Chapter One

This was my second summer in Tuscaloosa and I hated it.

Not the town.

The summer.

It was hot and steamy, and beyond a stereotypical Southern summer. Last year I caught the tail end of it, trying to get settled before starting the first year of my master’s program. That was bad enough.

This summer was far worse.

So far we’d spent July in a record heat wave with thirteen consecutive days over one hundred, and that didn’t count the humidity. The previous record was eleven days in 2007.

I’m from Seattle. Yes, it can get hot there, but not this hot and not for this long. My original plan was to head back home to the cooler Pacific Northwest, and work on my thesis for the summer. But the opportunity to become a teaching assistant for Dr. Robert Mayer kept me on campus. I admired his work in journalism ethics and he was the major reason I came to the University of Alabama to do my graduate work. When his teaching assistant put her program on hold, my advisor recommended me for the open position.

Staying in town to teach and write sounded like a good idea, until the heat wave hit. There were plenty of super-hot days last summer, but it never lasted long before going back to merely scorching. The past two weeks felt like a steam room outside. My apartment wasn’t much better. The air conditioner couldn’t keep up with the heat because I couldn’t afford to run it all the time.

To avoid being a sweaty mess as much as possible, I spent most of my time on campus. Luckily the library, my office, and classroom all had cool air I didn’t have to pay for. Sadly, sleeping in any of these places wasn’t allowed.

A knock on my cubicle frame broke me out of my heat wave lament. I looked up from the papers on my desk to find Luke Rienhart from my freshman reporting class. Like the rest of the student body these past few weeks, he wore as little as possible. He stood before me in shorts, a tank top and flip-flops, which he wore in a very cute way.

I kicked myself for thinking of a student like that, but what could I do? I had eyes and he was adorable.

“Hey Luke, come on in.”

“Hi Mr. Holden, sorry I missed office hours.” He sounded apologetic, even though only a couple of minutes had passed since top of the hour. I hadn’t even packed up yet. “Do you maybe have a minute to talk about this week’s assignment?”

“Sure. And please, I’ve told you guys, call me Ethan. Have a seat.”

My office was barely bigger than a closet with walls going almost up to the ceiling. Besides me and the desk, a second chair and bookshelf were jammed in the space. I reached over and took books off the chair and stuffed them onto an already overloaded shelf. There wasn’t much privacy as sound traveled easily between the thin walls, but the space got the job done.

“You wanted us to do an article with different takes on the heat.” He took an iPad from his backpack and flipped it open. “I want to go off campus to find how people are coping if they have to work outside or don’t have air conditioning at home.”

“Absolutely!” I might have sounded overenthusiastic. “I’d love to see stories that don’t just have a campus perspective. I know that’s easiest to get, but if you can get off campus, please do.”

“Cool.” He typed as he looked between me and the tablet.

“Why were you hesitant to just do it?”

“I heard what some of the others are working on and it made me doubt my idea.”

“You’ve got good instincts, Luke. I saw that in your first assignments. Don’t let others sway you. You’ll make mistakes sometimes, but you’ve got to find that out for yourself. If you let others dictate what you report, you might miss out on a key angle. As for your classmates, I suspect they’re trying to keep you from one upping them.”

“Bastards.” A devilish grin formed on Luke’s lips.

“You gotta watch out. There’ll always be people who don’t want to put in the work. Don’t let them talk you out of going after the story you want.”

“Got it.” He tapped on the tablet and held it out between us. The recorder app displayed on the screen, ticking off seconds. “What about you? How are you handling the heat?”

Well done throwing the question out to discover my story.

“If I just say I hate it, I sound like everyone else. It’s tough. Like most students, I’m on a budget and trying not to run up my bills. I’m very thankful to be here most of the day. A lot of folks don’t have that choice.”

Luke nodded. “Got it. Mr. Hold… Ethan.” He put the tablet away and stood. “Thanks for the advice and the quote.”

“Anytime. See you in class.”

“Yup. Catch you later.”

When you’re a TA, dating students is a big no-no. It’s a good policy, except when the student looked like Luke and you see them all the time. Not that I had time to date.

Between teaching and a big-ass thesis to write, a workload that would only increase in the fall when I had classes to take, a date seemed impossible. I’d heard plenty of stories of breakups because grad student schedules didn’t leave much time for anything serious in the relationship department.

My stomach grumbled so I decided to sweat my way over to the student center for lunch. After that I’d hole up in the library until they threw everyone out at midnight.

Next Friday you'll get the first glimpse of Marcus.

Fun fact: I lived in Tuscaloosa for 15 years, from fifth grade through college at the University and then for a couple years beyond graduation. I wrote this story in answer to a call for summer heat wave stories. It was a perfect opportunity to write about T-town. Ethan's life isn't mine, but the places he lives and works very much are. In the case of this chapter, Ethan and I both spent a lot of time at the College of Communications in the Journalism department. 

See you back here next week! Hope you have a good weekend.
Jeff