Tales To Tell In The Dark

The "Wise Ones Club"

At last, a well-deserved summer vacation. For every single college student, it Is a heavenly rest In peace awaited after weeks AND weeks of hard work, few hours of sleep, insane studying AND angst For good grades. I guess I should be glad this last semester at college Is all over. Strangely, it feels like I'm Not. It seems like I consider the upcoming university years As even worse than what I've experienced so far, which I believe - AND probably anyone will agree on this - are, In fact. That's why these days, I enjoy going back To my childhood past AND watch dead cartoons AND T.V. shows like Angela Anaconda, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Dexter's Laboratory AND all those good memories...

Around my 19th birthday, I was visited by my cousin. She Is about To finish high school. On that day especially, she brought Me memories of high school As she goes To the same school I used To go To when I was her age. On that day, I asked her If she was part of any committee OR involved In any particular group For school. So she told Me how she had joined that little science group AND how the teachers were dumb AND didn't know anything about science AND yadayadayada... Then, speaking of these little committees, I suddenly remembered something that I thought I had forgotten Long ago. I asked her If the "Wise Ones Club" was still featured on the school board, To which she replied that the club was terminated the year she entered this high school, thus the year I was entering that two-year college.

I don't know why I remembered this little club. To be honest, I wish I hadn't. During High School, I was kind of a loner AND never really talked To many people, I had very low self esteem AND I would hate school; you know, the usual loner profile. However, one day, As I was walking around the cafeteria, Patrick, the spiritual animator of the school, suddenly came To Me , saying he had something important he wanted To talk To Me about, that he needed my help.

Without a lot of explanations, he told Me he needed Me For the "Wise Ones Club". I've always had a hard time saying "no" To people AND provided this guy was one of the nicest AND most respectful man In the school, I accepted, As it probably meant I would be spending time with him AND, perhaps, develop my up To Then unsteady spiritual life, which I would always strive For during high school, only To be discouraged by the "evil" temptations of girls AND friends AND, you know, anything that Is part of a teenager's life. Today, I'm a very spiritual person AND I wish I was during that time.

So the meetings For this "Wise Ones Club" were scheduled on the school board during lunch time. We had To bring our lunch AND head To the "Spiritual Room" where Patrick would often gather classes To have them meditate For a minute OR two AND other things like that. On the first meeting, I could see who were the members of this club. Most of them were loners just like Me I had never seen before. The first Activity was To introduce ourselves AND To tell the others about what we liked doing AND so on AND finished the meeting by having us fill In the blanks For the Beatles song "All you need Is Love".

It wasn't too special, even though I'm a huge Beatles fan, but it was an opportunity To meet new people AND, perhaps, make friends. So, I decided To go back on the Next meeting As well As all the others, too. It was fun, actually, at least, Until the spiritual animator became sick AND had To leave school For some time. There wasn't any meeting For the club Until some time when a rumor spread that the club was taken In charge by a protégé of Patrick's. We Then went back during lunch time For more meetings. When we first saw the new animator, it felt completely different. She was a middle-aged lady who wore pretty eccentric clothes. Her name was Lily.

The first thing she had us Do was To listen To a song AND fill In the lyrics on a piece of paper. The song was "Stairway To Heaven" by Led Zeppelin, a song I knew was supposed To be more spiritual than most rock songs. After comparing our answers, she handed us another sheet with lyrics on it AND of course, blank spaces we had To fill In. Having a little glance at the lyrics that were there, it seemed they didn't make any sense. She told us To listen very carefully AND "embrace" the music. Then the song played. It was the exact same song, but played backwards. Until Then, I was never really into listening To songs backwards, As it's obvious that it can never make sense besides Pink Floyd's "Empty Spaces" which was kind of funny. However, As we listened To the song, it seemed To make absolute perfect sense.