Fiction | January 05, 2015
Ms. Greer
Elena Graceffa
The school where Kyle and Meg taught was a ’70s-era brick and concrete sprawl, the work of an architect who, the students took a perverse satisfaction in discovering, had made his name designing penitentiaries. It had four floors and fourteen stairwells, but Kyle and Meg’s particular cubicles opened onto the same communal office, which meant they shared a fridge and a microwave and the usual banalities. She regarded his lunchtime runs and fist bumps for students who attended office hours with a mixture of envy and skepticism. She thought he was like a commercial for something, though she couldn’t say what. When the students swooned over him—boys and girls alike; or rather, the girls first and therefore also the boys, all of them equally, ridiculously awestruck—it made her slightly nauseated, not least of all because she didn’t think that he would have used the correct adjective for her gastric state, although he taught English. It made her feel old, resenting the carelessness with which adolescents bestowed their affections. Most of the time, though, she didn’t think of him.
This story is not currently available online.
If you are a student, faculty member, or staff member at an institution whose library subscribes to Project Muse, you can read this piece and the full archives of the Missouri Review for free. Check this list to see if your library is a Project Muse subscriber.
Want to read more?
Subscribe TodaySEE THE ISSUE
SUGGESTED CONTENT
Fiction
Jan 08 2024
Eighteen People Every Hour
Eighteen People Every Hour Dennis McFadden The first time he saw her, asleep on the sofa when he came home from work, he honestly thought of an angel. Of… read more
Fiction
Jan 08 2024
Motherlove
Motherlove Elisa Faison “I’m really sorry. No one told me you were here.” That was the first thing Lily ever said to us, that she hadn’t seen us. But now… read more
Fiction
Jan 08 2024
Song Night
Song Night Robert Long Foreman I thought about calling this “What We Do in the Basement,” because there are several things we do in our basement. It’s a good basement.… read more