“Tenure,” I said.
“Yes.”
I was silent. Nevins didn’t say anything else. I looked at Hawk.
“You want me to do this?” I said to Hawk.
“Yes.”
I was silent again.
“I understand your reaction,” Nevins said. “I sound churlish to you. And you think that there are causes of greater urgency than whether I get tenure at the university.”
I pointed a finger at Nevins. “Bingo,” I said.
“I know, were I you that would be my reaction. But it is not simply that I am denied tenure and therefore will have to leave. I can find another job. What is at issue here is that I shouldn’t have been denied tenure. I am more qualified than most members of the tenure committee. More qualified than many who have received tenure.”
“You think it’s racial?” I said.
“It would be an easy supposition and one most of us have made correctly in our lives,” Nevins said. “But I am, in fact, not sure that it is.”
“What else?” I said.
“I don’t know. I am something of an anomaly for a black man at the university. I am relatively conservative.”
“What do you teach?”
“American literature.”
“Black perspective?”
“Well, my perspective. I include black writers, but I also include a number of dead white men.”
“Daring,” I said.
“Do you know that we are turning out English Ph.Ds who have never read Milton?”
“I didn’t know that,” I said. “You think you were shot down for being insufficiently correct?”
“Possibly,” Nevins said. “I don’t know. What I know is there was a smear campaign orchestrated by someone, which I believe cost me tenure.”
“You want me to find out who did the smearing?”
“Yes.”
I looked at Hawk again. He nodded.
“Wouldn’t an attorney be more likely to get you your tenure?”
“I am not fighting this because I didn’t get tenure. I’m fighting this because it’s wrong.”
“If you got the tenure decision reversed, would you accept it?”
Nevins smiled at the question.
“You press a person, don’t you,” he said.
“I like to know things,” I said.
“Like how sincere I am about fighting this because it’s wrong.”
“That would be good to know,” I said.
“If I were offered tenure I would have to assess my options. But even if I accepted it, the process was still wrong.”
“What was the thrust of the smear campaign?”
Hawk appeared to be listening to the faintly audible ball game. And he was. If asked, he could give you the score and recap the last inning. He would also be able to tell you everything I said or Nevins said and how we looked when we said it.
“A young man, a graduate student, committed suicide this past semester. It was alleged to be the result of a sexual relationship with me.”
“What was his name?” I said.
“Prentice Lamont.”
“Any truth to it?”
“None.”
I nodded.
“I imagine you’d like that laid to rest as well.”
“Yes.”
“Okay,” I said.
