EVIE BEGINS A FEEBLE
EXCUSE
Challenged by Janice
Evie acknowledged her problem was not all Roy Cohen. “But he is a
lot of it”, she protested.
“I don’t doubt
that but ---” Janice did not finish.
Nothing is louder
than labored silence, but Janice was about to let Evie off the hook.
Time seemed suspended.
Finally Evie said,
“You’ve never met Roy or anyone like him if you’re lucky. You
cannot imagine--”
Silence.
“And it’s not
just one thing. When he first came here James was so welcoming and
generous. We-- James and me-- always tried to welcome new faculty
members. We always invited the new people to dinner. We introduced
them to other people. And we did that for Roy and his wife. We
invited them to dinner. You know how I entertain-- not a hot dog
picnic but a real – you know.” Evie waited for a response but
got none. “I prepared a real nice meal, my favorite veal
parmigiana. I set a nice table with flowers and candles. They were to
arrive at 7:30. 7:30 came- then 8 and 8:30. We wondered if something
was wrong. James called and you will not believe this.”
Silence.
“Evie sighed
heavily. “You will find this hard to believe. Roy said he forget
they were invited. He forgot.”
Janice eager to
diffuse the rising tension said, “That would piss me off too. But
--”
“Does it matter
that much, you’re thinking.” Janice shrugged. Evie continued, “But
if that was all.”
“If that was all you
would it be ok?”
“But it wasn't all. He spent years with his
relentless efforts to undermine James, to keep him from being
promoted to full professor.”
“And you know this
how?”
“It doesn’t
matter how I found out. What matters is he admitted it and tried to
justify it.”
