17 Days: Overheard at BYU

I was in the library, letting the words of Barthe's "Death of the Author" wander through my brain like a herd of murmuring cows, when they came in. I'd been reading critical analysis essays for an hour and a half, and I was dying for some normal conversation. So even though I tried to tune the couple out, my mind latched onto each word that passed between them, and I watched them out of the corner of my eye.

The girl had sat down in a chair, but the guy was standing over his. He bent down and picked something up from the cushion and examined it. I watched from the corner of my eye. It was a pen; and a nice one. He showed it to the girl. She congratulated him on his good luck. He fiddled with it some more, thinking. Then he shook his head and placed the pen on the windowsill beside them. He couldn't take what wasn't his.

"It could be Jesus's pen," he explained to the girl as he sat down next to her.

"At the Second Coming, he'll be like, 'WHERE'S MY PEN?!'" he said with a monstrous voice.

For the next part, he whimpered abashedly, "And I'll be like, 'It's right here, Sir.'"

Say what you like about BYU, but we have some of the best "overheard on campus" conversations in the country.

I love my school.