October 23, 2007

• "After the Curtain Call" a short story: Part Two

  This is a continuation of the short story, "After the Curtain Call". Part One is below.

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  The road leading out of town, Hornberry Avenue, ran straight and true into the small suburbs of Makay. Makay was the county seat of one of California's smallest and most homey counties.

  Mary Larsen lived in a large two story Spanish style house in the middle of the county. She lived closer to Rogersville, the most beautiful of the three towns in Makay County, but since it didn't have a high school, she attended Makay High, which was much more modern and better looking than Hinsford High, located in the more picturesque, yet smaller town of Hinsly on the other side of  the county.

  Hornberry ran into Rogersville, so Mark followed it through the orange groves amid the otherwise barren countryside till he hit Marshall Road, where Mary lived.

  Marshall was a tidy tree lined street located about three miles from the city of Makay. Some of the more influential and well heeled  families in the county lived on the street., including the Larsens, who owned the largest clothing store in Rogersville.

  "Well, here we are," Mark said, as soon as he spied the brightly lighted residence.

  "Thanks for the ride," Kathy looked into Mark's eyes. She wondered why he hadn't tried to make a pass in the car. For months, she had been eyeing him. In fact, she had been watching most of  the boys in the play. Mark Carson seemed popular enough. Mr. Nordlund, the director of the production, had cast him in the part of Maggie's character's lover after twelve other boys failed to nab the part.

  Kathryn, although never having gone steady, felt that before the production, she did not need any sort of male companionship. Ever since the play went into final rehearsals, though, she had developed more and more of an attraction to the boys around her, especially Mark.

  As soon as she had positioned herself beside Mark in his car, she thought perhaps something would happen. She didn't know what, because she personally had no idea how a boy made a pass, and she didn't feel forward enough to start anything herself,  but she had almost hoped Mark would be man enough to do something about the situation which found them alone in the car together. Kathy's imagination could sometimes get the better of her, but she was woefully naive about the actual machinations of making out.

  Nothing happened. This was a minor disappointment. Kathryn was too aloof to consider making the first move herself. The party sounds swelled in front of the couple as they exited the car. She simply thanked Mark again as she closed the passenger door.

  Mark watched her disappear into the large house, then looked around for a parking place. Cars usually lined the street in the middle of the night, and now the road was virtually crowded with the cars of all the kids attending the party. He had a hard time finding an open space, but finally found one further up the street. While walking back to the large tan house, visions of Margaret Burbridge began to pop back into his mind.

  Laurie Radcliff wore a light blue dress to the party. It blended with her long sparkling blonde hair to give the impression of Alice in Wonderland.

  Laurie was one of the most popular girls attending Makay High School. She possessed the sort of bubbling personality that won her many friends, and even though popular, had very few enemies. She felt ecstatic about this party, having planned it with her best friend, Mary Larsen, the host.

  Tonight was a happy night for everyone, it seemed to her, watching the gaity in the house. She loved parties, and people, and with each school gathering or afterschool party, she grew happier, her cheeks became more rosy, and her hair shone more luxuriously.

  It was Laurie who introduced the cake she had baked for this great occasion. Most of the guests had arrived. The girls had set up a couple of folding tables around the patio. The tables were  filled with hors d'oeuvres, chips and dips, and finger sandwiches.  Jeff Lancaster sat with Maggie Burbridge at the head of the largest table set up on the patio.

  Mary and Laurie called for everyone to gather round. "Ladies and Gentlemen," Laurie squeaked delightedly to the crowd, "Come over here." The boys and girls in the immediate vicinity began to gather around the table.

  "Where's Mark Carson?," somebody whispered.

  "He's coming. He had to park," answered Kathryn Shelby, striding into the patio area through the sliding glass door of the den.

  "Okay, everyone," Laurie said, "Jeff Lancaster, or should I say, Captain Lansing, and Maggie Burbridge, or Roberta Smith, if you use her stage name..." Everybody giggled... "are our guests of honor at this cast party. We are all happy they could make it." More laughter. "And we hope they, and we, all  have a great time."

  Mary took the spotlight. "Laurie, get the surprise. People, we want to make this the damnedest party we've ever had following a Makay High play. Those heads over at Hinsford thought they had a bash last year. Well, that was nothing compared to this!"

  Mark walked silently up to the table and gazed at Margaret, seated in a yellow mini skirt and silver blouse. She looked more luscious than Mark had ever seen her.

  "First, we'll have the refreshments, then, for all of your benefit - there's no adult in the house! Enjoy yourselves."

  A cheer rose from the crowd of teenagers. Laurie appeared from the door of the den and maneuvered a gigantic cake to the main table. On the face of the cake she had spelled in icing: "To the cast and crew of Masts to the Sea."

  "Now," she said gaily, "Let the party begin!" Everybody crowded up to the table, eager for a piece of cake. Mary poured punch from her mother's large crystal punch bowl.

  Jeff left his place and walked slowly over to one of the tall walnut trees in the yard. He looked over the boys and girls enjoying cake under the lighted patio. He viewed it as a waste. Here they were all enjoying themselves when a major production had just died. After today, there would be no more performances, no more rehearsals. The set would be torn down. The actors would cease to be actors and revert to being kids. He felt he was witnessing a tragedy, and not a comedy.

  Laurie approached him out of the darkness. "Jeff, what are you doing out here?"

  "I'm thinking."

  "About what? Mary said you've been brooding. Why? You have nothing to be sad about."

  His voice retained a somber tone. He began to recite: "Actors adorned with make-up. Settings designed like reality. Theater glistens for just so long. The falsity fades into reality. Beauty, soul filled for an instant. Art in the highest of forms. Theater glistens for just so long, Then we forget it's once hewed charms." He looked down at Laurie's blonde head. "I made that up just now. It just came to me. I was thinking about the fact that the play is over ... "

  "Jeff, you already told me about that onstage after the curtain call. You must be over it by now."

  Somehow, he seemed to still be acting. "Laurie, you know something. I love the theater. I've been in four school plays now, and I always feel the same, disappointed beyond words because it's over. I can't even tell you how awful it feels..."

  "Well, all I know is that I'm happy, and I love theater too. I just had a small part, but I don't care - everything has to end!"

  Jeff turned away from her. She looked up to his face, smiling, yet when she saw he was keeping still, she walked away. Again his attitude stumped her. This was a wonderful time, not a time for reflective sadness.

  "Laurie, they love the cake." Mary giggled.

  "Thank you." Laurie snapped out of her reverie and regained her bright outlook. She immediately forgot her talk with Jeff Lancaster.

  David Melrose drove Diane Youmans to the cast party. In the back seat of his ancient Ford sat a large cardboard box containing a dozen bottles of soda pop wine obained with the help of his eager big brother and his friends. When they couldn't find a parking place, David drove up on the Larsen's front lawn, delighting to Diane's frantic giggles.

  The large old Ford gouged two perfect tread marks in the dichondra. David broke out a bottle of Annie Green Springs before he even left the car, quickly guzzling the liquid. He and his delinquent brother had passed a bottle many times and he considered himself a man of the world.

  Diane Youmans, who lived in the poorer section of Makay with drunken parents, hardly knew David Melrose. She went to the same school, but didn't run in the same circles.

  Soon after David had related the place of the party to a dozen members of the cast and crew, he left the auditorium, and drove through town looking for a date. He found Diane in the food court in one of the department stores on Hornberry Avenue.

  Some smooth talking had gotten the gullible girl into the car. Dave didn't think she was actually good looking, but as he would say, she had "good legs, and good boobs." He had the booze in the car especially for tonight, and as he sat on the front lawn of Mary Larsen's house in his old Ford, he took another swig of the wine before he joined the party.

  "Hey, honey," Diane murmered. "Let me have some of that." She grabbed the bottle away from David, spilling some of the contents down her cleavage.

  "Wait a damn minute, you bitch," David whispered, then shoved his head to her breasts, licking the spilled wine as it trickled down the crack of her breasts, heaving below the low cut pink peasant blouse.

  Diane squealed and pushed him back, and he grabbed her, pressing his slobbering lips to hers. She let him kiss her for a while, then tore away. "Come on, Davey, let's go to the party. I wanna see all them sochs you hang around with."

  "Okay, honey. This is gonna be one helluva party. It's gonna be so good..." He finished the sentence silently to himself, "I'm gonna have your pants off within a half hour."

  Mary and Laurie had filled the recrod bin with their favorite platters. The record player rotated, spilling out contemporary rock tunes. Mary, with the help of a couple of eager boys, uncovered the swimming pool. The blue water glistened in the night air under the patio lights.

  Couples began dancing to the music on the patio. Inside the den, some boys had begun a game of pool and on the kitchen table a game of friendly poker was flourishing.  A little more than a dozen people were standing around the tables piled with food talking and joking.

  Mark Carson had approached Margaret Burbridge, and now he was waiting for her to return. She had been posing for photos, and had two or three pictures taken with her "lover".Now she had gone to talk to somebody. Mark looked at his watch, then walked around. He wondered why she was taking so long, but he had no need to worry. She wasn''t his girlfriend now - yet!

  Coming around to the party by the driveway with the large box filled with wine bottles, David escorted Diane up to the table with the remains of the cake. "Hey, gang, I'm here. An' I've got some of the good stuff." He deftly removed the rest of the bottles from the box and lined  them up on the table. Unscrewing the caps of three bottles of Strawberry Hill, he dumped the contents  into the gigantic punch bowl. "This is fer the chickens." The group around the table laughed. David saved some of the bottles for himself, and left the rest sitting on the table next to the cake. He and Diane wandered to a far corner of the yard, causing Jeff to move instinctively. He stared into the pool for a while, then walked back over to the table. He mechanically ate a slab of cake and sat down, mimicing Laurie's personality and trying to look happy.

  Laurie had been waylaid in the house, where a minor player in the production, Carl Anderson, had been talking to her about his interests. Laurie knew that boys should be more polite and not talk about themselves too much,  but even though she wasn't interested at all in his declarations she was not the kind of girl who walked out on anybody.

  She did walk out, sighing heavily, after he finished his harangue, and began to chat up some friends.

  Dave came up to her, a smile as big as a watermelon on his face. "Hey, Laurie, honey. Why don't you try some of this?" He produced a half finished bottle of soda pop wine.

  "No thank you , I'm not thirsty for your type of nourishment." There was some laughter. "However, I'll take some of my own concoction." There was even more laughter from around the table as Laurie began to ladle some of the punch into a cup. Laurie had no idea that the punch had been spiked. This was her first cast party, and although she expected a lot of fooling around, she thought the only liquor would be in bottles and cans.

  David Melrose snickered and returned to his corner of the yard with Diane. "Come on," she said quickly, "Let's go to a bedroom. The grass is cold and wet out here!"

  While waiting for Margaret, who had disappeared somewhere, Mark sauntered to the table and started drinking. He never particularly cared for wine, preferring beer when available, but so far the wine was the only liquor to be found at the party. He watched Kathy Shelby making an ass of herself dancing with some redheaded sonofabitch. Where the hell was Margaret anyway?

  He drowned the wine and reached for another bottle.

  Kathryn, meanwhile, was dancing, and enjoying herself. She had taken many dancing lessons in her youth, and knew every turn. Dancing to rock was much easier than ballet or tap.  As for her partner, she didn't even care who it was with whom she was dancing. She just hoped to impress someone. And maybe the someone she'd impress would be Mark Carson.

  The world spun around with each turn she made. Her ears were tuned to each drumbeat on the record. Her feet were light and her body nimble.

  Her partner, who had been trying to tell her he needed to go home,  suddenly stopped dancing. "Kathy, I -" He saw she had not stopped. Kathryn took her performances so seriously that nothing could interfere.

  "Kathryn!" She didn't seem to hear her partner. He repeated her name a bit louder, causing other teens to glance over. She suddenly stopped. She saw now that a lot of people were staring at her. She ran a hand through her dark brown hair, straightening it the best she could.

  "Kathy, I just wanted to say that I'm going." The small kid felt embarrassed under the stares, although he knew they weren't for him. "I'm going to go home now. But you were dancing like a -  well - good bye." He turned quickly and went to phone his parents.

  Mark wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and directed his gaze to where Kathryn stood, mouth open. "Serves the slut right. Showin' her body to anybody." Mark swallowed the last gulp of the bottle, and suddenly he wasn't thinking of his so-called love affair with Margaret, but of the girl he drove to the party. Kathryn went into the house. The record ended, and the group went back to their business of either dancing or mingling. The wine and the spiked punch began to loosen up the partygoers as the night wore on.

  TO BE CONTINUED.

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  NEWS and NOTES: There will probably be another two installments before this story is completed. I wasn't intending to post the second "chapter" so soon, but wanted to insert another entry before continuing, however I have transcribed and edited this part, so I'm posting it right away. Yesterday, our octanegerian CEO at work was afraid he might have lost his second home, a three bedroom house he calls his "cabin" in the residential area of Lake Arrowhead, to the Arrowhead Fire. He couldn't get through yesterday, and hasn't arrived at work yet to let us know the news. His son got word that the house two doors down had burned. We pray that Jack doesn't lose his cabin to the fire. He was planning on going up there this weekend. Over 70 homes were burned in the Arrowhead fire. Our Vice President left suddenly yesterday when she learned that one of the fires was closing in on her O.C. neighborhood. From the news: "By day three, the dozen wildfires had burned more than 700 homes and set 245,957 acres — 384 square miles — ablaze, and the destruction may only be the start for the region." In other news. I've been on Xanga for over three years, and only recently have been getting "spam" comments. Over the past two days, I have had to block and remove two comments. I didn't "report inappropriate content" on the blogs which generated the spam, because there wasn't any content on the blogs themselves. This is a sad turn of events on this service, which, for me at least, has been 'spam free". I hope this is an isolated trend and we don't begin to find our comment sections becoming resevoirs of spammed commenting. MFN/ppf

  • 8:49 am
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