The Camel and the Scorpion opens in Texas in 1977.
What music did protagonists, Caroline and Lydia, hear on the radio?
"Caroline noticed Lydia’s navy blue pea coat was pilling, frayed at the sleeves. She watched Lydia struggle to clasp the bottom black button, but it wouldn’t fasten around her large hips. Probably a hand-me-down, or else Lydia was once much thinner.
"Students spilled out from the four, three-story limestone buildings that comprised much of the campus, accidentally brushing against Caroline and Lydia in their haste to make their next class or grab a cup of coffee or hot chocolate at the student union. The students slapped each other on the back, chatting excitedly on that first day of class, snippets of their conversation drifting in the wind, 'Hey man, who you have for psych, what’d you do over Christmas break, isn’t Fleetwood Mac’s song ‘Dreams’ far-out?' But none said hello to Lydia.
"Up ahead, Caroline winced as she spied her colleague Joe Lambert turn away from the magnificent outdoor fountain in front of the student union, and head straight toward her and Lydia. Lambert taught American Politics, sported a Fu Man Chu mustache, pony-tailed hair and a green army jacket, though he’d never served a day in the military. He had spearheaded the UTSB search committee that led to Caroline’s hire, but informed her she’d been their second choice—the first being a Georgetown University male grad who’d bowed out after landing a job at Princeton. As if UCLA were some rinky dink outback. As if graduating summa cum laude from there were second-rate.
"As Lambert passed Caroline and Lydia, he said hello with an exaggerated smile and mimicked pecking frantically at a typewriter with his index fingers. 'Remember, dissertation professor!'
"Lambert had also given Caroline an ultimatum during the interview—her dissertation had to be finished in six months. Or else."
"You say you want your freedom
Well, who am I to keep you down?"
Fleetwood Mac, Dreams
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