Sauntering into her seat Katy tried to slouch back as much as possible hoping that would make her disappear. Mrs. Easton was, to put it mildly, strict. Even If she just thought you might be attempting to cheat, she would fail your work. Katy had no choice but to turn in her incomplete essay onto Mrs. Easton’s desk as she walked in earlier. “Who would even marry someone like you?” Katy thought to herself, scrunching up her face angrily over the fact that now, on top of likely failing her essay, she was going to fail a test over the same poem.
“After I hand out the test, you may begin. There are 20 multiple choice questions and 10 short response prompts. I expect you to write a paragraph for each. You have 1 hour and 25 minutes to complete this exam and may leave when finished.” Mrs. Easton finished explaining to the room. She walked to the back of the room where she set her timer and started sorting through the piles of essays.
Katy was glaring at her over her shoulder slightly, hoping the building would burst into flames or collapse on her. Anything to end her suffering of this class. “Miss Katy, you should start your exam.” Mrs. Easton stared back at Katy, who had realized her mistake a second too late. Katy nodded and turned back to her papers. “How am I supposed to remember what happened in the “Game of Chess” section? Nobody but you would bother to know these things Easton!” Katy argued with herself silently.
At this point, 45 minutes of suffering had passed and Katy had only managed to answer a handful of questions and only 1 of the free response questions. Getting desperate now, Katy started to look around for help, “Maybe I can see something… nope… maybe over there… nope.” Katy absentmindedly glanced back to Mrs. Easton, who was now holding Katy’s paper and pointing to it while looking over her glasses at Katy. “Aww man… what do I do, she’s going to fail me after this!” Katy whined to herself. “She would think it was a great paper if she knew only as much as I did about The Wasteland…” Concentrating on that idea, Katy wanted more than anything to level playing field.
Blinking a couple times to readjust her eyes, Katy realized she was back in the void of nothingness. “Oh great, back to this place. What is going to appear this time? A giant zoo?” Just as before a mirage began to fade into place, but this time a much larger building was fading in. It still had the same architecture, but was much more massive. The sign above the door this time said: LESLIE. “Who is Leslie?” Katy asked herself.
Talking to herself in the middle of nothing, “No… it couldn’t be? Could it? Is this really Easton’s Library, just like Amber’s?” Katy tried to hold back her excitement while running up the stairs and opening the doors.
Just as before, there was an overly Mrs. Easton-Mrs. Easton Librarian at the desk. She wasn’t as exaggerated as Amber was, but still had some slight changes. This woman was wearing clothes that fit her a bit more flatteringly than the real one. ”Umm… excuse me…is this Mrs. Easton’s Library?” Katy asked the librarian. “Why yes it is. How may I help you today?” replied back Librarian Easton.
“Can you help me find what she know about T.S. Elliot’s Wasteland Poem?” Katy inquired as politely as possible. The librarian gestured for Katy to follow her. This library seemed much fuller than Amber’s, book shelves stacked higher, and many more floors to explore. The two took an elevator up to the 5th floor and started rounding corner after corner of books. “The books you are seeking are down this isle - 1st row, the green books, cataloged by experience,“ the librarian explain, “and you may find related topics to the Wasteland in the purple books behind you.”
Katy slowly reached out and brushed the spines of the books with her fingers as she slowly walked down the aisle. “So each of these is something Easton knows? Geez, she must not get out much.”
“The library contains not only knowledge, but experiences as well, Miss Katy.” The librarian corrected.
After accepting the correction, Katy had found the books she was looking for. They seemed just like ordinary old books you’d find in any library, except they weren’t dusty at all. Grabbing the first one, Katy flipped through the pages and stopped on a random page. Sliding her hand down as she read, “My nerves are bad tonight. Yes, bad. Stay with me. Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak.” Followed by chicken scratch hand writing all of the text of the page. Some notes were underlined or crossed out, but it didn’t follow any semblance of order that Katy could tell. “How is this supposed to help me? I can’t make this out. Besides there are 6 volumes of this junk!”
Closing the book and looking around further she found the books the librarian mentioned about ‘related topics’. Tilting her head to read the spines, she found her Godsend: “Wasteland Assessments”. Grabbing it as if it was an ancient treasure, Katy gently pulled it out and wrapped her hands around the book. Opening it up to the index she found what she was looking for, “Today’s Test.” Katy mutter in amazement. Now with shaking hands, she flipped to page 61 and began looking for an answer key or a cheat sheet.
Nothing… Just more notes upon notes next to general ideas. In her frustration Katy cast aside the book and grabbed the next one, same thing. Next one, same thing! “How am I supposed to learn from any of these books with how they’re written!?” Katy shot at Easton’s Librarian.
“They are written as Easton knows them.” The librarian replied back calmly as ever.
“Well… how am I supposed to know them then? Huh?” Katy argued, now letting her frustration getting the best of her. “If I don’t pass this test, I’m going to fail! Even then, if my essay gets graded, I’m still going to fail! I need to understand what’s in these books! I need to know what she knows!”
The librarian simply replied, “If you have made your selection, please follow me to the checkout counter.”
Dumbfounded, Katy sat there.
“Wait, what?!... I can check out the books?” Katy replied gathering up all the books. “Yes. You rent the book and its content. While it is out, it is yours to do with what you please.” Said the librarian.
“What happens if I take all the books?” Katy asked gesturing to the piles in front of her.
The librarian answered with, “then you would be the content holder of those books, while the library loses that content.” Katy looked at what she was holding, volumes and volumes of knowledge about the Wasteland and its test. “If I take all of it, I would be able to pass this test no problem!” Gitty with excitement now, Katy started grabbing more books off the shelves stacking them one by one.
Looking at the spines she read them while plucking them off the shelf, “Advanced Interpretation, Advanced Themes, Basic Interpretation, Basic Themes…wait….” Katy began to wonder. “If I take all her knowledge, she won’t be able to grade my essay...” Putting the basic books back Katy got up, pleased with her plan, “Let’s see how you like only having a basic knowledge of something.” Katy balanced 7 books on her arms to make her way to the librarian. “Oh Kay!” Katy said, “Let’s go check out!”
Back down at the desk, the librarian scanned each book and placed them on a secondary shelf. After scanning them she ran them through a demagnetizer and started to hand them to Katy.
“Thank you for your patronage.” The librarian said, bowing a bit with her hands together.
Katy started to collect her rental books, “No, thank you!” while making her way to the exit. After exiting the library and taking a few steps off the library’s edge it began to fade away.
Letting out a happy sigh, as if she just made a large purchase, Katy realized she had no idea how to leave again… and now with books in hand what would she do with them. “How did I get out of here last ti-”
“Mhmm... ” groaned Katy, snapping back to her desk. A few students looked over at her after making the oddly tantalizing moan. Katy blushed and glanced back at Mrs. Easton who was still starting at her with her eyes just over her glasses. Glancing at the clock, Katy noticed they were still only 45 minutes into testing. “Did I imagine that whole thing?” Katy thought to herself. “What’s happening to me…?” she worried, now thinking she might be losing her mind. She again found herself looking at Easton, this time much more covertly.
Mrs. Easton began to read Katy’s paper and lean back in her chair. Blinking a couple times, she adjusted her glasses, and squinted at the writing on the pages. After reading the first couple sentences over and over, she felt like she was reading a paper that was on par with her own masterful interpretation of “The Wasteland”. After grading papers like this for years no students ever came close to her own matured, doctorate level familiarity with such a classic piece of writing. The first paragraph was… frankly, something she herself would write. “The line ”Hurry up please it’s time” repeated over and over is an analogy for someone rushing the person who probably is running out of time.” Mrs. Easton squirmed in her chair with delight and smiled with excitement as one of her students was finally at the level that she could connect with. “Such intelligence and depth!” Mrs. Easton wrote off to the side of Katy’s paper, smiling the whole time. She continued to grade with her new novice intelligence as if nothing had changed; meanwhile, Katy sat watching wondering what Mrs. Easton could be smiling about while grading her paper.
“I’m doomed… I mean, who writes that the refrain of the barkeep yelling “Hurry up please it’s time” is someone rushing someone who is running out of time? That’s such a surface level reading interpretation. Why didn’t I write about the woman’s intent on finishing her story and how it related to her persistence towards her war torn husband… Oh, god!
“I know the Wasteland!” Katy’s eyes opened widely with a huge mischievous grin. “And not just well, like, well enough I could have written my dissertation on it good.” That last bit confused Katy a bit, as she had never written a dissertation on anything, and yet she knew that she could and, in fact, had written one about T.S. Elliot, the author.
Fidgeting in her chair to reseat herself, Katy had a new gained confidence looking down at the test. “Heh,” mocked Katy to the paper, “I know everything there is to know about this now, and it’s all thanks to you Mrs. Easton.” Breezing through the multiple choice section without even bothering to read the questions, for Katy was able to answer them simply by knowing the answer from memory of creating the test herself. “Aw, this is a good question. Nobody usually gets it, but it’s so simple if you’ve read it carefully enough.” Katy said to herself, mocking the other students in her head.
With only a few minutes remaining Katy finished up her essays for each of the free response question. Her hand was in pain, but she felt her mind wouldn’t let her answer the questions without a full, proper, answer the questions deserved. “God it feels good to know this so well!” Stretching out, Katy realized she had been so engrossed in writing she was the last one in the room besides Mrs. Easton.
Bzzzzzzz. The timer went off on the desk and Mrs. Easton signaled to Katy that she needed to turn in her paper.
“Miss Katy, I just wanted to say that you have the most thorough understanding of the poem as I’ve ever seen. You really understand poetry, don’t you?”
“Um, yeah…” Katy said rubbing the back of her head.
“The rest of these students,” Mrs. Easton continued, “clearly think they can try to bullshit their way through the work by coming up with analyses that could only be hyperbole. But you… you really grasped the meaning of the work. Just a straight analysis from you.”
As the praises continued, Katy was beginning to feel bad about her decision. This woman was about to fail the rest of the students simply because they knew more than she did! The worst part was, she didn’t even know she was now unqualified to teach the topic as she only lost the content, not the experience of teaching it. Katy had completed her test, but didn’t want to turn it in for fear of it now receiving the same treatment as her peers’ essays. With her vastly superior understanding written on the papers, Katy knew that Mrs. Easton would fail her own intellectual responses because she was too thoughtless now to understand them.
“I need to give them back.” Katy realized it was her only chance now, especially since her essay was already graded with an “A+” on the top. Closing her eyes and hoping she could revisit the library she wished to return the books.
The steady string of compliments ended and Katy understood she had made it back to the starting plane. Just as before, the library labelled LESLIE began to appear. Looking down, Katy saw the books she borrowed at her feet. Scooping them up, she jogged to the library’s front desk.
“Hello…?! I need to return these, please!” Katy shouted.
“Shh, Miss Katy, this is a library.” The librarian hushed. “Please set the books down into this slot and I will take care of them. Thank you for returning them quickly.” With that the librarian began to check the books back in, one by one. Katy watched them go through the process wondering how it would feel to off load the knowledge. Slightly disheartened by her abandoning of something she found so interesting when she understood it, Katy resolved herself she needed to do this.
Leaving the library without much of a hassle, she stepped out into the nothing and waited for her to return to reality.
“I think you and I have a lot in common, more so than you might think. Two great literary aficionados. Do you think you’d like to stop by outside of class to discuss other works by T.S. Elliot?” Mrs. Easton paused to wait for answer.
Katy felt a bit dizzy, almost lighter. She was trying to focus on the question that was just asked, but she was more startled by remember working on the test. She knew she did all the work correctly, and could vaguely remember what she wrote, but didn’t know why she wrote it. The dumbing down effect was hitting her hard. “Umm… maybe, I need to go, this test was really hard and I wrote a lot. I.. um, hope you find it… uh, enlightning.” Katy said while turning to leave class.
“I think you mean enlightening.” Mrs. Easton said, somewhat defeated, after thinking she had a new up and coming student. After all, she just gave an essay that was 5 pages short an A+ because of how great it was. She couldn’t wait to read her responses on the test Katy just turned in. Settling back into her desk, Mrs. Easton nodded in agreement with each and every brilliant answer Katy had written. “Truly remarkable, I couldn’t have done a finer job myself.”
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