University of Useless Information:

I thought about Ms. Chan’s departing remark and say, "Talk about ~Always leave your audience wanting more~..." I finish my last gulp of coffee. I strip off my clothes and jump into the lap pool. I take a deep breath, stick my head under water and scream. I come up for air and swim over to the edge of the pool as Fatima says, "I find it easier to talk to strangers about truths. And I don't know any of you," she pauses and looks around at all of us, "I'm scared. I had certainty and now I have a vast universe of unknowns. If everything she says is true, and the things she is not saying are true as well, then we have little choice but to use our cogs to move forward the machines of destiny. She has laid, in me at the least, a foundation of tenuous trust, based on needs. I worry about my future when she decides she no longer needs me. Will I be free to go, or seen as a future threat?" She sighs, looking up at the strange moons, hugging herself. "Am...

It’s time for some show and tell. Ms. Chan is going to show us the Bariman Family Photo Album. Our Aunts, Uncles and other cousins; perhaps unknown siblings and maybe our actual parents. Most likely our sires, as she has informed us, as is most likely the case. According to my Mom, my Father romantically swept her off of her feet in a whirlwind romance. They eloped and I was born soon after. My Father was Captain Theodore Edgar Matthews: A military diplomatic attaché of some sort who was called away on an assignment just after I was born. Called away to some foreign war when there was peace at home. He was never heard from again: Missing - Presumed Dead. Any family on my Father’s side is unknown. My Mom said that he had a strange German/Dutch accent (In the nineties they called it Eurotrash) and it could only be assumed that any paternal family is in Europe: Estranged. But, perhaps that is why he engaged himself in foreign affairs. My Mom said that they were so busy romancing, wining a...

  The Gregorian Chants are very soothing. I haven’t got a clue as to what they are saying since I don’t speak Latin, but that's kind of the point. Simply human voices as instrumental music. Lot’s of hallelujahs, but they’re not being shouted at you the way they are in Handel's Messiah. The day has been a very long ordeal but my headache has retreated to a dull roar. I flick my wrist over and observe that it is nearly four pee-em. "Zou Yan, What time is dinner served and what's on the menu?” "Dinner is served at approximately seven-thirty pee-em in the Dining room. The menu is usually a starter, soup or paté according to what is in season or available, a main course, either meat, fish, or vegetarian, and a dessert. I believe Eton Mess is tonight's desert. Coffee is then usually served in the Drawing Room, but Ms. Chan has instructed that drinks and coffee will be served in the Library as yourself and Ms. MacFarlane will be less affected there.” Cool, ”Also, wha...