*Rather than a sickness of body, it was probably a sickness of the soul. Matters had broken down between Mona Lisa and me. She moved out with hard feelings against me and found herself another place to live. I was also concerned about what I would be doing for employment that summer. My contract with the university was scheduled to end after the spring semester. I never discussed the matter with her. 

As the man she expected that the bills and such concerns were those of the man. I had no idea what she was doing with her money. Obviously, she had been saving up to make her move. We both took the GRE. I scored high and received a fellowship for the graduate program. She did not. That must have also cost some consternation on her part. We both moved to Baton Rouge that fall. I stayed on State Street in walking distance of the university. I was also in walking distance of Mona Lisa’s house. I visited her once or twice, but she was as icy as an old freezer.

The fall 1986, I began, my doctoral work at LSU. Mona Lisa and I took a class together. I was shocked by the emotional distance that had developed between us. It was as if I were a near total stranger. I supposed it was what maybe called the "creole shuffle." She had no further use for me, so she didn’t feel that anything was required of her. Moreover, she believed she had a righteous grievances against me. But I was hurt to the quick.

Moreover, I felt extremely isolated being a long way from home. Most of my former associates at UNO had left the state and I had burned quite a few bridges behind me. I was getting so edgy that when a couple of college students drove pass me and yelled out the car window "nigger" I ran after the car. I had never had such a situation to happen to me anywhere. It was becoming clear to me I was in the wrong place. I stayed one school year in Baton Rouge. In the entire year, I did not make one friend at LSU, male or female, black or white.

I was unable to find a professor at LSU in which I felt comfortable. I had hoped to make friends with James Olney. My primary interest was to figure out a way to write a biography of Marcus Christian. I took a course with Olney and had several private discussions with him. He, however, kept his distance and never understood what I was going through or cared, it seemed to me. I dropped out of LSU at the end of the Spring semester and returned to Virginia. My stipend continued through the summer months. I stayed at the family house about three months and then returned to Baltimore. After four years, I had had enough of "Lousy Anna."