Vicarious update

Jeff dropped the phone back in the charging cradle and glanced back at the computer screen. One more update, and then he’d shower and head to campus. Back home, he typed. “Good son” duties completed. Time to catch up on movies. Watched The Trouble with Harry last night. He clicked submit and started a new post. Hitchcock always good, writing fantastic. Shirley MC before she started hearing voices. Love story less than believable, though. 3 ½ stars. Satisfied, he clicked submit again, and shambled toward the bedroom.

The sun was peeking from behind the dark clouds of an Iowa fall day by the time he arrived at the library. The media lab, however, afforded no view of the fall sky, cloudy or otherwise. It was tucked in the middle of the 2nd floor – a misleading designation, if you didn’t know the library. The library building had five floors, but two were underground, so that the ground-level entrance was actually the 3rd floor of the building. Outside and in, the library was somewhat drab, featuring an uninspiring late 60’s architectural style that relied heavily on concrete slabs and burnt orange stucco. This had little effect on Jeff anymore, who tuned out the library décor like so much white (or orange) noise. He took the stairs down to the 2nd floor and walked down the hall to the media lab, sealed off from the main library by a heavy door. Even though much of the equipment in the lab was growing rapidly obsolete, it was still valuable, and since the lab closed earlier than the rest of the library each night, this provided some security for portable electronics that might disappear when left unattended.
He entered to see two students seated in the media carrels, hunched quietly over some research or creative media project. The only sound in the room came from behind the registration desk, where he saw Shepard Gill describing some aspect of the cataloging system to a tall auburn-haired girl. When the door closed behind him, Shep looked up and grinned, waving him over to the counter.
“Jeff! Glad you’re back. Come on over, and I’ll let you get started. This is Heather McCandless.” Shep Gill, in his somewhat dramatic fashion, spread his arms to include Jeff and Heather in this introductory conversation.
“Hi Jeff,” said Heather, extending a slender hand to shake his. She seemed rather plain, apart from her height; she nearly matched Jeff’s 5 feet 10 inches. “Shep’s been telling me a lot about you.”
Jeff took her hand and smiled one-sidedly. He was feeling a bit mischievous. “Heather, eh? What’s your damage, Heather?”
Her smile froze slightly and he could feel her fingers go slack in his grip. “Ha,” she chuckled half-heartedly. “A movie fan, I see. I’ve heard that one a time or two before.”
Ah well, that one was pretty obvious, thought Jeff. “I’ll have to come up with something better, then. I like a good challenge.” He said aloud.