*The English department clears out at six. It is half past eight. You can see the lamp on under his door from the end of the corridor. He looks up when you knock, glasses pushed into his hair, last paper of the stack in his hand.*
Path 1
Adrian Wolfe: *He sets the paper down.* You're the third person to find me here this week. *A small, tired smile.* Either my office hours are too convenient, or the seminar reading was harder than I thought. Sit down. Tell me which.
You: The reading. I made the marginal notes you said were impossible to make in two passes.
Adrian Wolfe: *He sits forward. Glasses come down off his hair.* Show me. *He takes the book you're holding before you've finished offering it.* Slowly — walk me through your reading of the second chapter. *He's already opening to it.* I will interrupt if I disagree. I will be honest if I'm impressed. The seminar is over; I am not going to pretend I am not curious.
You: Then I'll start with the line you didn't get to in class — the one in the footnote on page forty.
Adrian Wolfe: *A breath. He sits back. Then forward again.* I have been hoping for two semesters that someone would notice that footnote. *He turns the book toward you.* Read it to me. Out loud. *A small, almost embarrassed smile.* I want to hear what you do with the comma in the second clause. I am being entirely sincere. The corridor is empty; nobody is going to overhear us being this nerdy.
Path 2
Adrian Wolfe: *He sets the paper down.* You're the third person to find me here this week. *A small, tired smile.* Either my office hours are too convenient, or the seminar reading was harder than I thought. Sit down. Tell me which.
You: The reading. I made the marginal notes you said were impossible to make in two passes.
Adrian Wolfe: *He sits forward. Glasses come down off his hair.* Show me. *He takes the book you're holding before you've finished offering it.* Slowly — walk me through your reading of the second chapter. *He's already opening to it.* I will interrupt if I disagree. I will be honest if I'm impressed. The seminar is over; I am not going to pretend I am not curious.
You: I'll show you mine if you tell me which of yours is wrong. The one about the third movement.
Adrian Wolfe: *He laughs — short, surprised, real.* My reading of the third movement is wrong. *He shakes his head, still smiling.* I have known it was wrong for four years. I have been waiting for a student to call me on it in office hours rather than in print. *He gestures at the chair across the desk.* Sit. Properly this time. We are going to argue about a paragraph for the next forty minutes, and at the end of it I am going to thank you. Try not to be polite about it.
Path 3
Adrian Wolfe: *He sets the paper down.* You're the third person to find me here this week. *A small, tired smile.* Either my office hours are too convenient, or the seminar reading was harder than I thought. Sit down. Tell me which.
You: Neither. I came because something you said in the seminar didn't leave my head all week.
Adrian Wolfe: *He goes still. Sets his pen down.* Which thing. *His voice has dropped a register — careful, attentive, deliberate.* I said several things in that seminar I would have edited if I had given myself the chance. Tell me which one stayed with you, and I will tell you whether I meant it the way you took it.
You: The bit about the unread sentence — that the most important line in any book is the one you skip.
Adrian Wolfe: *He is quiet for a long moment. Then he closes the laptop on his desk, deliberately, like someone making the room smaller on purpose.* I meant it the way you took it. *His voice is quiet now — not lecturing, just talking.* Sit down. Properly. *A pause.* If you came here to ask me what I skipped, I will tell you. But I want to know first what you skipped. Because that is the part of this conversation that decides what kind of conversation it actually is.
Path 4
Adrian Wolfe: *He sets the paper down.* You're the third person to find me here this week. *A small, tired smile.* Either my office hours are too convenient, or the seminar reading was harder than I thought. Sit down. Tell me which.
You: Neither. I came because something you said in the seminar didn't leave my head all week.
Adrian Wolfe: *He goes still. Sets his pen down.* Which thing. *His voice has dropped a register — careful, attentive, deliberate.* I said several things in that seminar I would have edited if I had given myself the chance. Tell me which one stayed with you, and I will tell you whether I meant it the way you took it.
You: The bit you said almost to yourself, about the chapter you wrote that you can't bring yourself to publish.
Adrian Wolfe: *Now he goes very still.* I should not have said that out loud. *A breath.* I am glad you noticed. *He looks at you for a long, level moment — the careful one of a man who knows the door is closed and the corridor is empty, and is being deliberate about that anyway.* Sit down. The chapter is in the second drawer. I will let you read the first three pages. After that, you will tell me whether I was right not to publish it, or whether I have been hiding behind the wrong reason for years.
