One long day in December
Chapter 1:
“Hey Tanya, how’re you doing?” The chipper voice belonged to Tanya’s next door neighbour in the college, Jenna Tudor. Jen was a bright, lively girl who couldn’t really handle her drink, having spent most of her previous eighteen years with her parents in the quiet of the Worcestershire countryside. Cambridge had exploded onto her life and she enjoyed it, though in that slightly wary way of a person experimenting with something completely new and possibly dangerous.
She was a little taller than Tanya, with blue eyes and blond hair, and moved with a lithe grace that belied the gorgeous body she hid under unflattering clothes. Tanya had been so shocked when she saw Jen naked in the shower one time that she’d had to leave immediately… for fear that her arousal might show. Unfortunately, the Thai girl had no idea whether Jen liked her or fancied her and was not about to make a fool of herself to find out. Still, on top of finding Jen very attractive she also found her very pleasant and was happy to have the blond as a friend for the time being.
“I’m feeling rotten after all that wine we drank last night,” moaned Tanya, rubbing her head theatrically, “I can’t believe that we got through a whole case!”
“I know!” squealed Jen, “It’s a wonder you’re up. Lectures?” Tanya nodded in response, secretly wondering how Jen was possibly awake herself… she’d been completely out of it by the time the party had broken up at three am… an usually early time for the end of an evening but it had been a school night.
“Yeah and a tutorial,” she explained. Jen nodded and suddenly her eyes bulged.
“Oh no!” she yelped. Tanya instantly knew what the blond girl was thinking. She tried not to smile but failed.
“What have you forgotten?” Jen’s features rearranged themselves into panic mode.
“I’ve got a whole chapter of Chaucer to prepare! I’m doomed!” Tanya laughed and patted her friend on the shoulder.
“Do you have time now? Or do you fancy getting some breakfast instead…? A kind of last meal…?” she asked. Jen pulled up her watch and stared at it hard, willing the hands to start moving backwards.
“I’ve still got… an hour and twenty three minutes… that should be just about enough time… Bye Tanya! Got to go!” With that the blonde turned and dove back into her room. Tanya, who’d only just emerged from hers, laughed to herself and locked her door before turning to leave the college, walking along while checking her rucksack for all the books she thought she might need. She was so engrossed in what looked like ‘The Human Mind,’ but could’ve been a pad of A4, that she walked straight out into a corridor and collided with a flash of red and white.
“Oh sorry!” exclaimed Tanya, picking herself up, “I totally wasn’t looking where I was going. Here, let me help you.” In colliding with the other student both girls had fallen to the floor. Tanya’s stuff was all fine but the same was not true of the other person, whose stack of paper had been deposited all over the shop. The Thai girl started to pick things up, but soon realised three things: the pages were numbered, there were dozens of them and they were related to an essay topic due in the following February… one that Tanya had also been set.
“My God!” exclaimed the Thai girl, “You’ve done your Freud versus Proust essay already?” Cambridge expected a composition or two every week in Tanya’s discipline, but the five thousand word opus was what counted most to your final, first year grade, excluding the end of year exams. Tanya hadn’t been thinking of beginning hers till the start of the Christmas holidays, long before anyone else was intending to start. Yet here was a girl who’d already finished it…? Who could she possibly be?
It began to dawn on Tanya that things were a bit strange. She’d collided with the girl, apologised and started to help, but the victim of the accident was just sitting there, in a pool of papers from an essay that had only been set the week before and wasn’t due in for another two and a half months. Tanya looked at the girl. She was red haired, tall and thin, though the word skinny better described her considering her very slim arms and build. Her hair had fallen all over her face, hiding it. She hadn’t moved since Tanya had bumped her to the floor.
The Thai girl finished collecting the separate pages of the essay and handed the bundle towards the red headed girl. Quick as a whip she snatched the paper, stood and rushed off, without so much as a glance in Tanya’s direction. ‘That was weird,’ thought the Thai, but quickly shrugged off the feeling of peculiarity when she saw her watch. It was already quarter to nine! She had to run else she’d miss breakfast and there was no way she was sitting through two hours of psychology on an empty, hung over stomach.
They were unpleasant affairs, meals in the university canteen. Situated between many of the colleges, including Newnham, the cafeteria was a tall, bleak building indicative of the architectural disaster that was the 1960s. Its food was basic and mostly inedible, but it was cheap, nearby and a good meeting place. Unfortunately for Tanya she really didn’t have time to stop and chat, despite seeing a group of her college friends waving at her. She pointed at her watch, grabbed an apple juice and four pieces of soggy toast, paid for them and left.
‘Flying breakfasts’ was how they were known and seldom sat well on an abused stomach. Still, the few mouthfuls of juice and bites of toast was like ambrosia to the ravenous student and she wolfed down her food despite the knowledge that her tummy would make its disgruntlement known very quickly. Sadly, the speed with which she’d unceremoniously fed herself didn’t stop her from being late and she arrived at the auditorium with the lecture already five minutes old.
This was a problem. Psychology’s three sets of morning lectures were mandatory and there would be a register at the end, so she had to go inside. But Dr. Rubens, the course organiser, was a right old cow and would bite your head off if you went in late. Still, the entrance was at the back and the lights in the main room were already off so perhaps if she turned off the corridor lights... creaked open the door… slipped in unnoticed… and took a seat at the back… she wouldn’t be disturbed…
Her ruse worked, although it was five minutes before the tension in her system finally ebbed away… Dr. Rubens had once halted her lecture, turned on the house lights and forced the guilty party, who tried to enter late, to stand and say his name aloud for all to hear. Jackson Washington, an American student, had changed course soon after. Tanya smiled to herself at getting away with her lateness and slowly unpacked her bag to get involved, but something was wrong.
Looking around the room as her eyes adjusted to the dark, Tanya realised that everybody was staring raptly at the slideshow Dr. Rubens was presenting. Only she wasn’t actually saying anything... she wasn’t even present. Not only that, but the slideshow was actually a video, though not a particularly good one. It showed a close up of a person’s eyes, deep and green, staring into the room like two giant searchlights beaming down from the screen.
Every one of her fellow students was looking intently at the image which, if Tanya’s own eyes weren’t deceiving her, was simply a ten second loop of film playing over and over again. No one was doing anything except look. There was no writing, no reading, no talking, no nudging your mate and telling him about the REALLY FIT BIRD you’d shagged the night before… no nothing. Tanya seemed to be the only looking around while Dr. Rubens was nowhere to be seen.
“This lecture is about the human mind.” The voice was deep and powerful yet also graceful and filled with easy charm, the opposite to the reedy, nasal and feminine voice of Dr. Rubens, which was like fingernails on a blackboard when you were hung over on a Monday morning. The new voice came out through the auditorium speakers and was much more pleasant, like the narrator of a television channel or cinema trailer.
Tanya was very confused. What she’d heard didn’t sound like anything she’d encountered at uni before. In fact, with the big eyes and the rapt nature of her fellow students, it was almost as if someone was trying to… well… you know… hypnotise the students. The voice from the speakers continued its speech.
“The human mind is a complex structure made up of a vast collection of different characteristics, many of which are in competition…” It continued to go through what turned out to be a perfectly good lecture for the remains of the hour, so good that Tanya actually took notes! But the Thai girl was less than impressed at the unexpected teaching technique she was seeing. Thoughts of what might be going on lay heavily on Tanya’s stomach. Unfortunately, the large quantity of alcohol she’d drunk the previous evening combined with the lightening fast breakfast she’d eaten were also weighing heavily on her tummy. In a horrified moment, towards the end of the first hour, she realised that she had to get to a bathroom… fast.
As subtly as she could, Tanya slowly made her way back the way she’d come, carefully making sure she wasn’t seen, though by who she wasn’t sure. Once free of the auditorium she ran to the nearest restrooms and stayed there for five long, unforgiving minutes. When she returned to her lecture, determined to find out more about what was going on, the lights were up in the theatre and Dr. Rubens was standing at the front of the room. Tanya was so surprised that she walked straight in.
“And who might this be?” demanded Dr. Rubens from the front as the door banged shut, “Get lost while putting on your make up? Was your alarm clock stolen by extraterrestrials? Were you kidnapped after getting up especially early for this obligatory lecture? Or perhaps you thought that the rules did not apply to you?” Dr. Rubens was waiting for an answer. Tanya was filled with anger and bile after the strange things she’d witnessed and her stomach’s reaction to her mistreatment of it. She was in no mood to be bullied.
“Are those all rhetorical questions Dr. Rubens?” she asked, her voice strong and strident, much more than her head and heart felt. Hearing Tanya’s reply a rustle of sound passed through the room, surprisingly high pitched. All the students were thrilled at this defiance of the unpleasant lecturer. Looking around at the sixty or so undergraduates Tanya noticed something for the first time: there were no boys! Sure, when they’d started, there had been twenty, including the son of the lord who’d explained the facts of Newnham to Tanya. Many people had left the course due its difficulty and the harshness of the Cambridge regime, but it was only now that Tanya realised that the only people left were girls. At the front Dr. Rubens frowned.
“Sit down please,” she snapped, “You’re interrupting my lecture.” Highly relieved, Tanya retook her seat, hoping that nobody noticed that all her stuff was already there. Irritated at the interruption, but nonplussed by the unexpected fight back, Dr. Rubens let Tanya’s lateness slide and continued her talk. It was exactly the same as that which the man’s voice from the speakers had given, right down to the precise wording. Tanya remembered that Dr. Rubens always read her lectures from pre-prepared cards… every lecture… How long had this been going on for?
There were no more surprises for the following hour and when the end finally came, Tanya had thirty minutes before her meeting with Dr. Morgan. She decided to try a little detective work and walked down to the front of the room, gong against the flow of female students heading out. Tanya noticed at least two, Jackie and Colleen, from her college, both of whom had been drinking with her the previous night. She decided to talk to them later, but at that particular moment she wanted to talk to the dragon lady at the front of the room packing up her things. She got down and waited for everyone else to leave. Soon it was just Tanya and Dr. Rubens, the latter pointedly making a deliberate effort to ignore the Thai student. Finally the lecturer finished collecting everything into her briefcase. Tanya cleared her throat.
“Yes?” enquired Dr. Rubens, though not unpleasantly. For the first time Tanya looked closely at the older woman. Dr. Rubens was not as hideous a creature as at first appeared… Her pulled back hair, wire rimmed glasses, lack of make up and severe clothes all conspired to make her appear almost birdlike, emphasising a slightly beaky nose and narrow face. However, Tanya was something of an expert at looking beyond first appearances and could see an attractive, middle aged lady being suppressed in Dr. Rubens.
“I just wanted to apologise at my lateness,” explained the Thai girl, “I came back from a weekend in France and my clock was set to French time so that my alarm was an hour late.” It was a good excuse which she’d been working on for the whole lecture.
“Pull the other one it’s got bells on,” retorted the lecturer. Tanya sucked in her lips and wondered about what she could get away with asking.
“In which case, I just wanted to apologise,” she began, “I’m sorry.” Dr. Rubens looked harshly at Tanya for a moment, before her face creased into a genuine smile, showing the attractive woman underneath the outer gargoyle.
“Apology accepted, Ms. Covington.” That was a surprise.
“You know my name?” enquired Tanya. Dr. Rubens nodded.
“I know all my students’ names, it’s a talent I have.” Tanya returned the smile and offered to help the lecturer with her two bags. Dr. Rubens gratefully agreed and handed Tanya one. They started walking out of the room.
“That was an interesting lecture,” mused Tanya.
“Was it?” replied Dr. Rubens, “I can’t imagine you girls really pay that much attention.” It was an off hand remark, more objective than biting or humorous. Looking at the lecturer Tanya felt a surge of pity fill her. This woman was no hypnotic fiend trying to enslave a class full of young women. Her brown eyes weren’t even the right colour. Instead she was a slightly lonely, middle aged woman whose only role was to give lectures to bored students. Still, where had she been for the first hour?
“By the way,” said Tanya as the pair of them left the auditorium, “I was just wondering what I missed from the first hour.” Dr. Rubens stopped suddenly, her face going slack. Tanya looked at the woman.
“Dr. Rubens?” she asked, tentatively.
“The first hour was spent on theories of the development of memories in the cerebral cortex.” The words were clipped and precise, delivered more by rote than by knowledge. As soon as she said them Dr. Rubens seemed to suddenly come to. She saw Tanya’s worried expression and smiled reassuringly.
“Is anything the matter, dear?” Tanya shook her head and said there wasn’t.
“Oh,” replied the lecturer before her face suddenly sharpened noticeably, “Why do you have my bag?” Stunned, Tanya held it out to the woman who grabbed it quickly.
“I offered to help you carry it from the lecture,” Tanya explained, bemused by Dr. Rubens’ change of behaviour. The lecturer looked down her nose at Tanya before replying, her tone the nasal, slightly unpleasant whine of before, rather than the softer, more pleasant voice she’d used after Tanya had come up to her alone… The woman was obeying a posthypnotic command, reckoned Tanya.
“Well I can carry it from here thank you,” muttered the older woman, stalking off away from Tanya, who was both bemused and mortified. Whatever had happened did not have a simple, innocent explanation and Dr. Rubens was involved in it, even if her acceptance was probably achieved by mind control. Tanya knew what she had to do straight away. Dr. Rubens had to be hypnotised by the young, Thai girl. It wasn’t a course of action Tanya would take lightly, but something weird was going on and she wasn’t about to let whoever was behind it get away with it. Still, there was no immediate rush. Tanya could afford to wait and consider her options, at least until she’d finished with her other commitments for the day.
Looking at her watch, the Thai girl saw that she had fifteen minutes before her eleven thirty meet with Dr. Morgan. The doctor’s office was a slow ten minute walk from the lecture theatre and Tanya ambled along the distance more slowly than usual, thinking about everything she’d encountered that day… the lecturer, the lecture, the eyes, the voice and the lack of male psychologists… What was going on? She couldn’t find out, but perhaps Dr. Morgan would be able to help her…