Jade and Oscar

I was late. Jade hates when I’m late, so when I get to the table where we were supposed to have lunch, she just stares at me, waiting one of my magnificent excuses that she never believes but that she always enjoys listening to. –I’m terribly sorry to be late- I said to her, not very convincingly- but I just saw one of my friends that is studying “the prince” by Machiavelli.- and I sit down, take out my lunch and stare at her, waiting for her reaction.

• Really?- she didn’t believe me. 

I began to explain about how I met my friend one night when I was walking back to my house after several hours working on one of my essays almost all day long and that I was distracted by the light of the moon, which was so bright that I was able to put on one of my favorite songs and enjoy the view, when a silhouette came out from the reservation that is in the back of the university. 

Suddenly, the silhouette walked towards me and told me: ‘Hi Oscar, could you tell me where the department of social science is?’ When I finally was able to distinguish the figure of my interlocutor, which turned out to be a young deer who explained me that she was recently accepted to the university and she didn’t know the place very well. She asked me where the department of social science was. I told her where it was but I was sure that she would not find anyone there. - Oh that is ok, I just want to drop an essay in the drop-box; if you want we can go together and we can talk-. After that we got to be friends, but I didn’t see her again until today when I was reading outside and I saw my friend enjoying her reading as well as me, and we started to talk again as we did that night.

I chew my sandwich and she tries to swallow some of those green leaves from her salad and my little story. Jade just stares at me and when she shallows her bite she is able to say something.

- So... a deer?- she asks, incredulous that I was talking with someone, and perhaps she was right since I don’t like to talk to other people, even if they talk to me. She knows that I am racist, but only to white people. However, when a person is educated I could talk with anyone. Nevertheless I was shocked to discover how little tolerance Jade had concerning the subject of me talking with other people.

She still looks at me with those eyes that she usually gives me when she doesn’t believe the pretext that I give to her, and she asks me again.

• So you saw it again?
• Yes. It was very nice to talk with someone who is as passionate about the Prince as I am.
• Why she...it was reading a book about the Prince?
• Well she told me that it is a reading for her classes. She is taking the first year class in politics and she needed to memorize the entire book.

Somehow I feel that jade didn’t believe anything I said to her, especially when she pursed her lips and seemed angrier than before. As a result I had only one option.

-You want to see her?-.

• Oh yeah-.

So we start to walk toward the door and then to the spot that connects to the reservation. For most of the trajectory she continues mumbling and her lips get closer and closer. I didn’t know why she gets so angry just because I was talking with a nice deer, which from my perspective was more educated than most people I know. For a second, I thought that Jade was genuinely a deer racist, which could explain why she is vegetarian.

Soon enough we get close to where I found my friend, but I realize that she moved from where I saw her. I was afraid that Jade would get angrier with me until I see the deer walking towards us with a book in her mouth, and after she put it on the floor she greets us.

• Hi, Oscar. Who is your friend?
• She is my friend Jade. She didn’t believe me when I told her that I was talking with you so I brought her to see you.

Something that I really hate about white people, and Canadians in general is the lack of education that they possess. Jade just stares at the deer with her mouth open (I almost die of embarrassment) as we converse. It is even more terrifying when the deer greets her and she just mumbles some words.

We continue talking about how horrible the university was and how the architecture looks like a prison; about her conclusion concerning the prince and how Machiavelli was an arrogant bastard, although I defend him as much as I can, but the deer has some points that even today I consider very valid. However the insistence of Jade to open her mouth and stare at the deer really makes her uncomfortable and she decides to move on and leave us alone after she says goodbye.

- Well nice to see you Oscar, and nice to talk with you Jade, I hope another day we could talk again-. There was no doubt that deers were more educated that most people I know.

We stay there for a couple of minutes that felt like hours due to that tension that was forming. I didn’t want to say anything and Jade did the same. Until she gets the nerve and asks me.

- Ok, you just don’t see anything wrong here?- poor Jade; never thought that she was a racist.

• What you mean?
• I mean you just talk with a deer that knows your name and you don’t think is weird?

I look her in the eye, and for the first time I am upset with that face. After 4 years I will not let her be offensive with people who I talk to. However, I am able to control myself and in that moment I answer her.

- Well Jade, when you pass as much time as I do in the university you get used to the idea that everybody knows your name.

And I start to walk toward to the cafeteria. I was still hungry.