Harlan is late.
I know that he's been busy lately, but he is never late. And of all days to leave me, a junior TA standing at the front of a class filled with seniors, standing where he should be standing – well, the first day of classes is basically a worst-case scenario.
To make things even worse, I haven't even seen him yet.
I returned to campus only the evening before, but Harlan has been out of town, only returning that morning. From there, he's had to jet off to meetings. He is sparsely available by phone, mostly only to inform me that there will be no time to catch up until after our first class together.
But thus far, he hasn't even shown up to that.
I feel wrong standing at the front of the classroom without Harlan there, essentially as his substitute.
I couldn’t have felt m
