Book Club

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Callie Hyde Part 4

I've never been a big believer in telekinesis but standing there, staring at the disturbing image on Katherine's computer screen, all I wanted to do was make it disappear with my mind. Even if that meant blowing up Katherine's computer like that guy's head in the movie Scanners, I was okay with that. But with each passing second, it was becoming more evident that Jedi mind tricks would not be the solution to this particular problem.

And then, a thought struck me that sent shivers through my body. "The video! Did Tommy see it?"

"No. As far as I can tell you only sent it to the book club group. I don't know if they've seen it," Katherine says.

At that moment, Patrick and Holly appear in Katherine's doorway and start doing their imitations of drunk me.

"Spillage! Major spillage!" Patrick slurs.

Holly jumps in right after him. "I'll get that," she says as she pantomimes licking the booze up off the floor. Mercifully, as fast as they appeared, they are gone again cackling down the hall.

"They may have seen it," Katherine says.

My mind is spinning. I've never been in any situation like this before. I remember friends in university who loved the morning after crazy nights, but this doesn't feel fun for me. "Oh, God. What do I do?"

I'm pretty sure the question was meant to be rhetoric but Katherine would never miss a chance put someone on their place.

"Maybe you could just do your job," she says matter-of-factly. "I need the agenda for today's meeting finalized and emailed out to Tommy."

Yes! I'll throw myself into work. That's always been my safe place when I want to protect myself against the world. As soon as I sit down behind Katherine's desk and focus on the task at hand, I can feel my body and soul begin to uncoil. After a few minutes, I actually began to feel my confidence slowly come back. "I want you to know, I really am going to be great at this job."

"Despite all evidence to the contrary," Katherine mutters loudly under her breath. "I'm curious, new girl, why a paralegal?"

That's a fair question and I knew I would have to explain it eventually, so I dove right in.

"I am what you could call a bit of a throwback. I like to consider myself an Underwood typewriter in a world of iPads and smartphones. I grew up loving books more than anything else. It's not that I didn't have real friends, it's just that I never felt I shared their interests. When all the other girls my age were texting and emailing cute boys to meet them at the mall, I was immersed in the world of classic literature. I kind of made the great literary figures my best friends."

"Wow, that's really..." Katherine searches for the right ending to that sentence.

"Awesome?" I offer.

"Sad."

"So anyway... after my undergrad, I eventually earned a Ph.D. in literary theory."

'So why aren't you teaching Intro to Victorian Literature right now?"

"That's a question I've been wrestling with for the last few years. I wanted to, there's nothing I wanted more but I couldn't do it."

"Queen of the book nerds couldn't teach English Lit?"

I'm going to choose to take 'Queen of the book nerds' as a compliment, even though I'm not convinced that's the manner in which it was intended. "It was my social anxiety that kept getting in the way. I couldn't speak in front of a crowd of people. I kept freezing up."