Chemistry [Creative Wrting: ENG222]

 

 

 

Professor Acer watched as Dezaia examined the vials before her, his eyes never wavering from her form. Dezaia was one of his best students, always the first to class, always the last to leave. She paid immense attention during his lectures, taking detailed notes, asking relevant questions. Professor Acer was sure most of his other students were asleep, if not physically, surely mentally. They showed no desire to be there, no desire to learn, but Dezaia, Dezaia was different. This, he told himself, had been the reason he had asked her to help him with this particular project.

“Professor Acer?” Dezaia turned from the test tubes before her to face him. “I know these are wormwood, columbine and damiana,” she indicated the glowing green liquid in the pot above the burning fire, as well as the clear and yellow ones that resided in the tubes. “But I am uncertain of what these two are,” her fingers glided gently over the tops of the vials containing a violet and pink coloured liquid.

“This,” Professor Acer addressed Dezaia as he came up behind her, his arms reaching around her to the two vials whose contents she was unsure of, “is elf leaf,” his fingers touched the lip of the vile containing a violet colored liquid, “and this,” his other hand carefully slipped the pink filled test tube from the rack it had rested in, “is sumbul.”

Dezaia nodded thoughtfully, then picking up her pen, scrawled the names of the ingredients on the paper before her, as well as their colours. “What properties do they have?” Turning her head, Dezaia looked up over her shoulder to where Professor Acer still lingered.

“Their intended purpose, for this particular mixture, are to instil protection,” his fingers once more slipped along the violet filled tube, “and to aid in psychic vision.” Tipping over the tube that contained the sumbul, the pink liquid slipped from the glass to join the green bubbling liquid that was already over the fire. Once more Dezaia’s pen moved quickly over the paper, recording the new information.

Dezaia could feel the warmth of Professor Acer’s body as he stood behind her, and had to remind herself to keep her thoughts on the task at hand. Professor Acer had, after all, picked her from amongst the rest of the students to help him with this project because he trusted her skills, knew she could be counted on, still.. Dezaia chided herself, steering her mind away from the flights of fancy she usually reserved for the sanctity of her dorm room. There, in her quiet solitude, Dezaia was free to think and feel how she pleased. On more than one occasion she had let her mind go wild, fueled with imagined images of the professor she held so dear.

 

Don’t be silly

 

It was true Professor Acer was close to twice her age, but time had not diminished the attractive countenance he had worn since his youth, at least in her eyes. Other students would be sure to disagree, counting way too largely on his usually cold demeanour. Dezaia understood him, though. When Professor Acer spoke of the concoctions they were creating during class, of the ingredients they were using, Dezaia could hear, could feel his passion, for she too shared it, which is why she paid such rapt attention during all of his lectures.

Professor Acer instructed Dezaia in the proper measurements and when to add each ingredient. From over her shoulder he watched the young girl take careful notes, nearly getting lost in the fluid motion of the letters as they formed upon the paper. “Professor?” Acer blinked and shook his head slightly, bringing himself back to the present, back from where his mind had wandered.

“Yes, Dezaia?”

“You said to make sure to add the elf leaf last,” Dezaia began, “and not to create it at all if you didn’t have it. Why do you add it last, and not make it at all without?”

“As you know,” Professor Acer returned, “each ingredient used has not only one function but multiple uses for a multitude of creations. In this particular draught, elf leaf is added last as a method of purification to negate other, perhaps unwanted, potential effects of the created brew.”

Dezaia nodded her understanding and returned to her notes once more, the swirling letters catching Professor Acer’s mind off guard as they curled around each other to form words. It seemed, he almost fancied, that the pen, the paper…The letters, the words…They almost danced together. Watching Dezaia write was hypnotic. The fluid motions mixed in his mind with the scent of the ingredients mixing in the pot. They had added the damiana and the colunbine; it needed to steep for a while before they could add the elf leaf.

Acer was painfully aware of how close he was standing to Dezaia. He could feel the heat radiating from her body; smell the scent of her hair combining with the potion above the flame of the fire. He became aware of his own heartbeat as it began, of its own accord, increasing its rhythm within his ribcage. The blood in his veins seemed to be simmering in time with the liquid in the cauldron, just under the boiling point, threatening to rise even higher.

Dezaia was trying to keep her mind on the task at hand, even attempting to count the minutes to ground her thoughts in place. Her mind was against her though, insisting on pulling her back to the day dreams usually reserved for her room. Perhaps it was his unusual closeness. That has to be it, Dezaia attempted to reassure herself. “How much longer Professor Acer?” Turing around, she found herself face to face with her professor, closer than she could ever remember being.

“Only a few more minutes.” Only a few more minutes. The words echoed in her head, telling her that was how long she had left here, with him, like this. “Is there something else?”

It wasn’t until he’d spoke again that Dezaia realized she was still looking up at him, her eyes still intent on his. “I…Uh…No Professor.”

“Are you sure?” His hand reached up to brush a lock of hair from her face, his fingertips grazing her cheek, sending a chill down her spine. Inside her chest, Dezaia’s heart constricted. “You know,” Professor Acer continued, “I consider you my most prized student.”

“Really?” Once more, inside her chest, the organ responsible for the flow of her blood seemed to falter.

Professor Acer nodded, his face coming closer to hers in the process. Dezaia’s head spun with impossible thoughts, thoughts that suddenly didn’t seem so impossible, that seemed quite probable. Top teeth tugging at her bottom lip, the young girl looked up at the man before her. The corner of Professor Acer’s mouth turned up into a slight smirk as he leaned closer to Dezaia. “It’s time to add the elf leaf.”

“Yes sir,” Dezaia could feel her cheeks flushing. Regaining her senses, she picked up the tube filled with violet liquid, carefully pouring the contents into the pot w

ith the rest. “You said it’s a purifier?”

“Yes.”

“What does it purify? What effects does it…Negate?”

What could almost pass as a slightly amused chuckle sounded from the man who was once again standing behind her. “It negates the love inducing aspects.”