CHAPTER FOUR – COME TO MY WINDOW, JULIA DREAM…
Dream Journal Entry # 4
Mozart and I are walking down a street in Edmonton. We are talking about this new girl Julia that I met a few days ago. “Your friends are right about their doubts regarding her.” Mozart said to me. “Perhaps your carnal desires and emotional desires have clouded your judgment in regards to this supposed relationship that has not even become a relationship.” I said back to him, “Well there is no way I will know for sure unless I try, right?” To which Mozart replied, “True but outside of a common love for literature that you two apparently seem to share what else do you have to offer her?”
Julia then entered the dream, wearing what appeared to be an expensive designer dress and got into a stylish town care. I was wearing normal street clothes, while Rocco, Phil, Sally, and Emily were standing on the steps of an abandoned office building and sang the harmony part of Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl”. For the sake of ease and future interpretation, I wrote the lyrics well after the dream ended which appear here for further investigation:
“Uptown girl / She's been living in her uptown world /I bet she never had a backstreet guy / I bet her mama never told her why / I'm gonna try for an uptown girl / She's been living in her white bread world / As long as anyone with hot blood can / And now she's looking for a downtown man / That's what I am / And when she knows what / She wants from her time / And when she wakes up / And makes up her mind / She'll see I'm not so tough /Just because I'm in love with an uptown girl / You know I've seen her in her uptown world / She's getting tired of her high class toys / And all her presents from her uptown boys / She's got a choice / Uptown girl / You know I can't afford to buy her pearls
But maybe someday when my ship comes in /She'll understand what kind of guy I've been
And then I'll win / And when she's walking / She's looking so fine / And when she's talking
She'll say that she's mine / She'll say I'm not so tough /Just because I'm in love with an uptown girl / She's been living in her white bread world / As long as anyone with hot blood can / And now she's looking for a downtown man / That's what I am…”
“So are you and Emily an item or what now?” Phil asked Darren as he lobbed a tennis ball across the court that the two of them - along with Rocco and a hobbit-esque man named Francois Rougeau, nicknamed “Frenchy” for his outrageous accent – were playing tennis. Phil and Frenchy were on one side while Rocco and Dean were on the other side.
“No, not really, I don’t know anymore. Really. Ugh!” Darren grunted both in frustration and in time to hit the ball back across the other side of the court in which Frenchie returned the volley back to Darren’s side, which Rocco promptly missed.
“Dammit! Stupid gay tennis!” Rocco said in frustration. “Why are we doing this stupid sport again, Frenchy?!”
Frenchy was another one of Rocco’s trainers for his budding career in the world of competitive cage fighting. Frenchy was a former amateur wrestling champion and helped coach the Canadian Olympic Team. Frenchy eventually moved into training and took up kickboxing and Brazilian Jujitsu as he almost had the foresight that mixed martial arts was the wave of the future. Sensing frustration from Rocco, Frenchy replied back “Patience mon ami, you need to ‘earn patience in any seechoration.”
“Gah! Fuck patience!” Rocco said as he threw his racket down in frustration.
“Rocco, vous need to work on beelding patience, to know when to best strike and submit your opponent.” Frenchy chided his trainee.
“Yeah, okay,” Rocco said, almost brushing off the advice and then moved onto Darren and Phil’s topic on hand. “As for you, like it or not I think you’re in a relationship, bro.”
“Why does everyone here seem to say that?” Darren asked defensively. “Hey, Frenchy, what do you think?”
“Well, perhaps de deux of you need to straighten theengs out before dey get too complicated in mah opeenion.” Frenchy said.
“He’s right,” Phil said as he took a swig of Gatorade. “I mean once was cute, twice was okay, three or more times – that’s a relationship. You gotta agree with that at least, right Rocco?”
“Philly boy is right, man,” Rocco said. “The two of you basically talk about everything like you’re in a relationship. Might as well drop the pretenses and get serious about it, bro!”
“It’s not that simple. I mean she just got dumped by another woman.” Darren said defending his actions and trying desperately to justify his no-strings casual sex relationship with Emily. “And I got Julia on my mind. Besides, you guys want me going back to blowing money on Nikki again when simply jacking it isn’t going to cut it anymore?”
“Too much einformayshawn there, ami.” Frenchy said. “Speaking of weech, Rocco, je need vous to abstain from yer pleasures this week before de fight Friday.”
“Meaning?” Rocco said rather confused.
“He means no booze and no sex, genius.” Phil said.
“Damn…” Rocco then paused. “Wait, does wine count?”
“Oui, mon ami.” Frenchy said. “Et non self-love either.”
“Dammit!” Rocco said. “How am I gonna make it through the week now?”
“Don’t worry, Rocco ol’ boy,” Phil said as he patted Rocco on his shoulder. “I shall come on as your lifestyle coach…”
“You’re not going to lay that holier-than-thou Straight-Edge crap on me, are ya?” Rocco asked
“Mock me if you must, but sounds like you need me for this one,” Phil said. “Unless you want your MMA career to die before it begins.”
Rocco grumbled under his breath. “Fine, but after the fight, we hit the peelers and get wasted.”
“Um, yeah, hi there? Straight-Edge? No booze? Hello there!” Phil said.
“Okay, fine, strip club only then! Sheesh!” Rocco said.
Darren looked at his watch and noticed the time. “Well, I’d love to stay here and listen to this wacky situation comedy scenario, but I gotta shower and get ready for my coffee date with Julia.”
“Sure, make sure she is cool with you having a bisexual lady fuck buddy.” Phil said.
“Well, maybe she is bi also,” Rocco said. “That’d be hot.”
Darren just sighed and shook his head as he packed up his tennis equipment. “I’ll cross that bridge should I ever get there. For all I know she’ll stand me up or have someone in her life anyways or won’t even get the job. Sheesh! And people think I overanalyze things!” Darren said, leaving in a slight huff.
“Maybe if those two chicks hook up, we could sneak a web cam in there and watch the show?” Rocco suggested to Phil, who only shook his head and replied back to the suggestion: “Dammit, Rocco, we tried that before and that was why for a while you were banned from our building and I nearly got thrown out too!”
“Wait, how did they know I was in on that scheme?” Rocco asked.
“I had to name names, if I was going down, you were coming with me.” Phil said back.
Darren Watson sat nervously by himself inside Tim Horton’s, tightly grasping his cup of Earl Grey tea. While he relied on the Canadian institution for a constant caffeine fix whenever a deadline for a new article or another chapter for “The Raven Effect” came up, today felt like a tea day. He sat patiently waiting for Julia Sanders to walk through the door and join him for coffee, or tea as the case might be. Maybe she was running late? Or the interview was taking longer than expected? Any further questions or doubts Darren had were quickly gone as Julia had made her entrance. Her hair done up in a stylish bun, Julia was wearing a dark blue satin blouse and long black skirt. She had a matching black blazer draped over her right hand as she made her way into the long line to make her order. She spotted Darren and gave a quick wave so as to garner his attention, even though he was already looking in her general direction. Once she got to the front of the line, Julia placed her order and then made her way to the table that Darren was sitting at. She hung her blazer on the back of the chair and sat down.
“Hey, so how has it been?” Julia asked Darren.
“Well, it’s been okay I guess.” Darren said. He then asked, “So how did your interview go?”
“Went well. Got a second interview next week and hopefully will know something shortly after that.” Julia answered as she took a sip of her coffee.
“Nice. Had a feeling you would do well.”
“How did you figure that out?”
“I don’t know, I just have a feeling, like a tell or a read on people.”
“I think you’re making that up.” Julia said with a smile on her face.
“No, it’s true. I think my agent at one point wanted me to go on one of those celebrity poker tournament thingies.” Darren said. “Either that, or he wanted to see how I react to losing money to professional card sharks for shits and giggles.”
“Hmmm, sounds like I may found an in with the local gambling community, eh?” Julia asked as she gave a light laugh.
“Well to be honest, I’m not a big gambler. Think the most I ever won was thirty bucks from a scratch’n’win ticket.” Darren said in a self-depreciating manner.
“That’s thirty dollars more than I ever won.” Julia said back.
“Huh, well then should you get the job, we meet every third Friday and loser has to buy dinner for the next game.” Darren jokingly said.
“Good to know. So are there any decent places to rent in this town or am I going to have to live out in my van like Jewel?”
“Well one place is secretly a front for the Church of Scientology, so unless you want to have free personality tests attached to your rental receipts, I would avoid that one.” Darren said, obviously stalling about Willowbend with not knowing how Emily would react after last night. However, it seemed that things were going to pick up a little bit as Darren noticed Emily walking inside the place where he and Julia were having an amusing conversation regarding gambling habits. Emily came in and picked up a bag of packaged coffee beans and noticed where Darren and Julia were sitting. She nonchalantly made her way over to the table as Darren expected this whole situation to explode.
“Oh,” Emily said very casually, “Hi Darren. How’s it going?”
“Fine I guess,” Darren replied back politely to Emily. “How about you? What brings you here?”
Emily replied back “Oh just getting some coffee for a co-worker…” Emily then spotted Julia and then asked Darren “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”
Julia took the initiative and extended her hand out as a friendly gesture. “Hi, Julia Sanders. And you are…?”
“Emily Moore,” Emily replied back and shook Julia’s hand. “I’m one of Darren’s friends here in town. He mentioned meeting someone who is thinking about moving here.”
“Well, I’ll know definitely know more so next week.” Julia said.
“Glad to hear. Listen, my roomie just bailed on me the last minute and I may be in search of someone who would be interested in sharing a two-bedroom apartment with me.” Emily said as Darren tried to hide the shock in his facial expression.
“Depends on the arrangements, I guess.” Julia responded back to Emily’s offer.
“Half of rent and utilities. I don’t own a land line, so that would be all yours unless you have a cell.” Emily answered.
“Well I’ll think about it.” Julia said.
“Great,” Emily said as she took out a pen and small piece of paper. She proceeded to write down her phone number on the paper and handed it to Julia. “Call me if you have any more questions or know for sure what you’re doing, okay?”
“Um, sure.” Julia said with a little hesitation.
“Great.” Emily said with a smile. “Well I gotta get back to work. Nice to meet you, Julia. Oh, and see you later tonight, Darren?”
Darren cleared his throat “Maybe. May have some writing to do. But I’ll definitely catch up later.”
“Nice, well catch you later then.” Emily said as she waved goodbye and began to walk away.
“Interesting person,” Julia said once she knew Emily was clear and out of hearing range. “So, are you two a couple or is she a crazy ex or what?” Julia asked matter-of-factly.
Using his best poker face, Darren once again covered the truth and replied “Neighbor and really good friend.”
“Hmmm,” Julia said, not fully convinced, but convinced enough to buy into the story for now. “Well like I said she seems interesting. How come she wasn’t out on your little night of mirth and mayhem?”
“Well, she was in the middle of something else” Darren said. “That and she was looking after my pet rabbit.”
“You have a rabbit?” Julia said, with her eyes almost lighting up like a Christmas tree. “That’s adorable. I love rabbits.”
“Well, you’ll have to come check him out. He definitely loves attention” Darren said invitingly.
“Maybe next week,” Julia said as she noticed the time. “I have to head back soon. So when I come next week, I’ll check out your place and maybe look at this Emily chick’s place too while I’m at it?”
“Sounds like a good plan,” Darren said.
“I’ll give you a call later and give you the details, okay?” Julia asked as she got up and put her blazer on.
“Sure” Darren said as he also got up at the same time. Julia gave him a quick peck on the cheek and said to Darren “Cool, see you next week.” All Darren could do was stand there with a slight look of confusion on his face and fighting the urge to not once again stare at Julia’s nicely shaped backside.
Emily Moore was busy stocking some shelves at the health food store she worked at. Humming to herself, Emily’s attention turned to the chimes of the front door opening. She looked over to the entranceway and noticed it was Darren. He calmly walked over towards her, not paying attention to a scruffy-looking white man with dreadlocked hair and wearing a Bob Marley t-shirt who sat behind the cashier area of the store. Emily looked surprised at Darren’s appearance but nonetheless walked over to greet him.
“Hey,” Emily said. “What brings you here?”
“Hmmm, I dunno, you got some time to talk?” Darren asked.
Emily looked over to the dreadlocked man and shouted, “Seth, I’m taking a break. Be back in five!” as the man simply nodded. Emily then took Darren by the hand and led him towards the back of the store.
“Won’t I get in trouble for being back here?” Darren asked.
“No worries,” Emily said reassuringly. “Don’t think Seth even knows what year this, let alone who came in here today.”
“Huh, why is he still employed here then?”
“Because he helps Anya with her off-the-radar garden I think,” Emily speculated. “Anyways, what can I help you with?”
“Care to explain your little stint at Timmies?” Darren asked right off the bat.
“Well, you’re the one who suggested her and I could be roomies, so I wanted to check her out for myself,” Emily said in her defense. “By the way, she is very pretty.”
“Yes, thanks. Glad she has your seal of approval,” Darren slightly said with some sarcasm.
“Hey, you kind of threw her into my lap. So I did what I thought was a good idea and get an initial read on the woman you seem to be in love with. Isn’t that what friends do? Look out for each other?” Emily replied back. All Darren could do was sigh
“I… guess so.” Darren said. “Sorry if I came off a bit rough there.”
“It’s okay,” Emily said. “I just wanted to make sure she wasn’t a psycho who was going to drag you to her mountain cabin and make you write the novel of her dreams.”
“And I guess she passed that test too, eh?”
Emily smiled and teased Darren by saying “Time will tell. Anything else on your mind?”
“Well,” Darren thought for a moment and recalled the razzing he took from the guys earlier in regards to Emily and him. Darren thought for a moment of pressing the issue so he could shut them up, but one of the rules they had was to not talk about any underlying feeling for at least two days after the fact. “The other thing can wait” he said, hoping Emily would not detect the hesitation in his tone.
“Okay then,” Emily said, looking over towards the sales area where Seth had seemingly fallen asleep at the till. “Crap! Guess I better go wake him up before he gets us both fired!” she said with panic.
“Guess I should go too, huh?” Darren asked.
“Yeah, I’ll come by later tonight and we’ll talk more, okay?” Emily said as she led Darren from the back room and back to the front of the store. Darren nodded goodbye as he exited the store. The chiming of the door woke up Seth, who was dazed and confused as to what just happened.
Night time was coming soon in the small Alberta town that was slowly becoming bigger in the last few years Darren had spent there. Darren sat out on the balcony of his top floor suite, watching the sun set down and glancing at the blank screen on his laptop that was followed by a few words. He had neglected his work on “The Raven Effect” over the last couple days as his brain was preoccupied with new thoughts. Julia was heavily on his mind, but then spending the night with Emily had made him confused as to where they truly stand with their friendship and - for lack of a better term – relationship. Darren sighed and rubbed his hands on his forehead in frustration, knowing the words that want to come out but not knowing how to make them come out. Those thoughts were not coming out easier as Darren was distracted from an faintly echoed “Dammit! This sucks!” coming from below as Darren noticed Rocco and Phil in the patch of green that laid across from the back parking lot. Rocco was standing on his head while Phil – donned in a white judo garb – sat across him in a meditative position. Though not as loud, Darren could hear Phil chiding Rocco with a fairly bad Yoda impersonation. Darren just smiled and lightly chuckled at the fact that Phil was taking his role as Rocco’s trainer in vice control. Clearly this was an amusing joke being played on by the fates. Though not as amusing as the next joke with Emily joining Darren on the balcony. She sat in a chair next to him – crossing her legs and watching the Phil and Rocco show below too.
“So, what are you up to now?” Emily asked Darren as he typed a few more sentences.
“Think I wrote a few more words between the last ‘Dammit!’ and ‘You suck!’” Darren said dryly.
“Hmm, do you think Rocco can make it to Friday?” Emily asked inquisitively.
“Here’s hoping so. It would be nice for one of us to finally break out of this mundane routine we’ve seen to fallen into.” Darren said.
“How so?” Emily asked.
“Well, I’m still stuck on finishing my first novel, despite wanting to finish it off and see if it’ll be accepted by the masses but afraid of rejection and having the one thing I am good at totally crushed. Phil was once again talking about his dream about starting up some kind of hybrid book, music, and movie store mixed in with a coffee barista, but he hasn’t shown any signs of making it a reality. And here is Rocco, living out his dream and gets a small break this Friday. Wish I could find that amount of courage he seems to have.” Darren sighed after his little rant was over.
“I dunno, for all of his bravado and confidence he seems to show, Rocco shows some signs of weakness.” Emily theorized. “Besides, one should be careful what they wish for, you know grass is greener on the other side and all that jazz.”
“Perhaps,” Darren said. “So, you’re coming to Edmonton with us on Friday?” he asked.
“Yeah, Phil and Frenchy thought they’d bring me in as a spiritual consultant and do some aural cleansing before Rocco’s fight. Least I hope that’s all I’m coming in for.” Emily replied back
“Cool. I’m going in earlier as I got another therapy session and am thinking of meeting Julia too. Maybe see if she wants to come to the fights as well.”
“Should be interesting,” Emily said, doing her best to hide a small tinge of jealousy that hopefully Darren didn’t pick up on. Thankfully he didn’t as he typed more words on the laptop and simply said “Indeed so. Maybe things will change after all on Friday."
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Willowbend Tales - Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE – A CHANGE WOULD DO YOU GOOD, BRIAN WILSON
Dream Journal Entry #3
Mozart and I find ourselves in the gymnasium of my old high school. I am shooting free throws with a basketball as Mozart sits by a chalkboard, tallying the baskets I have sunk.
“You only met her and you think you are in love? Perhaps this is merely an infatuation you are experiencing.” Mozart said to me. I replied back “Maybe yes, maybe no. All I know is she made me feel something I haven’t felt in a long time.” “What feelings are those you speak about?” Mozart asked me as I sunk another ball into the basket. Then this new girl I met named Julia appeared and sunk a basket from halfway across the court. My friends Phil, Rocco, and Emily appeared as cheerleaders and accompanied me as I began to sing Genesis’ “Invisible Touch”. Focused on second verse: “Well I don't really know her, I only know her name/But she crawls under your skin, you're never quite the same, and now I know/She's got something you just can't trust/It's something mysterious/And now it seems I'm falling, falling for her…”
“Well at least you asked me first before totally offering her as a potential replacement roommate.” Emily said to Darren. as she was folding a pile of dry towels in the laundry room. Sunday was usually laundry day for either Darren or Emily and it became somewhat of a weekly ritual as one or even both would do their laundry at the same time and catch up with each others lives. This particular Sunday, Darren relayed his story of being ditched by Rocco and Phil; and him being saved by Julia from a drunken party girl. Darren mentioned to Emily how Julia may be moving to Vegreville, depending on the success of a job interview tomorrow. Darren had just proposed that should Julia be successful in her job hunt, she could move in as Emily’s new roommate.
“Well come on – she’s going to need a place to live, you need a new roommate. You do need a new roommate, right?” Darren asked as he placed a load of clothes into the dryer.
Slightly annoyed with being reminded that her now ex-roommate had skipped town without paying her half of the rent, Emily sighed and answered “I’m thinking so, but I dunno about letting a complete stranger right into my life right about now.”
“Well, she is coming into town on Monday and I’m planning on meeting her after the job interview she has. Why don’t you come along and get to know her a little bit?”
“I’ll be working all day tomorrow. Also, aren’t you putting yourself at risk for this complete stranger?” Emily asked as she moved onto sorting and folding another pile of clothes.
“Well, something about her made it feel like she wasn’t a total stranger. She just calmly moved in and got me away from that drunk girl. Then we talked for what seemed like hours, and she’s a fan of my little writing skills.” Darren said as he closed the dryer door and placed the appropriate coins into the slot to commence the drying process.
“Hmmm, you sure she’s not a Kathy Bates in ‘Misery’ stalker?” Emily asked jokingly as she tossed one of Darren’s towels which had gotten mixed up in her own pile somehow.
“Do I detect a hint of jealousy from you, Miss Moore?” Darren asked back as he caught the towel. “Besides I don’t think green is a color that suits you.”
“Please, we’ve talked about this before,” Emily replied back, placing her hands on her hips. “For me to be jealous would mean for me to have more than just platonic feelings for you…”
“… Right and that would be against the rules we set up for each other.” Darren interrupted. “But sometimes…” He then paused, “Naw, forget about it.”
“What?” Emily asked curiously.
“It’s kind of silly, really,” Darren said with some hesitation, making sure not to completely tell the truth about something that has bothered him quite some time in regards to his friendship and arrangement he and Emily had. “Are you sure you’re not jealous?” he asked back, hoping to return to topic back onto Julia.
“Trust me, my only concern is that you don’t get your heart broken by her.” Emily replied. “I’ve just seen you many times like this – you find someone you think is the one and something happens to derail those thoughts.”
Darren sighed as he placed another load of clothes into the washing machine. “Yes, thanks for reminding me about that. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I should just quit while I’m ahead, huh?”
“No, that’s not what I meant,” Emily said. “I just don’t want to see you get hurt over and over again. Besides if things go well with my new love, I may be moving on and may not be here to make sure you don’t go totally over the edge like you told me when you and Gloria ended.”
“Wait a second, I don’t recall hearing about this new love.” Darren said slightly surprised. “When and how did this happen?”
“We met a couple weeks ago at a seminar in Calgary.” Emily said, beaming with pride. “I think between my roommate ditching me and now this proposal I got, I think it may be time to fly away and see how far I can go.”
“I see,” Darren said, slightly dejected, almost pouting in a sense.
“Aww, come on,” Emily replied back, giving Darren a comforting friendly hug. “You and me will still be tight no matter where I go, okay?”
Darren hugged back and said “Okay. At least Phil will still be around for anything major.”
“And don’t worry, I’ll still come along to your cousin’s wedding. Thinking about dying my hair pink with blonde highlights. Won’t that freak out your family” Emily said, playing with her current short-length jet black hair and smiled a mischievous smile.
“You don’t think she’ll really leave do you?” Darren asked as he sat in front of the computer, obviously either stalling for time to work on “The Raven Effect” or just simply hitting a wall of writer’s block. Phil was viewing some video footage he had previously shot earlier in the day, sitting on the couch behind Darren. Hearing Darren’s question, Phil promptly answered back “Who really knows. This is Emily Moore we’re talking about. Has she ever committed to anything longer than her current occupation and spiritual quest?”
“Good point,” Darren said as he stared at a semi-blank screen. “It’s just, I dunno, she’s become such an important part of my life. And now it could very well end.”
“Well, you may gain this mystery woman who only met twenty-four hours ago if things go good, right?” Phil asked as he began filming this conversation.
“I dunno, part of me sees something in Julia that I haven’t seen in a long time. Something that seems very right.”
“Whoa, slow down, tiger. Shouldn’t you first see if she even comes into this town before you make wedding plans?”
“Geez, you sound like Emily now.” Darren said as he rolled his eyes and struggled to come up with an opening to the next chapter.
“Well, this seems to be your standard modus operendi – meet a girl, bend over backwards to impress her, she does something to shatter your misconceived perception of a reality that only exists in you head, then ‘boom!’, I’m trying to knock a bottle of vodka from you or you end up going to cry to Emily.” Phil said
“Hmm, guess I have no real need to see a psychiatrist with the two of you pegging me so well,” Darren said sarcastically.
“Well, maybe that person can figure why you keep repeating history. We can make sure you don’t repeat history.” Phil said back.
“Really? And tell me what was the last successful relation you had?” Darren asked back.
“You know I am taking a break until this film project is complete,” Phil defensively replied back.
“I know, I know. It just seems a little ironic that the ones who seem to be concerned with my sex life are two people who are a little dysfunctional when it comes to giving advice.” Darren said as he began to type away.
“Funny, real funny man.”
“Think about it,” Darren went onto say, “Emily tries but misunderstands at times…”
“… Yet the two of you end up in each other’s arms if either one or both of you are wounded.” Phil interrupted. “Which really isn’t a healthy way to live by the way. You’re better off waiting until Mustang Sally finally calls in your number.”
“See? This is why I hardly talk to you about these kinds of things anymore.” Darren said.
“So you’d sooner take advice from the walking boner Rocco, eh? You do realize steroids reduce sperm count and testosterone levels?” Phil asked.
“I don’t know anymore,” Darren sighed with frustration. “Doing the same things so far haven’t worked out for me obviously. Maybe if I actually try to go out of my comfort zone I can finally prove those who doubted I could change wrong.”
“Like your father, right?” Phil asked.
“Yeah, him.” Darren said with a mild resentment in his answer. “Remind me why I am going to my cousin’s wedding in two months time?”
“Wait a minute, do they have a videographer for this joyous occasion?” Phil asked.
“I don’t know. I haven’t even called them to confirm I’m going.” Darren replied with hesitation.
Phil leaped off the couch and grabbed the telephone. “What are you doing?” Darren asked, though it was obvious to him what was going on.
“I am RSVP-ing for you and looking to expand my film-making repertoire.” Phil said as he dial the number on the wedding invitation. The dial tone on the phone went into ringing on the other end as Phil patiently waited for someone to pick up on the other line. Perhaps fortunately and leading to a less awkward situation, the other line went to voice mail. But that did not stop Phil from leaving a message. “Hello, I’m Phil Brookes calling on behalf of Darren Watson, he would be honored to attend you pending nuptials and I would be honored to film the entire glorious day should you need someone to do a professional job. You can call either of us as seven-eight-zero-six-oh-three-two-two-six-three. Thank you for your consideration.” Phil then hung up the phone as Darren looked on, looking perplexed by Phil’s actions.
“Tell me why exactly you did this?” Darren asked.
“In case Emily bails out as your escort.” Phil said. “Plus I think there could be some money made if I expand my creativity.”
“Just great.” Darren muttered to himself as his rabbit Mozart stared up the two men while he quietly munched on a leaf of lettuce.
It was night time. Darren tried to sleep, but his mind was now racing what seemed like a million miles per minute. Julia was coming into town tomorrow and he was looking forward to meeting her. But what if Emily was right? What if Phil was right? Or what if they are wrong? Now Darren has to go to the stupid wedding because stupid Phil confirmed it, and now has to face his family. He was slightly behind on working on his novel, and what if that bombs? He’s got no real skills to fall back on and doesn’t want to go back and beg for his part time job back. A lot of thoughts rushed through Darren’s head, but one thought came up that needed to be addressed right away: he had to pee.
Getting up to go to the washroom, Darren noticed Phil had fallen asleep on the couch – something he did a lot while editing his films. He had the television still on as Mozart looked upon the screen to notice an infomercial for a new kind of high energy cooking device. Just as Darren went over to turn the television off, he noticed his cell phone buzzing and his ringtone going off. Darren went over to the phone to check it out and noticed there was a recently sent text message from Emily: “Come see me if ur still up pls.” was the message. Darren sighed and knew he probably could not fall asleep right now with all that seemed to be on his mind. He text-messaged Emily back: “On my way now. If you’re still up, I’ll see u soon.”
Darren walked down to Emily’s apartment, wearing a dark blue tee-shirt and red flannel pajama bottoms. Usually, Emily never wanted to talk to anyone at this time of night unless something really bothered her. Maybe their laundry day conversation really bothered her more than she let on? Or maybe there was something else on her mind? Or maybe she saw a spider and wanted Darren to kill it? Emily was fairly scared of the eight-legged arachnids. Darren took in a deep breath and lightly knocked on her apartment’s door. Emily opened the door slightly until she noticed it was Darren. Then she opened the door wider, revealing herself wearing a red silk Japanese kimono. She wiped away some tears from her eyes, smudging a bit of mascara that had run down her cheeks.
“What’s wrong, Em?” Darren asked with concern and caring in his voice.
“It’s, ugh! Stupid love!” Emily said, fighting back tears. “She decided to call it quits, over the phone!”
“Geez, that’s rough,” Darren said as Emily leaned her head into Darren’s waiting shoulders. “You gonna be okay,” he said with sympathy as Darren gently ran his fingers through Emily’s hair.
“I dunno anymore. Why do I always do this to myself?” Emily said as she raised her head up from Darren’s shoulder and wiping away more tears. She didn’t even notice her mascara had slightly stained Darren’s shirt.
Hmmm, where have I heard that before? Darren asked quietly to himself as Emily looked into his baby blue eyes. Darren stared back into her misty green eyes and wondered to himself what was going on here. “Because we’re human beings, Em. We all make mistakes.” Darren said as he helped wipe away more tears off her delicate cheek.
“I know, but I think I finally found happiness with one person and then it’s yanked away from me!” Emily pouted.
“You’re preaching to the choir, sister.” Darren said, knowing well in full that this was one of the common themes that ran parallel with Emily’s life and his own.
Emily sniffed and smiled. She playfully ran her fingers through Darren’s messy dark blonde hair and said “Yeah, I kinda figured I was. Maybe this is why you no longer put your heart out as much as you used to.”
“Not true at all,” Darren said. “I think I just choose more carefully how I do that now, even though I have some missteps on the way.”
“Well then,” Emily said as she lightly tugged on one side of her kimono to reveal a bare shoulder. “Maybe for one more night we can both feel like we’re loved in this cold cruel world.”
Maybe she was onto something, Darren thought. As much as he had so many things on his mind, maybe being in someone’s loving arms could take that away. And maybe for one moment, Emily could feel the gentle touch of another that she sorely needed at this moment of another heartbreak. It is indeed a very odd yet convenient relationship the two of them had. No real emotional attachment outside of platonic friendship. No real sense of commitment to each other. Just raw physical passion to get them through the night.
It is indeed a relationship, no matter how much they deny it
Dream Journal Entry #3
Mozart and I find ourselves in the gymnasium of my old high school. I am shooting free throws with a basketball as Mozart sits by a chalkboard, tallying the baskets I have sunk.
“You only met her and you think you are in love? Perhaps this is merely an infatuation you are experiencing.” Mozart said to me. I replied back “Maybe yes, maybe no. All I know is she made me feel something I haven’t felt in a long time.” “What feelings are those you speak about?” Mozart asked me as I sunk another ball into the basket. Then this new girl I met named Julia appeared and sunk a basket from halfway across the court. My friends Phil, Rocco, and Emily appeared as cheerleaders and accompanied me as I began to sing Genesis’ “Invisible Touch”. Focused on second verse: “Well I don't really know her, I only know her name/But she crawls under your skin, you're never quite the same, and now I know/She's got something you just can't trust/It's something mysterious/And now it seems I'm falling, falling for her…”
“Well at least you asked me first before totally offering her as a potential replacement roommate.” Emily said to Darren. as she was folding a pile of dry towels in the laundry room. Sunday was usually laundry day for either Darren or Emily and it became somewhat of a weekly ritual as one or even both would do their laundry at the same time and catch up with each others lives. This particular Sunday, Darren relayed his story of being ditched by Rocco and Phil; and him being saved by Julia from a drunken party girl. Darren mentioned to Emily how Julia may be moving to Vegreville, depending on the success of a job interview tomorrow. Darren had just proposed that should Julia be successful in her job hunt, she could move in as Emily’s new roommate.
“Well come on – she’s going to need a place to live, you need a new roommate. You do need a new roommate, right?” Darren asked as he placed a load of clothes into the dryer.
Slightly annoyed with being reminded that her now ex-roommate had skipped town without paying her half of the rent, Emily sighed and answered “I’m thinking so, but I dunno about letting a complete stranger right into my life right about now.”
“Well, she is coming into town on Monday and I’m planning on meeting her after the job interview she has. Why don’t you come along and get to know her a little bit?”
“I’ll be working all day tomorrow. Also, aren’t you putting yourself at risk for this complete stranger?” Emily asked as she moved onto sorting and folding another pile of clothes.
“Well, something about her made it feel like she wasn’t a total stranger. She just calmly moved in and got me away from that drunk girl. Then we talked for what seemed like hours, and she’s a fan of my little writing skills.” Darren said as he closed the dryer door and placed the appropriate coins into the slot to commence the drying process.
“Hmmm, you sure she’s not a Kathy Bates in ‘Misery’ stalker?” Emily asked jokingly as she tossed one of Darren’s towels which had gotten mixed up in her own pile somehow.
“Do I detect a hint of jealousy from you, Miss Moore?” Darren asked back as he caught the towel. “Besides I don’t think green is a color that suits you.”
“Please, we’ve talked about this before,” Emily replied back, placing her hands on her hips. “For me to be jealous would mean for me to have more than just platonic feelings for you…”
“… Right and that would be against the rules we set up for each other.” Darren interrupted. “But sometimes…” He then paused, “Naw, forget about it.”
“What?” Emily asked curiously.
“It’s kind of silly, really,” Darren said with some hesitation, making sure not to completely tell the truth about something that has bothered him quite some time in regards to his friendship and arrangement he and Emily had. “Are you sure you’re not jealous?” he asked back, hoping to return to topic back onto Julia.
“Trust me, my only concern is that you don’t get your heart broken by her.” Emily replied. “I’ve just seen you many times like this – you find someone you think is the one and something happens to derail those thoughts.”
Darren sighed as he placed another load of clothes into the washing machine. “Yes, thanks for reminding me about that. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I should just quit while I’m ahead, huh?”
“No, that’s not what I meant,” Emily said. “I just don’t want to see you get hurt over and over again. Besides if things go well with my new love, I may be moving on and may not be here to make sure you don’t go totally over the edge like you told me when you and Gloria ended.”
“Wait a second, I don’t recall hearing about this new love.” Darren said slightly surprised. “When and how did this happen?”
“We met a couple weeks ago at a seminar in Calgary.” Emily said, beaming with pride. “I think between my roommate ditching me and now this proposal I got, I think it may be time to fly away and see how far I can go.”
“I see,” Darren said, slightly dejected, almost pouting in a sense.
“Aww, come on,” Emily replied back, giving Darren a comforting friendly hug. “You and me will still be tight no matter where I go, okay?”
Darren hugged back and said “Okay. At least Phil will still be around for anything major.”
“And don’t worry, I’ll still come along to your cousin’s wedding. Thinking about dying my hair pink with blonde highlights. Won’t that freak out your family” Emily said, playing with her current short-length jet black hair and smiled a mischievous smile.
“You don’t think she’ll really leave do you?” Darren asked as he sat in front of the computer, obviously either stalling for time to work on “The Raven Effect” or just simply hitting a wall of writer’s block. Phil was viewing some video footage he had previously shot earlier in the day, sitting on the couch behind Darren. Hearing Darren’s question, Phil promptly answered back “Who really knows. This is Emily Moore we’re talking about. Has she ever committed to anything longer than her current occupation and spiritual quest?”
“Good point,” Darren said as he stared at a semi-blank screen. “It’s just, I dunno, she’s become such an important part of my life. And now it could very well end.”
“Well, you may gain this mystery woman who only met twenty-four hours ago if things go good, right?” Phil asked as he began filming this conversation.
“I dunno, part of me sees something in Julia that I haven’t seen in a long time. Something that seems very right.”
“Whoa, slow down, tiger. Shouldn’t you first see if she even comes into this town before you make wedding plans?”
“Geez, you sound like Emily now.” Darren said as he rolled his eyes and struggled to come up with an opening to the next chapter.
“Well, this seems to be your standard modus operendi – meet a girl, bend over backwards to impress her, she does something to shatter your misconceived perception of a reality that only exists in you head, then ‘boom!’, I’m trying to knock a bottle of vodka from you or you end up going to cry to Emily.” Phil said
“Hmm, guess I have no real need to see a psychiatrist with the two of you pegging me so well,” Darren said sarcastically.
“Well, maybe that person can figure why you keep repeating history. We can make sure you don’t repeat history.” Phil said back.
“Really? And tell me what was the last successful relation you had?” Darren asked back.
“You know I am taking a break until this film project is complete,” Phil defensively replied back.
“I know, I know. It just seems a little ironic that the ones who seem to be concerned with my sex life are two people who are a little dysfunctional when it comes to giving advice.” Darren said as he began to type away.
“Funny, real funny man.”
“Think about it,” Darren went onto say, “Emily tries but misunderstands at times…”
“… Yet the two of you end up in each other’s arms if either one or both of you are wounded.” Phil interrupted. “Which really isn’t a healthy way to live by the way. You’re better off waiting until Mustang Sally finally calls in your number.”
“See? This is why I hardly talk to you about these kinds of things anymore.” Darren said.
“So you’d sooner take advice from the walking boner Rocco, eh? You do realize steroids reduce sperm count and testosterone levels?” Phil asked.
“I don’t know anymore,” Darren sighed with frustration. “Doing the same things so far haven’t worked out for me obviously. Maybe if I actually try to go out of my comfort zone I can finally prove those who doubted I could change wrong.”
“Like your father, right?” Phil asked.
“Yeah, him.” Darren said with a mild resentment in his answer. “Remind me why I am going to my cousin’s wedding in two months time?”
“Wait a minute, do they have a videographer for this joyous occasion?” Phil asked.
“I don’t know. I haven’t even called them to confirm I’m going.” Darren replied with hesitation.
Phil leaped off the couch and grabbed the telephone. “What are you doing?” Darren asked, though it was obvious to him what was going on.
“I am RSVP-ing for you and looking to expand my film-making repertoire.” Phil said as he dial the number on the wedding invitation. The dial tone on the phone went into ringing on the other end as Phil patiently waited for someone to pick up on the other line. Perhaps fortunately and leading to a less awkward situation, the other line went to voice mail. But that did not stop Phil from leaving a message. “Hello, I’m Phil Brookes calling on behalf of Darren Watson, he would be honored to attend you pending nuptials and I would be honored to film the entire glorious day should you need someone to do a professional job. You can call either of us as seven-eight-zero-six-oh-three-two-two-six-three. Thank you for your consideration.” Phil then hung up the phone as Darren looked on, looking perplexed by Phil’s actions.
“Tell me why exactly you did this?” Darren asked.
“In case Emily bails out as your escort.” Phil said. “Plus I think there could be some money made if I expand my creativity.”
“Just great.” Darren muttered to himself as his rabbit Mozart stared up the two men while he quietly munched on a leaf of lettuce.
It was night time. Darren tried to sleep, but his mind was now racing what seemed like a million miles per minute. Julia was coming into town tomorrow and he was looking forward to meeting her. But what if Emily was right? What if Phil was right? Or what if they are wrong? Now Darren has to go to the stupid wedding because stupid Phil confirmed it, and now has to face his family. He was slightly behind on working on his novel, and what if that bombs? He’s got no real skills to fall back on and doesn’t want to go back and beg for his part time job back. A lot of thoughts rushed through Darren’s head, but one thought came up that needed to be addressed right away: he had to pee.
Getting up to go to the washroom, Darren noticed Phil had fallen asleep on the couch – something he did a lot while editing his films. He had the television still on as Mozart looked upon the screen to notice an infomercial for a new kind of high energy cooking device. Just as Darren went over to turn the television off, he noticed his cell phone buzzing and his ringtone going off. Darren went over to the phone to check it out and noticed there was a recently sent text message from Emily: “Come see me if ur still up pls.” was the message. Darren sighed and knew he probably could not fall asleep right now with all that seemed to be on his mind. He text-messaged Emily back: “On my way now. If you’re still up, I’ll see u soon.”
Darren walked down to Emily’s apartment, wearing a dark blue tee-shirt and red flannel pajama bottoms. Usually, Emily never wanted to talk to anyone at this time of night unless something really bothered her. Maybe their laundry day conversation really bothered her more than she let on? Or maybe there was something else on her mind? Or maybe she saw a spider and wanted Darren to kill it? Emily was fairly scared of the eight-legged arachnids. Darren took in a deep breath and lightly knocked on her apartment’s door. Emily opened the door slightly until she noticed it was Darren. Then she opened the door wider, revealing herself wearing a red silk Japanese kimono. She wiped away some tears from her eyes, smudging a bit of mascara that had run down her cheeks.
“What’s wrong, Em?” Darren asked with concern and caring in his voice.
“It’s, ugh! Stupid love!” Emily said, fighting back tears. “She decided to call it quits, over the phone!”
“Geez, that’s rough,” Darren said as Emily leaned her head into Darren’s waiting shoulders. “You gonna be okay,” he said with sympathy as Darren gently ran his fingers through Emily’s hair.
“I dunno anymore. Why do I always do this to myself?” Emily said as she raised her head up from Darren’s shoulder and wiping away more tears. She didn’t even notice her mascara had slightly stained Darren’s shirt.
Hmmm, where have I heard that before? Darren asked quietly to himself as Emily looked into his baby blue eyes. Darren stared back into her misty green eyes and wondered to himself what was going on here. “Because we’re human beings, Em. We all make mistakes.” Darren said as he helped wipe away more tears off her delicate cheek.
“I know, but I think I finally found happiness with one person and then it’s yanked away from me!” Emily pouted.
“You’re preaching to the choir, sister.” Darren said, knowing well in full that this was one of the common themes that ran parallel with Emily’s life and his own.
Emily sniffed and smiled. She playfully ran her fingers through Darren’s messy dark blonde hair and said “Yeah, I kinda figured I was. Maybe this is why you no longer put your heart out as much as you used to.”
“Not true at all,” Darren said. “I think I just choose more carefully how I do that now, even though I have some missteps on the way.”
“Well then,” Emily said as she lightly tugged on one side of her kimono to reveal a bare shoulder. “Maybe for one more night we can both feel like we’re loved in this cold cruel world.”
Maybe she was onto something, Darren thought. As much as he had so many things on his mind, maybe being in someone’s loving arms could take that away. And maybe for one moment, Emily could feel the gentle touch of another that she sorely needed at this moment of another heartbreak. It is indeed a very odd yet convenient relationship the two of them had. No real emotional attachment outside of platonic friendship. No real sense of commitment to each other. Just raw physical passion to get them through the night.
It is indeed a relationship, no matter how much they deny it
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Willowbend Tales - Chapter Two
CHAPTER TWO – DRUNK AND HOT GIRLS DO NOT ALWAYS HOOK UP
Dream Journal Entry # 2
Mozart and I were walking in a park I remember from my years living in Edmonton. I remember seeing this woman I know named Sally jog by in a red track suit.
Mozart said to me “Perhaps Rocco is right. The time to take chances is here and now. If you keep living in the past you can never go ahead into the future.”
I said back to Mozart as Sally jogged by us in slow motion “But everything about it scares me. I’ve been hurt too many times by people who say they care and love me.”
Mozart replied back to me “Yes but through pain strength grows. If you do not put yourself out again to feel anything, you may end up as the person your father claimed you are: bitter and never going to change.”
I try to ask Mozart what exactly I was supposed to do but Sally turned around and began singing Kylie Minogue’s “Red Blooded Woman”. Focused on the lyrics about never getting to heaven if you’re scared of getting high and the chorus of the song; “Let me keep freaking around, I wanna get down/I'm a red blooded woman, what's the point in hanging round/Don't wanna keep turning it down/When this girl wants to rock with you…”
Saturday was finally here.
Darren stood in front of the bathroom mirror and looked at his own reflection. Wearing a pair of blue flannel pajama bottoms, Darren took an electric shaver and began to shave. After he was done, Darren rubbed his hands across his now-shaven face making sure his face was nicely shaven for that night. He then turned on the hot water in the bathtub, allowing it to run awhile so the water would be the right temperature for the shower he was about to take. This was the first time in about three years that Darren attempted to do something remotely sociable like going out to a night club or bar to meet women. The last time he had done so, the night ended in confusion and hurt feelings for Darren. It truly was not one of his finest moments in his life. But now here he was, washing his hair and body; getting ready for a night of proposed debauchery with Rocco and Phil.
Moments later, when Darren stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel to dry off, a banging on the bathroom door caused a pause in this routine. Darren wrapped a towel around his body and opened the door to reveal Phil – wearing a bright red dress shirt, black pants and a stylish grey fedora. “Come on, I’ve seen my grandma get ready for a night on the town quicker than you!” Phil jokingly said to Darren.
“Geez, sorry. You know, for someone who at first objected to this, you sure came around rather quickly!” Darren replied back. Darren then noticed Phil had his digital video camera bag under his arm. “Oh god, please tell me you’re not planning on filming all of this?” he asked with a bit of concern.
“Why not, it’ll be for either the main project…” Phil said and was interrupted by the buzzing of the apartment’s intercom. Phil paused in his thought and pressed the intercom button. Rocco’s voice was heard on the other end.
“You ladies ready yet or what?” Rocco asked. Phil pressed the button to unlock the main lobby door and picked up from his thought before being interrupted. “… Or I’ll have some excellent blackmail material.. Either way, this could be quite the night,” Phil said as he opened the suite’s door slightly ajar – and in almost near perfect timing, Emily walked into their apartment looking slightly annoyed.
“Ugh! Straight women drive me bonkers!” Emily proclaimed as she walked into the living room and promptly sat on a couch. Mozart the rabbit, who was let loose from his enclosed area as he occasionally was allowed to wander the apartment from time to time, hopped over to Emily, who had a pouty and disappointed look upon her face. Sensing this could work into his film project, Phil quickly took out his camera and began to film and interview Emily.
“So, issues with the room-mate, eh?” Phil asked.
“I guess now ex-roommate,” Emily replied back, looking into the camera. “Three days before she’s supposed to come up with her half of the rent, she decides to not only go on a trip with her boyfriend she then decides today of all days to announce she’s moving in with him on Monday. I hope when she comes back Sunday she’ll at least leave me the rent money.” Emily let out a sigh as Mozart stood up and placed his two front paws on the side of her lower leg. Emily petted the rabbit as a method of stress relief as Phil carried on with the interviewing-type scenario: “Isn’t there a spell in your little books to make money?” Phil asked.
“Well, first off – Wicca is more about being in tune with the elements, at least the path I’m studying,” Emily answered. “Second off, that would be counterfeiting and thus illegal.”
With the door still open, Rocco walked in. Sporting denim slacks, a tight white shirt to show off his slowly developing six-pack abdominal region, and black sports coat. Phil then turned his attention away from filming Emily and onto Rocco, who looked rather displeased with this fact.
“Please tell me you’re not bringing that with you!” Rocco protested.
“Hey, worst case scenario – I find a couple university girls to do a family friendly version of ‘Two Girls, One Cup’, complete with sh…”
“Eww!” Emily interrupted with disgust.
“… Sherbert? Ice cream’s low fat, healthier alternative?” Phil said, saving face from the disturbing image previously inferred.
Around this time, Darren emerged from his bedroom, wearing a basic black tee-shirt and khaki pants.
“Seriously, bro? You’re going with that?” Rocco asked Darren.
“What’s wrong with it?” Darren asked back.
“It’s too plain, doesn’t really make you stand out from the rest of the pack.” Rocco said. Then he glanced at Phil’s ensemble “And you are just trying too hard.”
“Well, sadly, this is the only thing I have in my closet that I’m not too ashamed to wear in a public setting.” Darren replied back. “And besides that I still like this look.”
“Me too,” Emily said in Darren’s defense. “Sometimes basic can work.”
“Guess if anyone else knows how to pick up women, it’d be you.” Phil said to Emily.
“Huh, never thought of that,” Rocco said, knowing. “Speaking of which – what is it this week, Em?” he asked Emily as she got up from the couch and began to walk out of the apartment. She playfully patted Rocco’s shoulder and said “Not you, big guy.”
“You’ll check on Mozart later right?” Darren asked Emily before she completely left.
“I shall. Besides if the rest of the night goes as well as the day did, think the two of us will just end up on the couch watching a sappy movie or something.” Emily replied.
“Thanks again,” Darren said as he gave a friendly peck on her cheek. “And if for some reason we don’t make it back tonight…”
“… I’ll alert the media,” Emily said with a smile on her face as the three men left the suite.
Perhaps this was all a mistake after all.
Darren sheepishly made his way through the packed crowd in the night club to the bathroom. It was going as he had envisioned so far: Rocco met up with some of his comrade-in-arms in the pursuit of cage-fighting supremacy and blew off Darren and Phil. As Darren stood in front of a urinal, relieving himself of excess urine, he thought about the last time he had ever been to a club like this in Edmonton. It was shortly after Gloria had broken up with him. As an attempt to try to dull the pain of the breakup, Darren tried to get acquainted with the myriad of drunk and hot girls with little success. So far the amount of success was similar. As Darren went to wash his hands, he took a look in the mirror. Perhaps the more things changed in his life, the more some things remain the same for Darren.
Darren made his way back from the bathroom, and found Phil, who was quietly observing the scene.
“Think you were right,” Darren said to Phil. “This was a mistake.”
“Yes, very much so.” Phil said as he spotted a couple of ladies of Asian descent standing up by the bar. “Listen? If I can’t convince those two to a little project I have been dying to do, wanna help me embarrass Rocco in front of the rest of his alpha male primates?”
“I guess.” Darren said unsurely. “Don’t tell me you’re ditching…” he paused as he watched Phil smoothly make his way over to the bar, “… me?” Darren just slumped back against the wall and sighed. “Perfect.”, he muttered.
Around this time, a petite blonde-haired woman noticed Darren all by himself. While the woman may not in real life pay attention to him, the copious amounts of alcohol consumed by her made Darren seem more appealing. She made her way over to Darren, as another woman with reddish-brown hair watched on.
“Hey cutie,” the blonde woman said with her speech slightly slurred. She wrapped her hands and arms around Darren’s neck as he looked on completely perplexed.
“Uh, hi?” Darren said as she moved in closer into him. “Do I know you?”
“Not yet,” she said as she planted a sloppy kiss on Darren’s lips. Darren kissed back but with uncertainty of what was going on. While this was something Darren had wanted for quite some time, one could see a plea for help in his eyes. Meanwhile, the auburn-haired woman who was watching made her way over to the two of them and lightly tapped on the blonde one’s shoulder.
“Get off my man!” the auburn-haired woman said to the blonde one. The blonde one, with judgment totally impaired, tried to take a swing but ended up doing a face plant onto the hardwood floor of the club. Looking confused, Darren moved to the side as the auburn-haired woman stood beside him and watched as a couple of bouncers help the blonde one up.
“Um, thanks?” Darren said, still confused as to what was going on.
“Don’t mention it,” the auburn-haired woman said. “Just sensed you didn’t really want to make out with a drunken gutter slut. By the way, name’s Julia – Julia Sanders.”, she said as she extended her hand in a introductory manner.
“Darren Watson,” Darren said as he shook Julia’s hand in return.
“So this really isn’t your scene is it?” Julia asked rather matter-of-factly.
“Pretty obvious, huh?” Darren asked back.
“Figured one of three things is possible: either your friends ditched you, you don’t do this often, or this whole aloof thing you’re pulling is part of an elaborate act as you creepily stalk an ex.”
“Mostly the first one, a little bit of the second one. No comment on the third one.” Darren dryly replied.
“Hmmm, quick-witted? I like that” Julia said. “So where’s your friends at?”
“Well,” Darren looked around and first noticed Rocco at a table with three other men, pounding back shot glasses and surrounded by a bevy of women. “One is over there with the Future Date Rapists of Canada…” and then pointed out Phil, who was still chatting with the two Asians, “… and the other one is over there – the runner up of the Joey Jerimeiah Look-A-Like Contest of 2008. And how about you? Where are your friends at, or do you just rescue random strangers from drunken hook-ups for the fun of it?” he asked back to Julia.
“Well, I think a couple of them are with your muscle-bound buddy, which means it’s gonna be a noisy night back home.” Julia said with resignation in her tone. “So since we’ve been basically left to fend for ourselves, wanna get out of here and go somewhere quiet where a more meaningful conversation can be carried out?”
“Thought you’d never ask.” Darren said with relief. As the two of them made their way out, Darren took out his cellphone and began to send a text message to Phil. “Going for a walk with someone I met. Txt me later” was the message he sent.
Darren had forgotten how busy and crazy the Whyte Avenue area of Edmonton was. Even back in his time living there, the neighborhood had not become quite the collection of eclectic stores and bars. Even the few times a month Darren would come into the city, he would always make his way down there and notice how much the scene had changed over the last ten years he knew of it. Now here on a clear and nice Saturday night, he was walking down the street with a complete stranger he only met a few moments ago. Not one of the strangest things to happen to Darren in Edmonton, but that would be best told another time.
“So, what brings you out to our fair city?” Julia asked as the two of them walked slowly, side by side.
“Was my friend’s idea.” Darren answered. “He figured I needed to get out more and try meet someone.”
“Well maybe I should have you and blondie alone then, huh?” Julia said jokingly.
“Nah, was glad you came in at the right time.” Darren said back.
“Your name sounds familiar. What do you for a living?”
“Right now, I’m a combination of a freelance bum and writer.”
“Wait a minute? You’re that Darren Watson? The guy with that musings column?” Julia asked somewhat starstruck.
“The one in the same.” Darren modestly replied back.
“Get out! Your column is the second thing I read in the local freebee magazine right after that gay guy giving sex advice to everyone.” Julia said.
“Um, thanks.” Darren said.
“Although now it makes sense why you were so uncomfortable back there. Remember that one article you wrote about how the old pickup bar scene was dead and internet dating was the wave of the future?”
“Yeah, that was before I had a couple bad experiences with some of those sites. Between nearly getting scammed out of money from some Filipinos and countless frustrating initail contacts, I just gave up.” Darren replied and then asked “Now I feel at a disadvantage since you seem to know so much about me and here I know nothing about you. So tell me something about yourself, Miss Sanders.”
Julia then went onto say, “Well, I’m a recently unemployed high school teacher who is in the middle of a job search and has an interview in some small town call Veger…something… ?”
“Vegreville?” Darren asked, trying to correct her.
“Yeah, that’s the one.” Julia said.
“It’s not as small as it used to be.” Darren said. “We now have a Tim Horton’s.”
“Oh yeah, read you were from there.” Julia said.
“And you thought I was a stalker?” Darren asked playfully.
“Well, I’m just a bit of a fangirl. Sue me.” Julia teasefully said.
“I just never met someone who was into my work as much as you seem to be.” Darren said as the two of them stopped by a street vendor who was selling pizza by the slice to the late night revellers.
“Well, I’m an English teacher and just love anything and everything that is in the written world.” Julia said as she proceded to order a soda from the Middle Eastern pizza vendor. “Didja want something? My treat,” she offered to Darren, who requested the same soda that Julia had in her hand. The two of them kept on walking until Darren felt the vibrating of his cellphone. “Excuse me for a moment,” he said to Julia as he took his phone out from his pant pocket and took the call. It was Phil on the other end of the phone.
“Hey, just got your text. Where are you now?” Phil asked.
“About two blocks away. Why?” Darren asked.
“Damn Rocco and his goons decided to get into a fight with some other goons. He got tossed out. He’s quite drunk and about to pass out in my car. We’re gonna be heading home. Stay where you are and we’ll pick ya up!” Phil said as the conversation got cut off. Darren sighed.
“What’s wrong?” Julia asked.
“Well, the good news is you’ll probably have a quiet sleep as your friends won’t be felt up by a bunch of roid monkeys. The bad news is I’m heading home soon.” Darren said, somewhat deflated.
“Well…” Julia said as she grabbed Darren’s cellphone. She promptly went into his contacts menu and added her name and phone number. She then took out her cellphone and did the same with Darren’s number. “… maybe when I’m Vegreville I’ll give you a call and you can give me a tour or something. Or maybe you can help me find a place to live if I’m lucky enough to get the job.”
Darren remembered overhearing about Emily’s roommate problem and slyly said to Julia, “I may know just the place.”
“Great, my interview is on Monday at two,” Julia said as a white Ford Escort pulled up beside her and Darren. Phil was in the driver’s seat with Rocco laying down in the backseat. “Looks like your ride is here,” she said as she leaned into Darren and gave a small peck on his lips. “Call me when you get the chance, okay?”
“Sure,” Darren said as he waved bye to her and entered the car. As Darren buckled up, Phil asked him “So, who was that young lass?”
“I have a feeling I’ll find out more about her on Monday,” Darren said as he looked at his cellphone and then glanced at Julia as she walked away with a slight cute wiggle from her backside.
Dream Journal Entry # 2
Mozart and I were walking in a park I remember from my years living in Edmonton. I remember seeing this woman I know named Sally jog by in a red track suit.
Mozart said to me “Perhaps Rocco is right. The time to take chances is here and now. If you keep living in the past you can never go ahead into the future.”
I said back to Mozart as Sally jogged by us in slow motion “But everything about it scares me. I’ve been hurt too many times by people who say they care and love me.”
Mozart replied back to me “Yes but through pain strength grows. If you do not put yourself out again to feel anything, you may end up as the person your father claimed you are: bitter and never going to change.”
I try to ask Mozart what exactly I was supposed to do but Sally turned around and began singing Kylie Minogue’s “Red Blooded Woman”. Focused on the lyrics about never getting to heaven if you’re scared of getting high and the chorus of the song; “Let me keep freaking around, I wanna get down/I'm a red blooded woman, what's the point in hanging round/Don't wanna keep turning it down/When this girl wants to rock with you…”
Saturday was finally here.
Darren stood in front of the bathroom mirror and looked at his own reflection. Wearing a pair of blue flannel pajama bottoms, Darren took an electric shaver and began to shave. After he was done, Darren rubbed his hands across his now-shaven face making sure his face was nicely shaven for that night. He then turned on the hot water in the bathtub, allowing it to run awhile so the water would be the right temperature for the shower he was about to take. This was the first time in about three years that Darren attempted to do something remotely sociable like going out to a night club or bar to meet women. The last time he had done so, the night ended in confusion and hurt feelings for Darren. It truly was not one of his finest moments in his life. But now here he was, washing his hair and body; getting ready for a night of proposed debauchery with Rocco and Phil.
Moments later, when Darren stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel to dry off, a banging on the bathroom door caused a pause in this routine. Darren wrapped a towel around his body and opened the door to reveal Phil – wearing a bright red dress shirt, black pants and a stylish grey fedora. “Come on, I’ve seen my grandma get ready for a night on the town quicker than you!” Phil jokingly said to Darren.
“Geez, sorry. You know, for someone who at first objected to this, you sure came around rather quickly!” Darren replied back. Darren then noticed Phil had his digital video camera bag under his arm. “Oh god, please tell me you’re not planning on filming all of this?” he asked with a bit of concern.
“Why not, it’ll be for either the main project…” Phil said and was interrupted by the buzzing of the apartment’s intercom. Phil paused in his thought and pressed the intercom button. Rocco’s voice was heard on the other end.
“You ladies ready yet or what?” Rocco asked. Phil pressed the button to unlock the main lobby door and picked up from his thought before being interrupted. “… Or I’ll have some excellent blackmail material.. Either way, this could be quite the night,” Phil said as he opened the suite’s door slightly ajar – and in almost near perfect timing, Emily walked into their apartment looking slightly annoyed.
“Ugh! Straight women drive me bonkers!” Emily proclaimed as she walked into the living room and promptly sat on a couch. Mozart the rabbit, who was let loose from his enclosed area as he occasionally was allowed to wander the apartment from time to time, hopped over to Emily, who had a pouty and disappointed look upon her face. Sensing this could work into his film project, Phil quickly took out his camera and began to film and interview Emily.
“So, issues with the room-mate, eh?” Phil asked.
“I guess now ex-roommate,” Emily replied back, looking into the camera. “Three days before she’s supposed to come up with her half of the rent, she decides to not only go on a trip with her boyfriend she then decides today of all days to announce she’s moving in with him on Monday. I hope when she comes back Sunday she’ll at least leave me the rent money.” Emily let out a sigh as Mozart stood up and placed his two front paws on the side of her lower leg. Emily petted the rabbit as a method of stress relief as Phil carried on with the interviewing-type scenario: “Isn’t there a spell in your little books to make money?” Phil asked.
“Well, first off – Wicca is more about being in tune with the elements, at least the path I’m studying,” Emily answered. “Second off, that would be counterfeiting and thus illegal.”
With the door still open, Rocco walked in. Sporting denim slacks, a tight white shirt to show off his slowly developing six-pack abdominal region, and black sports coat. Phil then turned his attention away from filming Emily and onto Rocco, who looked rather displeased with this fact.
“Please tell me you’re not bringing that with you!” Rocco protested.
“Hey, worst case scenario – I find a couple university girls to do a family friendly version of ‘Two Girls, One Cup’, complete with sh…”
“Eww!” Emily interrupted with disgust.
“… Sherbert? Ice cream’s low fat, healthier alternative?” Phil said, saving face from the disturbing image previously inferred.
Around this time, Darren emerged from his bedroom, wearing a basic black tee-shirt and khaki pants.
“Seriously, bro? You’re going with that?” Rocco asked Darren.
“What’s wrong with it?” Darren asked back.
“It’s too plain, doesn’t really make you stand out from the rest of the pack.” Rocco said. Then he glanced at Phil’s ensemble “And you are just trying too hard.”
“Well, sadly, this is the only thing I have in my closet that I’m not too ashamed to wear in a public setting.” Darren replied back. “And besides that I still like this look.”
“Me too,” Emily said in Darren’s defense. “Sometimes basic can work.”
“Guess if anyone else knows how to pick up women, it’d be you.” Phil said to Emily.
“Huh, never thought of that,” Rocco said, knowing. “Speaking of which – what is it this week, Em?” he asked Emily as she got up from the couch and began to walk out of the apartment. She playfully patted Rocco’s shoulder and said “Not you, big guy.”
“You’ll check on Mozart later right?” Darren asked Emily before she completely left.
“I shall. Besides if the rest of the night goes as well as the day did, think the two of us will just end up on the couch watching a sappy movie or something.” Emily replied.
“Thanks again,” Darren said as he gave a friendly peck on her cheek. “And if for some reason we don’t make it back tonight…”
“… I’ll alert the media,” Emily said with a smile on her face as the three men left the suite.
Perhaps this was all a mistake after all.
Darren sheepishly made his way through the packed crowd in the night club to the bathroom. It was going as he had envisioned so far: Rocco met up with some of his comrade-in-arms in the pursuit of cage-fighting supremacy and blew off Darren and Phil. As Darren stood in front of a urinal, relieving himself of excess urine, he thought about the last time he had ever been to a club like this in Edmonton. It was shortly after Gloria had broken up with him. As an attempt to try to dull the pain of the breakup, Darren tried to get acquainted with the myriad of drunk and hot girls with little success. So far the amount of success was similar. As Darren went to wash his hands, he took a look in the mirror. Perhaps the more things changed in his life, the more some things remain the same for Darren.
Darren made his way back from the bathroom, and found Phil, who was quietly observing the scene.
“Think you were right,” Darren said to Phil. “This was a mistake.”
“Yes, very much so.” Phil said as he spotted a couple of ladies of Asian descent standing up by the bar. “Listen? If I can’t convince those two to a little project I have been dying to do, wanna help me embarrass Rocco in front of the rest of his alpha male primates?”
“I guess.” Darren said unsurely. “Don’t tell me you’re ditching…” he paused as he watched Phil smoothly make his way over to the bar, “… me?” Darren just slumped back against the wall and sighed. “Perfect.”, he muttered.
Around this time, a petite blonde-haired woman noticed Darren all by himself. While the woman may not in real life pay attention to him, the copious amounts of alcohol consumed by her made Darren seem more appealing. She made her way over to Darren, as another woman with reddish-brown hair watched on.
“Hey cutie,” the blonde woman said with her speech slightly slurred. She wrapped her hands and arms around Darren’s neck as he looked on completely perplexed.
“Uh, hi?” Darren said as she moved in closer into him. “Do I know you?”
“Not yet,” she said as she planted a sloppy kiss on Darren’s lips. Darren kissed back but with uncertainty of what was going on. While this was something Darren had wanted for quite some time, one could see a plea for help in his eyes. Meanwhile, the auburn-haired woman who was watching made her way over to the two of them and lightly tapped on the blonde one’s shoulder.
“Get off my man!” the auburn-haired woman said to the blonde one. The blonde one, with judgment totally impaired, tried to take a swing but ended up doing a face plant onto the hardwood floor of the club. Looking confused, Darren moved to the side as the auburn-haired woman stood beside him and watched as a couple of bouncers help the blonde one up.
“Um, thanks?” Darren said, still confused as to what was going on.
“Don’t mention it,” the auburn-haired woman said. “Just sensed you didn’t really want to make out with a drunken gutter slut. By the way, name’s Julia – Julia Sanders.”, she said as she extended her hand in a introductory manner.
“Darren Watson,” Darren said as he shook Julia’s hand in return.
“So this really isn’t your scene is it?” Julia asked rather matter-of-factly.
“Pretty obvious, huh?” Darren asked back.
“Figured one of three things is possible: either your friends ditched you, you don’t do this often, or this whole aloof thing you’re pulling is part of an elaborate act as you creepily stalk an ex.”
“Mostly the first one, a little bit of the second one. No comment on the third one.” Darren dryly replied.
“Hmmm, quick-witted? I like that” Julia said. “So where’s your friends at?”
“Well,” Darren looked around and first noticed Rocco at a table with three other men, pounding back shot glasses and surrounded by a bevy of women. “One is over there with the Future Date Rapists of Canada…” and then pointed out Phil, who was still chatting with the two Asians, “… and the other one is over there – the runner up of the Joey Jerimeiah Look-A-Like Contest of 2008. And how about you? Where are your friends at, or do you just rescue random strangers from drunken hook-ups for the fun of it?” he asked back to Julia.
“Well, I think a couple of them are with your muscle-bound buddy, which means it’s gonna be a noisy night back home.” Julia said with resignation in her tone. “So since we’ve been basically left to fend for ourselves, wanna get out of here and go somewhere quiet where a more meaningful conversation can be carried out?”
“Thought you’d never ask.” Darren said with relief. As the two of them made their way out, Darren took out his cellphone and began to send a text message to Phil. “Going for a walk with someone I met. Txt me later” was the message he sent.
Darren had forgotten how busy and crazy the Whyte Avenue area of Edmonton was. Even back in his time living there, the neighborhood had not become quite the collection of eclectic stores and bars. Even the few times a month Darren would come into the city, he would always make his way down there and notice how much the scene had changed over the last ten years he knew of it. Now here on a clear and nice Saturday night, he was walking down the street with a complete stranger he only met a few moments ago. Not one of the strangest things to happen to Darren in Edmonton, but that would be best told another time.
“So, what brings you out to our fair city?” Julia asked as the two of them walked slowly, side by side.
“Was my friend’s idea.” Darren answered. “He figured I needed to get out more and try meet someone.”
“Well maybe I should have you and blondie alone then, huh?” Julia said jokingly.
“Nah, was glad you came in at the right time.” Darren said back.
“Your name sounds familiar. What do you for a living?”
“Right now, I’m a combination of a freelance bum and writer.”
“Wait a minute? You’re that Darren Watson? The guy with that musings column?” Julia asked somewhat starstruck.
“The one in the same.” Darren modestly replied back.
“Get out! Your column is the second thing I read in the local freebee magazine right after that gay guy giving sex advice to everyone.” Julia said.
“Um, thanks.” Darren said.
“Although now it makes sense why you were so uncomfortable back there. Remember that one article you wrote about how the old pickup bar scene was dead and internet dating was the wave of the future?”
“Yeah, that was before I had a couple bad experiences with some of those sites. Between nearly getting scammed out of money from some Filipinos and countless frustrating initail contacts, I just gave up.” Darren replied and then asked “Now I feel at a disadvantage since you seem to know so much about me and here I know nothing about you. So tell me something about yourself, Miss Sanders.”
Julia then went onto say, “Well, I’m a recently unemployed high school teacher who is in the middle of a job search and has an interview in some small town call Veger…something… ?”
“Vegreville?” Darren asked, trying to correct her.
“Yeah, that’s the one.” Julia said.
“It’s not as small as it used to be.” Darren said. “We now have a Tim Horton’s.”
“Oh yeah, read you were from there.” Julia said.
“And you thought I was a stalker?” Darren asked playfully.
“Well, I’m just a bit of a fangirl. Sue me.” Julia teasefully said.
“I just never met someone who was into my work as much as you seem to be.” Darren said as the two of them stopped by a street vendor who was selling pizza by the slice to the late night revellers.
“Well, I’m an English teacher and just love anything and everything that is in the written world.” Julia said as she proceded to order a soda from the Middle Eastern pizza vendor. “Didja want something? My treat,” she offered to Darren, who requested the same soda that Julia had in her hand. The two of them kept on walking until Darren felt the vibrating of his cellphone. “Excuse me for a moment,” he said to Julia as he took his phone out from his pant pocket and took the call. It was Phil on the other end of the phone.
“Hey, just got your text. Where are you now?” Phil asked.
“About two blocks away. Why?” Darren asked.
“Damn Rocco and his goons decided to get into a fight with some other goons. He got tossed out. He’s quite drunk and about to pass out in my car. We’re gonna be heading home. Stay where you are and we’ll pick ya up!” Phil said as the conversation got cut off. Darren sighed.
“What’s wrong?” Julia asked.
“Well, the good news is you’ll probably have a quiet sleep as your friends won’t be felt up by a bunch of roid monkeys. The bad news is I’m heading home soon.” Darren said, somewhat deflated.
“Well…” Julia said as she grabbed Darren’s cellphone. She promptly went into his contacts menu and added her name and phone number. She then took out her cellphone and did the same with Darren’s number. “… maybe when I’m Vegreville I’ll give you a call and you can give me a tour or something. Or maybe you can help me find a place to live if I’m lucky enough to get the job.”
Darren remembered overhearing about Emily’s roommate problem and slyly said to Julia, “I may know just the place.”
“Great, my interview is on Monday at two,” Julia said as a white Ford Escort pulled up beside her and Darren. Phil was in the driver’s seat with Rocco laying down in the backseat. “Looks like your ride is here,” she said as she leaned into Darren and gave a small peck on his lips. “Call me when you get the chance, okay?”
“Sure,” Darren said as he waved bye to her and entered the car. As Darren buckled up, Phil asked him “So, who was that young lass?”
“I have a feeling I’ll find out more about her on Monday,” Darren said as he looked at his cellphone and then glanced at Julia as she walked away with a slight cute wiggle from her backside.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Willowbend Tales - Dedications, Prologue, and Chapter 1
DEDICATIONS AND AUTHOR’S NOTES
The following is a work of fiction. All names and events are fictional and any resemblance to any real persons or events are purely coincidental. Non-original content is used in a non-commercial and parodic manner.
The past two novels have had some interesting dedications, this year will be no exception:
To Barack Hussein Obama – because it would make the members of the fanatical right’s heads explode.
To my family – yup, still on the outs, still on my thoughts at times.
To my co-workers – thanks for tolerating me for another year.
To Kanye West – because I’m afraid he’ll interrupt me and tell me that Stephanie Meyer has the best books ever written.
To the voices in my head – they council me, they understand, they talk to me…
To the Canadian Winter Olympic team – because the commercials on all CTV-owned stations have gotten to me, okay?
To you – yes, you, the gentle readers, who none of this would be really possible.
To all the dead celebrities of 2009 – you all lived your lives like a candle in the wind…
That is all for this year. Enjoy
-Dane Woychuk
November 1, 2009
12:05 a.m.
Prologue: Guy Walks Into A Psychiatrist’s Office…
Darren Watson sat nervously inside the waiting room of Doctor Linda Welsh, the new psychiatrist he had finally agreed to see after years of going in and out of free clinics and ending what seemed to be years of frustration with the public mental health system. He adjusted his glasses and played with his hair. He picked up a magazine and leafed through its contents while a dark-haired young looking lady receptionist gave a quick look at him. The receptionist picked up the ringing phone that sat behind her desk. “Yes, your two-thirty appointment is here, Doctor Welsh,” the receptionist said with a slight Mandarin accent, “I’ll let him know your ready for him,” she said as she hung up the phone.
“Mister Watson? Doctor Welsh will see you now,” the receptionist said as Darren put down the magazine. He got up from the chair he sat in and walked towards the reception desk and the door on the right hand side. The receptionist got up and opened the door for Darren as he nodded in her direction, as if to say thank you. She smiled and went back to her duties while Darren took a deep breath and proceeded into the next room.
Darren sat down on an expensive black leather couch, tapping his fingers nervously again on his lap. A brown-haired woman - hair shoulder length and straight, and wearing a sensible gray business skirt and blazer over a gold dress blouse.
“Mister Watson? I’m Doctor Welsh”, the lady Darren would get to know as his new therapist Linda Welsh said to him as she extended her hand in a friendly gesture.
“Nice to meet you,” Darren said as he cleared his throat and shook Doctor Welsh’s smoothly-skinned hand. The two of them proceeded to sit down, facing each other.
“So?” Doctor Welsh started off, “What has brought you here today?”
“Many things I guess,” Darren answered. “I’m about to start writing a novel that is loosely based on my life and thought it may be beneficial to have someone to talk to about any of my old issues resurfacing and dragging me down like they seem to do.”
“Such as?”
“Well, I’ve been estranged from my family for the last five years. I haven’t had a significant romantic relationship in seven years, a relationship that left me a broken shell of a man that was on the verge of either a massive mental breakdown or suicide.”
“Sounds like you have a grasp on the issues that brought you here. I take it you have had experience in going through improving your mental health?”
“Yeah, and now that I am making some decent money I figured I could actually pay for someone who is decent enough and not going to leave me to another case worker because they got a new job offer.”
“That seems like quite the frustrating experience you’ve gone through.” Doctor Welsh said with sympathy for Darren’s plight.
“Yeah you could call it that,” Darren said. “Also lately I’ve been having some weird dreams.”
“What do mean ‘weird’?” she asked.
Darren took a deep breath and answered: “Well, one I remembered recently I was talking to my pet rabbit, who then talked back to me. Then I find myself in a parade in my old home town being pelted by small rocks and fruit by people I’ve know from that town while a marching band behind me played Bob Dylan’s ‘Rainy Day Women…’ Ya know, ‘they’ll stone ya when you’re trying to be so good…”
Doctor Welsh cut him off there “Yes, I’m familiar with that particular song. Were you in any altered state of mind before this dream occurred?”
“No, not really. Probably the most potent items I inhaled that night were some incense or the scented candles a friend brought over to help me relax and focus on my writing.” Dean replied back.
“Well, while I wait for your files to come from your previous therapist, I would like for you to keep a journal of any further dreams. Write down whatever you can remember – people, objects, any other image you feel is important. When we have our next session, bring the journal in and I’ll try to help you interpret these dreams.”
Great. Darren thought to himself. More writing. He then looked at Doctor Welsh and asked “Was there anything from this one that stood out to you?”
“Well, it could be that for whatever reason, you feel that various parts of your life will forever be scrutinized by those that you have forgotten about or you are forever carrying the burden of those who you feel have wronged you.” Doctor Welsh theorized.
“Well then,” Darren said as he placed his hands behind his head, “Why am I having these musically-inspired dreams?”
“In time, we shall both know why” Doctor Welsh replied back as she smiled a reassuring smile to a confused-looking Darren.
CHAPTER ONE – IN THE FLESH AND TAKING CHANCES
Dream Journal Entry #1
Mozart, my pet rabbit, and I were walking into an empty gym of a school. Don’t remember what the conversation was about but we found ourselves coming across a woman who I have never seen before. Mozart tells me to go talk to her but then I end up singing Pink Floyd’s “In the Flesh?”. Woke up and looked up the lyrics. Not sure of total significance yet. Investigate further…
The sun shone brightly into Darren Watson’s bedroom, in spite of the blinds being totally shut. Between the turning on of the alarm clock radio to an Edmonton radio station and the sun’s rays, Darren slowly began to wake up but not wanting really to get out of the bed. That though stayed in his head until he heard the telephone ringing in the main room of his two bedroom apartment. Sensing it could be important, Darren hopped out of the bed and quickly put on a dark blue bathrobe. Darren then picked up the phone and spoke into it, “Hello?”
The voice on the other end answered “Hello, Darren Watson?”
Darren replied back, “Yes.”
The voice spoke, “Hello Darren, MacArthur Parker, your agent calling. Listen, I just got your initial manuscript for this novel you want to do? Raven Effect? Love It!”
“Um, thanks. You do realize it is a very early draft and needs a lot more work to be done on it, right?” Darren asked his agent.
“Yes, but if the final draft is as good as this, well my friend this could be the one. No more weekly musing columns syndicated in Podunk town papers. We’re talking major publications, book tours, maybe an appearance on Oprah.” Darren’s agent answered with enthusiasm. “I’m hoping you can get onto finishing it within our timeline.”
Darren looked at a calendar on the wall beside the phone. “I’m sure I can manage” he reassured his agent.
“Great, I’ll be mailing more information and legal documents for you to go over, okay? Great, gotta go now. Call me when you got everything, ‘kay? Bye”
“Um, sure, bye” Darren said as he hung the phone up and looked around his empty apartment, save for Mozart – a long-haired brown flop-eared rabbit – who sat in a penned-off area in the corner of the living room area. The rabbit munched on a dish filled with alfalfa pellets as Darren looked around to see what the time exactly was. Noticing the time was well past ten ‘o clock in the morning and knowing he had an appointment to make, Darren sighed as he walked into the kitchen to get something to eat. Opening a cabinet for a box of cereal, Darren found a sticky note on the cabinet door that read “All out of Corn Pops, sorry man” and was signed by his roommate Phil Brookes.
“Dammit, Phil!” Darren muttered under his breath, “I wanted my Pops!”
The past year had been quite the change for Darren Watson, now a syndicated columnist with a random musings-style piece that originally appeared in his current town of Vegreville, Alberta’s local newspaper. Being coaxed by his roommate Phil, a former friend from Darren’s botched attempt of higher learning at the University of Alberta, Darren submitted a portfolio of his columns along with an assortment of random poems and short stories to a publishing house. The poems and short stories were published as an anthology and got Darren a step up in his writing career. Now he was facing a new task: writing a full novel that was going to a fictionalized autobiography entitled “The Raven Effect” – a novel he intended to use as a form of therapy for himself. Nearly eight years ago Darren had his heart broken by Gloria James – his first serious girlfriend. During that time, Darren flunked out of university, got into a verbal and physical fight with his father over that particular issue, and also found himself practically disowned by his family. Making matters worse was the fact that he would end up moving back to Vegreville, a town that was about forty-five minutes away from where his family still lived. While Darren still talked to his mother, sister, and brother once in a while on the phone or if they happened to bump into each other in town, the entire familial relationship was strained. The struggles with all of this nearly broke Darren mentally, broke him to the point of near suicide until one day when he met up with Phil – who was also going through a crisis of his own as his parents were recently killed in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. Both Darren and Phil felt the loss of family though brought upon through different circumstances, but it was that common thread that allowed them to help each other out.
Flash forward to today as the two of them lived in Willowbend Apartments, a pretty decent apartment complex in the town of Vegreville. While Darren worked on his writing skills, Phil worked on a myriad of hobbies which including photography and film-making. Films and movies had always been a passion of Phil, who worked the past five years as a clerk at a movie rental store, and Phil was always on the look for that one project that will take him out of small-town obscurity and into hipster indie film darling. After a short series of films that Phil placed on YouTube, Phil got the not-quite original idea of documenting the lives of those that dwelled within the twenty-seven suites of the place he and Darren called home, as well as filming Darren’s creative process as he worked through the final draft for “The Raven Effect”
Darren walked downstairs to the main lobby to check his mail and see if the latest in meager royalty checks from “Things Best Left Unsaid” – his short story and poem anthology – were finally sent out. Checking his watch to see how close he was to his appointment and leafing through the collection of flyers and envelopes in the mailbox, Darren noticed from a quick glance a pair of relatively toned and tanned legs. Darren stood up and saw one of his neighbors – Sally Goode – also checking her mail as well. Sally was wearing a pair of jogging shorts and a plain-white tank top, her long black hair done up in a pony-tail.
“Hey Darren,” Sally said with a bit of shortness in her breath as a result of her running.
“Hey Sally. Had a nice jog I assume.” Darren said, trying his best to make small talk with a woman he had secretly lusted over since she moved into the building.
“Oh yeah, totally felt the burn. You should come with me some time,” Sally said as she took a drink of water from a bottle she had in her left hand.
“Sure, only if you have a defibulator handy for the heart attack I surely would get within the first couple of yards.” Darren said with a bit of self-depreciating humor that he had been known for.
Sally just smiled and playfully punched Darren in the shoulder “Huh, well maybe talk to your friend Rocco and maybe between the two of us we’d get you into shape.”
“Yeah, maybe. Speaking of which, I’m off to meet up with Rocco. Catch ya later.”
“Sure, oh hey, before you go, could you or Phil babysit Cody for me this Friday? Going into Edmonton to meet up with an old friend?”
Cody was Sally’s ten-year old son. His father left shortly after Cody’s birth and Sally had been raising him practically by herself for most of her life. Darren occasionally looked after the kid for reasons that were two-fold and contradictory: one was that he was a nice guy who was one of the few believers in altruism; the second was that he wished it would somehow influence Sally into spending a night of passion together.
“As far I know one of us could,” Darren replied back to Sally as she made her way up the stairs.
“Okay, let me know for sure later tonight,” Sally said as she climbed up the stairs. Darren walked towards the lobby exit as he took a quick glance at the firmness of Sally’s backside and hoped to one day feel if it was as firm as it seemed.
“So just go for it already, man!” Rocco Davis said as he placed the three-hundred pound weights he was bench pressing down back into the holdings on the weight bench that Darren was helping spot for Rocco. Rocco was another friend of Darren’s, a man Darren met through his former job before quitting to pursue his writing dream. Rocco was now in the middle of pursuing his own dream: becoming a mixed-martial arts fighter. While not in the best physical shape of his own, Darren agreed to help Rocco with some basic weight training and unofficial coach. And in exchange, Rocco would try to help Darren regain some of the confidence that he sorely lacked from the day Gloria shattered his emotions into a million pieces.
“It’s not that simple,” Darren said somewhat defensively “You should know that about me.”
“It’s about confidence, bro” Rocco said as he sat up and wiped the sweat from his face and tattooed chest. “The ladies can sense how confident you are with the way you conduct yourself. They can sense stuff like that ya know? That’s the difference between me and you – you allow yourself to let things get you down too much and I say ‘two tears in a bucket, fuck it’ and move on.”
“Yes, and how has that helped you out in finding someone to spend the rest of your life with?” Darren asked.
“See? You’re too focused on finding the one who you wanna spend the rest of your life. Besides that concept is dead now. Nothing lasts forever, you gotta take what you get and roll with the punches.”
“I guess, but it’s just every time I read up on my old friends from school that are on Facebook, most of them are married, having kids, buying homes, travelling the world. Me? I’m nearly thirty sharing an apartment with a friend and a rabbit and no real prospects in love.”
“Don’t worry about others. Worry about you, yourself, and, uh… you?” Rocco said, slightly confused with what he just said.
“Thanks Rocco,” Darren said with a small tinge of sarcasm in his tone.
“Look, I’m meeting up with some other bros in E-town Saturday night, come with us and we’ll getcha hooked up.”
“What do you mean?” Darren asked.
“Well, we’ll hit the bars, pound back a few shots, and hopefully find some quality snatch for ya! Yeah” Rocco said as he pumped his fists in the air.
“Uhm, I really don’t drink and haven’t gone to a meet market in years.” Darren retorted back.
“Look, you gotta take chances, break out from your comfort zone, try something new. Trust me, bro!” Rocco said as he patted Darren on the shoulder.
“So, you’re going on a tail prowl with Rocco?!” Phil Brookes said as he and Darren conversed in the movie store Phil worked in. Phil was working on placing returned movies back on the shelves as he and Darren conversed.
“Didn’t give a definite answer, but maybe he’s right about some things…” Darren said with a pondering tone. “… things like taking chances.”
Phil stood in thought for a moment and did a mock shiver. “Well, he’s got you there. Maybe it is time for you to get out again and spread your wings grasshopper,” he said.
“Great, so you won’t mind coming along then right?” Darren asked
“Um, hello? Straight-Edge here!” Phil replied back “Don’t drink, don’t smoke…”
Darren interrupted: “Thank you, Adam Ant. Come on, Rocco is gonna probably bugger off with his fellow MMApes and leave me to fend for myself. Plus it could make for some interesting footage for your new project.”
“Hmmm. I do have a new fedora I’d like to break in.” Phil said. “All right, I’m in. Plus I have a feeling I’m going to have to be the designated driver and potential bail poster too.”
“Well, Rocco’s not going to be totally thrilled about you coming along, but I’ll deal with him,” Darren said. He then removed an envelope from his coat pocket. “Meanwhile today I got this, an invitation to a cousin’s wedding. I am contemplating going.”
“Why? To sit in a room with people you either barely know or people who have been convinced you’re the worst person ever?” Phil asked.
“I dunno, while I have accepted my role as persona non grata, I think I need definite closure to really move on.”
“Great, sounds like a brilliant plan. Now, are you gonna go alone or are you going to take someone with you?” Phil asked.
Darren thought for a moment. There was one person who might be willing to go along with this scheme: Emily Moore.
Emily Moore, another resident of Willowbend Apartments. She lived right across the hall from Darren and Phil. Emily worked as a practicing holistic healer and sales associate in the town’s only health and natural food store. The first day Darren moved into Willowbend, Emily brought over a welcome wagon-type basket filled with candles, incense, and homemade baked goods. Darren was drawn to her friendly smile and personality. The two of them always got along and in some ways, Emily was more of a closer friend than either Rocco or Phil was to Darren. But that was always Darren’s role with members of the opposite sex: always the good friend. It was like that through school and university until Gloria came in and ruined things for Darren. In some ways, Emily seemed to be a composite of every platonic girl friends Darren had, with the added twist that she was bisexual. That kind of intrigued Darren for reasons he had never fully understood in the sense in how someone could never know who they want to spend all of their time with. Though lately Emily seemed more attracted to women than men. With one exception: Darren. It was made clear though the first time they had sex, it was not going to be a typical relationship. It was going to be one based on no strings and none of the usual emotional trappings. Just pure physicality, whenever it seemed convenient for the two of them.
This night was not one of those nights as Darren and Emily sat outside on the balcony of her apartment, watching the summer sun set in the west Alberta sky. It was then and there Darren asked Emily about the wedding.
“I think that is against the rules we set for each other,” Emily said. “We agreed no actual dates.”
“Well, don’t think of it as an actual date,” Darren said in a timid yet defensive way. “Think of it as a friend helping another friend through a potentially hazardous scenario. That, and it could really freak out a bunch of square and narrow-minded people.”
“Hmmm, haven’t done that in a while”, Emily said with a smile. “What color should I dye my hair? Or maybe I could make a pass at the maid of honor? You know what? Despite the potential trappings of it being a proper date, why not?”
“Wow, to be honest I thought you were going to flatly refuse the whole idea.”
“Haven’t you learned anything about me over the past few years? Always expect the unexpected with me.” Emily said again with a smile on her face as she gave a little cute chuckle that reassured Darren that perhaps this whole wedding episode won’t be so bad after all.
The following is a work of fiction. All names and events are fictional and any resemblance to any real persons or events are purely coincidental. Non-original content is used in a non-commercial and parodic manner.
The past two novels have had some interesting dedications, this year will be no exception:
To Barack Hussein Obama – because it would make the members of the fanatical right’s heads explode.
To my family – yup, still on the outs, still on my thoughts at times.
To my co-workers – thanks for tolerating me for another year.
To Kanye West – because I’m afraid he’ll interrupt me and tell me that Stephanie Meyer has the best books ever written.
To the voices in my head – they council me, they understand, they talk to me…
To the Canadian Winter Olympic team – because the commercials on all CTV-owned stations have gotten to me, okay?
To you – yes, you, the gentle readers, who none of this would be really possible.
To all the dead celebrities of 2009 – you all lived your lives like a candle in the wind…
That is all for this year. Enjoy
-Dane Woychuk
November 1, 2009
12:05 a.m.
Prologue: Guy Walks Into A Psychiatrist’s Office…
Darren Watson sat nervously inside the waiting room of Doctor Linda Welsh, the new psychiatrist he had finally agreed to see after years of going in and out of free clinics and ending what seemed to be years of frustration with the public mental health system. He adjusted his glasses and played with his hair. He picked up a magazine and leafed through its contents while a dark-haired young looking lady receptionist gave a quick look at him. The receptionist picked up the ringing phone that sat behind her desk. “Yes, your two-thirty appointment is here, Doctor Welsh,” the receptionist said with a slight Mandarin accent, “I’ll let him know your ready for him,” she said as she hung up the phone.
“Mister Watson? Doctor Welsh will see you now,” the receptionist said as Darren put down the magazine. He got up from the chair he sat in and walked towards the reception desk and the door on the right hand side. The receptionist got up and opened the door for Darren as he nodded in her direction, as if to say thank you. She smiled and went back to her duties while Darren took a deep breath and proceeded into the next room.
Darren sat down on an expensive black leather couch, tapping his fingers nervously again on his lap. A brown-haired woman - hair shoulder length and straight, and wearing a sensible gray business skirt and blazer over a gold dress blouse.
“Mister Watson? I’m Doctor Welsh”, the lady Darren would get to know as his new therapist Linda Welsh said to him as she extended her hand in a friendly gesture.
“Nice to meet you,” Darren said as he cleared his throat and shook Doctor Welsh’s smoothly-skinned hand. The two of them proceeded to sit down, facing each other.
“So?” Doctor Welsh started off, “What has brought you here today?”
“Many things I guess,” Darren answered. “I’m about to start writing a novel that is loosely based on my life and thought it may be beneficial to have someone to talk to about any of my old issues resurfacing and dragging me down like they seem to do.”
“Such as?”
“Well, I’ve been estranged from my family for the last five years. I haven’t had a significant romantic relationship in seven years, a relationship that left me a broken shell of a man that was on the verge of either a massive mental breakdown or suicide.”
“Sounds like you have a grasp on the issues that brought you here. I take it you have had experience in going through improving your mental health?”
“Yeah, and now that I am making some decent money I figured I could actually pay for someone who is decent enough and not going to leave me to another case worker because they got a new job offer.”
“That seems like quite the frustrating experience you’ve gone through.” Doctor Welsh said with sympathy for Darren’s plight.
“Yeah you could call it that,” Darren said. “Also lately I’ve been having some weird dreams.”
“What do mean ‘weird’?” she asked.
Darren took a deep breath and answered: “Well, one I remembered recently I was talking to my pet rabbit, who then talked back to me. Then I find myself in a parade in my old home town being pelted by small rocks and fruit by people I’ve know from that town while a marching band behind me played Bob Dylan’s ‘Rainy Day Women…’ Ya know, ‘they’ll stone ya when you’re trying to be so good…”
Doctor Welsh cut him off there “Yes, I’m familiar with that particular song. Were you in any altered state of mind before this dream occurred?”
“No, not really. Probably the most potent items I inhaled that night were some incense or the scented candles a friend brought over to help me relax and focus on my writing.” Dean replied back.
“Well, while I wait for your files to come from your previous therapist, I would like for you to keep a journal of any further dreams. Write down whatever you can remember – people, objects, any other image you feel is important. When we have our next session, bring the journal in and I’ll try to help you interpret these dreams.”
Great. Darren thought to himself. More writing. He then looked at Doctor Welsh and asked “Was there anything from this one that stood out to you?”
“Well, it could be that for whatever reason, you feel that various parts of your life will forever be scrutinized by those that you have forgotten about or you are forever carrying the burden of those who you feel have wronged you.” Doctor Welsh theorized.
“Well then,” Darren said as he placed his hands behind his head, “Why am I having these musically-inspired dreams?”
“In time, we shall both know why” Doctor Welsh replied back as she smiled a reassuring smile to a confused-looking Darren.
CHAPTER ONE – IN THE FLESH AND TAKING CHANCES
Dream Journal Entry #1
Mozart, my pet rabbit, and I were walking into an empty gym of a school. Don’t remember what the conversation was about but we found ourselves coming across a woman who I have never seen before. Mozart tells me to go talk to her but then I end up singing Pink Floyd’s “In the Flesh?”. Woke up and looked up the lyrics. Not sure of total significance yet. Investigate further…
The sun shone brightly into Darren Watson’s bedroom, in spite of the blinds being totally shut. Between the turning on of the alarm clock radio to an Edmonton radio station and the sun’s rays, Darren slowly began to wake up but not wanting really to get out of the bed. That though stayed in his head until he heard the telephone ringing in the main room of his two bedroom apartment. Sensing it could be important, Darren hopped out of the bed and quickly put on a dark blue bathrobe. Darren then picked up the phone and spoke into it, “Hello?”
The voice on the other end answered “Hello, Darren Watson?”
Darren replied back, “Yes.”
The voice spoke, “Hello Darren, MacArthur Parker, your agent calling. Listen, I just got your initial manuscript for this novel you want to do? Raven Effect? Love It!”
“Um, thanks. You do realize it is a very early draft and needs a lot more work to be done on it, right?” Darren asked his agent.
“Yes, but if the final draft is as good as this, well my friend this could be the one. No more weekly musing columns syndicated in Podunk town papers. We’re talking major publications, book tours, maybe an appearance on Oprah.” Darren’s agent answered with enthusiasm. “I’m hoping you can get onto finishing it within our timeline.”
Darren looked at a calendar on the wall beside the phone. “I’m sure I can manage” he reassured his agent.
“Great, I’ll be mailing more information and legal documents for you to go over, okay? Great, gotta go now. Call me when you got everything, ‘kay? Bye”
“Um, sure, bye” Darren said as he hung the phone up and looked around his empty apartment, save for Mozart – a long-haired brown flop-eared rabbit – who sat in a penned-off area in the corner of the living room area. The rabbit munched on a dish filled with alfalfa pellets as Darren looked around to see what the time exactly was. Noticing the time was well past ten ‘o clock in the morning and knowing he had an appointment to make, Darren sighed as he walked into the kitchen to get something to eat. Opening a cabinet for a box of cereal, Darren found a sticky note on the cabinet door that read “All out of Corn Pops, sorry man” and was signed by his roommate Phil Brookes.
“Dammit, Phil!” Darren muttered under his breath, “I wanted my Pops!”
The past year had been quite the change for Darren Watson, now a syndicated columnist with a random musings-style piece that originally appeared in his current town of Vegreville, Alberta’s local newspaper. Being coaxed by his roommate Phil, a former friend from Darren’s botched attempt of higher learning at the University of Alberta, Darren submitted a portfolio of his columns along with an assortment of random poems and short stories to a publishing house. The poems and short stories were published as an anthology and got Darren a step up in his writing career. Now he was facing a new task: writing a full novel that was going to a fictionalized autobiography entitled “The Raven Effect” – a novel he intended to use as a form of therapy for himself. Nearly eight years ago Darren had his heart broken by Gloria James – his first serious girlfriend. During that time, Darren flunked out of university, got into a verbal and physical fight with his father over that particular issue, and also found himself practically disowned by his family. Making matters worse was the fact that he would end up moving back to Vegreville, a town that was about forty-five minutes away from where his family still lived. While Darren still talked to his mother, sister, and brother once in a while on the phone or if they happened to bump into each other in town, the entire familial relationship was strained. The struggles with all of this nearly broke Darren mentally, broke him to the point of near suicide until one day when he met up with Phil – who was also going through a crisis of his own as his parents were recently killed in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. Both Darren and Phil felt the loss of family though brought upon through different circumstances, but it was that common thread that allowed them to help each other out.
Flash forward to today as the two of them lived in Willowbend Apartments, a pretty decent apartment complex in the town of Vegreville. While Darren worked on his writing skills, Phil worked on a myriad of hobbies which including photography and film-making. Films and movies had always been a passion of Phil, who worked the past five years as a clerk at a movie rental store, and Phil was always on the look for that one project that will take him out of small-town obscurity and into hipster indie film darling. After a short series of films that Phil placed on YouTube, Phil got the not-quite original idea of documenting the lives of those that dwelled within the twenty-seven suites of the place he and Darren called home, as well as filming Darren’s creative process as he worked through the final draft for “The Raven Effect”
Darren walked downstairs to the main lobby to check his mail and see if the latest in meager royalty checks from “Things Best Left Unsaid” – his short story and poem anthology – were finally sent out. Checking his watch to see how close he was to his appointment and leafing through the collection of flyers and envelopes in the mailbox, Darren noticed from a quick glance a pair of relatively toned and tanned legs. Darren stood up and saw one of his neighbors – Sally Goode – also checking her mail as well. Sally was wearing a pair of jogging shorts and a plain-white tank top, her long black hair done up in a pony-tail.
“Hey Darren,” Sally said with a bit of shortness in her breath as a result of her running.
“Hey Sally. Had a nice jog I assume.” Darren said, trying his best to make small talk with a woman he had secretly lusted over since she moved into the building.
“Oh yeah, totally felt the burn. You should come with me some time,” Sally said as she took a drink of water from a bottle she had in her left hand.
“Sure, only if you have a defibulator handy for the heart attack I surely would get within the first couple of yards.” Darren said with a bit of self-depreciating humor that he had been known for.
Sally just smiled and playfully punched Darren in the shoulder “Huh, well maybe talk to your friend Rocco and maybe between the two of us we’d get you into shape.”
“Yeah, maybe. Speaking of which, I’m off to meet up with Rocco. Catch ya later.”
“Sure, oh hey, before you go, could you or Phil babysit Cody for me this Friday? Going into Edmonton to meet up with an old friend?”
Cody was Sally’s ten-year old son. His father left shortly after Cody’s birth and Sally had been raising him practically by herself for most of her life. Darren occasionally looked after the kid for reasons that were two-fold and contradictory: one was that he was a nice guy who was one of the few believers in altruism; the second was that he wished it would somehow influence Sally into spending a night of passion together.
“As far I know one of us could,” Darren replied back to Sally as she made her way up the stairs.
“Okay, let me know for sure later tonight,” Sally said as she climbed up the stairs. Darren walked towards the lobby exit as he took a quick glance at the firmness of Sally’s backside and hoped to one day feel if it was as firm as it seemed.
“So just go for it already, man!” Rocco Davis said as he placed the three-hundred pound weights he was bench pressing down back into the holdings on the weight bench that Darren was helping spot for Rocco. Rocco was another friend of Darren’s, a man Darren met through his former job before quitting to pursue his writing dream. Rocco was now in the middle of pursuing his own dream: becoming a mixed-martial arts fighter. While not in the best physical shape of his own, Darren agreed to help Rocco with some basic weight training and unofficial coach. And in exchange, Rocco would try to help Darren regain some of the confidence that he sorely lacked from the day Gloria shattered his emotions into a million pieces.
“It’s not that simple,” Darren said somewhat defensively “You should know that about me.”
“It’s about confidence, bro” Rocco said as he sat up and wiped the sweat from his face and tattooed chest. “The ladies can sense how confident you are with the way you conduct yourself. They can sense stuff like that ya know? That’s the difference between me and you – you allow yourself to let things get you down too much and I say ‘two tears in a bucket, fuck it’ and move on.”
“Yes, and how has that helped you out in finding someone to spend the rest of your life with?” Darren asked.
“See? You’re too focused on finding the one who you wanna spend the rest of your life. Besides that concept is dead now. Nothing lasts forever, you gotta take what you get and roll with the punches.”
“I guess, but it’s just every time I read up on my old friends from school that are on Facebook, most of them are married, having kids, buying homes, travelling the world. Me? I’m nearly thirty sharing an apartment with a friend and a rabbit and no real prospects in love.”
“Don’t worry about others. Worry about you, yourself, and, uh… you?” Rocco said, slightly confused with what he just said.
“Thanks Rocco,” Darren said with a small tinge of sarcasm in his tone.
“Look, I’m meeting up with some other bros in E-town Saturday night, come with us and we’ll getcha hooked up.”
“What do you mean?” Darren asked.
“Well, we’ll hit the bars, pound back a few shots, and hopefully find some quality snatch for ya! Yeah” Rocco said as he pumped his fists in the air.
“Uhm, I really don’t drink and haven’t gone to a meet market in years.” Darren retorted back.
“Look, you gotta take chances, break out from your comfort zone, try something new. Trust me, bro!” Rocco said as he patted Darren on the shoulder.
“So, you’re going on a tail prowl with Rocco?!” Phil Brookes said as he and Darren conversed in the movie store Phil worked in. Phil was working on placing returned movies back on the shelves as he and Darren conversed.
“Didn’t give a definite answer, but maybe he’s right about some things…” Darren said with a pondering tone. “… things like taking chances.”
Phil stood in thought for a moment and did a mock shiver. “Well, he’s got you there. Maybe it is time for you to get out again and spread your wings grasshopper,” he said.
“Great, so you won’t mind coming along then right?” Darren asked
“Um, hello? Straight-Edge here!” Phil replied back “Don’t drink, don’t smoke…”
Darren interrupted: “Thank you, Adam Ant. Come on, Rocco is gonna probably bugger off with his fellow MMApes and leave me to fend for myself. Plus it could make for some interesting footage for your new project.”
“Hmmm. I do have a new fedora I’d like to break in.” Phil said. “All right, I’m in. Plus I have a feeling I’m going to have to be the designated driver and potential bail poster too.”
“Well, Rocco’s not going to be totally thrilled about you coming along, but I’ll deal with him,” Darren said. He then removed an envelope from his coat pocket. “Meanwhile today I got this, an invitation to a cousin’s wedding. I am contemplating going.”
“Why? To sit in a room with people you either barely know or people who have been convinced you’re the worst person ever?” Phil asked.
“I dunno, while I have accepted my role as persona non grata, I think I need definite closure to really move on.”
“Great, sounds like a brilliant plan. Now, are you gonna go alone or are you going to take someone with you?” Phil asked.
Darren thought for a moment. There was one person who might be willing to go along with this scheme: Emily Moore.
Emily Moore, another resident of Willowbend Apartments. She lived right across the hall from Darren and Phil. Emily worked as a practicing holistic healer and sales associate in the town’s only health and natural food store. The first day Darren moved into Willowbend, Emily brought over a welcome wagon-type basket filled with candles, incense, and homemade baked goods. Darren was drawn to her friendly smile and personality. The two of them always got along and in some ways, Emily was more of a closer friend than either Rocco or Phil was to Darren. But that was always Darren’s role with members of the opposite sex: always the good friend. It was like that through school and university until Gloria came in and ruined things for Darren. In some ways, Emily seemed to be a composite of every platonic girl friends Darren had, with the added twist that she was bisexual. That kind of intrigued Darren for reasons he had never fully understood in the sense in how someone could never know who they want to spend all of their time with. Though lately Emily seemed more attracted to women than men. With one exception: Darren. It was made clear though the first time they had sex, it was not going to be a typical relationship. It was going to be one based on no strings and none of the usual emotional trappings. Just pure physicality, whenever it seemed convenient for the two of them.
This night was not one of those nights as Darren and Emily sat outside on the balcony of her apartment, watching the summer sun set in the west Alberta sky. It was then and there Darren asked Emily about the wedding.
“I think that is against the rules we set for each other,” Emily said. “We agreed no actual dates.”
“Well, don’t think of it as an actual date,” Darren said in a timid yet defensive way. “Think of it as a friend helping another friend through a potentially hazardous scenario. That, and it could really freak out a bunch of square and narrow-minded people.”
“Hmmm, haven’t done that in a while”, Emily said with a smile. “What color should I dye my hair? Or maybe I could make a pass at the maid of honor? You know what? Despite the potential trappings of it being a proper date, why not?”
“Wow, to be honest I thought you were going to flatly refuse the whole idea.”
“Haven’t you learned anything about me over the past few years? Always expect the unexpected with me.” Emily said again with a smile on her face as she gave a little cute chuckle that reassured Darren that perhaps this whole wedding episode won’t be so bad after all.
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