Dante

The first few weeks of the semester passed with little to disturb the tranquility. Alice and Eddie studied together from time to time, often met for lunch, and were taking two classes together. When Tessa had grinned and remarked on their closeness during freshman year, Alice had been startled. “Of course,” she replied, “we’re brother and sister. We’ve always been together. Since birth, literally,” she laughed. “Do you know, I don’t know what I would do without him. I can’t even imagine …” she had thought about it. “Nope, can’t imagine.”

Today, she had met Eddie for breakfast, where they discussed medieval history, Eddie’s guitar (it needed new strings), and the waffles they had for breakfast (Alice thought they would have been better with peaches, instead of strawberries). In the morning, Alice had drawing and then philosophy, and Eddie had physics. Alice met Tessa for lunch, and in the afternoon they went to the library to study together. They found a table in a corner, quiet and empty of people.

Alice set down her backpack with a sigh of relief. Philosophy had left her head spinning – but thankfully, she had a light homework load for that evening. “What do you have to work on, Tess?”

Digging through her bag, Tessa found her planner. “Philosophy, medieval literature, Greek.” Tess was in Philo 202, while Alice was taking the core requirement.

“Sounds busy,” Alice remarked.

“’Spose so. But hey, I enjoy it. So no worries. What do you have on your plate?”

“Tonight, just medieval literature. Dante. I’m supposed to write a paper on other authors he’s influenced,” and she took out her Norton edition of the “Divine Comedy” and let it fall none too gently onto the table.

Tessa grinned. “Oh, come on, it’s not all that bad. Dante’s great stuff. I’m writing on his role in the politics of his time. He seems to have been rather unpopular with some people. But with modern writers,  extremely influential.”

“Really?”

“Sure.  He’s influenced all sorts of writers …” and Tessa waved her hand around expressively.

“Oh?”

“Never mind,” Tessa bent over her work. “Just write the paper.”

“Well, I’m going to need something to read first,” and Alice stood up to leave the table. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to go look around.”

“See if you can find that book by that guy …” Tessa called, her head still bent over her Norton. “about that person in that circle of Hell. It’s really good. And it will probably be extremely helpful with your paper.”

“I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for it,” and Alice grinned and slipped away between bookcases.