His broodful reflections were interrupted by Darby, running over to tug at the sleeve of his blazer—"Professor, Professor! Lindsay has just now made a defamatory remark about Miles's mother, yet he's forever after me about using 'slang,' and is that fair, I ask you?"
* * * * * * * * * *
If my numbering system for every line hasn't been messed up by now, it certainly has after this line. If I were to remove the "Professor, Professor!" line from this sentence, I'd call it one sentence. But with that bit breaking up the main sentence split into two parts by an em dash, it almost feels like three sentences. But I've resisted that temptation! This is one sentence with another, brief sentence used as an interjection in the middle. But since this line has made me question my numbering system, I shall forthwith just have faith in my system and resist discussing it every time there's a question of how many lines are contained within the odd punctuation of em dashes and long quotations. The numbering system is either wrong or right and I'm just going to stick with whatever I decide. That's the end of that!
As for the actions within these lines, Darby could not have made a better entrance into this chaotic situation. It's especially nice to have the action previously blurred out of focus by Randolph's musings about whose fault this situation was so that we, as the readers, also miss Lindsay's defamatory remark. We have to trust Darby's perception of the goings on at hand. Granted, I shall be forever curious as to what Lindsay may have said.
Again, the ship is crashing to the ground and everybody seems overly concerned about something other than that. Sort of like how we deal with climate change, amirite?!
Darby tugging on Randolph's blazer helped remind me that these kids were all wearing red and white striped blazers and blue short pants. Ugh. I can hardly imagine looking at them!
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