From: Christian Shelton
To: ai-tech-sq@ai.mit.edu
Subject: GSB Today, 5:30, 7ai
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 16:44:59 -0500 (EST)

He's not there.

I checked again. "He's not there," my thought reiterated. I checked my watch for the fifth time that minute and then rechecked my e-mail. Sure enough, no news and his office was filled by only his emptiness and longing.

He would have wanted someone to take his place. He deserved a man of action, of integrity. I looked around. No one presented himself. No voices around the corner; no footsteps at the door; no angel in my time of need; no one to save me from the responsibility that loomed in front of me. I rubbed my eyes and stared back at my computer screen, but again no help. I was alone and I had to carry the burden on my own.

My mother's voice returned to me. "Be strong; have faith in yourself." But she wasn't there either. She had instilled me with a sense of duty and then left me with only those words to help me fulfill it. I looked at my own hands, seemly too inconsequential to carry the load.

Then, as a man resigned to his fate, I picked up my keyboard and began to write . . .

----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Come celebrate Friday at

THE

G I R L S C O U T B E N E F I T

7ai 5:30, the usual

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------