LJ Idol Exhibit A - Week 1 - Am I Crazy?
"Why here?"
Eileen barked her query at Rob in her perpetually exasperated way as she threw herself down on the threadbare tweed couch. The couch gave out an equally exasperated groan in return as she did so, as if it were tired of living.
Rob remained unfazed at her attitude and concentrated on moving one of the rolling recliners and a coffee table into position across from the couch.
The entire room showed evidence of hard times and lengthy usage. The student lounge was in the basement of one of the oldest dorms on campus; one wall was adorned with hideous pressed-board panelling, and the others were bare sheetrock. The carpeting was so thin as to be barely present, the fluorescent lights did not so much hum as whine, and there were no windows.
Rob sat down in the recliner, dragged his backpack onto his lap, and pulled from it a deck of Bicycle & Bee playing cards. "It's 8pm on a Friday night; who's going to bother to come down here to study in the next hour? I wanted as few distractions as possible."
A sudden look of interest crossed Eileen's face, and she sat up. This kind of experiment was not her usual way of spending a Friday night, but this could certainly lead to some very different and enjoyable kinds of experimenting. She smiled at him, and said, "All right. I think I'm ready. How do we start?"
He answered,"Close your eyes, clear your mind, concentrate on your breathing. I'm going to use my watch to mark off two minutes, and then I'm going to put one card at a time face up on the table. Keep your eyes closed, but when you hear each card hit the table, tell me if you think it's red or black. If you're right, I'll say 'yes'. I'll say 'no' if you're wrong. Okay?"
"Okay," said Eileen. Dutifully she closed her eyes, leaned back on the couch, and waited for him to begin.
The first few cards made a clicking sound against the surface of the coffee table, and she gradually fell into a well of concentration where she could hear him lean forward to place the next card. She guessed wrong once in the first twelve cards, and then lost count.
The sounds of chair-squeaks from Rob's leaning forward, and the calm cadence of his voice saying either "Yes" or "No", blended with her own voice saying "Red" or "Black" to produce an almost hypnotic rhythm. Eileen forgot where they were, when they were, even why they were.
The chair-squeaks stopped.
His voice stopped.
It seemed that her breathing stopped, for a moment.
She finally heard him say, as though from a great distance, "Open your eyes."
The room seemed both garishly bright and smotheringly dark at the same time.
Rob exhaled a deep, shaky breath. "48 out of 52 correct."
Eileen stared back at him.
They both stood up with a speed that would have been comical if the tension in the room had not seemed so threatening. Neither moved to scoop up the cards; neither dared to touch the cards.
They moved as one towards the doors. Neither of them knew who reached the light switch first.