Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Pen and Paper (07/17/14)
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TITLE: Just a Little Ink | Previous Challenge Entry
By Frankie Kemp
07/24/14 -
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The image of her scribbling seventh grade penmanship, complete with little hearts to dot the “i’s,” was also somehow stuck in the replay reel of memory. So was the mockery of Amanda Green’s voice, accompanied by a chorus of fifth hour world geography giggling. Mr. Deeble had seen Amanda snatch the note from the floor when Cooper’s aim at tossing it in Karen’s lap across the row had fallen short.
“Well, Amanda Green. Since the world just cannot go on without whatever information lies hidden in your little note passing, why don’t you just share what’s in it with the entire class,” Mr. Deeble’s voice had spoken what could never be unspoken.
What followed next had probably been the most traumatic event of a period of her life that Cooper rarely memory walked voluntarily. By the end of that day, the entire seventh grade and most of the eighth had common knowledge of her terrible crush on Danny Jenkins—including Danny Jenkins. She had hated Amanda Green for a very long time after that and had never again been able to have a conversation with Danny that didn’t involve the extreme desire to simply not have it.
These memories invaded Cooper’s senses when she watched Dr. Bennett walk to his lectern in the middle of the lecture hall with an ink-covered piece of paper in his hand. She was seated on the second row, right in the middle, close enough to recognize her own hand writing. It seemed to her as if time stood still and rushed in on her all at once in some strange whirl of remembered horror and overwhelming dread. She wanted nothing more than to disappear from the moment.
Dr. Bennett made his usual greetings and shared his quote of the day, as was typical of this professor who had been on his way to becoming one of the most compelling teachers Cooper had encountered in this first year of finding herself thrown into the ocean named Higher Learning. She fought for focus against the fears screaming in her mind, while at the same time scrambling for ideas for how she might drop the class should he demolish her in a coliseum-worthy attack.
“Students, I want to share with you something. Perhaps, I should ask permission of the author, but I don’t really know who that author is . . . Maybe when I expound that author will take credit and speak for himself or herself.” Dr. Bennett plopped his reading glasses on the end of his nose and continued. “Last we met, one of you inadvertently left behind some notes on our dear Mr. Hawthorne and particularly ‘The Minister’s Black Veil.’ I must say, I am very intrigued by your notes, whoever you are. You have made some interesting connections here in this story that I’ve never seen anyone else make. It’s almost as if you have had your own little dialogue with Nathaniel Hawthorne. Please, if you would, please confess your ownership of these notes so that we might discuss as a class.”
Cooper slowly raised her hand. “They are mine, Dr. Bennett.”
“Great! Thank you so much, Miss Dean. Please, do tell me more about how you have seen a message of hope in a story that so many others use as a statement against the perils of a religious existence.”
Cooper took a deep breath and looked her favorite professor in the eye. “The message of the gospel is written all in it—I just don’t think Hawthorne knew he was doing it.” The words came firmly and confidently, and the discussion began. As it continued, Cooper remembered again her mother’s words.
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I really enjoyed this. Excellent writing here.
God bless~