Moving in day…
The idea would have bemused him if this had not been one of the busiest times of the year for him. Schedule changes, academic advisor meetings, course adjustments…everything compounded so quickly this time of year. And while his office door remained open and the refreshing breeze traveled through the clean room from his opened window, he was no where to be found.
Rather, he was standing outside looking out over the students, determining from this crowd the most likely students to succeed. He remarked at the nature of students who busied themselves, consumed by their work, watched as others used this institution as a social gathering, and still watched as others turned to Shiro to escape something in their lives. His straight back remained rigid and it was not until he heard the voice of his secretary that he turned towards her.
“Mister Bortniansky,” the secretary spoke politely, “your two o’clock has finally arrived.”
Nodding, Mathias remained wordless as he strode back into the pristine office. No papers cluttered his desk, no shelves with books lined his office, all that could be found was the polished top of the desk, a few chairs, and a decanter of water sitting off to the side awaiting to be poured to a tempted student.
Standing silently in the open door, Mathias analyzed this student who stood there impatiently awaiting his arrival, expecting him to be there despite the fact that she was ten minutes late to their scheduled meeting. Huffing, she texted her friend on the latest and trendiest phone, available only to those who had the means. Her perfectly done blonde hair hung and it was not until she waited a minute that she grew too impatient to wait any longer and turned to storm out of the room with the intentions to send an angry email to the department demanding they fire the man for his lack of availability. Nearly plowing into the solid form before her, she stopped and startled. How long had he been there? She could have sworn no one was here and she had already convinced herself that she had been waiting twenty minutes for this man, but here he was, a solid brick wall of a man before her and he was hardly what she expected for a class in sociology.
Her bafflement took her off guard for a moment as the professor motioned towards the seat wordlessly. Not only did he seem out of place as an ‘academic’ with his military demeanor and uniform, but the way he stood there silently without explanation unsettled something within her. For a moment, she herself complied with his unspoken command and took a seat, the image of his set face burned into her mind.
And it was not until he walked towards the desk himself and poured them a glass of water that she regained her composure and flew into a fit of rage.
“You are late! I waited thirty minutes for you!”
He was silent as he extended the glass towards her and took a seat behind the desk.
“Is that all you are going to say!? Just wait until my father hears about this. You will be looking for a job cleaning up garbage if you are lucky!” she retorted while taking a call from the phone in her hand that began to ring in the middle of the rant.
“Yes Jeanenette. I will be there shortly. Yes. No, he was late. Oh my goodness Jeanette, my father is going to be so pissed! Yes! He was late! This is unbelievable. I know, let me call you back. He’s here now,” she hung up the phone while turning her scathing sharp eyes towards him. Brushing back her hair, she let her artificially enhanced cleavage protrude from the open top she was wearing. “So I have to take some sociology course and this is the only open one. Just sign me up for it whatever.”
Silence resumed as Mathias watched this girl turned back to texting her friend and it took her almost a half a minute until she realized he was not answering her and turned her impatient eyes back to him for only a split second until she received another text. “Are you retarded or something? Well…?”
Wordlessly Mathias opened the desk drawer and removed a set of papers neatly organized and clipped together about the course requirements and authorizations, already signed for her to add this class…with everything including her signature added to the authorizations.
She scarcely noticed as he slid the packet of papers her way and resumed sitting back in his chair waiting for her response. “Is that all?” she did not remove her eyes from the phone as she grabbed the papers and went to leave.
Mathias nodded and watched as she grabbed her purse and left, causally looking at the papers on her way out. He remained at his desk, his gloved hands folded as he waited. Forty seconds. It was all her attention span could contain. And like clockwork, she was back in his office wielding the packet of papers like a weapon.
“WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!? How the hell did you get my signature? A liability consent? A release consent? What the hell is this? Do you know who I am!?” she threw the papers on the desk before looking up to see him for the first time.
It was then she noticed the horrific twisted scar that ran from ear to ear across his neck and suddenly the thought of his silence became an unnerving thought within her. Could he talk? She tried to remove her eyes from the scar to look at him angrily in the eyes and threaten him with her father’s fortune and power, but she stood transfixed by the deep purple nature and thickness of that scar. That thought that she had missed it in the first place had baffled her and it was not until he stood up and handed her the packet of papers again that it all fell into place.
She had signed the papers…he was standing there at that petition holding the packet of papers for her to sign. She thought they were petitions for animal rights, for student rights, for campus policies. And it dawned on her that she never even looked at what she signed. And here he was, already ten steps ahead of her as if he knew her next move, holding the papers for to take…the unspoken command between them. You are taking this course.
And she found herself unable to resist that command as she took the papers and looked at him with a new light. Had he known all along what she would do?
She wanted to rage at him, call her father right then and there and get him fired, but he stirred within her something she could not place…it was something she had never known before. It was her decision to make this time and without realizing it she had already made it. Silently she took the papers and looked at them blankly, intending to read them thoroughly back at her house. Her anger was boiling though as she walked out of the room in a haze, unsure of what had just happened, of how he had gotten her to sign all these consents without her realizing it. She wanted to get him fired, wanted to destroy whatever he was attempting to do here, and yet, she was too intrigued by this man to follow through with her shallow threats. The man had a silent authority. It was something she never witnessed and part of her could not help wanting to know more…at least to find out what he was attempting here and use that to take him down.
Meanwhile, Mathias turned back to his window and looked across the open expanse. It was still busy and students were mulling about just as much as ever, but he stood there as if he might have been the only one there, staring out across the land as one might expect to see a lone surviving soldier gaze out at the remnants of a battlefield.