Kristine awoke at one thirty that Saturday afternoon. She awoke to an empty room just as it was before she’d fallen asleep.

There was no sign of Mr. Timberlake and all seemed normal. Maybe that was all she needed…a little rest. With that in mind she would try not to stress herself out quite as much from here on out and she got up to get dressed.

With a growling tummy she made her way to the Student Union. She was in the mood for KFC and she stood back studying the menu.  

POCPRON CHKCNE-SMLAL $3.99 LRG $4.99

BNEOSESL CHIKCNE WNGS SMLAL $3.75 LRG $4.50

2 PEECI SQAUER DL $2.75

“EHEM!” grunted the cashier as she stood very annoyed waiting. “Are you gonna order something or not?” She spat.

“Uhm….” Kristine struggled to make a decision as she studied the items as best she could. The rude cashier peered at her through slit eyes as she popped her gum loudly.

“Today!” She demanded.

“Okay okay.” Kristine fumbled to get out her wallet.

"Give me the b..b..nnn.”

“Boneless chicken wings?” Came another voice.

Kristine glanced down in aw at the cashier. Justin stood behind the counter where the young girl had just been. He was wearing her uniform and a rather large chicken hat to go with it.

“You know what’s really good on those?” he beamed punching the order into the register. Kristine shook her head slowly as her jaw lay lifelessly flapped open.

“ Honey barbeque sauce!......Barbeque sauce? BARBEQUE SAUCE?” Kristine jumped as she watched Justin transform back into the rude cashier as she was before only now three times as disgruntled.

“Look slow mo!” She barked. “Do you want barbeque sauce, hot n spicy, or sweet n sour?!”

“ Uhm…barbeque sauce?” Sarah replied in a daze. “And-would-you-like-that-to-be-a-combo?”

“Yes, please.” “That’ll be five fifty?!” She scowled. The cashier practically snatched the ten from Kristine’s hand and she tossed it into the register.

“Here!” She growled shoving the change and receipt into Kristine’s hand. “Have a NICE day!”          

Kristine moved to the side and let the next customer take their beating. It took all of three minutes when her number was called and she grabbed her chicken and vacated the union.

 It was a rather chilly day outside and Kristine moved swiftly to get back to her dorm and the warmth.

“Sotp.” She whispred to herself as she approached a red stop sign at the end of the street.

 “I believe that’s pronounced stop.” She paused abruptly and glared at the tall figure suddenly standing in a police uniform holding the stop sign.

She watched in shock as he marched out into the intersection holding the red sign high above his head. A car came to a slow stop and Sarah stood stiff watching the now officer Timberlake waving the sign.

“Ey! You comin or what cutie? I can’t hold up traffic forever.” He gestured for her to cross and she stepped quickly across the street with her eyes glued to the road.          

Once she made it across she twisted to look behind her at the cars zooming by. The light was green and a large group of kids were all huddled on the other side waiting for an old grey haired policeman to hold up his stop sign and allow them to cross safely.

“How…” Kristine pondered for a moment and then not making any more sense of it raced up to her dorm and turned up the heat. She still had an essay to write and hadn't even finished reading the excerpt.

"I'll eat first." She murmured to herself. She twisted the knob on her radio filling the room with the latest tune from Gwen Stefani.

"That was "Wind it up" by Gweny!" sounded the dj. Sarah shoved a potato wedge in her mouth and washed it down with her drink. "And don't forget to tune in later tonight for the Saturday night bass party with Jed! Now here's JT what goes around comes around comes around comes all the way back around!"          

Kristine paused and glared at the radio and thought about the weird happenings. Maybe she didn't get enough rest last night. Perhaps she would have to start hitting the sack at nine on the dot.

She bit into a chicken wing and once she'd finished with what she wanted of her meal she turned off the radio and grabbed her book.

"Okay.." She sighed.

She began her reading and an hour later stopped to massage her eyes. "God.." She mumbled cursing the three pages she'd gotten through and imagining how much more she had to go. This was supposed to be an excerpt, not the actual book!

"Mmm! Now this is some good chicken right here girl!" She heard someone moan. She quickly sat up and turned her attention to a group of short blonde curls peeking out from beneath a black cap. "What I tell you? Didn't I tell you. This is the stuff right here!" Justin was sitting at her desk munching on her leftovers and enjoying the barbeque chicken in particular.

"How are you doing that?!"

"Doing what?"

"Appearing and then disappearing into thin air!"

"He shrugged his shoulders and sucked the brown sauce from his thumb.

"How did you make yourself into that policeman?"

"That was fun." He smiled nodding at her. "And the girl at the union?"

"Yeah that wasn't as fun she had crabs or something I don’t know." He shivered with disgust before having one of her potato wedges.

"Well look Houdini, I'm trying to study!"

"I know!" He beamed excitedly.

"Well then you also know that you need to get going."

"No, I wanna help."

 "What if I don't want your help?"

"I think you do." She balled her mouth at him and huffed.

"Get out of here! I need to concentrate!"

"Hey cool that part’s interesting." He said scanning her book. She sighed and rubbed her temples with frustration.

“Yeah well I wouldn’t know! I can’t understand any of it! Can’t understand anything.” She grumbled. Justin observed her weary eyes and she let her back hit the head board.

“I’ll go over it with you.” She shook her head and glared at the book.

 “Come on let’s do it!” he beamed hopping up on the bed with her.  “Come oooonnnnn!” He pulled her wrist and she sat up reluctantly. He opened the book and placed it in her lap.

“Mr. Fstr smld mbestly. "Wth pleasrue." Thy wetn. In the Bottilng Rm lal was hrminous buslte and orbereb activtiy. Flps of frsh sow's peritoenum reaby ct to the proper size caem shting up in litlte lifts frm the Oragn Stroe in the sud-dasement.”

“Mr. F-foster smel-smal-smiled…ugh beastly? With pleasure..thy wet…in the bottling rom.. all was h-hrrr…..” She swallowed hard, licked her lips, and sat back staring at page.

“You know what?” Justin said after a few moments of silence. “It would be so much easier if you would stop worrying and just take your time.”

“I am taking my time!” She snapped.

“No, you’re rushing through each sentence and getting mad at yourself for getting it wrong.”

“I’m not getting mad!” She squawked.

“Yes you are Kristine. I can see it in your face. You’re beating the living day lights out of yourself. Just stop. It’s okay.” She folded her arms in disgust knowing it was all true.

“How are you going to get any better when you won’t even give yourself a decent chance?” He rested his hand on her leg and she looked towards the wall.

“There’s no need for you to rush.” He advised “It’s just me and you and I’m nobody to feel embarrassed in front of…nobody is.” Kristine slowly shifted her eyes from the wall to him. “I’m not here to laugh at you at swear.” He was looking at her with the sincerest of sincerity. “Okay?” He assured and she nodded picking up the book once more.

He slid to her side and followed along this time.

“Hr-hr”

“Harmonious” He supported.

“Harmonious bustle and or-ordered activity. Flops-flaps of fresh sow’s p…per… per-ito-e-num?”

“peritoneum.”

“peritoneum”

“Good.”

 “ready c-cut?”

“Mhm.”

“cut to the proper size…”

Two hours passed and Kristine smiled happily as she flipped to the next page to reveal instructions for her essay.

“I read it.” She sighed in relief.

“Great job now let’s talk about it.” Justin instructed sliding to his previous position across from her. “Now, what do you think is going on?” Kristine bit her lip and shrugged. “Okay let’s start off like this.” He said looking to the brim of his hat as he thought. “Does this book take place in the past, present, or future?”

“Mmm present.” He tilted his head and she quickly retracted her statement.

“Future!” She recovered.

“Good and according to this book do the people in the future live their lives and see things the way we do now?”

“Nnno.”

“How can you tell?”

“I don’t know, I guess cause they use a bunch of big words, majority of which I’ve never heard of like Bok-b..”

“Bokanovsky.”

“Yes and it seems like they’re working in a factory, but everything is so clean and complicated.”

 “And what are they making in the factory?”

“They’re fertilizing something.”

“Are they fertilizing plants, eggs….?”

She gazed at him for a moment. She wasn’t sure what the answer was, but she was leaning more towards plants.

“How do we make babies?” She chuckled at his question.

“Did you just ask me where babies come from?” He threw a pillow at her and she squeaked.

“Okay okay.” She laughed. “Well I know humans.” She stressed eying him and all his manifested glory. “Have sex and one little sperm from the male inhabits the woman’s egg and a baby forms.”

“Okay, now keep in mind that this is the future and things have changed. In their time of the book it’s actually considered to be disgusting for a woman to be pregnant and so they are creating life forms in what they call the conditioning cente-“

“Can you have children?” Kristine asked quite abruptly. He gazed at her in disbelief. “What I’m just curious!”

“Were you paying attention to anything I just explained?”

“Yes, fertilization and conditioning and I’m applying it to real life now answer my question.” She pried. He gazed at her blankly. “You don’t need to know.” He finally quipped. “Oh come on! I want to kno-“          

Suddenly there was rap at the door. “Hold on a second, be working on your answer for when I get back!”

She leapt off the bed and went for the door. A skinny boy with big glasses stood outside the threshold, holding a hand full of flyers.

“Yes?” Kristine answered.

“This is just a reminder about the room inspection next week.” He handed her a yellow piece of paper and headed off for the next room across the hall.

“Thanks.” She shut the door and locked it. “Okay now back to-“she glanced around the room. She was all alone.

Scratching her head in confusion she stuck her feet in her bedroom shoes and sauntered into the bathroom.

She set the flyer on the sink and gazed into the mirror. Massaging her cheeks she peered into the mirror asking her reflection just what was happening.

She tossed cold water over her face to refresh herself. Dabbing the droplets away she glanced at the flyer.

ROM ISNPCETNFIRDY

JNAUAYR 5TH

SAERCHNG FR:

1. FLITH

2. NAETNSS….

3. Dr bolckg

She shrugged off the list and turned back to the mirror. With a gasp she spun around. Odd, she could have sworn she’d seen her little mirage man in the mirror again. He was standing just behind her, but when she turned around there was no one.

She peeked in the mirror once more only to see herself standing at the sink. She dried her hands carefully still looking around and finally accepting that there couldn’t have been anyone there, but her, she shut out the lights and went back to her room.

Excerpt from "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley