Silver Currents of Change

Chapter 9

On his cell phone while watching Zarah straightening the posters, Marcus knew she was worried about the numbers. He was worried too, but he knew she felt responsible for everything. She was worried the building's five-hundred-seat first-floor auditorium wasn't the right choice for the day's keynote speech, because if there was a record turnout that morning, there might not be enough seats for all the guests. And a record turnout was definitely possible, since the keynote speaker was someone famous; someone students, faculty, staff, administrators, and millions of readers all around the state and nation admired and looked up to.

"Gotta go," he said to his roommate. "See you later." Still looking at the young woman he was pretty sure he was in love with, he thought maybe they should have booked the arena. But the three-story daylight lobby was such a warm and welcoming place, they didn't want to go too far away from it. They chose the first-floor auditorium, together, over the three-thousand-seat arena upstairs that occupied the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors of the Student Union. The GCV, the "family room" of the campus, was a magnificently designed eight-story structure with a variety of environments dedicated to entertainment, shopping, relaxation, and social interaction. But it was so big it could be a bit overwhelming if taken in huge chunks. After talking it over, they decided on the smaller, more intimate area on the ground floor for most of the day's events.

"How's it looking in the auditorium?"

Zarah looked spectacular walking toward him in a gray suit that showed off her curves and her long, shapely legs. She was seriously stunning as well as cool, calm, and collected. She didn't have to say much, because he could feel her cringing. He wished she wouldn't worry so much all the time, but he knew she was a perfectionist. "It'll be fine. I'm sure," he said, even though he wasn't really sure at all. "It's nearly packed in there, but all the high schools are here, and so are most of the guests we invited from around the campus. We didn't publicize the speaker, so ... I think we might be okay. A little overflow won't be bad. We knew it might be a 'standing-room-only' event if we invited him, right?" He smiled inside when he saw her breathe a sigh of relief. Now that he'd calmed her fears, it felt good being her hero. Even if it was for only a few precious minutes. She turned him down every time he ever asked her for a date-date, but he knew she liked him. They went out together sometime as friends, but not as potential lovers. She always insisted it was because he was a fraternity brother of her ex-boyfriend, and she told him every time he asked her out that she would never date, romantically, a pair of frat brothers. She always said, just like in the Spike Lee movie "School Daze," she was sure "frats" told each other stuff and compared notes, and that she wouldn't be one of the "conquests" they got to talk about. And even though he would never kiss and tell when it came to her, he told her he understood.

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A few minutes later they were peeking outside, watching the front doors while waiting for Harvey Wilson, when a group of whites, possibly students, walked past the GCV heading toward the Quad. The Quad was a cement-covered, park-like entertainment and gathering place in the center of the campus, where students got together for outdoor events and activities, to mingle, or even to be alone—perhaps to read or just watch the day go by, before, between, or after classes. The group of young white people walked to the center of the structure and sat down, either on the walls or on a nearby covered bench.

"I've never seen that many white students together before on campus." Frowning, Zarah's eyes were fixed on the group.

"Me either. Hmm. I guess all the recruiting of white students is working, huh?"

"Looks like. You know, I'll never understand why a school founded to educate people who were denied an education in this country for hundreds of years, now has to recruit people who were never denied anything, including an education. It's a new form of racism, trying to turn it back on us, as if we've been discriminating against them for hundreds of years. It's bat-shit, stark-raving crazy when there are thousands of black folk they could be recruiting. Why is this happening? And why are we just putting up with it?"