SATURDAY STORY - SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 2022

 SATURDAY STORY - SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 2022

Author’s note.  I keep trying to put together a fiction book - so I’ll keep trying!!!

*****

Emmalee Smith and Penny Krause worked at Mount Hood Community College in Gresham Oregon.  Emmalee was a professor of art and design and Penny taught biology and sciences.  They were almost as different as two friends could be.

Emmalee was from the Chicago area, tall and was black; Penny was from Northern Idaho, short, and a little on the pudgy side and white.  

Emmalee had been quite an athlete at George Washington Carver High School in Chicago and got a basketball scholarship at the University of Illinois.  She wasn’t a starter in basketball at the University of Illinois for her freshman and sophomore years but became a starter for her junior and senior years.  In her senior year, she was captain and was a great communicator between the coach and players, although not the high scorer.  She led the team in assists and rebounds.  

She had an internship at the Chicago Museum of Art (home of the famous “American Gothic” painting and much more).  She stayed on at the Museum of Art part-time while she got a master’s degree at the University of Chicago and then a doctoral degree from Northwestern University.  Her field was graphic design with an interest in commercial art. Her posters had been part of a “Young Masters” traveling exhibit, and she had some commercial success with State Farm insurance out of Bloomington Illinois and worked on a design team for television ads, including most notably the Aaron Rodgers ads.  

Emmalee had a scar on her left cheek from an accident in fifth grade when she had tripped and fallen down the stairs. She ran at least five miles almost every day.  

Almost on a whim to see and live on the West Coast, she applied for and got the art professor position at Mount Hood Community College.  It was close enough to Mount Hood to go skiing, to Portland for the nightlife, and to the rugged Oregon coast.

*****

Penny Krause had been a tomboy on a ranch in northern Idaho.  It was a beautiful area to grow up in near Coeur D Alene, Idaho.  Her family raised horses.  Coeur D'Alene was a tourist area, and horseback riding was a popular activity for the kids from Seattle, Portland, Denver, Salt Lake City, and beyond.  In addition, the Krause family raised Brahman Bulls and other animals for rodeos. 

Penny loved the outdoors.  Because her family raised horses, she was an excellent horseback rider and took part in some of the local rodeos, mostly for the calf roping event.  She could steer her house with her knees while she lassoed the calf and tied it up.  

Coeur D’Alene was a pretty pristine place, but as she traveled she found pollution killing fish and aquatic birds.  She got her bachelor’s and Masters at Boise State University.  For her, Portland was an ideal city - not too big but definitely big enough.  Living on the eastern edge of the Portland metropolitan area, she could do ecological checks on the Trout River, the Columbia River, and hike.

*****

Emmalee started at Mount Hood Community College (MHCC) in 2015.  She loved the area and soon found an artistic community in the Portland area.  She entered a contest for a new mural on the Fred Meyer Athletic Arena and although she came in second place, it was good enough to get noticed.  With her background in commercial art she designed brochures for MHCC and worked with the Gresham Chamber of Commerce on a “Gresham - the Gateway to the Columbia River Gorge.  

At MHCC Emmaless was pretty free to teach the whole range of art classes.  While she was a commercial designer at heart, she painted, did sculpture, and was working with a theater instructor to design a multimedia art and theater production.  

Every fall there were new faculty, some stayed and some left after a year or two.  Some were part-time and some were full-time.  Emmalee was in her element and the rest of the college still functioned - whether she took notice of it or not.

****

In 2018, Penny started at MHCC as a biology, ecology professor.  Immediately she loved her job.  She got into her classes and research.  

She was working on a research paper and experiment on a local delicacy - mushrooms.  To be more thorough, Penny was including other fungi in her research.  

Penny had a lab set aside for the experiment.  She had divided the room into six areas, with some variation in terms of nutrition, watering, and temperature.  She was sure she could get the paper accepted to the Northwest Regional Bioscience conference in Spokane in January, and the possibility of publishing in a California bioscience journal floated in her head.  “Keep going, Penny” she kept telling herself.

The experiment was going along.  Data about growth rates were taken daily.  Her research was also going well.  Her literature review included similar studies in Norway, Australia, and Brazil.  (Fortunately, all the articles were in English - the universal language for science research and publishing).  

Penny had student aides check the lab twice daily in the morning at 8:00 a.m. and in the evening at 6:00 p.m.  They monitored water flow and the various nutrients used in the six areas.  One of the areas had walls around the experiment with air conditioning keeping the temperature about 45 degrees.  Another area was similar but with a heating element keeping the temperature about 90 degrees.  

For a first-year teacher and scientist, she was excited about her research.  

*****

The student aides were to lock the room after they did their activities.  But, in the past when Penny went to the lab, frequently the side door to the lab was unlocked.  She did remind the student aides to keep locking the lab.

*****

Student activities are great.  Mount Hood Community College had a lot of student organizations.  While a small amount of students’ fees went to the organizations, there was always the need for more money.  Some student groups went to regional conferences.  The student senate met other student senate groups twice a year.  The Willamette Valley Community College had access to an old lighthouse on the Oregon coast that they rented out to the Oregon Association of Community College Student Organizations.  This year, the student senate association was going to meet at the Heceta Head LightHouse for their meeting!!  

To reach their financial needs, the student senate had arranged for a fundraiser - Donkey Basketball. 

Donkey basketball is a hilarious game.  The players ride on relatively tame donkeys.  But, there are the little quirks of donkeys running around and running to the wrong basketball, of players (even good basketball players) not being able to make a shot.  In most communities, Donkey Basketball is a regular event and fans flock in for a riotous night.

There are two teams - and faculty, students, staff, and community people are recruited for the games.  

  

The funds raised would go to the student senate trip and into the student organizations' fund for their activities.

*****

Emmalee had volunteered for a special lecture on African-American painters for diversity week.  She had a ‘gung-ho’ PowerPoint slide show plus she had collected about thirty paintings from regional Black artists.  She even had a second show on graffiti as art scheduled.  

The presentation was going to be in the science wing of MHCC.  One afternoon, Emmalee went looking for room 132.  Her brain was on fire as she thought of how graffiti as art could be made into a multimedia presentation with hip hop, rap, and even jazz musicians.  

Turning into the hallway, she found a door to room 123, opened the unlocked door, and turned on the lights.  Oops - this wasn’t the right room.  This room had unusual boxes with drip lines of water going into huge tables with planters of something - maybe mushrooms - inside.  Two areas had boxes completely enclosed around them with some other contraptions.  She turned out the lights and backed out of the room and went down the hall to room 132 - which was a nice sized, tiered, lecture hall.  

She tried out the podium, the large projection system, and the screen that came down from the ceiling.  It would work for the Black Painters presentation.  She didn’t like a tiered room for the graffiti show; she wanted people to be able to walk around and get “up close and personal” to the graffiti.

Emmalee left room 132 as somebody - it looked like a teacher was going into room 123, the room with the fungi.  The teacher seemed to be annoyed that the door was unlocked and was muttering under her breath about her student assistants.

*****

Penny suspected something was wrong in her fungi lab in a week.  Other than the two boxes that were completely enclosed for heat or air conditioning the other mushroom plants seemed to be stunted.  Immediately she thought of her student assistants - had one turned on the lights?  (Gee, if you want something done you have to do it yourself).  

*****

Emmalee had a good rapport with her students.  Jasmine looked sad in the Introduction to Art class and after class, Emmalee caught up with her.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” asked Emmalee.

“I just got yelled at by my science teacher.  I’m a lab assistant for her and she is doing a lab on factors affecting fungi growth. She thought I left the lab door unlocked and that I had turned on the fluorescent lights - and I didn’t.”

“Okay?” said Emmalee.  “How can she be so upset?”

Jasmine looked at her - “Well, fungi need darkness to grow and anybody turning on a light might introduce a negative factor in her research.”

(Oh oh, thought Emmalee).

“I’m sure she’ll get over it”, Emmalee said to Jasmine  

Jasmine said “I hope so.  I really need that money to stay in school and it sounds like she was going to fire me and a couple of other lab assistants.”

“Who is the professor?” asked Emmalee.

“Penny Krause.  She’s new in biology this year.  Jasmine said.  And then she added this comment “I think she needs to take a ‘chill pill’!!!  

They talked long and Jasmine seemed happier as Emmalee encouraged her.

*****

“Wasted” was Penny’s thoughts - all my plans for a great research paper down the drain - for naught because of somebody turning on the lights in my lab!!  

Of course, there were thoughts in Penny’s head about how she could do such an experiment better in the future.  She could have special locks on the doors so that once a person opened or closed the door they were locked.  She could put tape on all the light switches so they couldn’t be turned on - or actually turn off the ceiling lights from the electrical panel.  It wouldn’t be until next semester when she could start all over again.  But, she did still have the two boxes with heating and air conditioning still running.  

*****

Emmalee decided she needed to go to Penny's office and let her know she was the one who turned on the lights.  But, she had phone calls to make about the Black artworks and graffiti presentations to make.

About six o’clock Emmalee looked up Penny’s office number and went to her office to apologize.  But Penny wasn’t there.  She returned to her office and looked up Penny’s campus email account and sent a note explaining that it was her mistake.

*****

That Friday was the Donkey basketball game.  The participants showed up at about six to get used to the donkeys.  Penny was delighted - she rode horses and although donkeys did have a mind of their own, she was sure she could handle it.  

Emmalee wasn’t sure about the donkeys, but she knew she still had a pretty good basketball eye.

The orange team (with the gaudiest fluorescent orange shirts) included Emmalee and Penny.  The other team had nauseating lime green with purple stripes.  Not all the players knew each other.  When Emmalee introduced herself to Penny, there wasn’t any indication that Penny had gotten Emmalee’s email.  Playing it by ear, they talked.  Penny talked about riding horses and living on a horse farm, and Emmalee talked about playing basketball in Chicago.

The crowd was whooping it up.  The antics were hysterical.  But the orange team had made a couple of baskets.  Penny had controlled her donkey with her legs and galloped down the court and shot.  The shot was so far off but Emmalee with her basketball skills somehow got the rebound and pumped it in.  The two high-fived each other.  Mike Stevenson, Vice President of College outreach was hot for the green team making four baskets.  Going into the last minute of side-splitting laughter, the green team was ahead by one point (somehow Mike had made a free throw while on his donkey).  Penny steered her donkey down the court, but somehow it stopped at the midcourt line where it smelled popcorn from the first row of seats.  Somehow she passed the ball to Emmalee who took an NBA three-point shot just before the buzzer and made it.  

The teams and fans erupted onto the court as Emmalee’s donkey dropped a pile of manure on the floor.  Penny and Emmalee hugged each other and the rest of their team.  As part of the rules, the rider of any donkey who left droppings on the floor had to scoop it up - and Penny helped Emmalee with that task.  

*****

The concession stand was mobbed.  Fans and players from each team were sharing their thoughts from the game.  The tall black art professor from Chicago and the shorter horse riding biology instructor were announced as the co-MVPs of the game.  

Emmalee got Penny a Dr. Pepper at the concession stand and a Diet Coke for herself.  

As the crowd thinned and left for their cars, Emmalee asked Penny “Did you get my email note?”

Penny looked blank. “What email note?”

Emmalee said, “I was the jerk who went into the wrong room and turned on the lights on your fungi experiment.  I was looking for room 132 and your lab was in 123 and I was mixed up.  I’m so sorry”.  

At first, the anger in Penny started to come to the surface.  The research that she thought was so important had been negated by turning on the lights.  But, Emmalee looked so sincere that Penny couldn’t be mad at her.  

“Apology accepted”, said Penny - and as an afterthought added, “Hmmm - you know that this donkey dung would be awesome for my mushrooms!!!”

The two laughed.

Thus started a great relationship between two very different women!!!

*****
Epilogue:

Penny’s research on hot and cold for fungi turned out quite well.  And, even the mushrooms that were affected by the lights made a comeback.  Her academic paper was accepted for the Northwest Regional Bioscience conference in Spokane, and won an “Outstanding Paper Award”. 

Emmalee’s presentation on Black Artists and her show of graffiti both received great media coverage and were widely received.  She was asked to present both at Portland State University and at a conference in Seattle.

And, if you are ever on Mount Hood Community College’s campus at 8:00 a.m. you’ll see the two of them having coffee and laughing today in the cafeteria.  And, they will invite you to join them.

*****

Karen adds.  I’m thinking this could be a good middle school-type story.  Two weeks ago I had them in Glacier Park being attacked by wolves and saved by Nez Perce Indians.  I see them getting into all kinds of adventures - white water rafting, traffic accidents, rodeos, fire, and more (as my mind works the two into situations.  We’ll see if I can get this to work!!!)

LOVE WINS!!

Karen

Saturday, March 12, 2022