Us Versus the World

Midnight Distorts My Judgement

Worst Mistakes in the World

Not having enough lifeboats on the Titanic because it was unsinkable

Asking Ryan to be my date to the semiformal

NASA accidentally taping over the moon landing

Stuffing my bra in 6th grade

Napoleon thinking he could invade Russia in winter, and then Hitler thinking he could do any better than Napoleon

Promising a girl I know nothing about I would do essentially anything for her after a 6 ½ minute interaction

I like to end the majority of my lists in my field notebooks with "In the World" because I have a flair for the dramatic. But even if I wasn't being dramatic, it was clear that I had made a mistake of epic proportions last night. I liked to adventure, and I certainly wouldn't call myself sensible, but even for me, this was impulsive. I'd like to say I had no idea what came over me, but I knew. That girl was majestic at worst.

I shoved the anxiety into the pit of my stomach, such as I was accustomed to doing with things like my math grade, where it hovered for about a month. Then, about a month and a half after I had made a promise in an alternate reality, it disappeared altogether. I continued being me, and I almost forgot about the strange night where it seemed like I sold my soul.

I saw Murphy around town sometimes, usually wearing a bandana of some sort, and riding what looked like a very expensive vintage bicycle. I always wondered whether I should go talk to her, but I never did. Maybe because she intimidated me. Maybe because I had spent nights thinking about her and making up stories about what she was like, and I didn't want to have my dreams dashed by the fact that she wasn't really at all what I had pictured. Either way, I never spoke to her, and she never spoke to me, which made it easy to forget the whole ordeal.

July turned to August, and August to September. I live in a tiny Maine beach town, and so by September, the population plunges like the water temperature. Instead of exploring the marshes and swamps, and posting YouTube videos as I enjoyed in the summer months, I started to buckle down. My parents were rather aggressive in their suggestion I needed to put extra effort into my first semester and into my college applications.

My parents are fine. Really, they are. It's just that I've grown up afraid. I can't really do anything without being punished and so I end up just not doing anything. It's not miserable, but one day I'd like to do things. I read a lot about it online.

Later that night, at about 11:00, I was lying in bed when I got a call, on my cell phone. I don't pick up unidentified callers, but this one left a message.

"Pick up the phone."

"Hullo?" I croaked, my voice thick with sleep.

"Ah, good. Devon, it's me." And instantly I felt like I was in somebody else's life. Nobody I knew would call me in the middle of the night and make vague, mysterious statements like that. Wrong number was my first reaction, but they had said my name.

"Yes, hi." I finally managed weakly.

"Murphy. I'm cashing in on my promise. I'm waiting in your driveway."

It didn't take me long to respond. ." Like I said, I wanted to do things. "What should I bring?" I whispered.

"Just bring yourself. And hurry." I wanted to ask her to specify, but she had already hung up. I crept to my window and looked out. Sure enough, Murphy was standing in my driveway.

My parents were sleeping. They wouldn't wake up, because they slept on the second floor, and I slept on the first. Even though it seemed like the perfect set up, I had never sneaked out before. It had simply never occurred to me as a viable option. Even if it had, I never would have done it. I don't know why tonight felt so different under the golden mid-September air. In the back of my mind, I knew it was rash and a little bit stupid, but I dismissed this rational part of me as buzzkill and made my way out the door.

"Hi," I whispered, "what's going on?"

"Well, I'm dying to know if you ever found that bullfrog, and so I want to take you out for ice cream and find out."

It had been a couple of months, and so it took me a moment to understand what she was talking about. 

"Oh no." I laughed, a little awkwardly, "No, it was just a common bullfrog with an abnormally sized vocal sac. It was a pretty terrible project after all."

She smiled indulgently. "I'm sure you can think of a better story than that. You've got all night."

And she grabbed my hand and started walking.

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