Rochester's Softer Side

Rochester peers out from under the desk, already in his striped pyjamas. He walks the short distance from the desk to the bed and climbs up, plopping himself officiously against the wall.

Rochester: Are you feeling alright?

Lauren [continuing to type]: Yeah, I’m fine. Why do you ask?

Rochester: There’s smoke coming out your ears? [Lauren glances up confused]

Lauren: I beg your pardon?

Rochester: I guess it’s blocking your hearing. [shouting] YOU HAVE SMOKE COMING OUT YOUR EARS!

Lauren: Oh shit... my brain is overheating again.

Rochester [concerned]: What did you do today?

Lauren: The usual. Holocaust history at 10. Chatted with Linda for a bit. Hung out in the WC. Attempted to save the WC paper and write a feminist comic. Fascism class at 3:30. Nap at 3:45. Worked on feminist comic while eating supper and then Creative Writing at 6:30.

Rochester: I think it’s all the Nazis... you should really only take one class involving them at a time. Clearly it stresses you out.

Lauren: And it couldn’t be the three thousand other things on my plate? But I suppose you are right. I do get moody on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Rochester: Why did you take those classes if you knew they were going to bother you this badly.

Lauren: I didn’t know they would bother me this badly. I thought I was properly insulated in my scholarship bubble. Bubble popped. Besides, as much as I hate it, I love it. It’s like the most documented evil in the world’s history. It’s the boundary between human and animal, civilized and evil, it’s a reversal of everything we are taught and believe in. It’s that little black part we all have inside ourselves magnified a thousand times. How can you not find that fascinating, intriguing, horrible? How can you not want to know?

Rochester: You’re crazy you know that?

Lauren [laughing]: So I’m told. I’m just curious. People are so complex, I like trying to understand what I’ll never understand.

Rochester: Like I said. Weird.

Lauren: Well thanks for listening. It gets kind weird having all these horrible thought and facts rolling around in my head and not having anyone to bounce ideas and thoughts off of. It feels like the more I learn, the less capable I am of making sense of the event itself. [Pause] But what brings you up here?

Rochester: Feeling kind of bored. Freud’s with Cooper, Mr. Plunk is sulking, Maggie’s busy.

Lauren: Wanna read one of my trashy online books with me?

Rochester: Okay, but can I eat my snack? I’m a bit hungry since your sister stopped at Wendy’s a while ago.

Lauren: Is it crumbly?

Rochester: I’ll go get a plate.

Lauren: You do that. By the time you get back I’ll have the book uploaded and this post posted.

Well everyone, these are my thoughts for today. You probably don’t want to hear me ramble about my issues with the subject matter I’m currently learning but sometimes I just have to get it out. It’s like having a million questions but never being able to resolve them. It just builds. I suppose it was more on my mind tonight because A) I had the class today, but also because I got an email from one of my former profs asking how things were going. I told her I was thinking about going to grad school. Two years ago I would have been going for my masters in English. But this year there was a definite switch and I want to go for my masters in history. Maybe I should drop in on my Holocaust history prof for a chat tomorrow.

Oh, here comes Rochester, dang he’s fast. Night everyone!

Lauren.