"Welcome Back, Part 3" by: Kevin C. Bissessar Release Date: Sep 11, 1995 Revised Date: Aug 19, 1997 September 12, 2039 [conclusion] The sun made its way through the shiny white curtains of Kevin's bedroom. It took some time for the professor to locate his surroundings, but after a few short seconds, Kevin realized he was safe in bed in his midtown condominium. The alarm clock was still beeping, and Kevin silenced it with a touch of his hand. His heartbeat was still pulsating rapidly and Kevin couldn't believe his whole experience with Kisasian was nothing more than a dream. But at least it was over. The morning had just begin. "Radio: 680 News," said Kevin. The radio turned itself on and tuned into the 680 AM frequency. 680 News was a radio station that broadcasted the news twenty-four hours a day. Kevin usually listened to the news to get the latest weather, road conditions, and events happening nation-wide, and around the world. It became a ritual whenever he woke up. "...and now, the 680 traffic report," said the broadcast announcer on the radio. "All routes heading into the city are slow going. If you happen to be taking the Gardiner, expect major delays due to construction and road repairs..." Kevin changed into his work clothing once he had performed his morning duties, putting on a newly-purchased navy blue suit for the first day of school. The professor had been looking forward to it. He spent the last week in August setting up his pictures and posters all along the walls of the English classroom, and went over the list of student names who were expected to attend his courses. Despite a general decline of interest in arts and literature, and a decrease in funding to the English Department, Kevin felt the 2039-2040 school year would be prosperous. "...here is the latest forecast from the Weather Centre: clear skies today with plenty of sunshine, a high near twenty-four degrees. Tonight, clouds will be moving into the area, light winds picking up from the north, with a nighttime low of twelve degrees. Tomorrow, expect the sunshine to last with the temperature feeling cool at nineteen degrees. Currently, it's sixteen degrees celsius. That's sixty-two degrees fahrenheit..." "Radio: off," Kevin said as he stepped out of the bedroom and into the main hallway. The time was now seven-fifty. He had to be on campus by nine o'clock to teach First Year English Literature. That shouldn't be a problem, Kevin thought, as he entered into the kitchen to make himself some toast and coffee... The drive to work was not all that time consuming. Kevin flew his hovercar south along University Avenue until he reached the turning road into the gothic St. George campus. The hovercar continued its flight along the road and approached the Faculty Underground Parking where Kevin slid his identification card in the parking robot and waited for the garage door to open. Once it was clear to fly through, Kevin manoeuvred the vehicle in the underground parking lot and located his designated spot. The wheels unfolded and touched the ground, signifying that the hovercar had now came to a complete park. Kevin got out of the hovercar with his briefcase and walked over to the elevator. He passed by other professor vehicles, including Richard's and Jonathan's. Jane was likely teaching at the Scarborough campus, and Kevin didn't expect to see her car here. "Good morning, Kevin. How was your summer?" asked Samuel Morris, a physics professor who stepped into the elevator the same time Kevin did. "Not too bad," said Kevin. "Fourth floor, please," he said to the elevator computer. "Main floor," said Samuel to the elevator computer. Then, to Kevin, "The summer has been pretty good to me." Kevin nodded. He didn't want to speak to Samuel this morning. The physics professor wasn't a bad person to communicate with. It's just that he wanted to remain quiet and alone for a bit. The Kisasian dream appeared so vivid and fresh in his mind that he could've sworn it was real. He's going to have to record the events of his dream soon. Samuel Morris got out of the elevator, and Kevin continued to ride it to the fourth floor. The English Professor stepped out into the hallway and was surprised to see what was before him: students. Plenty of students! Students that were walking about, mulling around, or just talking to a few oldtime friends. The hallways were alive once more with students. And if this was a happy sight for the professor, Kevin couldn't wait to see his English classroom! The murmurs and quiet whispers from the students suddenly stopped once Kevin entered the room. The professor was cutting it close to nine, but he usually enjoyed tensing up the first year students in wonder and suspense for their teacher. Kevin placed his briefcase on his desk, pulled a piece of chalk from his desk drawer, and proceeded to stand in the middle of the classroom. "Good morning, people," Kevin said enthusiastically to a whole group of freshman students. "I am Professor Kevin Bissessar, and this is First Year English Literature." Kevin simultaneously wrote his name and subject class code on the blackboard as he spoke. He listed his office room and hours, his university telephone number, and his email address in case the students wanted to reach their professor. "You'll find that I'm a friendly, out-going person," said Kevin. "But I must warn you, I don't teach an easy course. I prepare my students to think about what they have read, analyze the story that is presented to them, question the integrity of the characters, make an evaluation of the text, and finally, come to a conclusion where you have understood what you have read. "Since this is basically an introductory course, we'll be covering a LOT of ground this year. Areas of study will include plays, poetry, short fiction, and novels. We'll be discussing the works of Shakespeare, Chaucer, Joyce, Shaw, Orwell, and a whole bunch of other people. The themes we'll be reading about range from medieval tragic heroes to the horrors of the industrial revolution to even the illusions in modern society, and why they are necessary to cope with reality. Lastly, we'll be taking a look at some of the characters that remain popular to this day: Macbeth, Dracula, David Copperfield, Willy Loman, Kisasian, Gabriel Dublanche, and many, many more..." Kevin paused in his introductory lecture to allow the students to key in the information on their portable palmtops. "If you pull up ENG133-Books from the University Server, you'll see a list of books we'll be reading this semester," said Kevin, resuming the lecture. "Get these books as soon as possible. We'll begin discussing them as soon as Friday. Now, let's begin, shall we? What is English literature? Well, going back to the time ... " Kevin said and the students listened... * * * Jonathan brought Jane a cup of coffee as Kevin rubbed his eyes from a tiring day. Kevin felt he had too many classes covering so many topics in English Literature. He may have to ask Registrar to smoothen out his teaching schedule for the week. But no matter his feelings of tiredness or exhaustion, Kevin was glad to be back. "Thanks, John," said Jane, as she took the cup of coffee in her two hands and brought it to her mouth. Jane took a sip of the black, hot liquid before setting it aside on one of the student's desks inside Kevin's English classroom. "So you're day was pretty tiring too, eh Kevin?" "It sure was," said Kevin, rubbing a hand through his still remaining greyish hair. He didn't believe in colour-additives to restore his hair to its natural looking colour. "But like I said to Richard earlier, I'm glad to be back." "Speaking of Rich, where is he?" asked Jonathan. "He's gone down to the suit cleaning place," said Kevin. "He's going to pick up our suits that we sent for washing a week ago." Jane drank more of her coffee. "So, Kevin, tell us more about this dream of yours you had last night? All you told me on the vidphone was that Kisasian attacked you." "Yes, Kev, tell us more," said Jonathan, excitedly "I will," said Kevin. He activated a voice recording to record his speech. This way, Richard could receive a copy of the dream and Kevin could always have access to it. "It all began in the afternoon when suddenly, I hear this grinding-growl sound coming from somewhere..." Kevin continued the tale of the dream and Jane and Jonathan looked on with interest. It didn't take long to describe the dream, and the two English professors were amazed in what Kevin had to say. "...and so, Kisasian turns round after his speech about manipulating the world, runs off towards the painting and somehow, merges with it," said Kevin, wrapping up the dream. "The next thing I heard was the alarm clock going off, and then I woke up..." Jonathan took the time to absorb what Kevin had said. "Wow. That was a pretty freaky dream..." "Yeah. Kisasian even broke my Simba glass figurine." Kevin looked over to where the Simba figurine stood. It wasn't there anymore. "Simba?!" Kevin said frantically. "Where's Simba?" He placed his hand on the left top corner of his desk, trying to feel around for the Lion King figurine. Jane and Jonathan also became concerned. "You don't think anyone stole it?" asked Jonathan. Kevin shook his head no. "The burglary alarm would've went off as the student tried to leave with the object. Most of my belongings are protected that way. Including the pictures." Kevin bent down to see if Simba had fallen off the desk. "Where did Simba go?!" "Check the desk drawer," said Jane. "He might be in there." Kevin opened up his desk drawers and began searching through papers and books to try and find his precious Simba figurine. After a few minutes of tearing through his work, Kevin finally found the lion king. "I thought I'd never see you," Kevin said to his Simba figurine, as he happily positioned the lion snugly in the left corner of his desk. ". For a moment, I thought I'd lost him..." Jane decided to comment on the dream. "Well, if you ask me, it seems like we need a Sigmund Freud or a Carl Jung in here to analyze your dream," said Jane. "What was it that Jung said...? ``The inner animal tries to break free of its human confines''? I'm paraphrasing, of course." Kevin gave Jane a quizzical look. "Hell no! Kisasian's _not_ my inner animal. Maybe Hazel. Maybe Katros. Maybe even Dalvenjah. But _not_ Kisasian. That's Josh's inner animal...I believe." Kevin looked over at Dalvenjah Foxfire on his desk and took the porcelain sculpture in his hands. Just as he brought the dragon into view, he noticed some awkward scratches on the top of his desk. Kevin set aside the Dalvenjah Foxfire sculpture for a few moments and began feeling and examining the ridges on the desk top. "Guys, ... can you come and look at this," said Kevin, startled. He continued to feel the markings. They weren't deep into the smooth surface, but they were noticeable. Kevin hated to have his desk all scratched up. "This is odd,...isn't it? Four linear markings...?" Jonathan was first to feel the scratches, and then Jane. "Do you think it was your briefcase that did that?" asked Jane. "I don't know _what_ could've caused those markings,...unless,..." Kevin thought for a moment as he looked up at the Kisasian portrait. The lion glared back with fire in his eyes. /The painting never changes. You can stare at the picture for all you want, but it will NEVER change. NEVER./ "This is getting a little too weird," said Jonathan, still feeling the four linear scratches on Kevin's desk. "Check your Arthur Miller textbook, Kevin," said Jane. "See if that has any holes or missing pages in it." Kevin opened his bottom desk drawer and began searching for _Death of a Salesman_. He came across the play and examined the book. There were no indications of any claw marks on the cover, and the pages were all intact. He passed the play among his two colleagues for their own inspection. "It looks fine," said Jonathan. "Just like your Simba figurine." "And the scratches ... it could be a coincidence," said Jane. Kevin nodded. "You know....you guys are right. I'm sure these markings on my desk is just one big unfortunate coincidence..." A knocking at the door interrupted the trio of professors. Kevin approached the front door to see who it was. Professor Richard Malinson was standing outside, waiting to come in. "Hi, Rich! C'mon in," said Kevin, opening the classroom door for his professor friend. "Ah, I see you picked up the suits already." But Richard wasn't his cheery self today. "The people down at the cleaners wanted me to give you this." Richard passed some kind of insurance form and a business card to Kevin. "Something happened to your suit as they went to clean and iron it. They said that the company will pay for the damages. But I think you should see the suit for yourself..." Richard took a suit jacket that was folded around his arm and placed it on a desk. He removed the clear plastic bag and unfolded the sleaves so that everyone could see what was wrong with the suit. Kevin, Jonathan and Jane stared in shock. Just as Kevin had described to his group of friends, a diagonal slash of four sharp lines had cut through the jacket. The three professors shot their heads up at the Kisasian artwork, their eyes zeroing in on Kisasian's eyes, and their fear for the suddenly inexplainable string of events just increasing. Kevin shook his head in disbelief. "It's only a painting ... right?" he said, looking at his friends, and then at Kisasian. "It's just only a painting ... " ------------------------------------------------- Copyright (C) 1995, 1997