Center of Center (3)
a serialized novella-in-flash by Chris Wiewiora
J.J. came to my office hours and told me he planned to give a speech on the Character Categories test. He had to take it in the fall for his business leadership class and loved the sense of knowing himself. He was an Explorer.
I had taken the test years ago. Ma and Pop had told me to do it when I was still anxiously undeclared after my second year at Bellow University. I already knew that I never cared for small talk, wanted to help others before myself, possessed a desire for order, and disliked conflict, but unlike my folks I didn’t know what I could be. Ma had always felt called to help the spirit of people at Loop Hospital where she was left as a baby and so she served as a chaplain there. While Pop had been interested in languages since growing up first-generation United and so he taught in the Lost Languages Institute at Bellow. I remembered selecting from the multiple-choice questions my answers about tending to think things through inside my head, observing instead of wanting attention, valuing harmony, preferring step-by-step instructions, and respecting deadlines. I’m a Sentinel—and it had once seemed that being a teacher of public speaking fit.
I told J.J. I thought that he had a good new topic. J.J. went on to tell me that he would inform his audience about each of the four Character Categories: Analysts, Diplomats, Explorers, and Sentinels. I said I couldn’t wait to hear him deliver and maybe the other students would go take the test and find out who they were. I reminded him, Remember that our syllabus notes no late work or make-ups, especially delivery of speeches. How can someone say something after they’re already supposed to say it?
CENTER of CENTER is a serialized novella-in-flash by Chris Wiewiora. Go here to start at the beginning. Paid subscribers have access to every installment of our serial fiction.
Installments: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32