Cygnus and Christopher

Untitled Part 9

A phone rang in both my dream and in the bedroom that cradled my dreaming body. The ring became a rope that pulled me back to the waking world.

The speech from one side of a phone conversation came into my ears, slowly woke me up more.

Christopher paced around the room while talking. "Hey", "Yeah you can get us some?", "Cool cool", "Yeah no problem ya know?, "Alright later." The phone flipped closed and got slid back into Christopher's pocket. "Get up Cygnus. There is fun to be had."

The booze buyer Christopher found lived in a neighbour where most the houses had fences, white wooden ones mostly and a few black metal ones. Small dogs jumped up to get a look at us passing in a car.

The buyer's name was Ash. She graduated high school a few years ago, somewhat known as a huge partier. Once, Christopher made out with her on the floor at a party. At first they were kissing standing up, then they fell over but just kept going. People cheered, some filmed, encouraging and recording a situation they may or may not have hoped to ever find themselves in.

Interactions between Ash and I were fairly limited. However, one memory came back to me, sat on the doorstep of my consciousness, convinced me of the value of what it had to offer, sold me on the belief that time spent thinking about it was time well spent. It happened the previous summer I think.

Dirty goop from a dishwashing sink stained on my white shirt. The food served at the wedding that night was not popular among the guests. Lots of plates returned to the kitchen with lots of food still on them, food that my hand would scrape into a large garbage can before scrubbing the dishes, rinsing them, and loading them into the industrial dishwasher. Only rarely did I perform sloppy enough to acquire a stain on my clothes. So when I did it held my attention. My eyes drifted down to the stain at a stop sign on the way home, after the kitchen was cleaned and organized. Just a little brown spot on my left hip, percentage wise a small portion of the shorts.

After I convinced myself that little could be done in the moment, I decided to continue my commute home. With my sight returned to the road, I let go of the brake, but then quickly re applied pressure, something was in the road.

Turned out to be a snowy owl standing on the road. His or her black and white feathers matched the colors of my work outfit. In that moment I got too absorbed in the bird's eyes to inspect the feathers for any cuts or marks. Big eyes, outside my window, somewhere between the blacktop and the heavens. We stared at each other for a bit, well at least I think the staring was a mutual affair.

After a passage of time that I am uncomfortable at guessing, the unblinking bird turned, wobbled a bit, favoring the left foot, and flew off. I turned right, followed the birds path, coincidentally the route home. A bit down the road I lost sight of the bird, felt oddly alone. Not for long though, a human figure walked on the shoulder. Shoe's untied, the figure stumbled more than walked perhaps. Once closer, I noticed the person walking, and bawling, was Ash. She glanced over her shoulder at the car pulling up behind her. She tried to run, but tripped on her laces, fell onto the pavement. It kinda reminded me of one of those novelty sprinklers that would wobble and spray water over yards.

I put the car in park and stepped out. "Ash are you okay? It's Cygnus, from school. I am friends with Christopher." Her body did not rise from the pavement. "I am going home." Still she did not rise, her words and actions clashing. I knelt beside her. "Want a ride?" She pushed herself up and headed into the passenger seat. I remember where she lived, having been there for a party not too long before.

A few minutes into the ride, she mumbled some words, one of which I heard as "thanks." Making a left turn into her driveway I responded with a "no problem." She did not get out right away, flopped into my lap and became overwhelmed by a new wave of tears.

"Do you want to talk about stuff?" Once again only a few words of her reply were comprehensible, "Endings. Fuck'em." My hands stayed on the steering wheel, unsure if I should offer some form of physical sympathy. A lack of words came to me so I parroted hers back with an intonation somewhere between a question and a statement. "Endings. Fuck'em." The live weight on my lap lifted and opened the door, and exited. Before she closed the door, she nodded, "Yep. Fuck'em."

"Hey guys." Ash's voice brought me back to the same driveway, but at a different time. "Hello." Responded in unison by Christopher and me. A buckle clicked in the backseat. Christopher turned and handed Ash some cash. "I'll text you the list of stuff we want once we get to the store. Sound good?"

Money transferred hands. "Yeah, sounds good. You guys headed to Rick's tonight?" Christopher started the car, reversed it down the driveway. "Yep. I'm pumped. You gonna go?" I glanced back, Ash looked out the window, her right fingertips placed on the glass. "Haven't been to Rick's in a while. Did have a lot of fun back in the day though." On the route back out of the neighbourhood I saw no dogs jumping near fences. It occurred to me that this may be the last summer I go to Rick's parties. What was "back in the day" to Ash, is in some ways "today" for me. A lot of the specifics shifted around, but perhaps similar in a general sense.

The rest of the liquor store run went on without a hitch; alcohol purchased for Christopher, Nicole, Alex, and me. Ash turned down the tip. She said, while looking at me, "Gotta keep the dream alive for those who it isn't finished for yet." After that, she left and walked back toward her house, glanced back as Christopher and I rode away.

In the evening, some hours later, I sat in the front passenger seat, peered up and out the side window, looked for the constellation emerging into view. A couple of bags of alcohol set in the middle back seat. Often we stored them in the trunk, but we were picking up Nicole and Alex on the way, and Nicole said she wanted to drink on the ride to Rick's.

"Glad that all that is back there. It is comforting you know?" I assumed "all that" was the alcohol. The statement made me wonder about my choices the last few years, and the sentiments I tended to internally.

Before I verbally responded, Nicole and Alex came in the back side doors. A bottle pulled out of the bag. "Ah hell yeah, I am ready." Nicole spun off the cap. It fell to floor, sounded like a match being lit. Heat ignited, potential for bonfire warmth or forest fire destruction and conquest. I wonder if I lied to myself when I thought I only wished for bonfire warmth, but never the majesty of the forest fire.

A finger poked my back between the backrest and headrest. "Hi Cygnus." Alex's head rested on my seat, eyes wide and rarely blinking. "Hi Alex."

Nicole pulled from the bottle a few times and then passed it to Alex, who did the same. Alex offered it to me, but I shook my head. "No thanks." Drinking alcohol while riding around in a car did not seem appealing to me.

Christopher speed up the car, "You two are making me impatient. I am starting to feel left out up here."