Willowbend Tales - Chapter 4

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."