in love with her then. It took us most of the next two weeks to clean out this room. These shelves and this desk were all a white grey color at the time peeling and part of this desk had split from the weight of the papers on it.

That radiator over there was so coated with paint that the bolts at the bottom were blobs. The paper had shifted it and there was puddles of water on the floor. If you look closely some of the boards are replaced. Where she and Willy got the boards I'm still not sure of but I suspect they are from that old door as more than a few were totally rotten. That rad was sent off to be repaired. I guess they stripped it down before repairing and repainting it that color. I'm told that that color is the original color of it. The floor was fixed after a steam fitter fixed the plumbing. It was sanded and refinished. The walls and ceiling were redone as the plasterboard had collapsed from the humidity. These shelves were removed and refinished with a varnish. The original window was cracked from the abused it had.

Even this desk was repaired and refinished along with get a few modifications so that it was more modern. She did all that. Not once was I allowed alone in this room after helping to take it all apart. What you see now is all her doing. The copy room used to be two offices so when it was expanded and remodeled she had one of the two doors put together into a new office door for me.

Somewhere along the way of the project we got comfortable with each other. The project had all the people gossiping but it all came together after four months during the summer when most of you students are away doing whatever you do these days. The day it was finished we had a small celebration in this very room. Candles on the desk and take out Chinese. The wine I had found and hidden away from her got pulled out. I think it was a gift to my predecessor.

The bottle was a little potent after all that time and we both got very drunk. It didn't help with the fumes in the room either. I had found this small piece of cut off copper pipe and jokingly proposed to her with it when we left the building. She accepted with what I thought was equal humor. The kiss that followed and the ah... best to say she took it to heart.

Elaine never took off that stupid copper pipe. It fit her finger so well. She even had it polished and everything. We married not to long after but she kept her job as my secretary. Those years were the best years of my life. Elaine was always after refinishing this or that and even got the rest of the offices into it. All the offices are now restored with new wiring windows and the like but none are really changed. She always called it bringing back the past. Our house is the same its all really old but what you can't see is that it is all modernized too. New wires drywall wood all that stuff. Her kitchen is all period pieces. Marble counter tops with a rolling center island. She made some of the best meals in that room for us.

At first she was just getting a little sick. Nothing big really an infection or two. Tiredness and so forth. But instead of completely going away they lingered. The doctors diagnosed her as diabetic. Apparently after the birth of her son Edward she developed a type of diabetes. It is a progressive type and should have been monitored from the get go. By the time it was noticed by us her kidneys, liver, bladder, and heart had already suffered severe damage.

I did everything I could to help her. I got the best doctors and medical care I could. I had just found her and couldn't let her go. Oh Elaine!"

The professor put his head down onto the desk and wept. Beth was surprised to find her own face full of tears. She did not know Elaine herself but she sounded like an amazing woman and she was sad at her passing. A woman so full of life cut down but a hidden disease.

She was busy looking for a tissue when a loud snore ripped through the room startling her. The door opened and David came into the room. He took one look at the glass and the bottle before turning to her.

"He was talking about her again?"

She nodded not sure she could speak at this point.

David sighed to himself and went up to the old professor. He shifted the large man over so his face was not buried in the desk. He then moved the bottle into a drawer. Took both the empty bottle and the now partly filled cup from the room before he turned to her. It was like he expected her already gone.

"You might as well leave. He isn't gonna be around for awhile. I set you another appointment for maybe Wednesday or Thursday."

"Why not.."

"Tomorrow he will be sick at home with a big hangover and less than function on Wednesday. Do you have a number I can leave your appointment with?"

This guy was so useless! She left her sorority number for him. She could see that David was not really a people person nor was he all that good at being a personal assistant as the desk was a mess with stuff from the printer. The base looked cleaner but that was about it. There on the desk was a crumpled pieces of paper she assumed was from the printer itself. It reminded her of the paper fans she and her girlfriends used to make as little girls.

A stop at the closest ladies room to fix up her raccoon face was all it took as Beth made her way through the maze to the sorority. She still didn't know what had happened to Eric but it was obvious to her that Professor Tandy did. She did not feel anger to him for not telling her. It was obvious the man was hurting. She couldn't shake the feeling that it was like a grandfather hurting. She knew he wasn't her grandfather as he was too young to be one. At a guess he was maybe ten to fifteen older than her parents if that. Yet she still felt like a little girl on her grandfathers lap.

Back at the sorority she ran into Carol who wanted to go out clubbing. It was unusual to do so on a Monday night but Beth agreed. A quick shower followed by a light dinner in just her robe while she finished drying off. The cashew chicken salad felt so good. She selected one of her mini skirts that her parents would be appalled at along with a tight fitting red satin sleeveless blouse to go with the black mini skirt. The blouse she tied at the bottom to give her an open mid drift.

The club was a dance club that sold mainly non alcoholic drinks as their clientele was students. On a Monday the place wasn't that full and they got in without a cover charge. Not that that was usual as these places tended to appreciate a group of attractive girls and conveniently let them in without paying.

Beth danced and sweated the night away laughing with her sorority sisters on a dance floor while miles away a lone old man snored away on a desk, a picture of a woman in a white stained University of Saskatchewan sweater and jeans under his arm.