First Day - The Golden Mean

This is what he beheld:

someone's forgotten green wind breaker
lying draped over a window sill...

This is what he beheld:

crumpled papers
scattered upon the floor...

This is what he beheld:

a half empty bottle of Mountain Dew...

AND THIS is what he beheld:

Thirty seven chairs pointed
flagrantly towards
an aging upright piano

Professor Spolan smiled

and

THIS is what HE thought: "

"Chaos... I love it!"

It was obvious to him by all the tell tale signs
{he was prone to read into things}
that the night before
this very room had been the site of

-Extraordinary Bacchanalian Excesses

-The Singing of Ribald Goat Songs

culminating finally in the

-RITUAL DISMEMBERMENT
OF one of THE wine soddened CELEBRANTS!

{Much later we will come to discover
this is not quite as crazy as it sounds.}

His entrance into the room
had matched his expectations.

For HERE
only hours earlier
it appeared as if
the sacred and the profane
had gone at each other for ten rounds

and by the look of things
it had been a whale of a fight...

Spying a small table to his right
he trod softly in his
leather and canvas water resistant
all purpose hiking boots

over the hallowed ground

until such time as he could discorporate himself
from his saddle bag

still laden with books, papers
and other attention getting devices
for the benefit of his soon to be arriving students

and with some panache
he placed same upon the aforementioned

table.

At that moment his reverie was interrupted
by the faintest of movements in the room.

Aware that somehow
the atmosphere around him
had shifted to another level

his conciseness sensed the change
and informed him
by sending a slight chill
from his third to his sixth chakra.

The Professor halted his movements
and remained as still as possible.

Reducing his breathing to a minimum
so that only
the faintest of sound emanated from him

and
without looking up

he imaged in his mind's eye
his own ears growing larger and larger
so as to aurally snatch from his environment
any hint of what was now sharing this
space
with him...

Holding the memory
of the appearance of the room
in his mind
and
as his mental ears made their reconnaissance

he reflected
in yet another and quieter corona of his mind

"Good Theatre training..."

and continued to listen.

As if drawn by an invisible and silent chord
he slowly turned his head
in the direction of far corner of the room...

And this is what he beheld:

Light
streaming through the entrance of the open door
and silhouetting two silent figures
who appeared to be watching him...

Il Ephipany di indossa Vito

The Professor gasped the smallest of breaths.