At the Discovery Center

by Kevin Adair

Saturday afternoon at the Discovery Center, an institute for adult continuing education. Thirty students sat listening to a lecture about travel writing and schemes to fly or eat for free. In the row second from the back, a young man in a white T-shirt squirmed in his seat. He lifted the pen from his desk and reached around to scratch the center of his back. However, he used the writing end, and the ink cartridge was not retracted, so it marked a crooked circle on his shirt. Much of the back row noticed, and looked at each other uncomfortably. He stopped, and they relaxed. But then he started again, drawing a larger crooked circle. The woman closest to him reached over and lightly tapped his shoulder. He used his empty left hand to brush off where she had touched as if it had been a fly. He remained oblivious to our attention, his own marking, and her attempt to help him. But, he managed not to further mark himself for the rest of the class.