I sat at my desk, waiting. What I felt surprised me. Anticipation. When had I last so looked forward to an event?

McMinnus Hall was silent, as usual. People hadn’t walked these corridors regularly for years. I heard footsteps far down the hallway from my third-floor office. They grew close, then stopped outside my door. I waited. The inevitable knock came.

“Come in.”

The doorknob turned, and the door swung open. In the doorway stood a woman not only out of place but out of time. She was tall—five ten perhaps—and thin. Sinewy was a better description. Her face was weathered beyond her years—thirty-four, was it?—yet attractive, with high cheekbones sloping to a thin chin below a wide mouth and slender nose. I was struck immediately by her hair: long, almost black, perfectly straight.

She wore a red sundress that immediately caught my eye. Whatever her strict moral upbringing, she didn’t dress in a Victorian manner. Her skin was dark, expected from life in a tropical climate, but more than just being tanned, she was radiant. I chalked it up to healthy living but couldn’t deny it added to her appeal.

“You must be Abby.”

“Professor Daniels?”

I stood. “Please, call me Creighton.”

I motioned for her to sit in a chair across from my desk and got her a glass of water. We exchanged pleasantries. I told her how much I appreciated her coming to my class. I asked how her time in the States had been so far.

“It’s…” She seemed to consider how open to be with me. “It’s hard. Life here moves so fast. So many things that people try to accomplish each day. Life where I come from is slower.”

“Yes, I can imagine.” I noticed her looking around my office.

“You have a lot of books.”

“A bit old-fashioned, I know. There’s nothing here you can’t access on the Grid.”

“So why do you keep these?”

“I like books. I like the feel of them, the fact that you’re holding something solid in your hands, flipping pages. There’s intimacy in time spent with a book.”

Her eyes met mine for a moment, then continued around the room. “I like books too.”

“You had books in the jungle?” I immediately realized that was a stupid question. “Well, of course you had books.”

“We had over a hundred books in plastic bags in our hut. I guess you could say those books were my college education.”

“So what books did you have?”

“Some Greek classics. Early church fathers. The Reformers. Let’s see…Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Darwin—”

“Your parents had you read Darwin?”

“Yes.” She paused, tilting her head. “You look surprised.”

“I am. That seems unusual for parents like yours.”

Abby shrugged. “They wanted me to be well read.”

“You had a pretty hearty education—a classical one at that. Unheard of anymore. What did you read for fun?”

“Jane Austen.”