So it was “Cecilia,” was it! The perfect name for an angel.
That evening Steve forgot all about his daily motorcycle ride. A walk was the thing instead, he decided. Just what he needed to settle the queasy feeling in his stomach. So he picked up an impressive-looking volume from the top of his desk and strolled as nonchalantly as possible out of the room. Ted looked on with mild surprise. He wasn’t used to seeing Steve move with such urbanity.
Well, where should he go on his walk? He could walk across the campus past the women’s dorm to Old Main. Then he could walk down the hill, circle around through the woods, come up again on the trail behind the women’s dorm, and walk past it to the library. If he was still in the mood for a walk, he might just as well stroll from there over to the chapel well beyond the women’s dorm and back to the music hall on the other side of the women’s dorm. And, of course, there was that nice old bench to sit on halfway between the music hall and the women’s dorm in the event he needed a little rest by then. After that he could saunter back to his room past the women’s dorm and the science hall. Yes, that sounded like a good workable plan—lots of good healthy exercise!
“It would be good for me to do this every evening after supper,” he told himself halfway through the first lap of his little trek.
As it turned out, he never did get as far as Old Main, for just as he was approaching the women’s dorm, the door opened and out came Cecilia with an armload of music. Steve stopped in his tracks. Be danged if his fool shoelace hadn’t come undone! He bent over and fumbled around with it for a few moments. By the time he had rectified the situation, Miss Cecilia was slowly making her way along the arbored lane not ten paces in front of him.
Her head was bowed slightly in thought. Steve could tell that her mind was working on something, perhaps one of the pieces of music she was carrying. She was in no hurry. Gracefully making her way along the path to the music hall, with the setting sun playing in her golden hair, she did look very much like a celestial visitor to earth. I myself had often seen her in just such a disarming pose and truly wondered if she was of earth or of heaven.
It was only a couple of hundred yards from the women’s dormitory to the music hall. In less than a minute she turned to the right onto the short walk that doubled back a bit and led to the entrance of the great fortresslike edifice. This gave Steve a very good look at her face. Suddenly he was caught short of breath. A lump formed in his throat. Luckily, he wasn’t far from the old bench where he could sit down until he got his wind back.
The cacophony of sounds pouring out of the windows of the dozens of practice rooms in the music hall that evening flowed together for Steve into a glorious symphony.
Leaning back into the bench, Steve reasoned, I think I’ll just read this book for a few minutes here before it gets too dark.
He opened the book and gazed off into the distance. Little matter that what he was holding was a dictionary. Littler matter still that it was upside down!