Chapter 3

"I hate it!"

"Hate what?"

"These requirements!" Rachel gestured at her screen. "Why should I have to do a term of 'Australian Texts' before I can take 'Myths'?"

"Because whoever was on the Eng.Lit. Committee never imagined that there'd be anyone who wanted something out of the run-of-the-mill. Did you think of doing it backwards?"

"Backwards?"

"Do the beginning of anthropology and art history and then approach the director of studies in English about studying the mythology course. I'm willing to bet they'll be thrilled to let you in."

"You're so devious!"

"Of course. I'm going to select the anthropology courses to get into history by the rear door. These people seem to think the students are sheep. Well, I'm a python. I can slither among the sheep's legs."

"Can you help me map it out?"

"Of course. Let's try it out and we can go and submit programmes tomorrow."

It was the first real week of February. We'd found a two bedroom flat and bought mostly used furniture. I'd insisted on a new bed. We'd shopped for bed linens and towels, for pots and pans, for plates, bowls, glasses, cups, and cutlery. And cleaning supplies and a Hoover. There were blinds on two of the windows, but Rachel wanted curtains. There were a half-dozen cartons of books and some clothes en route.

"Let's go out for some lunch first."

"What would you like?"

"Miyama on King Street."

"Okay. Japanese it is. We can just walk over."

"Don't be so smug."

"Hunh?"

"I admit you were right. So I'm now registered for only one first year course and two senior courses."

"You'll have to work hard. Don't get bogged down in the institutional formalism."

"Right. So, what did you end up with?"

"Modern Europe, Australian Politics and Economics as a Social Science."

"Three different departments!"

"So are you."

"But mine are all myth and culture?"

"And history, economics and politics have nothing in common?"

"But we're not taking anything together!"

"We're living together."

"True. What do we do next time?"

"Next time is easy. We each have 18 credit points for them to bump their heads against. So when I want to enroll in Indigenous Australia, I've got the prerequisites. And when you want to get into a Religious Studies course, you've got the 'or equivalent... '."

"Oh."

"I learned how to be aggressive and to think around corners. Despite everything, you're still too meek."

"But... , but Pat ... you're not aggressive."

"Only when I need to be. You'll see when I get you back home."

Rachel giggled.

"Something's wrong with Charlie!"

"Charlie?"

"Charlie Grant. From Texas, remember?"

"Oh, yes! Is he sick?"

"No. He's okay. It's something else. I can't tell exactly. Hand me my mobile, I'll call home ... Hi, Mum ... No, we're fine. Really. I just sensed there was something amiss out west ... No, it wasn't you, nor Rachel's folks ... It seemed like Charlie, but not him at the same time. Okay, you talk to Dad and have him phone ... Of course we're both studying ... Talk to you later."

"So we just wait?"

"Yes. I'm going to read some economics. What's on your plate?"

"A thousand words on chained women."

"Hunh?"

"Andromeda was mentioned in the myth class and I asked why men wrote about nude women chained up at the mercy of sea monsters. So he told me that was my essay topic."

"Who's the other woman?"

"Angelica in Orlando Furioso."

"Never read it."

"I've only read it in translation. It's a lot of fun."

"So what are you going to say?"

"Oh, that's easy. He's a virulent anti-Freudian, so I'm going to write about suppressed lust and the two serpents as transformed male sex organs thrusting at the nude female."

"Simplistic."

"Of course. But you pointed out years ago that baffling the teacher was easy. So, here it's baffling the professor. Anyway, I think it's supposed to be comic or satirical in Orlando anyway. Here's a gorgeous maiden, sister of the king of Cathay, chained to the rocks and threatened by a monster and this bloke Roger flies up on a hippogriff, releases her, she gets up on the steed with him, and they fly off. Roger lands in a grassy clearing and starts getting his armor unbuckled so that he can have at her and Angelica takes the opportunity to run off into the woods. I visualize Roger as chubby and trying to run after her while his trousers are around his ankles."