Chapter Four

First Meeting

“I hate February,” complained Zaid.

Nell ignored her, while she looked at her list of topics to discuss: reason for the paper, logistics of getting paper published and distributed, content, advertising, financial backing, and miscellaneous.

“So why am I here again?” the whiny Zaid asked.  She sat across from Nell, in the living room of Cullen’s studio/house.  Techno-flavored jazz music entered the room from the open windows.  Zaid’s watched beeped 3:00 PM.

Cullen quickly opened the door from his workspace, and walked methodically to one of the chairs.  He sat down, slowly, and didn’t look at anybody.  His long, straight black hair looked as if he hadn’t showered in days, and his clothing had the fashion of twenty years ago.  Zaid noticed the set of his jaw was like something she saw in a human biology textbook.  She looked at him as if in a bored stupor.  “Are you gonna talk today?”

Without looking at her, he shrugged his shoulders.  She smiled because he was learning body language in that class that taught him those kinds of things.

Nell looked up from her notebook at the two of them.  “Culhwch will speak when he needs to.  That should be enough.”

Zaid felt like Nell stabbed her in the face with that clinical statement.  The way she pronounced Cullen’s proper name was a strike against Zaid.  She didn’t remember being in any contests with Nell, though Nell surely asked for one every time she met with Zaid or Helen.

A woman screamed, followed by a man shouting loudly.  People in the other studios cheered, and made noises like they had been keeping track of how many people encountered Cullen’s house.  Someone banged loudly on the door, and Zaid immediately got up to answer it.

Helen was in the entrance, puffing, and holding her chest like she was having a heart attack.  Phil tried to hold her by the shoulders and reassure her that the world has not just ended.  Zaid remarked loudly, “How long until somebody dies, trying to get into your…house?”

Cullen replied, “I thought that you would.”

His comment stunned everyone, including Nell.  She looked angrily at him.  “You really mean that?”

“She is high-strung.  I thought that she would go into shock and have a, nah, coronary.”

Zaid lost her temper.  She gave Cullen the middle finger, pushed Helen and Phil out of the way, and charged out of the house.  She came back in almost immediately, suddenly realizing that she may not find her way out of the building alive without some escort.  She stormed into the kitchen across from the living room, and began opening and slamming drawers, looking for something.  “Dammit!  Don’t you keep knives or rolling pins in here!”

Cullen shrugged his shoulders.  Nell got up and walked to the kitchen.  There was a brief struggle, and Nell led Zaid out of the kitchen.  Zaid held the back of her neck, and winced.  Helen forgot her own ordeal getting into Cullen’s house, and slowly walked with Phil to the center of the living room.  Everyone who was standing then sat down.  The air, heavy with controlled emotions, seamed to be breathed in and out like lead through a siphon.

Nell spoke, “All right.  We need to talk about this newspaper idea.  Does anyone have any immediate questions, before I get started?”

Zaid looked away for a moment, then returned her glance.  “Yeah, I feel like a hostage.  Why is this paper so important?”

“It’s time that all of us make known what has happened to Phil and Culhwch.  The University has gone beyond stupid, and is acting maliciously.”

Helen repeated quietly, “Maliciously…?”

Zaid remained puzzled.  “How’s a newspaper going to do that?  Why a paper?"

“It’s simple.  Newspapers can be read.  You can read it before class.  You don’t need to have your laptop on, and the print never goes away.”

Cullen said, “You’re assuming that people are going to pick it up in the first place.”

Nell looked surprised again.  “Yes.  I’m assuming that.”

Phil wasn’t convinced.  “Why would someone pick it up?  Headline: Two students get screwed.  Nobody will care.”

She smiled.  “Phil, you should know how to grab people.”

“A catchy headline will only go so far.  Most people don’t have much patience.”

“So, it will be kept catchy.  You should know how to write interesting stuff.”

“I’ve been trained to talk to people who read newspapers.  Not everyone does that.  Certainly, not most here at school.”

“Don’t be cynical.”

“I’m not, ‘cuz that’s the truth.  Don’t believe me?  Look what happened when the Daily San Antonian folded.”

“DSA sucked; The Radical won’t.”

“What?  You already have a name?”

Zaid jumped in.  “Because you won’t have journalism majors running the show.”

Offended, Phil remarked, “What do you mean by that?”

“You shouldn’t have insiders run the show unless you have feedback.  Engineers shouldn’t design cars and then convince people to buy them.”

Helen cocked an eyebrow.  “That’s interesting.  Why?”

“I’ve seen it happen at the dealership.  Some car that had everything going for it except a market.  It flops.  It’s a pure engineering exercise, and only engineers buy it.”

Nell realized that the collective IQ was rising.  “That actually makes sense.”

Zaid was unconvinced.  “Know your market.”

Cullen added, “Get a market.”

Helen smiled.  “I’m the business major.  I should know about these things…”

Nell asked, “But…?”

“I’m not in the marketing emphasis.”

They sat for a while.

Cullen suggested, “Why not show naked people on it?  Americans dig that.”

Zaid emphatically said, “No.”

Phil and Helen joined.  “No way.”

Nell put the eraser end of her pencil against her chin.  “Got any better ideas?

Cullen remarked, “I have a small penis.  Better have Phil be the guy.”

Everyone shouted, “WHAT!”

Amid the noise of unanimous disapproval, Helen got the first word through, “Phil’s dick isn’t all that great either!”

Phil raised his hands in frustration, and got up.  He walked out of the house.

Zaid couldn’t contain her outrage.  “You can’t have nudity on a public newspaper!  You think this is porn, here?”

Nell didn’t say anything for a while.  She looked at nothing in particular, in the general direction of Cullen.  He just stared, as he usually did.  She knew that he wasn’t looking at her.  Together, they were the eye of the storm in that living room.

When she became aware their holy moment, she got up.  “Shut up!  All of you!  None of you – go nowhere!”

Helen and Zaid froze, fingers and mouths held in position where they lasted vented their righteous indignation.  Nell ran out of the house, and retrieved Phil, who had been standing at the doorway to the studio.  He liked the way the door seemed to be the only normal thing, in the whole University.  His desire for normality became full, when Nell touched him on the arm.

He felt warm again.  Not the stuffiness of the architecture studio, but the kind of warm that he feels like a good shoulder massage.  He felt dreamy as Nell led him back into the house.  Even the circus of the entry didn’t faze him.

Nell sat everyone down and proceeded to finish the meeting: Cullen’s idea was noted, and needed no further information.  Anyone feeling that the idea is inappropriate—Zaid, shut up—needs to submit his or her own.  Phil was assigned to figure out a way to use the equipment in the now-closed section of the Journalism department.  Helen and Zaid needed to either start writing articles (no more than two each), and start interviewing people in the classes that Culhwch is in.  Culhwch, everyone, see you next week.