The Proposed Prophecies

Liv already felt an accomplishment of some sort when she pulled into the parking lot of the University. She gathered the textbooks that she had purchased a week ago when she received her schedule and instructions and glanced at the mass of students entering the long and wide white building. The whole campus was surrounded with palm trees and perfectly cut green grass. She wished she could just stand there in the middle of the campus sidewalk and stare at the way students moved around the campus property. The light wind smelt of salt from the ocean and it felt as if it was sticking to her body as it passed by.

She had a whole year of university in front of her but the countdown to finishing had finally begun. She felt peaceful, despite thinking that she would have to leave Evan once she graduated and went travelling. It had been only a week since he had entered her life but already she felt a flicker of something inside her when she thought of him. Each time he looked at her or touched her she felt as if time stopped.

“Nice car,” Said a young woman as she passed by. Liv wanted to explain that it was a car borrowed from her rich aunt and she would never be able to afford such a lavish car. It was so shiny and perfect, with comfortable white leather seats and electronic buttons inside that controlled other buttons she hadn’t worked out the purpose of yet. But she responded with a simple thank you as the truth did not matter anyway. No one knew her, not one student that passed by, not even the woman who made the comment. She could create a whole other life for herself, a whole new story and no one would ever know there was a little girl who had once spent her time fearing her father’s voice.

She passed multiple classrooms through the sophisticated hallways of the university. It didn’t have the sloppy look of the public high school buildings anymore, but a look of seriousness and responsibility that came with the progression to adulthood. The students walking by peacefully holding their books and schedules made her already feel older than she actually was. The school smelled of both old books and coffee.

“Class 127.” She read her schedule again to make sure she had the correct number, before entering the already packed classroom. Most of the seats at the long wooden tables had already been taken and the only one that was left was a seat on the front row.

Liv knew that no one wanted to sit in the front row for fear of seeming too keen and becoming the first person the Professor would ask questions to. According to his online review, Professor Harper was one of the best in his field but had zero sense of tolerance for uninterested students. But that had never discouraged Liv who could not hide the occasional smile on her face for just being there, in Professor Harper’s class. She took the seat in the first row and looked at her phone as it vibrated. It was a text message from Evan asking if she wanted to go to his apartment for a dinner later on. She wondered what his place looked like inside and perhaps if she would find anything that would say something more about him.

Suddenly Prof. Harper entered the classroom walking quickly and not saying a word. He grabbed a marker and wrote his name on the board which caught most of his student’s attention. Liv took a more constructive look at him once he turned around, and compared him to the picture she had seen in one of the books written by him that she had brought with her. His appearance on the professional picture on his book seemed put together. His gray hair was decently brushed to the side, he had no facial hair and was wearing a nice black suit top. But the man standing in front of her had messy hair with overgrown facial hair that reminded her more of a beard, and wore a simple wrinkled shirt tucked in jeans. He looked at the class and she noticed his glasses, which were pretty much the only thing matching his picture from the book.

“Get Out!” Liv jumped as he raised his voice at the guy in the front seat who sat right beside her and who appeared to be browsing Facebook. Professor Harper’s voice was deep and alarming, without even shouting. “Anyone wants to follow him?” he raised his eyebrow and watched as the young student walked out of the classroom nervously.

“Your attention is crucial” He added and cut straight to talking about the topic of the economic crises that were becoming a major issue worldwide. The retail chain stores were shutting most of their branches leaving many people without an income, and this was only the beginning of the problems; the end of the scalding summer was followed by more closing stores and banks and the crash of big companies.

“The bubble popped,” said Professor Harper, who was convinced that the economic crises were never truly fixed and most governments only repaired it temporarily, leaving most of the issues still in the bubble. He said he believed the issue was about to become far bigger, as America became more in debt than it had ever been before.

His words reminded Liv of the earlier phone call she had had with her mother who had recently lost her job, like many others across the world. Liv had felt guilty ever since, because she was here in Miami, rather than Stockholm. She was overwhelmed by the thought that she might need to leave university and move back to Stockholm until the situation got better, despite her mother insisting that she stayed in Miami and finish school.

She was so stuck in her thoughts that she hadn’t realized the Professor was looking right at her.

“Are we just a bunch of blind followers?” He raised his voice and was standing right in front of her, tapping his right foot against the linoleum floor with his black sneakers. She wasn’t able to react to what he was saying as she hadn’t been listening for the past ten minutes. Once her mind finally acknowledged the reality and she came out of her reverie, Professor Harper slowly walked away. She exhaled and relaxed. So far, walking away was the kindest response the Professor had shown in the past hour. He threw more students out of his classroom during his first class than any other Professor would have during a whole school year.

“I want a three page essay related to the current economic crisis due by the end of the week,” he ordered as the class looked back at him in disbelief. Professor Harper appeared to be one of those teachers that lived for teaching and pushing his students to use their creativity and brain to create something meaningful rather than just letting them pass the class.

“I want you to put your opinions, brains, hearts and souls in this essay. I have instructions on the assignment on this sheet. Please take one before you leave the class.”

Liv lowered her head, pretending to gather her belongings in order to avoid the other student’s eye contact as they were leaving the class room. She felt that her new classmates would most likely blame her for the upcoming project since Professor Harper had never mentioned any essay until he noticed her lack of attention. “Good start, Liv,” she thought out loud and placed her notebook and book into the white bag she got from Amy and waited for most of the students to leave.

As Liv approached the Professor and took the assignment paper, he grabbed her hand. “Interesting set up of birth marks on your wrist,” he said. Once he realized his inappropriate touch he appeared ashamed. He apologized and released her hand. Liv felt relieved that he was just interested in her birthmarks and there was no other more physical interest.

“I saw this circle crossed in half on a young woman here in Miami years ago. Hers was on the back of her neck”.

Liv suddenly remembered Evans’s strange interest in her mark as well and that it was not the first time someone had noticed her unusual shape of small birth marks. When she was in London last summer, a homeless woman grabbed her hand and warned her it was the mark of the evil.

Liv never believed in such, and therefore never paid much attention to it. But Professor Harper seemed very interested in it. “May I?” He took his reading glasses from his messy hair and took a better look at it. His face looked worried and Liv started to feel uncomfortable.

“Liv.” A young female voice called from the back of the classroom and interrupted the strange energy that flowed around the professor and Liv. She looked back and saw Carmen, the girl from the plane, walking down the stairs. Her long, curly, dark hair bounced with each step she made. Liv was happy to see a familiar face in the classroom despite Carmen’s lack of communication or interest on the plane that day.

“Carmen was a sociology major but she was also fascinated by Professor Harper’s class. She appeared to have sort of a crush on him which was an unusual choice for a tough girl like her. She seemed as if she would like bad boys and not middle-aged professors fascinated by prophesies and writing instead. But attraction cannot be chosen and the Professor was pretty much the only guy fully unavailable to her; he never looked on any of the female students in my class as more than just a bunch of young kids that were more interested in social media than the actual class.

There was something about Carmen that always made me feel as if I had known her longer, perhaps as we had met before in some previous life, if there was such a thing. She always appeared tough. She never believed in true love but somehow I felt that she secretly wished to have that special connection with someone one day, no matter how hard she tried to deny it. We all did. The hunt for love was a part of human nature, and we all secretly wished to locate our soul mates, our “better half”, they used to say. Perhaps we wanted too much, not realizing that we needed to forgive and to love our own self at first before allowing others to fill the other half…”

Liv accepted the coffee break suggested by Carmen at the local small coffee shop underneath Carmen’s apartment. She rented the apartment from the owner of the coffee shop for cheap. She said she used to go there a lot and that they had the best fresh brewed coffee in the city. It was truly small, with only few small tables for two and a bar with an older man that prepared the coffee and boxed the desserts and baked goods that people seemed to go for. Liv noticed that in only an hour he had sold at least fifteen of the desserts, especially the one with coconut layers.

He was more interested in his flat screen TV than in Liv’s and Carmen’s conversation. The place had a smell of the coffee shop in Stockholm where Liv used to go with her sister. It was also small and mostly empty as people would just take their orders with them instead of sitting down to eat there. It also had the best coffee and desserts in the city.

Liv was fascinated by Carmen’s story of how she had lived on her own since she was fifteen. She appeared free, without any problems or worries, just like John, who she had met at Tiffany’s party. Liv wondered what could have been the secret to not caring about things and being able to move on so quickly. Maybe people had to be born with this special skill. She felt care-free only when she travelled and wrote - which she always did alone. But once people were around what continued to plague her was a feeling of judgement from others and the worry about whether she had said or done the right thing.

“You should never care about pleasing others… trust me, they don’t deserve it.” Liv felt that Carmen had a hard eggshell exterior that needed to be cracked to see what was underneath.

“Anyway. Soon I have to look for another job. The grocery store where I work is closing.” Carmen moved her lips to the side just like she had on the airplane the first day she had met her.

“What are you going to do once they close?” Liv asked and saw Carmen slowly bringing the white coffee cup to her lips. But she didn’t take a sip, she just held it in front of her and stared at it.

“I don’t know yet. But I am not really worrying about it. It wasn’t a job for me,” Carmen said and finally sipped from her coffee and closed her eyes for a few seconds in satisfaction. Liv perceived Carmen as a person who always followed the flow of life instead of the rules of society, rules such as paying your bills on time. Carmen didn’t seem to worry about money or the future.

As Liv drove back to Amy’s house from the coffee shop she thought of Professor Harper and his talk about the crises afflicting the world. She had never really noticed all those bankrupting stores before, but now, as she thought about it, she remembered being at the mall with Tiffany two days ago and seeing a lot of signs in shops announcing big sales as a result of going out of business.

As she pulled into the long, paved driveway that led to Amy’s property, she noticed Jake’s car. She hadn’t seen him for a week and neither had she seen his car. But he must have been there. Suddenly, Liv did not want to go inside. She sat in her car for at least five minutes before she realized she was being silly and she needed to be care free just like John and Carmen and leave whatever was bothering her behind.

She entered the house and Tommy’s voice boomed. “Liv!” he yelled gleefully. He hadn’t seen her in a while and ran into her arms.

“Guess what? Dad is back and he promised to spend the whole week with me.” Tommy seemed happy but Liv did not want Jake there for the whole week. “That’s great,” she said, placing him down.

Jake was approaching her. Her heart started to race and it suddenly felt hot inside the house, despite the frigid air-conditioning

Jake rushed Tommy upstairs and told him he would be right there. Liv got the sense that he wanted to talk to Liv alone and it terrified her. She couldn’t imagine what he could possibly want to talk to her about. Perhaps he wanted to talk about Eve or the time she accidentally bumped into him, she thought, as she watched Tommy going up the stairs and holding on to the stair rail; the stairs were still too big for his small feet.

“Ashley is doing worse.” His sudden words left her speechless. She thought that Ashley appeared to be coping better during these past few weeks and she could not understand what could have happen.

“Why?” It was all she was able to ask without bursting into tears.

“I am not sure. I think that’s just how it goes with the disease. She has been moved to this room to make it easier for the nurse who will be coming in each day and moving in, if needed.” Jake pointed at the first room on the left and did not say anything else after. His face seemed sad and tired, as if he was lacking energy. He went upstairs and Liv stood in the hallway and watched him. She wanted to go to her room and cry but each step she made felt painful, as if she suddenly had to carry a big, heavy rock on her heart.

She walked to Ashley’s room instead, which was only three rooms away from hers, and opened the door slightly. Ashley was laying in bed. The room had a lot of machines that monitored her heart and pulse. They made a depressing beeping sound every two seconds. Amy sat on the small sofa she had put there so she could spend more time with Ashley. She stood up and placed her index finger to her mouth to sign for silence because Ashley was sleeping. Liv waited for Amy in the hallway. Amy was pretending to be strong and Liv was sure she was faking it. Her eyes were red around the edges, making the hazel color of her eyes pop. “I have something for you in your room,” she said. This was unexpected. Amy started to walk towards Liv’s room. “Are you coming?” Amy raised her voice as Liv stood there. Amy appeared to ignore the situation or perhaps she just didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for her, Liv thought. She walked behind her and once they entered her room she noticed a mid-sized FedEx box. “What is it?”

“I have ordered Jason’s belongings to be shipped from Ney York and they came today. Sorry I hadn’t done so earlier, I know you have been wondering about him but it was just a busy summer for me,” said Amy.

“That’s ok. I know.” Liv placed her hand on top of Amy’s shoulder and slowly hugged her. Liv felt like Amy could have fall apart at any second in her arms but she held on to her like she’d never held on before. Liv wished she had some kind of special power to make the pain and illness go away, to give Ashley the healthy life she deserved.

“I am going to go get some rest,” Amy whispered, and walked out of the room. Liv could clearly hear she was about to cry. She watched her walk outside through the entry door. Liv knew that Amy was going there to smoke. She caught her smoking for the first time three days ago. She had a spot next to her driveway that was close to Liv’s window.

Liv turned off the lights and waited for Amy to appear next to her window again and light up her cigarette. She was exhaling and inhaling, leaving a cloud of smoke to move up into the skies. Liv watched her the whole time and realized how that last year of school hadn’t even truly started and it already felt heavy with the probability that Ashley would die. She imagined how hard it must be for Amy, who looked like she lived each day in fear that this would be the day she lost her child. Parents should never feel such awful pain, she thought.