For my sophomore year of college I put in for a room assignment in Maynard Hall, and I got it. Maynard was one of the oldest dorms on campus, small, ivy covered, with a reputation for being studious and quiet. All of that suited me fine. I hadn't liked the rambunctiousness of my freshman dorm and was looking forward to a more grown-up and serious sophomore year.
According to the computer printout, my roommate was somebody named Alex Bradley, also a sophomore, majoring in art history. As long as he was studious and quiet, I figured we should get along just fine.
By dinner time on check-in day Alex still had not arrived. I chose one of beds and one of the desks and was in the midst of organizing a few of my things when there was a knock at the door. It was a young woman with dark blond hair and a big suitcase. She seemed a little surprised to see me there. She looked at the paper in her hand, and then at the room number on the door. "Two forty one?" she asked.
Maybe it's Alex's girlfriend or sister, I thought. "Two forty one," I confirmed. "Here, let me give you a hand."
"It's all right, I've got it." She came in and put the suitcase down by the empty desk. "I've still got a couple boxes downstairs."
"I'll come and help." She was wearing blue jeans, a white top, and a black beret. She was almost as tall as I was, with a healthy complexion. Pretty, in a girl-next-door kind of way.
"Our bus was delayed," she said as we headed down stairs, "But at least we made it." There were two boxes. I took the larger one.
"Are you here in Maynard too?" she asked as I was closing the elevator gate.
"Yeah," I replied. "I was in Kimberley last year, and didn't like it so much. I thought a smaller dorm might be more conducive to scholarly contemplation." Kimberley was the freshman dorm, a sprawling, raucous madhouse.
"Me too," she smiled. "I'm so glad I got in."
Not only does she know my roommate, but she lives in Maynard, too, I thought. The semester suddenly seemed a little brighter with the possibility of seeing her around.
"So what room are you in?" I asked.
"Two forty one," she replied. "I'm Alex Bradley."
I stopped short. "You're Alex Bradley?"
"Is there a problem?"
"Well, it's just that I'm supposed to be in 241 too. I'm Tracy Kidwell. I thought maybe you were Alex's sister or girlfriend."
She looked at me and then looked at her printout. Tracy Kidwell, sophomore, history. She looked back at me. "They don't put boys and girls together in the same room, do they?" she asked, afraid that maybe they did.
"It's got to be a computer mix up. The check-in desk is closed for today, though. Let's see if we can find one of the RAs."
We left the boxes in the hallway, found the RA, and explained the situation. He said we couldn't do anything to straighten it out until the morning, but that we should talk to the female RA on the first floor to make temporary arrangements for tonight.
"Thanks, Tracy," Alex said. "I can take it from here."
I put the boxes into 241 for safekeeping. Although this was every sophomore's fantasy, to get a female roommate, it surely never happened in real life. The computer must know the gender of every student. There must have been a human error somewhere along the line. Alex could be a boy's name or a girl's name. So could Tracy for that matter. Well, hopefully the RA would be able to straighten everything out.
A few minutes later Alex knocked again. "Hi," she said, "It's just me, your roommate." She was making a joke, but she blushed all the same. "I'm going to stay with the RA tonight and try to figure things out in the morning. I just came for my suitcase."
"I moved your boxes in here so they'd be safe."
"Thanks. Do you mind if they stay here over night?"
"No problem. In fact, when you think about it, I guess this is just as much your room as it is mine."
"Thanks. I'm sure things will work themselves out." She had a pretty smile.
---
The next day was Orientation and this and that, and I didn't run into Alex until the afternoon, coming back to the dorm.
"Hi, Roomie," I called. "Any luck?"
"Oh, hi," she said. "Not so much. Maynard is all full up, and, in fact, there's a waiting list. There are waiting lists for all the older dorms. The only place with any vacancies are Tressider and Kimberley." Tressider was the largest dorm on campus, and the biggest party dorm.
"Even after you explained the mix up?"
"Can you believe it? They were very apologetic, but they insisted that mistakes do happen. Since there are vacancies in other dorms, they didn't see it as a big problem."
"That's not fair. They assigned you to Maynard, and now they're telling you that you can't live there?"
"That's what they're telling me."
"But wait a minute. You have as much right to 241 as I do. Maybe there are vacancies for guys. Then you could have 241 and I could move to another room."
"I don't think there are," she said.
"Still, let me check. Do you have someplace to stay tonight?"
"I'm going to stay with a friend up at Tressider. Listen, you could do me a favor, though. Would it be OK if I kept my stuff in the room for one more night? I don't want to have to lug it all over campus."
"Sure," I replied.
"By the way, they gave me a key. I already brought my suitcase back up from the RA's room. I hope you don't mind."
"It's your room too."
At the room she opened her suitcase on the empty bed and transferred a few things to her backpack.
"Look," I said. "I'm really sorry you're having to go through all this. I'll check tomorrow and see if there is anything I can do. If I don't run into you I'll leave you a note on the desk here."
"OK," she said. "Thanks for being such a good sport."
---
The more I thought about it, the guiltier I felt about hogging the room for myself and making Alex be the one who had to find other arrangements. But the next day at the Housing Office I had no better luck than she'd had. There just weren't any vacancies. They sympathized with our predicament, but they could not guarantee anyone his or her first choice of dorm. I explained that we only wanted the dorm that we'd already been assigned. They understood, but things were the way they were. It was an unfortunate situation, but there was nothing that could be done about it.
I was thinking how to write this up for Alex, when she let herself in.
"Hey, how's it going?" I asked.
"I'm pretty bushed," she replied. "I've been back and forth across campus all day. The problem with being homeless is that you have no place to rest. I came for a fresh change of clothes and a chance to sit down. How about you?"
"Well, you were right about the housing thing. I got the same answer you did. Vacancies in Tressider and Kimberley. No guarantee of a student's first choice. Blah, blah, blah."
"That's what I was afraid of."
"So how was Tressider?"
"I imagine things will settle down once classes start. It is a bit schizophrenic, though, having to sleep on somebody different's floor every night."
"I feel awfully bad about that. Maybe we could time-share this place. You could have it on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and I could have it on Tuesdays and Thursdays."
"What about the weekends?"
"We'll rent it out on Air B&B."
She laughed. "Listen, I was going to grab some dinner while I'm over on this side. Have you eaten yet?"
I was still pretty shy around girls, but Alex was so open and friendly that it was impossible not to be open and friendly in return. It turned out that her father had stayed in Maynard Hall, back when it was an all male dorm, and had pointed it out to her on several visits when she was little. It's ivy covered walls and mullioned windows were imprinted on her memory as the epitome of higher education and the academic life. She loved art and was excited about her classes. She told me all about the cathedral of Notre Dame, the topic of her senior term paper in high school. I told her that I hadn't been able to decide between archeology and anthropology, and so had chosen history.
We continued the conversation back up in 241, she on what should have been her chair, me on mine. She had an older sister and a younger brother; I had no sisters and three younger brothers. She lived on the edge of the country; I lived in the middle of the city. She'd studied French and could speak it fairly fluently; I'd studied Spanish but could hardly speak a word. She laughed easily; I couldn't help but laugh along.
Tomorrow was the first day of classes, and it was starting to turn dark. "Yikes, look at the time," she said. "I guess I'd better be going.
"Staying with your friend again?" I asked.
"That's the plan," she said somewhat wearily.
"Feel free to hang out here for a while if you like. There's an empty desk just going to waste. It has your name on it, in fact."
"It's just that things are pretty hectic at my friend's place."
"Then by all means. Look until we get things straightened out, you should feel free to use this room as your base of operation. You can keep your stuff here, use the desk, whatever. Just because I got here first doesn't make it any less your room than it is mine."
"It wouldn't be an inconvenience?"
"Seriously, it's your room as much as it is mine. I'm just going to do a little reading. Let me know if you need anything."
She organized some of her paperwork, sorted through her boxes, and got some things ready in her backpack. Then she looked through some of her new textbooks. At about 10:30 I put down my book and got my toothbrush.
"Oh, are you going to bed?" she asked.
"Yeah, I think so. I want to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for the first day of class. You can stay a while, though, it won't bother me at all. You've got your key. In fact, you can even crash here tonight if you want. That bed's free." I hoped I sounded more man-of-the-worldly than I actually felt.
"I could never do that," she replied.
"Suit yourself," I said.
But when I got back from the bathroom, she was still there.
"The thing is, . . ." she said.
