"DECEMBER BOYS" PART TWO: "PARALLEL LINES: THE BALLAD OF CRAIG AND STEPHANIE-PART ONE" (first section)

PARALLEL LINES:

THE BALLAD OF CRAIG & STEPHANIE

PART ONE (1st section)

     Craig quietly paced around the second floor of the Union as he waited for Rhett. Having entered the Union not that long ago from the Lakeshore path, Craig was slowly warming up while listening to a tape of his radio show from the previous year. Craig’s time as a DJ at WLHA was a childhood fantasy fulfilled. While his broadcast aired at a time when the least amount of students would possibly be listening (10 p.m.-1 a.m. Saturday nights) plus the fact that the station utilized the booming power of one half of one watt, he loved every moment of it and he was meticulous about his on-air duties. He didn’t like to talk that much on the air (the blazingly red “On Air” light made him nervous every time he saw it) he just loved having the chance to play his favorite songs, old and new, to someone, anyone beyond the bowels of the JF Friedrick Center, where the student station resided. Now in his Junior year, Craig was the station’s Music Director and that gave him the added bonus of having the station’s keys, access to a larger studio where he could record his shows in stereo (as opposed to FM Mono), and of course, the greatest musical bounty of them all, the station's new albums were entirely shipped to him to peruse and listen to before they made their way  on the air and into the stacks, where they would consistently be stolen by the DJs, taped in their dorm rooms and brought back the following week. (To keep a sense of order within the station, Craig politely asked if albums currently featured on the playlist could remain in the studio until they were replaced by newer albums—the DJs agreed.) At this moment, Craig was just enjoying his song selections plus being attune to his show’s pacing and transitions from one song to the next. But there was one other thing…perhaps the most important sound on this cassette that Craig was listening to, against his better judgment, the sound of Stephanie’s voice. Hearing her every little vocal inflection and timbre. Being surrounded by her brilliant literary filled wit. It was just about anything to hear her voice again. Yet, having her voice inside of his head placed him into a dark mood. In fact, within a few moments, he was about to hear a passage of their on-air banter which was unfortunately filled with tension; romantic, sexual, artistic, or all of the above.

     If one were to ask either Craig Hughes or Stephanie Deavitt about the precise moment the two of them met for the first time, they would each draw a blank due to the inauspiciousness of their initial meeting. For our purposes, it should be noted that Craig and Stephanie discovered each other’s existence within the cozy yet periodically bustling area of the Tripp Hall Gatehouse, where Stephanie was employed and Craig frequented daily to collect his mail, purchase laundry tickets or stamps, send letters through campus mail and more often than not, he could be found as a love-struck loiterer pining for the affection and attention from the admittedly transfixing, vivacious and voluptuous Gail Kufahl.

     Gail Kufahl, a Junior who lived in Bashford House of Tripp Hall, happened to be randomly assigned to serve as Craig’s S.P.U.D. (Student Providing Undergraduate Direction) for the duration of the school year, and while the two had indeed become fast friends and she honestly enjoyed his steadfast visits to the Gatehouse where she was also employed, she was also unaware of Craig’s vigorously healthy infatuation. Craig would stop into the Gatehouse several times a week to see if the illustrious Gail Kufahl was working, hoping to bask in her unquestionably magnetic beauty for even a moment. Yet, his heart, filled with nervous anticipation, would feel itself deflate at Gail’s occasional absences and especially when he felt himself essentially confronted with the sight of the dark brown haired, brown leather jacket and thrift store clothes clad girl with the hard, impenetrable stare and a resting face that seemed unable to elicit even a crack of a smile. Whenever he happened to see this other Gatehouse girl, Craig felt uneasy, as if his presence was somehow offensive to her, therefore making his desire to keep any interactions and transactions mercifully brief. On one occasion, as he and Jon Dahl passed through the Gatehouse on their way to the Shed for dinner, Craig, disappointed with not being able to see Gail and finding the other, dark cloud tinged Gatehouse girl in her place for the evening, he informed Jon that the only person on Gatehouse duty that night was “that mad girl.”

     One crisp gray Saturday afternoon, when seemingly the entire student body of the Lakeshore dorms was attending another punishing Badger football loss, Craig, as usual, remained behind in Tripp Hall to do some laundry and tackle some readings for his Psychology class, in which he was struggling as he did with all Science classes, even the ones that Jon, a Chemical Engineering major, would scornfully classify as “pseudo-Science.” Finding himself short two laundry tickets, Craig quickly ventured to the Gatehouse to replenish his supply. Since he knew that Gail Kufahl was a Badger football devotee, he knew that this Gatehouse visit would be of a shorter variety. Or so he thought…

     Upon entering the Gatehouse, Craig was greeted by the magical voice of Stevie Nicks, whose intoxicating, raspy singing filled the air and weaved a darkly romantic spell on this cloudy day. As Craig rounded the corner past the mailboxes to the Gatehouse booth window, he was instantly paused by the sight of the mad girl. Even as this person gave Craig a sense of trepidation, he was also unusually up for a challenge. He found himself to be an approachable person, sometimes friendly to a fault but definitely not someone to be feared. In that moment, he realized that he actually wanted to try and make contact with this mad girl and see if there was a way that any ice could be broken or if the wall he perceived her to be barricaded by was insurmountable.

     To Craig’s surprise, the mad girl, who soon identified herself as Stephanie Deavitt, was actually quite talkative and even more than a little charming. Hours upon hours of sorting through mail was an understandably lonely occupation, especially on empty football Saturdays and perhaps on this day, Stephanie was just itching to have a conversation with anyone. But with Craig Hughes, she was surprised to meet someone who not only held a certain maturity that was elusive to many Freshman, but also the fact that he seemed to be as passionately devoted to music as she was. His declaration of his love for Fleetwood Mac, the band that she held above all in her devotion was a plus to be certain. Oddly enough, he spent quite a bit of time also declaring his infatuation with Gail Kufahl, but even so, Stephanie easily understood his starry eyed fascination. While she did not know Gail very well, she had no complaints about her and could easily regard her obvious desirability. With that in mind, she indulged Craig’s tales of awkwardness and embarrassment while in Gail’s presence and Stephanie had to admit to herself that this Craig Hughes was certainly the storyteller, as he essentially acted out his anecdotes as if they were one-act plays or stand up comedy routines. On Craig’s end, he enjoyed how Stephanie was quick with a quip and he also was intrigued by her sometimes literary infused speech pattern and impressive vocabulary. Craig surprised himself when he realized that there was essentially no ice to be broken in regards to Stephanie Deavitt. It was as if she had just been waiting for him to finally come along to talk with.

     For many weeks after their first meeting, Craig and Stephanie also became very fast friends. They visited each other’s dorms, shared cassettes, cajoled and laughed together easily and often. So easily and often that their rapport felt as natural s if they had been friends for the entirety of their lives. There was an ease and grace to their banter. Nothing ever felt forced and there was never a loss for words thus rendering the potential for empty spaces in conversation completely moot. Before Craig or Stephanie even realized, they each had begun to look forward towards the next time they would see each other and in Craig’s instance, thoughts of Gail Kufahl became less and less. On another evening when Craig and Jon passed through the Gatehouse while on their way to the Shed for dinner, Craig spent several minutes chatting away with the on-Gatehouse duty Stephanie. While Jon surreptitiously read his latest issue of Rolling Stone, he perceptively observed the behavior of his roommate and his new friend and upon existing the Gatehouse, he asked Craig, “So, what’s going with you two?”

     “What do you mean?” Craig responded honestly and innocently.

    “I mean, whatever happened to Gail? You and Stephanie have seemed to really hit it off.”

    “Stephanie?” wondered Craig aloud. “Well…we’re just friends.”

    “Hmmm,” began Jon. “Well, if the two of you actually started dating I wouldn’t be surprised.”

     The seed had been planted.

     Stephanie Deavitt’s first experience with Craig’s life in student radio came at the end of her Junior year and Craig’s Freshman year. It was an evening they both needed in their budding relationship which was filled with seriously conflicted emotions of friendship and love and all of the many levels in both states. Beginning in the Winter months, Craig found himself almost painfully in love with Stephanie, the girl who would become his best friend and closest companion despite all of the messy friction and honest affection between them. By the end of his Freshman year, Craig and Stephanie had seemed to reach a deeper plateau in their relationship which was as meaningful as it was still confusing. A day simply would not pass without at least some moments together and to the outside eye, it would indeed appear as if these two were a stable and serious romantic couple although they had never kissed even once, let alone held hands, as Craig’s romantic gestures and feelings were sadly unrequited.

     With regards to school, Craig Hughes never really got used to the anti-climactic nature of the end of a college school year as opposed to high school but in this year, there was a sense of celebration with a Lakeshore dorms outdoor bash, complete with barbequed food, illicitly obtained drinks (Craig had his first taste of vodka that late afternoon) and a studio slick sounding band pounding out Cheap Trick’s “The Flame.”

     That night, while at WLHA studios performing his radio show, he was surprised to hear the door buzzer since no DJ’s spun after him on Saturday nights. He went to the door, surprised and touched to see Stephanie, holding a pizza, expectantly waiting for him to let her inside his previously unknown domain. She was a tad tipsy herself from the party and despite her protests, she ended up on the air with Craig. The night was a glorious one in their friendship, filled with music, food and laughter. It proved to both of them the rightness of becoming close friends in the first place, despite all of the romantic tension, and on this evening, there was none. When they listened to the cassette of the show later, they laughed just as hard as they did on-air and realized that they sort of enjoyed their own radio rapport. Craig hated the sound of his own voice but he had to admit that there was something special about hearing Stephanie’s voice within this context. He had a great time and he invited her to join him on the air the following year as his partner. She said that she would think about it over the summer.

     While Stephanie’s summer was spent being much involved with her family, spending time in her bedroom creating her own guitar recordings and pursuits completely unrelated in any way to college, she would often think of that night in WLHA with Craig. She had to admit to herself that it was more than a little fascinating to see her friend in a new light. While at that time, she didn’t know him that well, they inexplicably became extremely close. So close, that to both of them, it felt as if their paths were meant to cross. (She was, in fact, the one who coined the expression that they were “Cosmic Twins”.) Even so, much of what she knew about Craig was a person who passionately or foolishly wore his heart on his sleeve. Seeing him, headphones strapped to his ears, pressing buttons and switching dials on archaic machinery consumed with the music, cueing records, searching for new songs to play into the glorious Spring night, made Stephanie see Craig a little differently. It deepened their friendship, of course. But, it was different enough to seriously consider Craig’s offer to join him on the air the next year. And during a phone conversation over the summer, shortly before Craig’s return to Madison, Stephanie said, “Yes!” Since she often returned to her home in Whitefish Bay on weekends and equally enjoyed having time just to herself, Stephanie added the stipulation that she not be required to perform on every single broadcast. Craig agreed. He was just happy to have her there with him at all.
Copyright 2014 by Scott Collins All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights.