The Professor's Daughter

Maria lugged the stack of books from one arm to the other. She dodged past fellow students who threatened to knock the texts to the floor. Thank goodness it was finally Friday. University was finished for another week and even though she suspected her father might have messed up the flat simply to keep her busy, at least she didn’t have to worry over classes for a couple days.

“Maria. Maria?” Came a voice from far behind.

She peered around precariously, seeing Susie bustling through a group of loud students to get to her.

“Maria, wait up!”

Maria stopped and furrowed her brow at the positively happy expression on Susie’s face as she approached.

“Ah, finally.” She breathed, resting her hand on Maria’s shoulder and confusing her even more. Was that a smile? “I wanted to catch you before you left.”

“Well, you did.” Maria stated plainly with a small smile in reply.

“Clearly. I just had to check you were still going to the Student Dance tonight. You are, right?” Susie glanced back down the corridor before resting her expectant eyes on Maria.

Maria dithered under her stare. “I wasn’t too sure actually.”

“Oh no, you must come. Please. I know I’ve been a crap friend of late, but tonight we’ll have fun.”

“I, err, I don’t….”

“Please, Maria. It’d mean a lot to me, I’ve been a little down in the dumps recently and if you came tonight it’d really cheer me up. You have to come.” Susie gave Maria her best puppy dog eyes.

Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt, Maria thought, it would certainly take her mind off of other things. And she had missed Susie being a proper friend, perhaps she really had put whatever had caused the upset behind her. And perhaps a night away from the dingy apartment and her demanding father would do her good.

“Sure, I’ll be there.” Maria smiled.

“Pinky promise?” Susie held out her hand and Maria couldn’t help but laugh and link her free finger.

“Pinky promise.”

“Excellent.” Susie looked again back down the corridor and Maria was about to attempt to follow what she was looking at but Susie turned back. “Look, I have to go. But I’ll see you tonight.”

“Okay, bye...” Maria waved her hand as Susie took off hastily in the direction she’d come from. “Peculiar.” She muttered to herself as she lifted her books up to stop her arm from practically dropping off and headed back in the direction of the exit.

“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry.” She mumbled as she collided with another student whilst turning the corner.

“Maybe watch where you’re going next time.” Came a voice that made Maria really not want to look up from picking up her scattered books from the floor.

Hesitantly, she peered up at Margaret Richards (definitely not a student), who was eyeing her with the disgust that Maria was something stuck on the bottom of her best Jimmy Choos.

“S-Sorry Miss.” Maria picked up her books and pulled herself back up to her full (measly in comparison) height.

“Yes well, God gave you two eyes, use them.” Margaret gave a wry smile before clacking past her.

“Settling in well I see.” Maria mumbled before taking a deep breath and finally heading outside into the late afternoon sunshine. The air felt so nice and fresh as she gratefully breathed it in, her eyes drifting shut for just a brief moment to allow herself to relax.

Now that she was in more of a distressed state, the only thing to worry about was catching the right bus home. Professor Ludwig knew the exact bus Maria needed to get right after classes finished, he knew the exact time it got her to the bus stop a street or so away and he knew it took just under three minutes to walk the distance from there to their front door.

“Right, here we go-“

“Maria? Is that….”

“Not again.” Maria whined quietly. Wasn’t she allowed to simply go home today?

“Maria?!”

She glanced up and saw a woman walking over; her blonde hair pushed back, her skin a shade darker then Leighton’s.

“Oh hello Adele.” She smiled politely.

“Afternoon.” Adele grinned as she halted in front of Maria, her five-year-old daughter running along behind. “I was just popping in to try and see Tom and thought I recognized that curly hair and cheekbone structure, after all I envied it the whole time you came for lunch.”

Maria felt a blush escape even just a little. She wasn’t used to taking compliments. “Well, thank you.”

Adele waved her hand coolly. “Just thinking aloud. How’ve you been?”

“Alright, thanks.” She half-lied. Times had been better. Times had been worse. “Yourself?”

“Oh, you know, same old, same old. I’ve been trying to get hold of Tom for a while now with no luck, I thought maybe I could catch him here. Is he around, do you know?”

Maria shook her head in a way that implied that she merely hadn’t seen him not that she’d been over thinking why he hadn’t been teaching or at the University for the past week.

“Fantastic.” Adele sighed, her expression one of deep thought.

“Anything I can help with?” Maria offered, after all it was the polite thing to do.

Adele shook her head as she bit at a polished nail. “Actually,” She begun, her gaze dragging up to Maria. “I don’t suppose you’re free to talk for a while?”

“I kind of-“ Maria objected.

“It won’t be for long. It’s just Thomas, he hasn’t been answering my calls for almost two weeks. I’m a little worried about him. Would you mind?”

An image of her father sat watching the mantel clock flashed through Maria’s head before she pushed it aside. The genuine concern on Adele’s face for her brother was enough to make her disregard Ludwig for an hour or so. And anyway, she too was anxious over what had happened to Leighton.

“Not at all.” Maria grinned and motioned to the grass lawn at the front of the university. The pair sat down on one of the benches whilst Adele’s daughter, Jasmine kicked at the fallen autumn leaves and attempted to do a roly-poly.

“Crikey, they sure do give a research assistant a lot of work.” Adele observed as Maria placed the books down in between them, confused for a slight moment before she remembered the story her and Leighton had concocted a couple weeks back.

“Keeps me busy.” She brushed away and focused the attention back to what was at hand. “When did you last see, Tom?”

“Not since you came to lunch. What about yourself?”

Maria rubbed the back of her neck nervously. “About a week ago, I think.”

Although there was no thinking that needed to be done. Maria remembered exactly the last time she’d seen Leighton in the corridor precisely a week ago, she remembered it all…

She passed him the glass, hoping he didn’t notice her shaking hand and noting the way their fingers brushed over one another as she handed it over.

“Was that at John’s retirement do?”

Maria nodded. “They announced the replacement.”

Adele clapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh no,” She moaned, shaking her head. “I completely forgot that was happening. I’m guessing he didn’t get it.”

“No, it went to someone else.”

”Margaret Richards.” Daniels’ voice was a little shaky and quiet as he leant forward again. “Congratulations my dear.”

“No wonder he hasn’t called, how did he take the news, do you know?”

Maria shrugged and pulled a face.

“I don’t know for sure. I didn’t really see him afterwards...”

“I’m so sorry.” She whispered in his ear but he only entwined her deeper within his arms in reply.

“You moved out?”

“Back home.” Maria corrected. “It was only ever supposed to be temporary.”

“Well, I guess that helps explain it.” Adele stated. “I’ll just have to bang on his door until he answers next time.”

“Was he not at home?” Confused and anxious, Maria asked.

“He might be but he hasn’t answered the door when I’ve called in, that’s why I came here.”

“I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.” Maria told not only Adele but herself as well. “It’s only been a couple weeks, and you said yourself that he’s sometimes not the most sociable of people. Perhaps he just needs time alone to get over it.”

Adele sat back against the wooden slats. “Maybe you’re right but you can never be too careful with Tom.”

“Why do you say that?”

“It’s just things that have happened.” Adele shook her head but her simple brushing over of the topic made Maria even more curious.

“What things?” She probed further, her fingers curling around the edge of the bench as she leaned forwards.

“It’s not really my place.” Adele bit down on her lip apprehensively.

“Please, Adele. I wouldn’t be asking unless I was worried myself.”

Adele seemed to think it over for a moment or so before sighing and sitting up straight again. She looked around herself as if to check Leighton wasn’t going to pop out of a tree and shout ‘ha, caught you in the act’.

“Ok… well… I guess I should start at the beginning. When I got pregnant with Mikey I was very young, nineteen or so.” She began and Maria felt a little guilty for pushing her into telling a story that seemed to discomfort her so much.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Maria offered.

“No, no, I do want to tell you. Anyway, Tom must have been about seventeen or so at the time and Mikey’s father was a boy named Steve or Steve-o as his mates would shout. We hadn’t been together long, a few months or so. He was all right, rough around the edges, couldn’t handle his drink and knew how to talk the bark off a tree. I don’t really know why I went with him, maybe to rebel a little from my father, maybe because I thought I could fix him, uncover the sincere man hidden behind the façade he put on for his friends.

“But that didn’t matter when I found out I was pregnant. I was so shocked and scared, I didn’t know what to do. So I kept it a secret. Steve began to notice after a couple months, so he asked about why I’d put on so much weight of late and somehow I told him. I told him that I was having his baby and how scared I was and I told him how I couldn’t do this alone, that perhaps we could be a little family…”

“What did he say?” Maria asked tentatively, placing a comforting hand on Adele’s arm as she focused on her fidgeting hands. Adele looked up at Maria, her eyes a little watery.

“He said no. Was I crazy? He wasn’t about to start being a father, he had his whole life ahead of him, he told me. He didn’t seem to realize that so did I, just now there was going to be a baby in it sooner then planned and I wouldn’t have the same choice that he did. But I was just so frightened about it all, I mean I had a human being growing inside of me, so I begged him to rethink. It made no difference though. He chucked me out, handed me some money and told me to get an abortion.

“But I couldn’t, Maria, even if this baby was messing my life up, there was no way I’d get rid of it.” Adele’s eyes were wide and desperate for acceptance. Maria merely nodded her head, both surprised by the story itself and how quickly Adele had opened up to her.

“So, I went back home and told my family I was having a child and the father wanted nothing to do with me. It was horrible, sitting there at the dinner table, their eyes all on me in shock as there food went cold. I remember it was Dad who spoke first, he started shouting at me, the whites of his eyes clear and that vein in his forehead throbbing as he yelled.

“He said I had to go back to Steve and make him accept the baby, he didn’t want a boy growing up without a father. And whilst I agreed on the latter, I knew it wasn’t fair to force myself on someone so unwillingly. I remember thinking, why ruin two lives with a mistake? So I said ‘no’, if Dad couldn’t accept it then I’d do it all alone. So I got a job and moved into a flat of my own.”

“How did Tom react to it all?”

Adele scrunched up her face and shrugged.

“I wasn’t too sure, at first. He’d always been a quiet child, he just got quieter. I don’t think he knew what to say to me to be honest. He’d come over and visit once or twice a week. Sometimes his friend Robert would visit as well, they’d known each other for years and years, we used to call him Bobby as in Bobby Brown. He was a good kid, quiet and shy, made Tom seem loud. Everything was going alright.”

Maria could already hear the ‘until’ in her voice before she said it.

“Until a few months later. I got a call from a hospital payphone, it was Tom. Him and Bobby had run into Steve and somehow they’d ended up fighting. Tom can be quite… protective sometimes and I knew Bobby had always had a soft spot for me. Anyway, Tom had been hit badly in the ruckus, his head was bleeding and once Steve had left, Bobby said he’d go and get some help but he didn’t get that far.”

“Why? What had happened to Thomas?”

Adele shook her head slowly and brought her eyes up, full of sadness and a hint of guilt.

“It wasn’t Tom, it was Bobby. He’d run out into the street in such a hurry that he forgot to look.”

“He… died?”

“Not straight away, that was the worse part. The hospital kept him in for a while, ran tests, checked he was all right and then sent him home. Tom would visit him everyday at his house, they’d play video games and watch films but Bobby was never quite the same and then one day he took his afternoon nap and never woke up.”

Maria breathed out the air she’d held in.

“Tom was a mess, he wouldn’t talk, eat or do anything. How do you think he became so skinny?”

Maria smiled a little at the light joke. “I just thought it was an annoying hereditary trait.”

“I wish but no, he just shut himself off completely from everything.”

“And that’s why you’re so worried over him.”

Adele nodded. “It was horrible, he took so long to recover and then other stuff happened and now, well, he’s only just gotten back on track. I don’t want it to happen again.”

Maria was fairly certain she knew what Adele meant by ‘other stuff’ but she ignored it and let her mind wander to the little girl tugging on her mother’s hand.

“Alright, not long now sweetheart.” Adele soothed, pulling her daughter onto her knee and patting down her mussed hair. “Have you gone your separate ways?” She asked.

“Hmm? Sorry?”

“You and Tom? You’re not together right now…?”

Maria shook head. “Not at the moment.”

She savored the moment; the warmth of his skin, the feel of his cotton shirt as she knotted it in her hand, the way his fingers pressed against her face, the incredible feeling that had overcome her.

“Do you think you’ll get back together?”

“One day, hopefully.” Maria gave a dejected smile. “If he’ll still have me.”

Adele grinned and rested her cheek against Jasmine’s soft hair.

“He’s not going to turn you away, Maria. Trust me. You made him happy again. If he had any sense then he wouldn’t throw that away.”

The pair stood up and headed back over to the University exit.

“Thanks Adele.” Maria smiled. “For telling me what happened to the pair of you, I know it can’t have been easy to say it all outloud again but it meant a lot to me.”

“Oh, it get’s easier. You’ll let me know if you hear from him, won’t you?”

“Sure.”

The pair exchanged numbers and Maria watched as Adele walked away, her hand gripping her daughter’s as they jumped onto the pavement with a giggle.

It was amazing, how strong one person can be when they need to. Maria couldn’t even begin to understand what Adele really must have gone through, bringing up a child on her own. And then Leighton, the terrible story of his best friend and then followed by her father’s wrath. How was he able to pull himself back up again and again?

Perhaps strength was something that ran in the Leighton blood.

Maria sighed heavily and turned to the bus stop, seeing the 32A ready to pull away. She hoisted her books and made a run for it, just hopping on the vehicle as the doors closed behind her.

The flat was quiet as she pushed open the door, the radio turned down low as she spotted her father fast asleep and snoring in his chair. Maria slipped in and gently pushed the door closed before tiptoeing through to her mother’s room.

The wardrobe held only a few items one of them being the one that sprung to Maria’s mind as she’d sat on the bus earlier. She pulled out the hanger as a swathe of turquoise blue fabric followed after.

It was just as beautiful as she had remembered it to be when her mother had worn it to University Dinner Dances back in Rostock. Maria pulled off her own clothes and carefully zipped up the fragile fabric. The dress fitted perfectly and she couldn’t help but sway round and round in front of the mirror.

Sure, Adele’s story had played on her mind the whole bus ride back and it was understandable that it would stay there for a while to come. Maria would allow the right time to go through it all in her head and process all of what Adele had told her. And sure, her father would never allow her to go out if he knew.

But for now, Maria needed to focus on tonight, where she would get back the friend she seemed to be losing recently.

At least she hoped so.