Chapter 1
Part I: The Prodigal Son
I had never set foot in the state of Mississippi in my entire life until that day. The thought of visiting the state had never occurred to me once in my life. But now here I was - moving some furniture into a small two bedroom house in Oxford, Mississippi. I didn’t have much, just a full size mattress, a luggage, and a small desk.
My 2002 Toyota Tacoma barely made the journey from San Francisco, but nonetheless she got me here. It was surprising since her odometer reached 302,000 by the time I pulled up to the house I pictured on the Craigslist ad. It was mid August when I arrived, and as a result the air was heavy, hot, and humid. The beating sun caused me to break a sweat just walking to the front door.
The house was small and it resembled a cottage. It was part of a small community of identical homes. The entire community was located on the outskirts of town and it took me awhile to find the place because it didn’t show up on my GPS.
After knocking on the door a few times I was greeted by the chipper red headed woman who posted the ad online. She looked to be a couple of years older than me.
She was a bit shorter than I was, sported dark plastic rimmed glasses, and was still in her pajama bottoms. She was wearing a loose fitting black Iron Maiden sweater. At her feet I noticed a small shiatzu dog whose tongue was flapped along the right side of its mouth. It let out a little grunt upon gazing up at me. She cupped a mug of coffee between both of her hands.
“Hey friend”, she greeted, then shifted her focus to the eyesore of a truck I had pulled into her driveway. “You must be Nathan, I presume?”
“That’d be me”, I replied. “Jessica?”
“I go by Jess”. She smiled and extended a hand.
I shook her hand. “The place looks just like the ad. I’m excited to be here”.
“Here”, she said, putting her coffee on an end table inside. “This all you brought?”, she asked. She hovered over to my truck and realized the bed was only half full with belongings.
“Yeah, I don’t have too much”, I confessed.
“Here, let’s get this stuff moved in”, she offered.
“You don’t have to do that”, I told her. Jess ignored me, rolling up her sleeves. She reached in, first grabbing a lamp and then a small cardboard box containing my bathroom supplies.
With Jess’s help I was moved in under ten minutes. She showed me the house and commented on some of it’s perks.
“You can’t beat the price in Oxford, being only $644 a month. The landlord is a nice enough guy. Downside is on the other side of that tree line is the airstrip”. I looked over to a tree line at the end of the property. “We don’t get many jets coming in, except on game days. But you’ll hear them take off every now and again.”
Jess guided me over to the kitchen and delegated a few of the cabinets to me for food storage. She welcomed me to use the TV she had set up in the living room but strictly forbade me from borrowing any books from the shelf she had set up in the living room without asking her permission first. She handed me a glass of sweet tea.
“So you said you’re an English PhD student in your email right”, I said as I took a sip of tea.
“Yeah”, she said unenthusiastically. “Got a free ride to Ole Miss so I figured, why not. You’re going to be a law student, right?”
“Yeah that’s the plan” I told her.
“Sounds intense”, she said as she took a sip of coffee.
“Who’s this little guy?”, I asked as I knelt down to pat the shih tzu who had been staring at me with great enthusiasm since I walked in the door. He wasn’t a barker, and I was thankful for that. However, he was definitely a grunter.
“That’s Moe”, Jess introduced. “Short for Mowgli.”
“Seems like a fine buddy you got here”. As I pet him he let out a loud yack. “Old little guy though, ain’t he?”
“Yeah he’ll be dead soon. His heart is three times oversized and he has diabetes.”
“Oh, sorry to hear that.”
“Nah don’t worry friend. He’s a nice little guy. Aren’t you Moe? You’re a baby, just a little baby”. She talked to him in a babied voice as she picked him up. Mowgli looked comfortable in her arms and I could quickly tell he was used to being the center of her attention.
“So, I got to hear it”, she said.
“What’s that”, I said, as I gulped the rest of my sweet tea.
“Of all schools, what brings a Californian to Ole Miss? What could possibly have been appealing about the University of Mississippi?”
“Just felt like having an adventure, I suppose”.
“I don’t buy it. Neither does Moe. No you don’t, huh Moe?”
I gave a little chuckle. “I’m also saving a lot of money on the tuition here. I figured I wouldn’t have the distractions of being home while I spend three years being tortured by law school. I’m literally saving a small fortune going here.”
“I know Ole Miss has pretty low tuition rates for in-state residents. Not so much for being out of state.”
“Yeah, that’s another big thing about coming out here. Technically I own a house down on the coast. Long story”. I shook the ice around in the glass. “What brought you to Ole Miss?”, I asked her.
“Well me and Moe here got a free ride with their PhD program. My folks live in New Orleans, so they’re only about a six hour drive away. It’s the perfect distance in my opinion. I can get back home in half a day if I need to but I also value my privacy. Definitely not quite the same as being on the other side of the country though, I must say.” She smelled her coffee and took another sip. The counter was riddled with different types of coffee, all special brands I never heard of.
I pulled out a pack of cigarettes and made my way to the front door. “Thanks for letting me stay here. It was pretty last minute how things worked out.”
“Yeah no problem, nice to finally meet you Nate”, Jess said. “You doing anything this evening? There’s a really nice café downtown and I could show you the town square.”
“That sounds really nice Jess”, I said with the door halfway open, putting a cigarette between my lips. “But I got my first day of school tomorrow, and I still got to get my books. I guess I already have a reading due on the first day. I’ll be hitting the books here tonight then getting some rest.”
“Suit yourself friend”.
