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Mark wasn't surprised when he turned around and saw Alice sitting by a table in his flat. He'd gotten used to her sudden appearances.
"Hello, Mark."
Mark sighed. "Earl Grey, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"I'll make two cups."
Mark put some tea leaves in a kettle with an infuser in it. He put the kettle on the stove. "Why are you here, Alice?"
"I wanted to talk to someone."
"About what?"
"Oxford."
Mark sighed. "I know what happened at Oxford. I read the papers."
"But do you really know?"
Mark paused before saying, "I guess I don't. Tell me what happened at Oxford."
"There was one guy I fell in love with there. Well, if you could call my feelings for him love. It was more of an obsession. I met him at 16. It was my final year in getting my first degree. He was...20 years old, I think."
Mark nodded. "You were a child prodigy."
"I was a freak. Everyone at Oxford treated me like a freak. Some people recognized my family in the papers. Others laughed when I was sitting by myself in the common rooms at New College, wondering if I was lost or where my parents were. I had gotten used to it, my parents starting the trend. I even used it to my advantage in my rooms in Oxford.
"Your advantage?"
"You know what I mean. I'd take some guys to my rooms and—"
"Oh."
"But I thought this guy would treat me differently."
"Did you ever get the courage to talk to him?"
"I had to wait until I was fully obsessed to talk to him."
"What do you mean 'fully obsessed?'"
"I looked his photo up on the Internet. You know how the Internet was in the late 90s. Bare bones. I did find his photograph, though. I printed it out and put it in my room. Whenever I'd listen to some music, I'd dance around it. I'd look up to him and touch myself in bed. I worshipped him. I wanted him to come to me."
The tea kettle was whistling. Mark blinked and hid his disbelief at Alice's story. He took the kettle off and poured the tea into cups. When he was done, he sat at the table and handed Alice one of the cups.
"Although I'm much older, I never had a college experience like yours, Alice. But I was infatuated with some girls. I did ask them out. Sometimes I was rejected, sometimes I wasn't. But what happened with the man you were infatuated with?"
"I finally asked him out."
"And?"
"He called me a freak. That was it. I never invited him to my room."
"Oh, that's terrible." Mark took a sip.
"It's okay. One day that man found himself alone in a laboratory with an Erlenmeyer flask. He had to go to hospital because of a nasty hydrochloric acid burn on his hand. Oh, and the acid was at full strength. No one knows why he was alone in that laboratory."
"Except for you."
Alice smiled. "Promise to keep it a secret?"
"I will. And I want you to know that despite what anyone's ever told you, despite how anyone's made you feel, you
are not a freak."
"Thank you, Mark."
The two were quiet, sipping tea, until Alice broke the silence.
"Do you think I could spend a couple of hours in Hampstead Heath without being detected?"
"Oh, certainly."
"What line gets you to Hampstead again?"
"The North Line—that's the London Underground station. If you want Hampstead Heath, try the London Overground. North London line."
With that, and a few sips later, Alice was on her way to Hampstead.