Imagining Us

Ch.53- You make Maybe so Easy

Esi's toes were wiggling in her flats as Dr. Carlton reviewed the additional coursework that she had done. She tried her best to not shift against the leather seats in his office.

She took the time to observe the man who'd been her teacher since undergrad. She had taken two classes with him, one in her sophomore year and one in her senior year. He hadn't changed much over the last six years. A few more lines added to his face and less hair. His complexion was certainly paler because of the cold months compared to when he came back from summers in Louisiana.

The man sat back and separated his reading glasses so that they hung around his neck. He had round framed glasses that were held together  in the middle with a magnet.

"This was more than I expected," he said with his lilting Cajun accent.

Her right brow rose unintentionally.

"But I know how you are, Elizabeth," he chuckled. "Nothing less than thorough."

She relaxed and sat back.

"But–"

Esi sat up again.

"It's not bad, there's just another element that you can add to your work. I do think that Professor Adebayo is a good fit. She has personal connections to the topic as I'm sure you've heard her speak about publicly."

Dr. Carlton sat forward, his hands perching on the edge of his desk.

"But...there is a country  that may add another element to your paper. Only if you're amenable to it." He wore a scrutinizing look, trying to gauge her reaction.

Esi tried to wrack her brain, thinking about what his words could possibly mean.

"Russia."

"Russia?" The words escaped her mouth before she could stop them.

Dr. Carlton raised a brow.

"Sorry," she acquiesced. "Please continue."

"We often only look at the political aspects of Russia, but we forget about the people who've had to live under these circumstances, and sometime not freely. That and the economic strain that financing nuclear weapons have put on an already unstable economy," he explained.

It's not like what he was saying didn't make sense—it just wasn't something that she'd considered.

A horrible thought hit her, and she saw the moment when Dr. Carlton realized that she knew where he was headed with his suggestion.

"Sir," Esi started. "Surely—you don't mean..."

Her phone buzzed twice in her purse, but nothing could deter her mind from connecting the dots of the conversation.

There was only one Russian Professor in their department—Dr. Mikhail Iskakov— and he was not known for being the most pleasant person.

She'd also taken his class in second year—Capitalism and Crisis. There were no questions asked in his lecture. She'd never even seen the man crack a smile, not that the class was supposed to be filled with humor, but he was consistently stern.
He'd been at the university since his undergrad and stayed for Master's and Doctorate except for mysteriously taking off a year. Esi shouldn't have known so much about him except the fact that it was easy to hear gossip on campus whether or not you wanted to.

She supposed that being stuck in one place for so long might have contributed to his misery. He didn't seem like he enjoyed teaching.

"Yes, Dr. Iskakov would add a different perspective. Not that your topic isn't good enough—"