A Forbidden Love

Chapter One-3

“Do you stay in touch?” I asked.

“No, we began to drift apart near the end of the semester. I was interested in the theater and he was a jock. I think that it is important that in order to have a meaningful relationship, both people should have the same interests,” she responded.

“I could not agree more,” I said as I continued to focus on her beauty.

“What are your plans for the rest of the day?” she inquired.

I thought that I would make some points. “I intend to spend the better part of the day reading the play a few times.”

“Do you mind if I join you?” she asked.

“Not at all,” I responded. After we had another cup of coffee, we stood to leave. “Where would you like to do this?” I inquired.

“Come over to Jenkins Hall, I am in room 306. Do you know where that is?” she asked.

“My dorm is Baker Hall,” I said.

“Jenkins Hall is right next door,” she pointed out.

“I’ll meet you there in ten minutes,” I assured her.

Now that I am experienced in having s*x, I wondered to myself if we would do anything besides reading the play. As I passed Greta’s room, her door was closed. I went into my room and picked up my script. As I passed Greta’s room on the way out, I could hear voices coming from within. When I walked onto the street, I looked to my left and then to my right. There were dorm buildings on either side. I turned to the left and took a chance that that was Jenkins Hall. In big bold letters across the top of the portal was Murray Hall. I turned and walked in the direction of the other dorm building. A student was coming out as I approached the second building. “Excuse me, is this Jenkins Hall?” I inquired.

“Sure is,” the student responded.

I took the elevator to the third floor. The sign directly in front of me as the elevator door opened indicated that room 306 was to the left. It was about three rooms down from the elevator. I knocked on the door. Ilka opened the door on the second knock.

“Come in,” she said.

Ilka’s room in contrast to Greta’s was more expensively furnished. She had a real knack for decorating, I thought. Everything was so neat. I could tell that she was a real perfectionist. There was a table with two chairs. We sat at the table and faced each other. For the first hour after the initial salutations, we just silently sat and read the play to ourselves. Then Ilka broke the silence. “Would you read a scene with me?” she inquired. The scene was between her and the boy in the play. We ran the scene. Then she asked me to run it again. This time she intended to do the scene without reading from the script. She had memorized it word for word. Ilka was a real professional.

I somehow knew in order to gain her respect; it was going to be a challenge. I determined that the “narrator” in this play was the most difficult of all the parts. There was no one to play off of like the other characters. I was going to be out there all by myself. It was all going to be in the vocal delivery. It was going to need a lot of variation. My goal would be to have audience members and the critics alike, say they could listen to me read a telephone book. Now that I knew what I was going to do, I intended to have Ilka coach me. She had the experience. I was intent on taking advantage of it. Learning my lines was just a matter of reading the monologues over and over until I burn those words into my memory. It would not require my having to depend on another actor or actors to feed me my cues.

I asked Ilka to listen to my reading and critique me. Ilka had a good ear. I intended to take her direction. We spent the rest of the day learning scenes and memorizing. At this rate, we probably would be the only two actors in the play that would already have memorized their lines before the first rehearsal. I wanted to impress Professor Surino. Ilka said even though we had memorized our lines, we would not be off book for the first few rehearsals.

“The director at the first few rehearsals gives stage directions and blocking. It will be necessary to write those directions and blocking into our scripts and memorize it along with our lines,” she instructed.

I was really having a good time with Ilka. Before I knew it, the time had flown by. We decided to call it a day. We walked down to the dining hall and had dinner. We managed to get the same cubical that we had had for breakfast. As we were sitting there, I noticed Greta walking by with some guy. She was really into her conversation and she did not notice me. Seeing Greta made me feel a little self conscience. It was like we had been an “item” and we broke it off. Or still worse, I was cheating on her. I knew that was not the case. Greta said that we would get together at another time. Then the thought passed through my mind that maybe she was just planning on using me for some perverted reason. What the hell, I thought; if that is the case, we can use each other. I was not sure I wanted to commit to anyone during my first year in college. I would just let nature take whatever course it might take. Besides, who knows where my relationship with Ilka is going to go.

The next day was going to be my first day of classes. I wanted to get a good night’s sleep. My head no sooner hit the pillow than I fell into a deep sleep. I had this erotic dream that I was making love to Greta and Ilka at the same time. It was my first ménage a trios. When my alarm clock went off, I was hornier than anytime I could remember. It was six o’clock. I took a shower, got dressed and walked over to the dining hall to have breakfast. My first class was scheduled for eight o’clock. The building where the class was going to held was about two blocks away. As soon as I finished breakfast, I went back to my dorm, picked up my class schedule and my text books. I wanted to get to class early to make a good impression.

The first class was American Literature. As I walked through the portal, I saw Professor Surino sitting behind her desk. “Good morning, Mr. Mason, please take a seat,” she instructed.

I noticed that she was going through the text book and making notes. Within a few minutes, several other students came into the class and were likewise requested to take a seat. At exactly eight o’clock, Professor Surino stood and began to write on the blackboard. She wrote her name, the title of the course and listed some dates when she expected to see term papers turned in. She also listed the dates of mid-term and final exams. Then she turned and addressed the class. “I am passing out a syllabus that all of you need to refer throughout the semester.” On the syllabus and in addition to books that we were required to read were the dates of the play she was directing. She stated that she expected everyone in her class to attend one of the performances. She said that questions about the play would be on the mid-term.

I looked around the room to see if I could identify anyone else who might be in the play. I was the only one. I guess what Greta said about getting a good grade from Professor Surino should be forthcoming. She began the class and I must say she was a very good teacher. She made the literary characters she was teaching come to life. It was as if she knew these people. She was also very dramatic. I imagined that she was a very good actress. Although she was at least fifteen years my senior, I found her to be very attractive and sexy. I knew that I was going to get to know her a lot more casually during the rehearsal period. I was really looking forward to our collaboration.

The rest of the day went without incident. I had two more classes and they were all introductory courses. A lot of the material that we covered in those other courses; I had already studied at my private high school. The next day was a repeat of the first day. I had a four credit course in biology and introduction to college chemistry. I also had a lab for two hours. It turned out to be a full day. The assignments were beginning to pile up. It was becoming apparent that there was not going to be a lot of free time. The third day of classes was a repeat of the first day, whereas I had all the same courses. That evening right after dinner, I reported to the Fine Arts Building to attend my first rehearsal.

A few of the actors were already in the auditorium sitting in the first row. There was a seat available next to Ilka and I sat down.

Professor Surino arrived, walked down to the apron of the stage and faced the actors. “I would like to begin,” she said. “Today’s rehearsal is just going to be a read through. I usually do this to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to at least read the play once before we begin the blocking. So turn to the first page. We will begin with the narrator.”

Ilka had instructed me to underline all of my lines. She said that it would make studying the script easier. I began to read. To hear the various voices of the actors reading their lines, the play began to come into focus. Hearing Ilka read and playing off her counterpart gave her scenes a whole new dimension.

After the first act, we took a short break. Professor Surino look pleased and she gave us a few short notes. The rest of the reading in my opinion went very well. At the conclusion of the rehearsal, the professor reminded us to bring pencils with erasers to write down our blocking. Then Professor Surino said that she would see everyone the next evening at the same time. Ilka turned to me and inquired if I would like to come back to her room and have a glass of wine. I decided to exercise good judgment. I turned down her invitation. I had lots of papers and readings to do for my classes. I was not sure where the evening might lead, but I was sure that there would be opportunities to explore in the future. So I begged off.

When I returned to my room, I started right in researching and writing one of the more difficult assignments for biology. After a few hours, I could not keep my eyes open. I checked the alarm clock and ensured that it was set for six o’clock. I got into bed and fell into a deep sleep. There were not any dreams this night. I was completely unconscious until the alarm went off and brought me back to life.

The next weeks were an orientation of sorts. It was going to classes every day, rehearsals a few evenings a week and spending the rest of my time working on class assignments.

After several weeks, it was time for opening night. To say that I was nervous would be an understatement. I had one good thing going for me. I did not have to stand in the wings and wait for a cue line to enter. I began the play. After saying several of my lines, I calmed down. I could hardly wait to get back on stage and continue my delivery. The cast got a standing ovation at the curtain call. Professor Surino was ecstatic. She congratulated everyone. When it came my turn, she gave me a big hug. Then she invited everyone back to her house for a cast party. The ages of the cast varied from eighteen to twenty-four. Professor Surino lived on campus and had a very nice house. The interior of the house had this look that one would expect of a college professor. Some of the older cast members brought their favorite hard alcohol and wine. The Professor provided a large wash tub of beer that had been iced down.