Wednesday, November 30, 2011

I WON the 2011 NaNoWriMo Woohoo!





I wrote 50,303 words on my novel, Death Angel, in the month of November. The counter mangled a few and gave me credit for 50,280, but that's close enough! YAY!  I am tired now, but in the upcoming days, I'll tell you more about it!!  The last few days have been a real Marathon!!!


December 1, 2011 A Note after “Winning”

I am so happy. I cried when the NaNoWriMo teamed cheered for me at 11:30 last night.  I "won" last year, too, but this year was more of a struggle because I traveled and there were more conflicts.

I learned a LOT.  I learned about working efficiently, about structuring a novel, something you have to do in order to write efficiently.  And a lot more I may write about in the coming months.

Of course, I haven't finished the novel!!! I've only written the first 50,00 words. And it's very rough and drafty. But it has shape, plot, maybe a theme. It has characters, action and little suspense.

I'm not sure if trying to write 50,000 words of a novel in a month is the best way to do it. I'm not sure if I'll do it again next year or not. There are advantages and disadvantages to the big push. For example, I gave up even spellchecking in the latter third of the month, and there was no revising going on as I worked.

Yesterday, I wrote only scenes, not chapters. I worked from 5 AM until after 11 PM. So I have a lot of scenes to integrate into chapters!

However, I think I may proceed as if I were going to do one next year, because even if I decide not to do it, the planning will be useful for my NEXT NOVEL when I finish this one, whether or not I try to write most of the first draft in the month of November 2012.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Naked Lunch Death Angel NaNoWriMo



this chapter, which is as yet unnumbered, and is VERY DRAFTY, continues on from where the last post left off.  I have just passed 41,000 words.  9.000 more to go.

Chapter   Naked lunch

            When the police finally left, Silas offered Rune some lunch.  He started a batch  of homemade chicken soup with dumplings and a small salad.  He had wrapped a couple wool blankets around her while she and Harris and Wellington were filling out the paperwork.  He suggested she put on some of his dry clothes before she got a chill.  He turned up the heat in his apartment to help warm her.  It smelled funny, because it was the first time he’d had it on all year.  All the dust that had accumulated in the () was heating up.
            While Silas was cooking, Rune stripped out of her wet clothes.  Silas came in to get her some dry clothes, apparently not realizing she was already naked. 
            “Oh, he said, I’m sorry.  Excuse me.”  But instead of looking away, he looked at her, and instead of leaving, he walked toward her.  “You look like you might need to be warmed up.  The best way to warm up someone who I suffering from hypothermia . . . “
            “Is to put a naked person in a sleeping bag with them.  That sounds like a plan, but . . .”
            “I won’t touch you in an inappropriate way unless you invite me to, in which case, it won’t be inappropriate,” Silas said.
            “Maybe you should turn down the soup you are making,” Rune said, “and take off your clothes.”  She smiled.  She knew what was coming and was looking forward to it.  Her liaison with Bart the other night had cranked up her horniness.  She didn’t wait for him to make the first move. 

            After thoroughly but carefully warming her, watching for her injured knee, Silas brought her lunch in bed. They sat naked, eating together, laughing, spilling soup and salad into the sheets.
            “That’s okay,” Silas said, “I was going to wash them anyway.”
“They look clean.”
            “I want them to look clean next time you come back, too.  You can come back and visit whenever you want,” Silas said.  “But I need to tell you, I am not looking for a girlfriend.  I am leaving to go to Thailand ((or somewhere, check this)) at the end of the semester.”
            “What if I come tomorrow?”
            “I’ll be here.”
            “What if I come next week?”
            “I’ll be here.”
“What if I come tonight? What f I come late?”
“I’ll be happy to see you and careful of your knee.  The key is under that mat of the back door if I’m at class or Aikido.  I have no girlfriend and I have no lover, that is, no other lover, but I am not going to attach myself to you and mustn’t attach yourself to me.”
            “Okay, I can handle that.”
            “Good.  Want to go around again?”
            “Sure. Then I have to go.  I have a lot to do.”
            Silas was good in bed, slow, easy and sensitive, attentive to her needs, but not overhearing.  He was playful, smiled a lot, seemed to be having fun.  He was quiet, but not sullen or reticent.  He was incredibly muscular for one so thin.  He wasn’t thin, he was lean and muscular.  Rune wondered if it was the Aikido.
            “My brother does Aikido,” Rune said.
            “Oh, what’s his name, I might know him.”
            “His name is Mingan, which is Algonquin for Grey Wolf. Mingan Greywolf Carmichael But he’s up in Maine.”
            “Isn’t that like naming me Silas Silas or you Rune Rune?  Well, I may have met him at a conference but I’d probably remember that name—are your parents hippies or something, Rune and Mingan are not common names.”
            “Silas isn’t particularly common either.  But yeah, they’re a little weird, especially my Mom.  My full name is Rune Berkana Carmichael. Berkana is the Rune for Birch.  That Rune is, among other things, a fertility symbol.  I hope I’m fertile when it’s time.  It also means, “enjoys sex,” which I do.”
            “Were you conceived under a birch tree?”
            “My mother thought so.  My father isn’t quite so . . . um . . . “
            “Right-brained?”
            “Yeah, that’s it, he’s more left-brained then my Mom. All logic and science.”
            “Wait, did you say what you were studying?  Didn’t you say your were at ESF?  Is that a science school?  Are you dissing science?”
            “No, I like science.  I like science a lot, including the hard sciences, but I’m more drawn to the softer sciences.  I want to be naturalist, not a mathematician.  I like poetry, art and music, and I believe that we have, within the wholeness that is our human potential, a spiritual side.  We have both a left and a right brain, and a synthesis of the two, and above that a glowing spiritual self. I am not at all sure that that self continues on after we die, but I do think it exists while we live and that we reach our greatest potential and greatest happiness when we honor all of ourselves.”
            “Wow, that’s cool.  I like that, very well spoken.”
            “Thanks for lunch.  I hate to eat and run, but I ate, so I guess I’ll run—I mean, gotta go.  Can I borrow your clothes, I promise to bring them back.”
            “Yeah, leave yours hear.  I gotta do laundry anyway. When you come back, they’ll be all folded and ready for you.  You gonna be able to drive that bike home?”
            “Dunno, I’m about to find out, though.”

            It was still raining, but the bike did start.  Silas bent the front foot-peg back down and Rune waved and rode off. 
She went directly to the hospital to check on Eliza and McHaggerty.  ((No can do, since this is skipping ahead and we don’t know if they are still there.)))((OK, the people who were discharged in teh CDC write-ups were discharged 7 days after eating the mushrooms, and hasn’t been 7 days yet, so they are still there.))
She checked on Eliza first. She was still hooked up to IVs and a heart monitor and other equipment. Rune wanted an opportunity to talk to Eliza alone, but was glad to see that Peter was with her.  Her parents were there, too, and her mother was reading to her from Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke.  It seemed like an odd book, perhaps chose because it was so long.  Rune had read it because of her interest in magic, but it was not the kind of book she would have picked for Eliza. 
Rune greeted everyone, gave both Eliza and Peter hugs, and left.  She figured she’d check back later. At least Eliza was alive and seemed okay.  Then, she wished she’d asked for a status update on Eliza’s medical procedures.
            She ran down to see McHaggerty and found him talking to a strange woman.  The woman was wearing brown slacks , brown Patagucchi Mary Janes, a brown cardigan sweater, and a white blouse with a  circle pin on the collar.  Could anyone have looked more preppy.  Her hair was the precise color brown as her clothes, and so were her yes.  She had a sprinkling of freckles over her nose and looked very young. But not like a stumpy.
Rune was disappointed that McHaggerty, like Eliza, was not alone.  At least he was still in Syracuse, and not in Rochester.  “Can I come in?” Rune asked, at the door.  She didn’t want to interrupt something.
            McHaggerty looked at the woman, who nodded. “Rune, this is Detective Sergeant ((?) (what would her rank be?)) Brenda Crandall.  She’s been asking me some questions. Detective, this is Rune Carmichael.  She’s the one who got Eliza in to the hospital and called my house at 5 AM to hassle me into coming in.”
            “Pleased to meet you,” Rune said, shaking Brenda Crandall’s hand.  “I thought Sergeant Fisher told you to leave the case alone.”
            “It’s my day off.  I’m on my own time, and Dr. McHaggerty is a friend of sorts. We were just conversing about the Adirondack poisoning of the four professors.  Dr. McHaggerty was telling me that he was called in on the case and that he suggested it had been murder and that no one listened to him.  I’d hate to see history repeating itself.  Tell me, Rune, why do you think that this poisoning with Dr. McHaggerty and Eliza Landon was an attempted murder?”
            “They aren’t out of the woods yet.  I’m hoping and praying they both survive, but it could still be a murder. 
“There are several reasons why I think it was an attempted murder.  First, Dr. McHaggerty is a mushroom expert.  He is the authority that poison-control and the police call in when there’s a mushroom poisoning.  He knows how to collect mushrooms and how not to.  He’s been teaching students how to avoid poisonings for twenty years.  He knows what poisonous mushrooms are.  He would not mix poisonous mushrooms with non-poisonous ones, which is what happened here.  The two species look very different.  Second, I’ve been told to cease and desist with my investigations and have been subjected to two frightening incidents designed to scare me off.”
            “Why haven’t you reported them?”
            “I have.  You can see the police report filed by Officer John Harris and Officer Rob Wellington.  I was in a hit and run accident in a stolen car.”  She turned to McHaggerty, “It was Larry’s car, but Larry wasn’t driving it.”  She pulled up her pant leg and showed McHaggerty and Crandall her knee.  It had turned a deeper purple and the discoloration had spread further down her leg.
            “You need to go to the hospital,” Crandall said.
            “I’m at the hospital,” Rune said.
            “Funny!” Crandall said. “Not!”
            “Look, I can walk fine.  I promise to a doctor the minutes I can’t walk.”
            “So, you’re investigating the case.  I thought you wanted to be a naturalist, not a detective.  What made you start sleuthing?”
            “Because I love Dr. McHaggerty and I love Eliza, and think someone tried to kill them and might try again, and I wanted to fid that person and some evidence to prove they did it so that someone could protect Dr. McHaggerty and Eliza from harm.”
            “Meanwhile, however, you seem to have put yourself in danger.  You could have been killed in that hit and run accident.
            “But I wasn’t.  I don’t want to be killed.  I don’t even want to be hurt.  I don’t want my motorcycle to be hurt, which it was.  I just got it back from the shop and now it will have to go back yet again.
“But no one seems to care that whoever tried to kill McHaggerty and Eliza might try again and be successful.  I think they’re in danger, and probably in more danger than I am in.”
“You’re putting your friends in danger, too, involving them.”
“Are you suggesting we just stand by and let McHaggerty get killed by some murderous maniac?”
“I am suggesting that having yourself and your friends killed or hurt is not the best way to keep Dr. McHaggerty and Miss Landon safe.”
“Too bad!” Rune said bluntly.  You’re not the first person to tell me to back off, and I am not backing off until I know McHaggerty and Eliza are safe.”
“You said there were two events; what was the other?”
“I am a little afraid to tell, even though what happened wasn’t my fault or my choice.”
“I’m off duty.  Go ahead and tell me.”
Rune told Crandall and McHaggerty about their visit to the Acropolis and their getting high on what they assumed were Magic Mushrooms, Psilocybin.  “There may have been something else in pizza, “ Rune said, because I have been doing some research now on Psilocybin, and the average recreational dose is 48 mushrooms.  We did not each eat 48 mushrooms, by any stretch of the imagination.  No way.  But I don’t know what else might have been on there.  It tasted pretty normal, but then, we got the works with extra mushrooms, and that’s a lot of flavors to conceal any surprises. Plus we were really hungry and gobbled it down.  I read about Psilocybin experiences online, out of curiosity, and our experiences were somewhat similar, with some striking differences.  I think my experience was much stronger than what seems to be an average Psilocybin experience from the write-ups online.  I don’t know how accurate they are, it’s mostly self reporting.”
            Crandall frowned and so did McHaggerty.  “I don’t like the sound of that at all.  Has your sleuthing told you anything more about that incident—who might have done it and why?”

Chapter 5, Death Angel, NaNoWriMo 2011


This morning, between 7:30 and 9:30 Am, I worked on Chapter 5. It’s still very rough draft (DRAFTY!)  I may decide to shorten and summarize some of the mushroom information.  I may want to divide the chapter, it’s kind of long.  But right now, I have to plod onward for two more days in hopes of reaching the goal of 50,000 words. 
I went from 35,849 words at 7:30 to 36,881 words at 9:30 AM.  That’s my current count.  I have to stop now to do my yoga and exercises and eat breakfast.



Chapter 5:  Day Two, Morels and The Horse and Pony Show, Part II
Flyleaf illo:  Morels
Tasting of the sweet damp woods and of the rain one inch above the meadow . . . like feasting upon air.    William Jay Smith

“Morels are one of the best eating mushrooms available,” Dr. McHaggerty said. The left-side screen had a view of morels growing in leaves under a tree, the center screen showed a basket of morels, and the right screen showed plate of cooked morels garnished with parsley on the red and white checkered tablecloth.
The quote, “Tasting of the sweet damp woods and of the rain one inch above the meadow . . . like feasting upon air.    William Jay Smith,” ran across the top of all three screens. 
Morchella esculenta, the yellow morel, is also known as the Common Morel, Spongy, and Land Fish.”  A new set of pictures showed different morels in the wild, labeled Morchella esculenta, on the left and right.  The center panel showed a fanciful fish constructed of a morel.  There was a titter of laughter among the students.
 “Unfortunately, we will have only greenhouse-cellar specimens to view because they only come out for a brief period in the spring.  You will have to go to lab at some point during the week on your own time to see them.  Fred Wheeler will have them available after class today and for the rest of this week including Saturday and Sunday, and yes, someone will have the lab open, and Monday and Tuesday next week.  Please make an effort to get in to the lab to see the actual specimens.
“Those of you who sign up for the class second semester will hopefully see them in the field.  Anyone signed up for the class this semester can preregister ahead for next semester, because the class fills up quickly and we want you to have the first opportunity if you’re interested, so that there will be better continuity.
“Morels are in your textbooks, as you all know, since you’ve been doing your homework, including the first one we’ll use, Start Mushrooming by Stan Tekiela and Karen Shanberg.  Please reread the section on morels.”
The center picture on the screen changed.  The new one, in the center, had a red border around it.  “The reason morels are generally safe to collect and eat is because there are few species that are easily mixed up with it.  That mushroom in the center panel is one of the "False Morels" of genus Gyromitra.  As you can clearly see, the resemblance is not very close.  Who would like to describe the differences?”
A smattering of hands went up, including Melanie Simmons and Aaron Weiner, who were back in the same places in the front row.  “Mr. Morano?” McHaggerty called, pointing to a boy near the center of the auditorium.
Larry ran to the side of the row and passed a wireless mic down the row.
“Stand up, Mr. Morano.”
The boy stood.  “Ralph.” Peter whispered, and the TAs all nodded.
The boy spoke slowly and clearly, as if he had put careful thought into his aswer, almost as if he had written it down.  “The False morel or Gyromitra has a different shape and color.  Instead of being essentially cylindrical and symmetrical, the Gyromitra is irregular, asymmetrical and squashed looking.  I am not sure about the range of color variations in the two species, but these two look definitely different.  And the pattern of ridges and holes in the Morchella is regular, whereas those of the Gyromitra are irregular. Their structures are actually quite different.”
“Excellent, Mr. Morano.  Very very good.”  Spontaneous applause rose from the room.  Ralph Morano sounded like a teacher, not a student. 
“There are two other kinds of morels in North America, the Black Morel, Morchella elata or Morchella conica or Morchella angusticeps, see the photo on the left above, and the "Half-free" Morel, Morchella semilibera, see photos, right and those are both edible too. The yellow or common morel, Morchella esculenta, is the one most people judge to be most tasty.
“Morels often show up in early spring after a good rain.  They are usually associated with trees, especially, in the East, deciduous trees such as dead or dying elms, oaks, poplars, and others.  We have a saying here that the morels are ready to be harvested when oak leaves are the size of squirrels ears.  Sometimes, they are large squirrel ears.  This usually happens in early May, occasionally late April.
“We’re talking about morels now because they are safe and not all you will be able to take second semester mycology.  I want you to be able to eat these.  I do have to point out that an occasional person is allergic to them and that if you eat a lot of them with alcohol, they can increase the effect of intoxication.
“This is because they contain a small amount of toxins, not enough to harm you in normal circumstances.  Did you ever think about the word intoxicate?”
The word, intoxicate, flashed on all three screens.  Then, the word toxic within the word intoxicate turned red and flashed.  “Intoxicate contains the word toxic because when you become intoxicated, you have consumed something toxic.  for example, people die of alcohol consumption, either slowly, or, occasionally, very quickly.”
The screens flashed with a newspaper clipping reading, “Student succumbs to alcohol poisoning.”  It went on to say that the student, whose name was being withheld, had gone on a drinking binge, gone into a coma, and died.
“I’m reminding you of this because I don’t want you to make a foolish mistake, especially those of you who are rushing for fraternities and sororities. Every year, there are some hazing incidents and party incidents at the fraternities, and occasionally even at the sororities.  Use your head.  And don’t let alcohol blind your intelligence—or you.
“One more thing about morels, don’t eat them raw.  Most wild mushrooms should not be eaten raw.  The parasol mushroom we mentioned last week can be eaten raw, but we haven’t covered that yet.  So don’t eat it.”
 Dr. McHaggerty asked the teaching assistants to stand up, one by one, as he introduced them to the students.  “This is Angelina, who you met yesterday. “  Angelina stood and bowed and there were some cheers and wolf whistles from the audience.  “Today, we will meet a few more of the TAs. “ Larry Thompson came up on stage with the microphone and the TAs stood up and spoke in the order they were seated.
             When Angelina sat down, Eliza stood up.  She was dressed all in white.  She too had black hair, but it was shock straight and hung as if it had been ironed.  Her skin was the color of milk and her eyes a pale but somehow bright blue.  The blue veins showing through her skin made it almost appear pale blue. She was small, short, slight, delicate looking. But she did not give the impression of being frail, in spite of her thin arms tiny hands, and delicate features.  Her skirt fell down around her ankles, where an incongruous pair of tall hiking boots with thick white wool socks peeked out under the hem of the dress.
             "I am Eliza Landon," she said, in a voice pitched slightly higher but surprisingly strong for one so small.  I am a senior/()-year graduate student, majoring in ().  My partner is Peter Schilja, and we have lab section 2.  I am looking forward to working with you, but I want you to know I may be small, but I am not a pushover.  I don't ride a Harley.  I ride a black dragon."  Across the three screen came images of a tiny girl with shining tiara astride a huge firebreathing Black Dragon.  She held a firewand in her right hand and a brilliant red mushroom in the other.  The red mushroom was the only spot of color in the otherwise monochromatic image other than the flames from the dragonmouth.  The painting ws signed in hand clear enough for all to read, Peter Schilja. Larry handed her something, she strode to the edge of the stage, and fire spurted from the end of the wand.  Real fire.  She pointed it toward Aaron Weiner, who cringed slightly in his seat. The students oohed and ahhed. Then, without a word, she turned and strode back to her seat, whirl in a swirl of skirts and petticoats, and sat.  The wand has disappeared.
             Cassie was next.  She was wearing an embroidered peasant blouse, a flowered skirt, hiking boots like Eliza's, a red bandana over her brown hair, two braids like Melanie Sampson's only brown, She stood with her hands clasped and said in a sweet but strong voice, "Hi, I'm Cassandra Sampson.  You can call me Cassie.  I am a ()-year graduate student majoring in () and my research project is on ().  My partner is () and we will have Lab and Field trip section 3.  I have no Harley and no dragon, but I do have a black belt in Aikido.  Aaron, would you please come up here.

             Aaron Weiner stood and vaulted onto the stage.  Everyone gasped.  He grabbed Cassie, tossed her over his shoulder and she landed on her back on the staged.  The students gasped again, in surprise..  Cassie stood, circled Aaron, and grabbing him suddenly, tossed him over her shoulder, picked him up, and eaved him carelessly into the audience.  But of course, it wasn't actually careless, but a move they'd practiced repeatedly during the week of training, and two boys who had been sitting behind Aaron stood up, caught him gracefully, spun him around, and deposited him in his seat.  The students cheered.  Aaron stood up again and said  in a loud, strong voice, "No, I was not a stool pigeon for that first question.  I missed that part of the training."  Everyone laughed.
             Rune was next.  She stood up slowly, making a show of it, that way Dr. McHaggerty had taught them.  With him, everything was a show.  
                   She wore a pair of faded jeans, a rust-colored T-shirt with pictures of showy lady slippers, a flannel shirt that was rust, beige and green plaid with tiny black lines weaving through, and her old shit-stomping hiking boots.  She had allowed Cassie to facepaint her with red Amanita muscarias on her left cheek and yellow ones on the right, but she had refused to dress as anyone other than herself.  Of course, Cassie often did wear skirts and peasant blouses and Angel always dressed in black.  Rune, on the other hand, always wore jeans and flannels and intended to continue that tradition ad infinitum, or as her father would say, ad nauseum..
                   "Hi, I'm Rune, Rune Carmichael.  My Lab teaching partner is Bart ().  We have section 4 of the Field Trips and Labs.  I am first year graduate student majoring in natural history with a concentration in botany and mycology.  For my thesis, I am doing a handbook of the saprophytic botanicals and mycologicals of the Greater Central NY area with an interactive digital key as well as a key in the booklet.  I've posted the first section of it online and invite you all to try it and give me some feedback for extra credit in Lab, approved by Dr. McHaggerty.  I am a photographer and will be photographing the saprophytes for Peter and Cassie to illustrate, since illustrations are usually more accurate for identification purposes than photos and often more pleasing as well.  They are both consummate artists. Meanwhile,some of the photos accompany the online key for your temporary edification.
                   "I am also a certified sorceress and shamanistic practitioner."  Rune cast her fingers toward Aaron Weiner, and bolts of lightning leaped from her hands to his hair, which stood momentarily on end.  Little sparks bounced at the tips of his hair.  George had lowered the lights at the moment, so Aaron glowed like a light-up Santa Claus.
                   "There is no such thing as a sorceress," the boy between Melanie and Aaron said.  Rune turned toward him and lit his hair an eerie green.  It glowed brighter than Aaron's hair had.  The other students gasped.  
                   "It's just some trick!" the boy insisted.  Emmet Pierce, Rune thought.  The boy's name was Emmet Pierce.  Emmet Fairchild Pierce the 4th.  His blond hair was still glowing.  As she walked back to her seat, she pulled a long scarf from her pants pocket, stuffed it in her left ear, and pulled it out the right ear.
                   "It's an illusion!  It's just a trick, a cheap parlor trick," Emmet cried.  Rune sat down without responding.  She had a small smile, she could feel it on her face, somewhere between a smirk and a satisfied grin.  She really was a Shamanistic practitioner and had studied dream shamanism with Robert Moss and several other teachers.  She had also studied sorcery, but of course, Emmet Pierce was right, the things she did on stage were just parlor tricks for effect, primarily to liven up the dull introductions.  
                   Dr. McHaggerty had required it of them.  He had poked and prodded each student until he had pried out of her or him some skill that would be fun to demonstrate on stage.
                   Bart stood up next.  He was dressed as a white chicken with a red beak, red comb, red wattles, and huge yellow feet.  He had ducked behind a curtain and changed while the lights were out for Runes demo.  
                   Bart carried 4 plastic mushrooms in his left hand and three in the right.  He tossed them all up in the air and they fell with a clatter around him.  Students laughed tentatively, here and there in the auditorium.  Bart gathered up the mushrooms and tossed one to each of the other TAs.  The girls tossed theirs back, but Peter stood up and tossed his way up into the air and caught it.  Bart sent a barrage at Peter who caught them and tossed them back.  Soon, they had all seven of them in the air between them.  They closed the distance between them, tossing the mushrooms under a leg, over a shoulder and high into the curtains.  Slowly, Bart collected all seven of the mushrooms and was juggling them alone and Peter sat down. Juggling wildly, tipping this way and that as if he were constantly about to miss, he moved to the very edge of the stage and suddenly began making high wild throws so that the mushrooms came down on Melanie, Emmet and Aaron, who tossed them back in a ragged random sort of way.  Each time, Bart seemed to nearly miss the mushrooms, and after just managing to catch them, tossed them to one of the three kids, who tossed them back.  While this was going on, Bart said,
                   "Hi, my name is Bart () and I am a second-year graduate student majoring in ().  My research is on () and, as you heard, I am Rune Carmichael's lab and field trip teaching partner.  We have sections 4a, 4b, 4c, 4 d, and 4e. A is Monday afternoons, B Tuesdays, C Wednesdays, D Thursdays, and E Fridays.  There's a makeup on Saturday if you're sick, but you have to sign up ahead, by 5:00 Friday at the latest, you can do that in person, by phone or on the internet.  Sections 1, 2 and 3 all have a-e subsections, and you should already know what days your labs and field trips are on, since you also have labs and field trips in other courses and they all have to mesh.  You will note on your schedule and additional number separated from the main number by a dash.  For example, 4a-1 and 4a-2.  The ones are with me and the twos are with Rune, but we will often work together.  However, you will turn your labs and field trip reports in to the correct teaching assistant based on your number.  I've posted a chart online that explains all this if you're distracted by flying mushrooms."
                   Everyone laughed, because it was really hard to concentrate on what he was saying when he was dodging left and right and nearly falling off the stage.  
                   "Oh, and Peter Schilja," he said, pointing at Peter," is my juggling partner and we do birthday parties, singing chicken messages and other tricks.  Dr. McHaggerty said we could leave a pile of cards and flyers by the exit doors, so pick one up on the way out in case you ever need a singing chicken or a juggler or know anyone who does. Have chicken suit, will travel. He yodeled and sang a few bars of happy birthday complete with clucking and crowing. Then he seemed to trip on his own overly large feet and fell backwards on the stage with a terrible thud. All the mushrooms rained down on top of him and he caught them in his mouth and hands and suddenly bare feet.  The students clapped and whistled, and Bart got up, crossed the stage skipping and humming and sat down.
                   Peter stood up wearing a black acrobat leotard and tights and did a series of cartwheels across the stage.   This was followed by handsprings, one and two-handed handstands, and then Eliza came out in a skimpy pink sequined acrobat outfit, and did a series of flips over Peter's outstretched arms.  George played (music) and they did a little dance and Peter held Eliza up by the heel as she first stood up straight, then bent double, touching her toes, and then did a back flip, landing neatly on her feet.  Then with Eliza riding with her feet on Peter's shoulders, Peter rode around on a unicyle that Larry had handed him and said, without missing a beat, "Hi My name is Peter Schilja, I am a third-year graduate student majoring in Environmental Communications in the subfield of Mycological, Botanical and Biological Illustration.  My media are primarily pen and ink and watercolor and I am assisting Rune Carmichael in her interactive Key project.  My own project is illustrating every stage of Dictistelium discoidium, based on the films of Dr.() and my own time-lapse photography and comparing it to the life cycle of (Franzella ibellia).  Eliza, he said, indicating the girl balanced on his shoulder, is my teaching partner for field trips and labs.  And, in case y'all were wondering, I have a stun-gun and a cattle prod for recalcitrant students.
                   Peter rode the unicycle along the very edge of the stage and at just the right moment, Eliza did a flip off his shoulders and landed with one foot on each of the armrests of Aaron Weiner's chair.  All the kids around him hooted, but Aaron shrunk deep in the chair, blushing a brilliant scarlet.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Progressometer for NaNoWriMo Day 27


I'm spending all my free time writing--no time to blog--coming down to the wire!!!! I hope to post what I'm doing soon.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving, Haircut


Happy Thanksgiving!  Have a Great Day!!


I cut my hair today, this is before, 


and this is after.

I hope your day is wonderful.  May you have much to be thankful for and lots of love and good food.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

NaNOWriMo Progressometer Nov 23, 2011


Well, I baked an apple pie with blueberries and cranberries and a batch of cookies for tomorrow, but didn't get much writing done!!! 7 days left, and one of them's Thanksgiving.  I haven't even got half of the 50,000 words required to "win."

Chapter (?-4): Confirmed


Chapter (?-4):  Confirmed

Dr. Ibrahim came into Eliza's curtained cubby.  Eliza had just had her diaper changed yet again.  The doctor checked her vitals and the level of fluids in the iv bottle and the turned to Rune, who had just come back in from getting a cup of coffee.
                "Dr. McHaggerty wishes to speak to you," he said.  "Something about mushroom samples."
                Dr. McHaggerty's face was a sheen of sweat.  Under his gown, Rune could see that he too was wearing diapers.  He looked eons older than he had a few days ago.  There were baggy dark circles under his eyes, which watery and paler than normal. 
                "You have samples from our meal?" He asked Rune.  "The shaggy manes should have all autodigested themselves into black slime."
                "Yep, they did," Rune said, pausing dramatically, the way he had taught her.
                "Then what have you got?" he asked, puzzled, and somewhat irritated.  A brief smiles played across Rune's lips as she considered all the times she had been irritated with him for just such a ploy.
                "These," she said, producing the Ziploc bag and staring into it to ascertain that the bits of white mushrooms were still visible among the clinging black slime.  She handed him the bag and watched his face. 
                It registered curiosity, surprise, and then consternation.  "You found these where?"
                "Mixed in with the shaggy mane stems and bits from your meal with Eliza on the night . . . " she almost said on the night you raped her, but thought better of it.
                "Could it have come from elsewhere, from some other source?"
                "It's possible, but extremely improbable.  The compost bucket had been emptied and washed that morning.  I know; I did myself.  On top of the shaggy mane refuse was a layer of shiitake stems and pieces and garlic papers from the shiitakes I prepared for every that, after . . ." she trailed off again.
                McHaggerty studied the bag, a grim and sorrowful expression on his face.  Rune leaned forward and whispered very very quietly, "You raped Eliza Landon.  I know it, Jody knows it, Bart knows it and we will not forget."
                McHaggerty looked up sharply, and their eyes met.  Rune was filled with rage, and did not turn away.  She shot McHaggerty a look so powerful that she feared it would permanently damage him. 
                He looked away.
                "I love you, Colin McHaggerty, and I love your wife, Elizabeth.  But I do not love you romantically or sexually."   Rune was having trouble speaking.  She stuttered and could hardly talk. She had been trained not to speak her mind.
                "I love you, like a father, like dear mentor, but you and I are going to come to terms about this," Rune choked out. "You will never touch me or any other girl or woman inappropriately again.
                "Why are we talking about this now?  I am probably going to die a horrible painful death.  Isn't that punishment enough?"
                "You are not going to die, Colin McHaggerty," Rune said, fiercely, and with conviction.  “Not if I can help it, and not if Dr. Ibrahim can help it.  Yes, as we know, everyone used to die from the Destroying Angel.  There was no reprieve from it, once the symptoms started.  But that's not necessarily true any more."
                The slightly glazed look in McHaggerty's eyes cleared and a spark became visible.  "Take these to Dr. Warner immediately!" He said.
                Rune leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek.  She ran out to the pavement and called Warner and told him it was a life and death emergency and to meet her in Baker Labs.  Then she called Larry.  "Get me at the hospital now.  I'll be walking up Irving toward ESF.  Life and death!” she hung up.  It was six AM and Larry would be getting up anyway.
                Rune was tired but wired.  She strode along Irving, tempted to break into a run, but knowing that was silly.  She'd only passed the third cross street when she heard the beep of Larry's old battered Ford Falcon.  She jumped in and they sped down the still quiet streets to campus. 
                "Larry," Rune said, "Did you have any reason to kill McHaggerty and Eliza?"
                "Of course not!" Larry exclaimed, turned for a moment to face her in surprise. 
                "Someone did, they've both eaten death angels and are sick.  In the hospital."
                "You're serious."
                "Yup."  She paused, looking at him.  "Any relationship between this and those four professors you don't want me learning about?"
                For a long minute, Larry didn't answer.  Finally, he said, "I hope to hell not."  He looked grim, his jaw set.
            “Larry, don’t you think it’s time for you to tell me what you’re hiding from me?  Dr. McHaggerty’s life could depend on it.”
            Larry pulled in behind Baker and they walked toward the door.  Dr. Warner screeched up in his mustang and they turned to greet him.
            “What’s going on?” he asked, gruffly, “I missed my breakfast and kisses from my daughter.”
            “McHaggerty and a student, Eliza Landon, ate these,” Rune said, handing him the bag.
            “Looks like Coprinus . . .  he started, then paused . . . and something else, Oh my God, it’s not . . . “
            “I think its Amanita phalloides,” Rune said, grimly, “test it.”

            “Just what you predicted,” Dr. Warner said, pointing at the markers he’d placed at certain points on the spectrums on the screen. 
            “Make sure you save these.  Call the hospital—ask for Ibrahim, if he’s still there.  The night resident.  Tell him your results, and tell him who you are.  Reference Dr. McHaggerty and Eliza Landon,” Dr. Warner looked at Rune strangely.  “Sorry,” she croaked, “I didn’t mean . . .”
            “Shush,” Dr. Warner said.  He was dialing his phone.  He had the hospital numbers programmed in, as he was called for various tests regularly.  Ibrahim was still there, and Warner gave him the news. 
            “I don’t have an eight o’clock,” Warner said, “I’ll take McHaggerty’s class.  I was going to come in for a guest lecture on the chemistry of mycological toxins, I’ll just do it now.”
            Rune impulsively gave him a hug.  Dr. Warner looked surprised.  “You must be really worried,” he said, after a moment’s hesitation.
            Rune burst into tears.  Dr. Warner hugged her and then Larry hugged her.  “Can you . . . I mean will you . . . take me back to Crouse Irving?” she asked Larry.

            “Did Dr, Ibrahim tell you?” she asked Eliza?
            “Tell me what?” she asked?
            “”You ate some Destroying Angel.  I don’t know how much.  Have you called your parents?”
            “No.”
            “Do it now.”  Rune handed Eliza the phone.
            “Oh, Daddy,” Eliza said, and started crying.  Rune took the phone, 
            Rune had never met Eliza’s parents.  “I’m sorry, Mr. Landon.  Eliza is in the hospital.  She has consumed some poisonous mushrooms.  If you can come, you probably should.  No, I’m not a doctor; I’m one of her roommates.  I’m a friend.”
            Eliza took the phone back.  “The mushrooms can kill you, Daddy, but they might be able to save me.  Mommy!” she shrieked.  She cried again, but this time, Rune let her. 
            “I’m at Crouse-Irving Hospital—they might send me to Strong Memorial in Rochester if I need a liver transplant.  I don’t know.  I don’t know.  Just come.  Come here.  If they move me, I’ll call you.”

            Rune went down to talk to McHaggerty.  “They confirmed Amanita phalloides,” she said, “But you are not going to die. Do you know who might have wanted to kill you?”
            McHaggerty put his face in hands and wept.  “Everybody,” he said.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Progress Meter, November 22


It's day 22 out of 30, so I'm 11/15th through with the challenge month, but at 23,508 words, I am less than halfway through the number of words required to "win."

Chapters 6 and 7

Sorry about cramming these all in together like this, but things are really crazy here with Thanksgiving and ML having an accident and totaling her car.  :-(

Two chapters, VERY FIRST DRAFTY!


Chapter 6: A Child in the Forest

            Rune was glad that Dr. McHaggerty had prepared her for the film.  He’d taken her to see two other films at Manlius during her senior year.  They had been foreign films with subtitles, but very well made.  This one was imperfect.  But for Rune, it was riveting.  For some reason that she couldn’t understand, she identified with each the three main characters.  The movie began with a close-up of the child’s face.  He was a boy about ten years old, with blond hair, blue eyes, apple round-rosy red cheeks.  He was mildly autistic, but not a head-banger. He spoke only rarely.  He was in a special education class with a teacher who looked like she was a young student herself. The boy’s name was Adam. 
             The teacher’s name was Eva.  Miss Willoughby.  There were only six children in the class.  There were scenes in the classroom of Miss Willoughby reading Little House on the Prairie to the children and asking them questions.  Adam seemed unable to understand, comprehend, or answer.  He stared out the window at the water.  The camera zoomed to the window and out, showing a line of posts in the water, each with a cormorant at the top, wings spread, drying its feathers.  Adam’s eyes were riveted on the cormorants, except when another bird flew by. 
            The other children attended Miss Willoughby and her reading and questions. They obviously had various difficulties understanding and answering, but they were engaged and interested. Adam continued to stare out the window, his expressing unchanging even when Miss Willoughby directly spoke to him or asked him a question.  Even if she cupped his face gently in her hands, Adam started out the window past her face.
            A scene showed the school psychologist speaking with Miss Willoughby, saying not to expect much from Adam, that he may be brain damaged in addition to being autistic.  Her face was serious and sympathetic.
            Dr. McHaggerty slipped his arm over the back of Rune’s chair.  He had done this the other times he had taken her to the movies, and Rune ignored it.  The scene had shifted in the movie to the six kids disembarking from a miniature school bus under the careful guidance of Miss Willoughby. 
                The camera followed the six children and their teacher into the nature center where they were told a naturalist would join them soon.  They paraded into the nature store and were looking around when a naturalist, dressed all in green, came into the store.
                "Where is the teacher?" she asked.  The students laughed and pointed at Miss Willoughby, who was barely taller than they were, a small slight woman with a young face.
                Dr. McHaggerty's arm dropped from the back of the chair to rest lightly on Rune's shoulders.  It distracted her from the movie, and she missed what the naturalist was saying to the teacher.  She decided to ignore the arm, but it made her uncomfortable.  McHaggerty was such an incredibly kind and interesting man, and she thought so highly of him, but he was making her nervous.
                In the next scene, the naturalist had the children feeling the bark of a beech tree. The camera zoomed in on Adam's face.  He was engaged.  Rune thought of her experiences with school groups as a naturalist.  She did a six-week project at Beaver Lake Nature Center, in Baldwinsville under Dr. Anson Weston.  After training for three weeks, she'd led school groups for three weeks.  She'd have loved to have gotten a job there, at Beaver Lake.  But all the jobs were taken and there were so many other well-trained adults, to say nothing of students, who wanted the nonexistent job. 
                The naturalist, whose name Rune had missed, spoke to Adam, telling him the name of the tree and that it had edible nuts.  Miss Willoughby whispered to the Naturalist that Adam wasn't very bright.  The naturalist searched the ground for beechnuts, and collected several.  She gave each of the kids a prickly little nut, and showed them how to open it.  Adam got his open first.  The naturalist then showed him how to open the little pyramid-shaped nut husks inside, and told him he could eat the tiny nut meats. 
                She told the group that squirrels, bears, deer and other animals depended on beechnut and other nuts, called "mast," for food and that the number of babies the animals had depended on the size of the nut harvest.  She watched the faces of the children, and when a few of them lost interest in what she was telling them, she moved on. 
                "Miss Moore, Miss Moore," one of the girls in the class said, tugging on the naturalist's green skirt.  Okay, Rune thought, the Naturalist is Miss Moore.  She was tall and slender with long brown braids and looked like a stumpy, like one of them.  Except for that doofy uniform, of course, that was really out there.
                As the movie progressed, Adam became more and more engaged in things Miss Moore was showing them.  Miss Willoughby was entranced too.  She began asking more questions, and so did Adam.  His questions were intelligent and articulate, and one couldn't help but remember what Miss Willoughby had said about him.  Harumph! thought Rune. 
                At that moment, McHaggerty's hand curled around Rune's shoulder and squeezed.  That was okay, sort of, but it lingered there.  After a few minutes of wondering what to do, Rune sat forward.  When the arm followed her forward, she got up and went off as if to go the bathroom. But rather than going to the bathroom, since she didn’t' have to go and didn't want to miss the movie, she sat a few rows farther back for what seemed like a reasonable bathroom time and returned to her seat.
                McHaggerty had his hands in his lap and kept them there for a while, and then, making a big show of stretching, he gently put his arm on the back of her seat again.  She moved forward on the seat so that the arm could not "accidentally" "fall" onto her shoulder.  She was worrying about what he was doing.  He had done similar stuff two years ago, but somehow it had seemed more innocent then.  For some reason, he was skeeving her out tonight.
                Rune had just started enjoying the movie again, with Adam behaving less and less like an autistic child, and more and more like a little genius, when McHaggerty laid a hand on her knee.  Rune got up and moved two seats away.  The theater was NOT crowded.
                In the movie, Nicole Moore takes the kids and Miss Willoughby camping on the nature Center grounds.  They write and illustrate their own field guides and books.  The same kids labeled special ed. were blossoming into lively joyous children. 
                McHaggerty moved over next to Rune.  He kept his hands and arms in his lap, but now just his presence was giving her the creeps. 
                The movie showed the kids exploring sculptures of animals made of metal, growing wildcats and cougars, deer and caribou and moose.  Then it showed the kids making their own animals out of clay.  They were inside an open-sided pavilion and it was raining outside. Adam was using a field guide and some other references to design a cormorant with its wings outstretched to dry.  He used sticks to hold the heavy wet clay feather, which he shaped one by one with a butter knife and a pencil.  The finished bird looked amazingly real for the work of a ten-year-old boy.
                The movie showed a scene in the old classroom.  It was winter and Adam was staring out the window watching the snow fall.  Miss Willowby showed a side of their tents pitched on a hill in the woods with the bay below.  She called Adam's name, and he turned from the window and smiled.  "I like nature," he said, "I like the beech trees and the cabbage butterflies. And I like herons and cormorants.  He took his drawings from his desk and held them up, one by one."  Wonderful drawings of plants and animals.
                There was a flashback to Miss Willoughby talking to the psychiatrist, who was telling her not to get her hopes up about Adam, and to Miss Willoughby telling Miss Moore that Adam was a hopeless cae.  Then a scene of Adam skipping through the forest with binoculars, stopping to look at woodpeckers and nut hatches, a scene of him leading a group of children up over snowy hills with his rosy cheeks all aglow and the movie ended. 
                Rune and Dr. McHaggerty sat and watched the credits.  They were interested in knowing more about the movie, its makers and shakers.
                Then they went back to the Library for an after movie snack of sushi and Saki, and talked about the movie.  Rune was excited about it, just as McHaggerty expected, and he smiled indulgently as she talked about the high points and low points, about the filming, about the nature center, the teacher and the naturalist.
                "I wish I could help people like that.  Nicole Moore didn't teach Adam to love nature: he already loved nature.  But she brought out the best in him and helped him find what he wanted and become more himself.  I think she also really helped Eva Willoughby learn to love nature and become a better teacher.  And of course, she helped the other kids learn to love nature too.
                "It was a great movie, thanks for taking me to see it.  I hope I'll be like Nicole Moore some time, when I grow up."
                "You're already a lot like Nicole Moore," Dr. McHaggerty said, taking her hand, squeezing it, and releasing it.
                When they got to her house, Rune thanked Dr. McHaggerty again and he leaned to give her a kiss.  Rune turned her head away and the kiss landed on the side of he mouth and on her cheek.  She ran inside and watched out the window as he drove away.  Then she wiped her mouth and cheek with her hand and wiped her hand on her pants.


Chapter 7:  Two visits from Jody

            Rune sat in her office working on her homework for Dr. () on her computer.  She had the word program up and was writing a project proposal.  On another screen, which she flipped out of sight whenever she heard footsteps, was her research on the Cornell poisoning incident 13 years ago.  Whenever she needed a break from her ()-research, instead of checking her email or facebook, she looked at her growing list of links to and information about the incident.  She also had collected links to poisonous mushrooms and therapies for mushroom poisoning.  While she was at it, she added links to Psilocybin mushrooms, thinking of a projects course related to her research with Dr. Ned Tedeschki.  She could still add this as a projects course and get credit for all this good research she was doing, and surely she could find a way to link it all to her overall objectives.
            On her desk, she had a cup of mint tea, which she sipped from time to time, and whenever it got low, she warmed it up in the Entomology microwave.
            At one point, feeling the need to stretch her legs, Rune got up and took the top off the terrarium of giant Malagasi hissing cockroaches, took out one of the largest specimens, and stroked it gently, listening to it hiss and feeling the little sharp spikes of its feet pinch her fingers.  The graduate student who had this office before her was an entomology student, which was appropriate, since this was the entomology floor, and had raised hissing cockroaches as pets.  He hadn't taken them with him when he left.  Dr. McHaggerty, when he installed her in the entomology floor office, had said she could turn the cockroaches in to Dr. Simeone if she didn't want them in there, but Rune liked them and kind of enjoyed the horror of most of her friends when they came to visit and she took out one of huge cockroaches and petted it lovingly.  She tossed in some monkey chow and got to back to work.
            Later, she checked the message-board on her door.  Several people had left her notes, and there were also a few folded ones in the basket she left for longer notes.  (Save this for when a real novel-related message needs to be left.)
            Rune was researching ways of presenting nature to children.  Her current paper was on the topic of teaching children about trees.  Much of the research was about setting goals, meeting syllabus requirements, imparting information and testing knowledge gained.  Rune wanted to see more about awakening a sense of wonder, of love for nature, the earth and the outdoors.
            She was feeling annoyed at the whole attitude of the teaching community and wondered if she was going into the right field.  She got up and stomped angrily around the room thinking bad thoughts about the education system and finally noticed that her Vibram soles were leaving clops of dirt on her recently mopped floor.  The janitor was a paragon of patience, but Rune didn't want to be the one to try him, so she went into Larry's office looking for a broom and dustpan.  Larry was sitting at one of his computer screens and got up to greet her.  She gave him a hug, and over his shoulder noticed a screen that looked like her list of links to events surrounding the poisoning of the four Cornell professors thirteen years ago.
            Rune tightened her hug and gave Larry a kiss on the cheek.  For a moment, she laughed to herself, wondering if he found her kiss as upsetting as she found McHaggerty's.  "Ahem!" she said, loudly, in his left ear, which was next to her mouth.  He jumped, and then twitched as he seemed to realize what she was looking at.
            "Yes, that is your computer screen up on mine.  I was doing some routine maintenance and, as you know or should know, I have access to everyone's computers.  I download new programs, install anti-virus software, clean out people's deleted mail, and perform other routine tasks.   I don't normally make a habit of spying on people, I just now happened upon this, and I must say, I'm a little . . . um . . . disappointed and um . . . worried."
            Rune still had her arms around him.  She hugged him, and without letting go entirely, holding him now by the shoulders, she leaned back to look into his face.
            "Larry, you told me to stop asking questions.  I'm not asking questions any more," Except a few to Dr. McHaggerty, she thought to herself.
            "I told you, Rune," Larry said, "to drop it.  Leave it. Forget it."  And saying that, he leaned back toward her and planted an unexpected but prim and sober kiss right on her lips.  Rune kissed him back.  She felt utterly safe kissing him.
            "Larry, I love you," she said.
            "I love you, too," he said, and they both laughed, an easy relaxed laugh.  Rune thought of McHaggerty and wished she felt that way with him.  She took the broom and dustpan into her office and cleaned the floor, brought back the broom and went back to work.  Larry went by a few minutes later pushing a cart of equipment.  Rune didn't bother looking to see what equipment it was.  She was reading an article about (that guy who has kids grokking nature--Campbell?) and for the first time since she started work that morning, she smiled.
            No one had stopped by to invite her to the early lunch the TA's had to eat in order to be ready for the ride to the field trip on the green bus.  She got out a can of sardines and an apple from her emergency food stash drawers, scarfed down a quick lunch, and returned to reading about Joseph Bharat Cornell. She downloaded his book, Sharing Nature with Children, and plunged into reading it, with an occasional eye on the clock.
            Sometime later, she heard footsteps and looked up to see Dr. McHaggerty amble in with Jody on his arm.  Jody looked half-crocked.  She was smiling stupidly with her eyes slitted, reeling around, and leaning leaning on McHaggerty.  McHaggerty seemed slightly tipsy himself, which seemed strange, since the field trip was due to collect at the buses in about twenty minutes.
            "We thought we'd stop in and see you," McHaggerty said, his voice slightly slurred.  "We've been having such a good time, and we thought it was a real shame you were so straight-laced.  "Too bad you probably wouldn't want to join us," he said, smiling crookedly.  Then, taking Jody firmly by the arm, he steered her back out of the room.
            Rune returned to her reading, feeling discomfited.  Then she got up, washed her hands, and sat back down again.  She read for ten more minutes, without seeing anything she was reading, and got up and went down to the waiting buses.  McHaggerty was not there.  He'd sent word to go ahead without him, he's be along.  Rune wanted to wash her hands again.
            Rune sat with Bart, and after they'd been riding about ten minutes, talking about essentially nothing, she blurted out what she had just seen.
            "Those two are getting it on," Bart said.  "They were last year, too, while you were gone."
            "Jody was with me."
            "Only during the summer; she was here all school year."
            "Oh yeah.  That's right, the Mexico thing was during the summer, I forgot. I wasn't thinking."
            "It's a little bit icky," Rune said with disgust.  "My Dad was nine years older than my Mom.  But McHaggerty's married and Elizabeth's really nice and he's . . . what, twenty three years older than she is?  It's gross, I'm sorry."
            "I know," Bart said, "We all thought so last year."
            "Everyone knew?"
            "They weren't very discreet about it--it's almost as if they were each showing the other off like some prize."
            "Gross," Rune repeated.  "I can't believe that Jody would want to screw someone that much older than she is--she's so pretty--she could have anyone."
            "McHaggerty has status.  Everyone knows that.  Girls like that."
            "I don't," Rune said, with disgust.
            Then, lowering her voice even farther, she told Bart about her research about the mushroom poisonings of the Cornell professors and about how Larry Thompson had it up on his screen in his workroom.  "He said it was an accident, that he wasn't spying on me, but I'm not sure if I believe him."
            "You like Larry."
            "I like him a lot.  I also like Dr McHaggerty.  This is all so confusing and upsetting.  I don't know what to think."  She paused a long moment, and then added, "Bart, he made a pass at me last night.  I'm sort of afraid of him now."
            "What do you mean, he made a pass at you?"
            Run told him about dinner and the movies and the arm and the kiss.
            "I wonder if you should tell someone," Bart said.
            "I'm telling you."
            "No, I mean, like a Dean of students or a counselor or something."
            "I don't want to get him in trouble."
            "Maybe he needs to be gotten in trouble."

            After the field trip, Rune was sitting in her office with her head in her hands feeling a little depressed, when she heard footsteps and looked up.  It was Jody, alone, looking both more alert and somewhat sheepish.
            “You probably think I am a complete loser!” She exclaimed.
“What do you mean?”
            “Because I’m screwing McHaggerty.  He seduced me, but I admit, I sort of allowed it it—it seemed exciting at the time, last year.  Now it’s just—well—gross.  I feel ashamed and embarrassed, but I don’t know how to get out of it.”
            “Jody, he’s been coming on to me.”
            “I know, he old me.”
            “He told you?”
            “He wants to do a ménage a trios.”
            “And do you want to?”
            “I don’t want to do anything with him, but I don’t know how to extricate myself.  He got me my job, for one thing.”
            “I do not envy you.  I have no answers.  I’d say, just say no, but that’s very hard for me, and I can’t give you advice that I can’t follow myself.”