There were not very many people in the library that evening. I was grateful for that.
I went directly to the Reference Department and requested all the information I could on the old Cambridge University. I explained to the librarian that I was working on a research paper and needed everything she had dating back to the year 1448. She regarded me strangely, but gave me what I needed and guided me in the direction of anything else I may need to look for later...
I read through numerous encyclopedias and articles that only seemed to date back as far as the 1700's. Cambridge had been in existence since 1231. I then went through the microfiche archives I collected from the librarian. Of course back in 1448 there were no pictures taken, but there was woodcutting to make prints and paintings.
There were articles in the microfiche files with lists of students who attended and eventually graduated from Cambridge University during the year 1448. These were the medieval years. The 15th Century. Why would he want me to look at this, I asked myself.
It was at that moment that I discovered why...
There in black and white, woodcut print on microfilm was the name “Trevor D. McAllisdair”; listed as a student? Maybe it was his ancestor, I thought. I kept looking...
I later located his name again in some very old archives for Oxford University; as an instructor. This was around 1460. Oxford had indeed been in existence since about 1096.
Nothing of much more significance showed up until I started researching birth records. This is where it got interesting...
The first birth record I found for Trevor Dean McAllisdair was the year 1727; then again exactly 100 years later in 1827. The Cambridge University graduating class of 1848, when he would have been 21 years of age, had him listed there again as a student! Then in 1859, he was a faculty member there. A group portrait was taken. It was a bit grainy, but I could get a good look at the eyes of the professors in the ancient photo...sure enough, I could’ve sworn I saw a familiar pair of eyes in the group looking back at me! He was among a group of men standing in the photo behind men who were seated. He appeared alot younger than all of them, which made him stand out more...
Then I found an article dated August 10th, 1865 where it heralded the arrival of a Mr. Trevor Dean McAllisdair to the University of London from Cambridge. Apparently they were excited to have a professor come and teach at their school from such a prestigious place.
There was a photograph included in this article-of HIM.
It WAS him...professor Trevor Dean McAllisdair, the way he looked waaay back in the year 1865! Approximately 99 years ago! With my right hand shaking, I was able to do the math and he would’ve been almost 38 years old!!! Now, in the year 1964, he was 37 years old!!! That creepy monochrome picture, taken from the shoulders up, showed him dressed in the style of that period. The tie he was wearing looked like it was in a bow up to his dimpled chin. Those were the same lips, nose, clear eyes, brows, light-colored hair, which was a little longer and wavier in the picture, and the same laugh lines that were developing around his eyes then. His eyes...I found myself once again unable to break away from the power his eyes, even in this old portrait, had over me...
Then, the room went dark...
There was light still emitting from the microfiche machine however, and with the lights out, the picture was more creepy now than ever! I shut my eyes....
The lights came back on...
“Closing time, Miss,” said the librarian who helped me out earlier. I sat there for a moment amazed at how much time it took for me to go through all of these archives about this man! Apparently, he was some sort of weird time-traveler, or something much worse, as he had telepathic powers and the ability to move objects remotely!
As I rode back to the campus in a taxi cab it occurred to me that there was never a death record for Mr. McAllisdair! At least not from what I could see, and I saw almost everything on him. I DID see that he was born at least 3 times! Oh gosh, I thought, when I see him again on Friday my view of him is going to be totally different! Perhaps he and I needed to have our own q and a session...
That was if I could trust myself alone with him...
I then began to wonder how my friends were doing...
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