Carolyn and Jealousy

Last semester I happened to be walking through a hallway in Bell Hall when I saw a bunch of people waiting outside Kulbir's door. A CS 114 instructor usually gets real popular around project-due-date time. Heather turned up in the crowd waiting for her turn in line, and I introduced her to Carolyn the actress who was a theatre major and who's getting into computers now. Carolyn comes to movies with us sometimes when we go see wacky foreign films at the Amherst Theater.

Now, to understand this one you have to know a little about how these people look. Carolyn is tall, lanky, well-dressed, tastefully made-up. Heather is short, skinny, and a little shy about her appearance. I think Heather is cute, but Heather doesn't really think so and that is the root of this story.

Anyway, I didn't think much of this chance encounter until a few minutes later when Heather and I went back across the street to my office to log in for a bit. I was sitting in the easy chair next to my desk looking at something when I became conscious of Heather standing next to me. She was kind of staring at me, and hopping up and down a little, hop hop hop.

I said, ``Is there something you want?''

Hop hop hop, went Heather.

``Is something wrong?'' I asked.

Hop hop. ``Do you think I'm pretty?'' said Heather.

``Um, sure,'', I said, unprepared for the question.

She cocked her head on one side, pondering this information. ``Do you think Carolyn's pretty?''

``Sure,'' I said, not knowing where this was leading. ``Carolyn is an attractive person.'' I said diplomatically.

Hop hop hop. ``Prettier than meeeeeeeee...'' wailed Heather.


Daniel F. Boyd / boyd@csgeeks.org
Last modified: Tue Apr 4 18:48:01 1995