Chapter 49: I have Ardor!
Sos, Mom’s got sorta the next ‘round’ a’ women hopin’ to get some kids. Kinda a weird side thing, but no one’s gettin’ hurt here.
“Well, hi. Nice to meet…” Salim was gettin’ started when Cassie Goth goes runnin’ off inside.
“Let’s not waste time! The goth family won’t extend itself!”
“...Well, OK…” He sighs a little, an’ I figger he was, like, hopin’ for somethin’
civil, with a professional politeness. But I guess when y’ take too much personal outta somethin, you really go
seriously impersonal-like. But this mostly aint an impersonal story, what I got f’r you today; ‘s kinda a story a’ three diff’rent dates, a bit.
...But ‘fore that, gotta add one other little bummer.
“What is it, Ulrike?” Akira’d gotten a phone call. An’ I guessed from his tone, kinda low an’ worried, it weren’t good.There was a bit of a pause. “Oh, so that’s all starting to get around, huh? Well, it’s not like I didn’t eventually realize my reputation would suffer. Don’t worry.”
But yeah, that marks somethin’ kinda different: Most of us got pretty solid reps. ‘S just Akira who’s got a rep that’ll suffer here. I feel bad, even if, like, he thinks it aint wrong on him.
As f’r your buddy Kite here...
“Hey, you OK?” Kace asks while we’re workin’ in the garden. It’s somethin’ we do without really talkin’ on it, or decidin’ it, these days. But here, guess she figgered I’m the type t’ get down an’ not say. Trip, man, guilty as charged on that…
“I aint cool, but I’ll be cool, dig?” ‘S what I settle on.
“Alright,” she says, not b’fore givin’ me a little worried look. “But, hey, I’ve been thinking! We’ve got Wolfsbane and Sage, which are always in season; why don’t we do some grafting onto those, so the garden’ll be growing year-round?”
“Groovy; let’s. We got the clock for it.” It’ll prob’bly be a long kinda deal, but it’d be nice t’see one day. You look back over it an’ there’ll be rows an’ rows we planted t’gether.
When thing’s slip out to evenin’, we head out. It’s deffo a date, dig? Just, kinda, like, low-key… Kinda more a trip out t’ the cliffs overlookin’ the lake. Kace wanted t’see if they actually got waterballoons there.
They do.
Trip, man, but they do. You good pal’s kinda a soggy pal once waterballoons get happenin’. That girl’s a crack shot -- but aint it worth it? You look up from behind drippin’ hair an you see her laughin, the sunset goin’ down around her an’ boundin’ off her skin.
“Oooh, look at me, I’m too busy thinking about the inherent oneness of all life to dodge a balloon!” She pulls a face, an I can’t stand back up straight f’r laughin.
“What kinda rag’s that, pook?” Now, see, oneness a’ lifes a garden thought, dig? ‘R those wildflowers way out back. Those moments when y’re right with everythin’, an y’love the sun the same kinda way. That kinda thing.
“I had to think about it!” She laughs anyway. “And
I had to do it while throwing!”
Trip, I love’r. An’ that somethin’ I wanna look back over everythin’ I did an’ see.
“...I dig the oneness thing.” Now, this could be one’a them moments, too, dig? There’s somethin’ really happenin here, when you got the view of a’ mouse, an you feel the heat a’ her like you’re seein’ like a boa. An all of it, the heat an’ the grass an’ you an her, just dwarfed under the faint stars, pokin’ their way out. An the stars get dwarfed by, like, the ineffable infinite a’ space. An’ that’s everythin, swimmin’ there.
“Yeah? I was mostly teasing, you know,” She says, snugglin’ into grass.
“Yeah, nah, that didn’t miss ‘r nothin. Just… Trip,” I didn’t know what I could say t’ tell her alla that, dig? But I wanted t’ try. “Everythin’s here under that sky -- well, ‘cept the aliens, but they’re just dippin’ it, ‘r caught with the stars ‘tween us an’ them like beads on a thread, dig? Ah! You heard that story a’ those physics cats?”
“Actual cats, cats in thought experiments, or physicists?”
“Third one. See, they’ve got this real far-out idea happenin’. The world’s, like, just all strings, vibratin’ at once. An’ it’s sorta like that. We’re all movin’ at our own pace, but it’s all the same stuff, an what looks like solid stuff an’ distance’s all just points in a line. That’s only, like, half string theory, an’ half junk I dig, dig? An’ a moment like this, like… I feel where I’m just a point on the line, but the line’s f’rever. An there aint a gap ‘tween me an the grass… Or me an’ you. We’re connected, not startin’, not stoppin’.” It aint totes what I mean, like, in the whole, but sometimes you gotta say what you can, dig?
“...I like that. Kinda took a ways to get there, but I do like it. So, if I were to move my hand just a little like this… It’d just be moving down that thread, huh?” She says, reachin out in the grass between us.
“Yeah, ‘r somethin. An if I move like this…” I grab that hand, catchin a bit a grass in there, an holdin’ my girl an’ the world.
Our fingers twine an’ weave over each other, an’ she says,
“And this is just the reflection of reality.”
“Yeah, you dig it.”
An’ elsewhere on that line, there’s some other lovebirds out in’ the night. F’r example…
The rents. There’s dates t’ do, an’ you know how much Mom loves chasin’ a goal. Pff. It aint like she needs the excuse, dig?
“Wooh! Still takes my breath away!” Ka-san tells her. “It’d be very handy if I ever needed my lungs pumped.”
“What is that even supposed to mean, you?” Mom asks, not meanly. “I’d much rather be called a succubus.”
“A nice one, then,” Ka-san offers. “One turned to the light by my radiant energy!”
“Well, the radiance is hard to deny. But I don’t know if you’ve tamed the evil out of me yet -- I’ll need another few rounds of breath for that.”
They laugh for a while, an’ fall in’ banterin’ on old jokes, here an’ there.
An they get t’ spend a not-so quiet evenin, listenin’ to Ka-san jam out tune after groovy tune.
And then there’s Magpie. Got himself a trophy; aint that just the bees’ knees? But he met someone on his way back -- well, like, not met, you dig? She’s been around an’ all.
Alyson Caliente, one’a Johnny’s kids. Magpie saw she was still feelin’ kinda bummed, an’ right on it. So they get out back an’ get talkin.
“I’ve considered acting myself! How is drama club?” She asks him, an he tells ‘er,
“The director doesn’t have a creative soul in his body. Stock! Staid! You recommend one production where everyone’s on roller skates, and suddenly, every look is a glower!”
“That sounds awful. I’d hate for someone to not listen to my ideas…” She sighs. “But I would like to try acting sometime.”
“Well, what time is superior to the present, dear lady?” He grins an’ takes her up by the hand. “The world’s a stage to begin with -- what fault is there, of playing to an audience of cicada, and hear in their chorus applause. Romeo and Juliet; Act 1, Scene 5.”
“If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.”
He’s got, like, a way of it, man, hard to say what, dig? A tone that takes happenin’ from unhappenin’. Well, Magpie’s pretty cool, but ‘m little gobblesmacked seein’ her gooify. Takes her a second f’r the line.
“Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.” Kinda hammy, but ‘s cool, man, ‘scool.
“Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?” He asks wearin’ Romeo like a hat, leanin’ in.
“Ay -- ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.”
“O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.” He comes mighty close then, ‘till his own face goes flush, an he skeedaddles back t’ real range. “It’d be something like that, I suppose! You did quite well!”
They spend a little more time, catchin’ flicks, playin’ a game, when somewhere to get munches, she pokes him with:
“So, if that’s how it’d be for Romeo and Juliet to date… But if it were you and me, then…”
An’ Maggie freezes a sec; he don’t do it by halves, neither, but stiff as a board ‘til he’s got words trippin’, ready t’ go.
“If I loved you -- Aaah, but that’s just more theatre, is it not? I considered that one… However… If you and I were romantically involved, then, my flower, I would use every word in my most exquisite vocabulary to shower you with praise! And when passionate speech might fail,”
“There’s always body language, its own sweet vocabulary, my dear!”
“Snrk.” She starts t’ giggle, an’ it aint like I’m puttin’ that down, dig? Trip, but them’s some goofy poses, bro!
“I’m being serious!” He blurts when he can’t think up a follow-through. “You’re a beautiful girl and I like you!”
“Why not just say that, then? But… I do like the sound of every word in your vocabulary. So… I might like that.”
“Then we are entangled, as sweethearts, perhaps?” He rushes on from put-down to giddy all in a blink.
“Yes! Let’s date!”
‘Course, everythin’ was still goin’ on, so this got met by a round of applause. An Alyson sorta flushes here, see, an whispers somethin….
But, like, one way or another, they end up retreatin’ to his pad. An’ what a coupla kids just datin’ gets up to’s ‘tween them an’ them, dig? But when he gets down t’ get some grub, Alyson’s headed out.
“Grats, Magpie. But...Hey… I always sorta got the vibe you and Reiko kinda, like, were inneres’ed in a thing, yeah?” I ask, givin’ him a cheery grin.
“Well… About that matter… I… I do love her. Reiko, I mean. And Alyson…” He sighs. “Does everything have to be so closed in this way? Love is a feeling, not a contract, not a bicycle built for two, is it not, dear brother?” He pulls himself up kinda proud then, like ‘hands up.’ But it aint like that.
“...Maaaan, I am not down on puttin’ love down, you know that.” He’s always been kinda on this, but I guess gettin’ a gal-pal really hits that up. “But you gotta be fair t’em, an’ not carry ‘round like a thief, dig? Love’s gotta own up to love.”
“I thank you for your sage advice. Very well! I shall phone Alyson about my intentions anon!”
“Luck, dude.”
“I have ardor! Luck is secondary!” Glad t’see him back in action. Trip, aint love just the thing?
