Page 19 - Contrast1957Springv1n1

A Way Through

CHARLES F. SMITH

An hour ago he was barely conscious of the chatter-filled class-
room and its occupants feverishly reviewing tenses, conjugating verbs,
or matching proficiency with odd-sounding vocabulary words. Cliff
shot a quick glance at the electric clock just above the blackboard.
Less than five minutes and Professor Donald R. Deese would be pass-
ing out the neatly arrayed examination papers. Cliff's parched lips
turned up at the corners in a wry smile as he noticed someone had
written on the board, "Make it Easy, Deesey, Pleasey!" Fat chance,
thought Cliff. You might get a snap final from some other professor,
but not old lay-it-on-the-line Deese. You can be pretty certain that
the Spanish 202 final exam will be a honey.

"Hey Cliff, you ready for this one? Hey Cliff ... CLIFF! Wake
up, man. We take our giant step in a couple of minutes."

Cliff looked up with a start, as if jigger's words had suddenly
slapped his face. He looked up, his sagged, blood-shot eyes, with the
soot-colored half-moons under each, squinted at the skinny kid sit-
ting in front of him. "What'd you say, Jigger?" Cliff mumbled.

Jigger looked at Cliff more closely and burst out laughing. "Man,
you do look bad! What truck hit you?"

"Knock it off, Jigger," Cliff snapped.
"Another all-nighter, Cliff?" ventured Jigger, this time a little

more cautiously.
A muffled, inaudible acknowledgement escaped from Cliff's lips as

he returned to the unfamiliar pages of his Spanish text. Cliff tried
to concentrate, and instinctively reached to his shirt pocket for a
cigarette. His fingers groped around in the pocket for the crumpled
pack, then suddenly pulled away as if burned by fire. For an instant
Cliff had forgotten what was in that pocket ...

The door closed behind Professor Deese with a sharp, metallic
click, and he hastened over to his desk in the center of the room. The
brown satchel was meticulously placed on the right-hand side of the
desk, and his hat was softly laid down on the left. Cliff had often
wondered why he always wore his hat into the classroom instead of
leaving it on a hanger in the hall. Must be the idiosyncrasies of learned

men, thought Cliff.
"Any questions before we start?" Deese asked.
The members of the class stared blankly into uncommunicative

faces, first on one side, then the other. Then all eyes returned again

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