At an early age, Joselyn had known that she would never be like her mother that she would never be so soft, so yielding, so vulnerable. In away, every victory against men was a blow struck at her father, in the name of her mother. What bothered her, what had always bothered her was that she got no real satisfaction from defeating her foes; her victories were always hollow.

She paused in front of Dr. Velasquez door. She hadn't intended on calling on him today, but she told herself that she might as well get the whole thing over with. She rapped on the door with her knuckles.

After a long silence, an irritated voice said, "Yes?!"

Joselyn turned the knob and pushed the door open a crack, looking in. Velasquez office was the exact opposite of Dr. Bertrand's. Everything had a place and everything was in its place when it wasn't being used.

"May I have a word with you, Dr. Velasquez?" she asked quietly.

The black haired, swarthy faced man sitting behind the desk glowered at her from over a handful of abstracts. Of all the department's little dictators, he had the worst reputation for arbitrariness and nit-picking. He was a few years older than Bertrand and his build was less bulky, more wiry, but still powerful. All the professors, with the exception of Dr. Veblen who was too old, spent their lunch hours in the college gym, working out with weights and swimming. It was part of their macho tradition.

"It's a brief," he said, gesturing with the papers for her to come in and sit down. Like Bertrand, Dr. Velasquez was handsome, but in a different way. His good looks were cruel, angular, his nose long, thin and hooked, his cheeks gaunt, chin heavy, his black eyes unnervingly piercing. Where Dr. Bertrand reminded her of a big, cuddly bear, Dr. Velasquez seemed to be both cunning and calculating, like a fox. Indeed, his face had a kind of fox-like quality to it, being long and thin and pointed. It was easy for her to visualize Velasquez blackmailing one of his female undergrads into performing for him sexually. He looked like the kind of man who would enjoy such a diversion no end.