Collegial Air

Vina Canner walked the streets of Newark, Delaware with a collegial air. She just ought to do so. She remained professor emeritus at seventy years old. Energy carried her aloft despite her ailing leg and the fact she still battled with asthma. A strange thing happened, when she looked up at people, they averted their gaze.

She strolled up to the local diner just a few blocks away from the campus grounds and ordered a coffee and a sugar plum pastry.

As she scrolled through news on her smartphone, she noticed that some women and men had posted complaints about her. Mostly devastating. She looked around and observed no one laid eyes on her. Was it out of disgust and contempt? Or was it because they wanted to believe otherwise?

She sipped her coffee and bit into her pastry. With a quick transaction with her smartwatch, she paid for her meal. Once she left the diner, she walked the streets like she had just taken a shower and never bothered to dry off or clothe.

When she made eye contact some more, people smiled or winked. Others scowled. Her next journey took her to the president of the university.

“Bob, what the hell is happening?”

“I’d like to ask you the same thing. Vina…what the hell?”

“They’re lies. I’ve never touched…they’re all lies!” She exclaimed, but it was more yelp than bombast.

“You’ll obviously be stripped of your title and the honorary degrees of this institution. You can’t finish out the rest of the year with pay. There is nothing else I can do.”

Vina stewed. It was as if a meteorite had crashed in her mind, leaving death and destruction in its wake.

“You know I didn’t do anything to those students.”

“We shall see that in court. Gentlemen!”