Besides having its own special place in the diner, that warning postcard was the source of unending conversation, none of which came near the boring t...ruth. Sometime in the distant past, it was said, a forgotten short order cook taped it there after an inebriated regular attempted to secure financing for a meal. Someone thought the cook’s last name had been Short. Others argued that Shorty had been the cook’s nickname, given by an equally forgotten waitress. Still others claimed that the. Normally, he liked this building and the two others that were the original structures when the state university was created in the mid-19th century. Today however, Jason was in a gray funk. ‘Why did I drag my sorry ass outta bed,’ he grumbled to himself. ‘If it wasn’t for that damned Rita Jensen, and the promise I made to the T.A. to help her…’ Harry, the Teaching Assistant for Geology 101, looked up at Jason as he entered the room. “Hey Jase! Party a. . well, yielding in temperament. No waymacho. Bob says what we need ideally is an ardent sports fan whois nevertheless a 'pouffter,' to use his word. An out and outflouncing gay man. Or at least limp-wristed and bisexual." "Are you kidding? Laura, I suspect that a tough guy like TaylorMadigan would smash a flouncing gay man in the face at the first,least overture. I doubt such a guy would survive a day. Becauseif Taylor didn't wipe the floor with him, his buddies would,probably." "That's. He picked up her empty glass and sniffed the inside. Ah! he said. Oleander. After ten minutes were up, he reached into the little leather bag that Porphyria had given him and took out a black, nut-like object. Exactly as instructed, he crushed the bezoar in his hand. It left a black mark on his palm. He fed it into Porphyrias open mouth, then sat back. He watched, fascinated, as her skin flushed pink, and her eyes began to move, and her limp limbs unwound themselves, and then she began to.