"DECEMBER BOYS" PART SIX: A PILGRIMAGE ON A TIMELESS NIGHT (3rd section)

DECEMBER BOYS

"A PILGRIMAGE ON A TIMELESS NIGHT" 

(3rd section)

Rhett and Craig returned to the vibrating Friday night decadence of Ogg Hall for a brief lavatory pit-stop to find Rhett's aggressively blinking answering machine light awaiting them. Craig descended to Rhett's roommate's bed while Rhett pressed the button to hear the synthetic voice coo, "You have ONE new message." Then, the boys heard the luxurious voice of Mariah Esposito, yet it was cloaked in a mixture of fear and irritation as it fought its' way through the wall of voices and drunken chants of "Red Red Wine.”

     "Rhett, I really hope you hear this message soon. Ummm…Josie…uh…Josie left me. I think she's with some guy and I don't know where she is. Frankly, I really don't know where I am…"

     "YOU'RE IN KRONSHAGE!!!!!" offered a drunken fool.

     "You get that? I'm in Kronshage! Please come find me. I don't know how to get to your dorm."

     "BEEP!" said the answering machine for final emphasis on the situation.

     "Kronshage?" began Craig rising from the bed. "That's Lakeshore. That's my place. Let's go get her!"

     And with that, the two boys immediately left Rhett's dorm room in pursuit of Mariah Esposito.

     Despite the late spring evening chill coming from Lake Mendota through the Kronshage Residence halls windows, Mariah Esposito silently simmered by the stereo, doing her very best to appear unfriendly and avoid contact with a roomful of drunken strangers, pondering just how things went wrong on this night. No, that's not true. Mariah knew exactly how things went wrong on this night. The same way events tended to sway away from Mariah whenever Josie was involved. The true question was why she continued to allow herself to remain on the shallow end of Josie Fagen's constant pursuit of happiness. Like everyone else who came into contact with Josie Fagen, Mariah was not immune to her spell. The two girls met in the fourth grade and became fast friends much to the chagrin of Mariah's fiercely hard-working and cautious parents, Frank and Carmen Esposito. Even at this precise moment, Mariah clearly heard their voices chanting a lifetime's worth of mantras in her brain yet the one which poked through the morass of homilies was, "Always know where you are and always know who you are with!" I guess I screwed that one up on both counts, she cursed to herself.

     It was so much fun in the beginning. Where Mariah's family, while loving, was more serious and at times, exuded an immense sense of over-protectiveness, partially due to the fact that Mariah was an only child, the trajectory of life she was placed onto was dry at best, strikingly rigid at worst and unshakable all of the time. The arrival of Josie Fagen gave Mariah a window into life's possibilities and options. Mariah's entrance into Josie's world was comparable to Dorothy blending into a world of color after living in black and white in "The Wizard Of Oz.” When they first met, Josie Fagen emanated an essence of sophistication coupled with an intense yet world weary curiosity that bordered on the exotic to Mariah Esposito's nine year old eyes and she had felt so fortunate that her interest had been reciprocated. Mariah was also attracted to the subtle differences in their lives, for instance, Josie had two siblings where she herself had none, Mariah lived in a house while Josie lived in a high rise apartment, and then there were Josie's parents, who were no-less hard working but so much more relaxed than her own parents. During one visit to Josie's home, Mariah nearly keeled over to hear a swear word loudly and somewhat proudly emerge from the mouth of Daniel Fagen, Josie's younger brother. He arrived home after racing home from his moments-ago cancelled baseball practice drenched and muddy. He shook himself off and wiped his feet with an exaggerated sense of frustration and for the exclamation point of this moment, Daniel Fagen shouted, "Shit!” in the way pre-pubescent kids utilize profanities when they are more than obviously trying them out for size.

     "Daniel, is there something wrong?” asked his father Walter as he calmly sliced cucumbers for the Fagen family's evening salad.

     "Dad! I just got so damn soaked getting home from practice!” bellowed Daniel petulantly drying himself. "I'm just a damn drowned rat!” he concluded for further emphasis.

     "Just go into the bathroom and clean up. There's no need for dramatics,” instructed his father with a bemused smirk. Daniel stomped his way to the family bathroom and that was that.

     Meanwhile, Mariah and Josie had been quietly going through a round of backgammon upon Daniel's profane entrance. After witnessing the proceedings, Mariah's mouth hung open as if she had been slapped moments ago and was straining for words to form in her brain to travel to her mouth which was waiting to utter them.

     "Josie?" Mariah finally whispered.

     "What?" Josie whispered back.

     "Daniel said 'Shit!'" said Mariah still shocked.

     "And?” asked Josie unmoved.

    "No, he said "Shit!"

    "And?" asked Josie with a hint of irritation of Mariah simply not getting to the point of this discussion.

     "My parents would kill me if I ever said anything like that at home," Mariah finally explained.

     "Oh,” uttered Josie, finally understanding Mariah's tone of disbelief. "My parents let us swear only if we understand what the words mean and if we don't abuse the privilege,” she explained humorlessly and with a flick and flair of her wrists as she rolled the dice and swiftly made her final moves in their game, Josie announced, "I win."

     When Mariah cautiously recounted this tale to her father, Frank Esposito began to laugh violently while looking at his impressionable daughter as a person who had obviously lost whatever God given sense was given to her. "A privilege?!" he roared. "My dear, people that partake in a liberal use of profanity are people who have nothing of value to say and they also have nothing of value for you to listen to," he began. "I truly and deeply question the judgment of Josie's parents but that is their house and it is not my place to judge them. But in this house, you will not ever use such language!" said Frank with rising force in his voice. And then for the coup de grace, "Your Mother and I did not waste our time raising a daughter to utilize unintelligible speech at home or in public. The way you speak to people informs them of what kind of a person you are. Remember that." And another Esposito family homily had been spoken and duly noted by Mariah.

     Mariah Esposito was not a child who was in desperate need to rebel against her parents. On the contrary, her relationship with her parents was a foundation of love and support in her life and one she would willingly and happily continue to draw from even deeply into her adulthood. Yet, at this point in her pre-pubescent and eventual adolescent life, she did want to stretch the confines to a degree and Josie was the perfect outlet to experiment and test the boundaries with, in initially (and relatively) safe formats, like faking illnesses to hang out in the school's nurse's office or returning late to homeroom from gym class due to playing in the snow.

     As their exploits increased in daring (or stupidity, depending upon whom you asked), there was one adventure in which Josie truly crossed the line. While riding the elevator to Josie's apartment, Josie had stopped the elevator between floors and somehow forced the doors open in order to see what would be on the other side. While all they saw was the gleaming silver of the elevator chamber, Josie did not have the foresight to figure out how to get the elevator doors closed, let alone how to get it started again. Obviously, the two girls were caught, their parents were notified and Mariah was of course destined to make a return trip to the Esposito family pulpit in which she was presented with a lengthy sermon passionately delivered by her Mother with fire and brimstone raging in her incredulous eyes.

     "This Josie Fagen is a narcissistic infant! I honestly do not know what her parents do with her, if anything at all. She's selfish, she carries no impulse control and worst of all, she claims to be your friend when she profoundly cares little to nothing about you. And before you even begin to protest and tell me about how close you are and what a great friend she is, think about what just happened to you in that elevator. What would posses her to stop an elevator between floors?! What would even then further posses her to open the elevator doors?! What if she also decided to push you out to see how quickly it would take for you to hit the bottom?! Like your Father has always expressed to you, you need to always be aware of where you are and who you are with. You have to look out for yourself, Mariah because you cannot depend upon someone else to do it for you especially if you get into trouble. It's simple human nature. People will protect themselves before they protect you and Josie strikes me as someone who will always follow her own path at your expense. I trust you will show much better judgment next time and simply leave. You are smart so be smart and listen to whatever it is inside of you—preferably  my voice in your brain--that tells you when something is wrong and follow accordingly!" Herendeth the lesson.

    

     In Mariah's senior year English class this year, the students had been assigned the classic, Peter Pan. If there was anything about the book that struck Mariah as notable was its' sadness and the somewhat desperate attitude, recklessness and ultimate loneliness of Peter. In fact, this book touched her so much that it was one of very few books she ever re-read. Sitting in Kronshage, being pummeled by the sound of screaming students forcing its way through the music and alcoholic haze and waiting for Rhett's rescue, she wished she could just curl up with that very book at this moment. It would be something to take her away from Josie's inconsiderateness but as she pondered the story, something became glaringly clear in her mind: Josie was her own personal Peter Pan. Maybe Josie wasn't as desperate as Peter and she definitely didn't seem lonely but she was shockingly inconsiderate. Mariah thought of a passage in which Peter, Wendy, Michael and John were flying in the night sky towards Never Never Land and Peter quickly flew onwards, forgetfully leaving his companions behind. As she thought of this sequence, her Mother's sermon from the elevator incident echoed in her brain and finally made complete sense to her. Even so, she decided that she wouldn't tell her parents about this. There was no need to add fuel to their fire against Josie Fagen. She would just have to handle this one herself.

     "Mariah!” shouted Rhett over the slinky chicken scratch guitar and rim shots of "Need You Tonight.” "Are you OK?"

     Mariah nodded in the affirmative yet said nothing as she slowly rose from her seated position, navigated through the room and out into the clear, cool night. Once outside, she noticed Craig from earlier that evening, standing by a tree looking out towards the lake. She surveyed his contemplative nature and decided right then and there to approach him.

     "Hi."

     Startled by her luxurious voice, Craig quickly turned to face Mariah and took a moment to find simple, introductory words to respond back to her greeting. "Uh…Hi." And then to ensure that whatever connection was made didn't immediately fade, he asked, "What happened to you?"

     "Well, we came to check out this party and Josie took it upon herself to ingratiate herself with some really tall, pretty guy. Before I knew it, I couldn't find a trace of her."

"That just sucks!” said Rhett angrily coming upon the scene and not noticing Craig's grimace at his interruption of this moment. "Sometimes I just don’t know why you two are friends because she's always fuckin' with you somehow."

     "It's really beginning to dawn on me too," said Mariah with a newfound knowledge she hadn't completely absorbed. "I'm really tired. Can we go back now? Where is your dorm anyway? What was it called again? Egg Hall?"

     "No. It's Ogg Hall,” Rhett gently corrected.

     "Well…,” began Craig jointly offering his assistance and not wanting to bid farewell to Mariah just yet, "…we could go to my dorm for a while. It's really close and my roommate is away for the weekend anyway. We could get a pizza or something."

     "Lead the way," said Mariah as she began walking away and for a split second, Craig could have sworn that he saw Mariah flash him the swiftest of a thankful smile before she slowly flipped her mane of black hair back over her shoulders.       

     As Craig suspected, third floor Botkin House remained in a mellow state with low lighting, the intense scent of pot in the air and the scene was all set to Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" album as constant soundtrack. "This album is on an endless loop here,” began Craig to his guests. "I highly doubt I will ever listen to this album again after this year is over."

     "I'll go ahead and order some pizza,” said Rhett, making himself useful as he retrieved Craig's room keys and began to make his way into the dorm room.  

     "May I use your bathroom?" yawned Mariah.

     "Of course,” said Craig, motioning to the swing door. "Go ahead. I'll keep watch."

     Gliding past Craig towards the bathroom, Mariah peeked at him briefly through her thick, dark hair and slyly asked, "Now you aren't going to listen are you?"

     "Uh…huh?" Craig stuttered.
     "I was kidding,” teased Mariah, letting him off of the hook. "Thank you."

    Was she just flirting with me? Craig questioned himself. While he thought of himself as being highly perceptive, matters involving the opposite sex always confounded him due to not wanting to presume anything concerning a girl's affections (or lack thereof) but mostly, it was due to his own minimal self-confidence, truthfully feeling that no one like Mariah Esposito would be interested in him anyway. He couldn't put his finger on it but Mariah was very different from most girls he knew. Aside from her glorious voice, he found an element of mystery to her due to her prolonged silences. And then, there was the matter of her wardrobe. It intrigued Craig to see a seventeen year old girl wearing something that was not part of the high school fashions of the day, college thrift store attire (that was much more attune to what Stephanie wore), and she wasn't deliberately trying to stand out in a crowd, begging people to notice her either. In fact, Mariah's style almost had a timeless quality from her long beige skirt, to her smart black boots underneath, to her subtle yet noticeable hoop earrings and oh so comfy looking and slightly oversized sweater. And, Craig noticed, Mariah didn't even really walk. She sauntered with a most attractive stride. Whatever it was and despite his attraction, Craig quickly dismissed the idea that Rhett's high school friend pondered him for even a fraction of a second more than a complete stranger on the street.

     Did I just flirt with Rhett's friend? Mariah wondered to herself as she stepped into the boys' bathroom and momentarily gazed at herself in the mirror. While it was not in her nature to flirt with boys, she had to admit that while she had not been in Craig's presence for much more than an hour since the moment of their meeting, there was something almost inexplicable about him and furthermore, she liked what she saw. He was so different from the boys she knew in school, and that included Rhett, whom she considered to be a good friend but was somehow just another "boy" to her. Through his own silence during their dinner at Pop's Club and his almost meditative stance by the lake a few minutes earlier, she sensed a certain maturity that was lacking in the boys she knew. His silence was attractive to her, at least it was enough for her to wonder just what he was thinking about this evening anyway. He wasn't the most handsome fellow she had ever seen but there was something cute about his collegiate sweatshirt, his glasses and baseball cap and how all of the parts didn't quite fit together on him. It was as if he was still trying to figure out what his "look" would be and that was adorable to her. Maybe I could be the one to help him find it, she mused to herself. Or maybe I'm just tired, she concluded, remembering Josie's slight and cruel forgetfulness. Mariah washed her hands and then looked towards the door to see Craig's watchful silhouette on the other side. After a sweet sight to herself, Mariah Esposito dried her hands, exited the bathroom and decided to show some politeness and officially introduce herself to Craig Hughes.

     "God, she must've been wiped out,” said Rhett.

     "It's gotta be more than a little tiring coming all the way from Minneapolis to see your best friend and subsequently being dumped by said friend for some guy!" offered Craig.

     Within ten minutes of arriving into Craig's room, Mariah descended onto Craig's bunk and quickly fell asleep with the sounds of the radio and Rhett's voice ordering pizza fading into her sub-consciousness.

     "Good idea coming to your room, man,” said Rhett. "She wouldn't have been up to trekking all the way back to Ogg as mad and obviously, as tired as she is. I'll keep checking my messages to see if Josie had the good sense enough to call and even find out what happened."

     "You know, I am still trying to figure out who Josie went off with and I can't come up with a thing. I can't think of guys that fit the description of 'tall' and 'pretty'. Those were her words, by the way."

     After a few moments of thought, Rhett stifled a disgusted snort and as if he just swallowed something unpleasant, he choked out, "Please don't let it be Troy Blake."

     "What is up with him? You really don't like this guy."
     "It's just guys like that make it hard for guys like me,” said Rhett with cocktail of bitter sadness dipped in a vat of truth.

Several hours, a whole pizza and many Dr. Peppers later, with still no contact from Josie Fagen and a sleeping Mariah Esposito on Craig's bunk, Rhett and Craig, on a mixed high of fatigue and caffeine, decided to play a musical game. It involved noting more than vast musical knowledge and a Muzak radio station, the kind of anomaly that broadcasts the popular songs of the past and present but in a soothing-by-way-of-a-frontal-lobotomy instrumental style. The rules of the game were simple: the boys would each take turns guessing the identity of each song within thirty seconds and once someone was not able to determine the song's name and artist, they would then go to sleep and start the search for Josie Fagen in the morning. By 4:00 a.m., Craig and Rhett were still at their game, convulsing heartedly with each increasingly ridiculous musical selection from Ratt's glam-metal offering "Round and Round", as arranged for syrupy strings with a mournful bassoon taking the lead vocal melody to Neil Young's "Like A Hurricane", reconfigured as an organ driven bossa-nova with an archaic drum machine as time keeper (Rhett envisioned a blue-haired octogenarian entertaining her pained grandchildren with this selection). Pandemonium hit around 6:30 a.m. when Lionel Richie's ballad, "Hello" hit the airwaves in the original vocal recording, completely unmolested! "Damn!" spluttered Craig through aching sides and laugh provoked tears. "It's like the Muzak people said, 'There ain't nothing more we can do with this!'"

     "How are they gonna do that to Lionel?" asked Rhett also etching closer to the edge of delirium.

     As a surprise to both of them, there was a soft yet intense sounding knock on Craig's door. Craig and Rhett fitfully attempted to silence themselves to no avail as Craig answered the door.

     The bean-pole, seemingly underfed frame of Mason Gripweed (the proprietor of the endlessly audible "Wish You Were Here") peeked into room with a hint of the rising sun's glow shimmering off of his shoulder length hair.

     "Dude, what's goin' on in here?" he asked with an amiable yet lethargic growl.

     "Sorry man," responded Craig. "Have we been keeping you up?"

     "Not really, man. I've been up all night. It's just we've been hearin' you guys falling all over yourselves and we thought that you decided to cross over to 'The Bakery'."

      "Oh no. I'm still not planning to take that trip. Everything's fine. We'll keep it down though."

     "It's cool." Then noticing Mariah stirring on Craig's bunk, Mason added an embarrassed, "Oh, sorry dude."

     "No man. It's not like that. She visiting the school and her friend ditched her at a Kronshage party last night for...who was that again, Rhett?"

     "Troy Blake," answered Rhett with solemnity.

     "Aw, that guy's a tool!" Mason stated.

     "You know him?" asked Craig.

     "I met him back when I did S.O.A.R. He was an oily little shit, trying to get any kind of brownie points he could scrape up for himself and it's like, 'Dude! It's just a campus orientation. You're not getting graded on this!'"

     "You see?" interjected Rhett. "That is exactly what I am talkin' about with that guy!"

     "So, in a little while," started Craig returning to the subject of the sleeping Mariah. "We're gonna wake her up and look for her friend. But, we'll try to keep it down now."

     "Cool. See ya," exited Mason.

     "What's 'The Bakery'?" asked Rhett.

     "Oh, that's just Mason and the guys' code word for drugs—mostly pot," began Craig. Then, affecting his best Spicoli, "Hey bud! Wanna get baked tonight?" Returning to his normal voice, Craig continued. "It amazes me about that guy. I've known him for two years and he has been high everyday and night and somehow, he is on the Dean's List every semester and in Physics for chrissakes. Sometimes, I'm just strugglin' to get a C and he's over the rainbow getting A after A after A. He's cool though."

     "Uh oh," said Rhett.

     "What?"

     "Listen."

     Rhett and Craig began to once again listen to the radio to notice that a tuba was forcing out a painfully hysterical imitation of the synthetic beat to Run-DMC's "You Be Illin'" and once again, their laughter exploded. But this time, Mariah finally began to wake from her slumber.

     "God! Has that been you guys all night?!" asked a grouchy Mariah. "I felt like I was in a goddamn funhouse! Jesus!"

     "Sorry, Mariah," said Rhett, trying to feebly settle down. It was not common to ever hear Mariah utilize any swear words, so he knew she was in an unusually foul mood. But the aforementioned fatigue, caffeine, and a night long game of "Name That Tune: The Muzak Edition" had made respecting her needs more than a little futile. 
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