Of Danny's friends and the sight in the woods
THE SCHOOL HALLS were full of turmoil as the students rushed around, putting on costumes and makeup and shouting orders. They were practicing for their presentation called Dante's Inferno. They called themselves the Roman Angels, after their school, Skyte Roman High. [Note--no clue on where I got that name.] No one was in the gym yet; they were in the halls, of course.
"You'd play the part of Virgil the best, Danny," Danny Alighieri's friend, Tony Ross, said. "You'd do much better than Ray there." He pointed at Ray Hanson, who was already in his angel outfit and was repeating his lines.
"Naw," Danny said, noting jealously that Ray was saying hello very politely to his girlfriend, Beatrice Clark. [Note--ZOMG I am so subtle! Bow before my subtleness!] "I'd look like an idiot in an angel costume. Who believes in angels anyway?"
"Who knows?" Tony said. "They might exist somewhere." He left.
Danny's other friend, Leslie Hanover, leaned against the wall in front of Ray, completely ignoring him. He had a knack of frustrating people, and this was good since he was on close terms with Danny. [Note--should probably be "knack for," but it's not really a "sic" so...]
"Would you mind listening to me perform?" Ray asked.
Leslie cast a disinterested glance at Ray. "Oh, didn't notice you," he said. "By the way, cute outfit. You a little Christmas angel?"
"It's spring," Ray fumed. "And I'm Virgil, the famous poet."
"Cuuuute, Virgil."
Ray turned bright red and exclaimed, "There's my cue!" Danny watched him leave and then entered himself. Seven angels were on stage singing Mony Mony. [Note--should be in quotes, not italics. Not even mentioning just how stupid it is.] Danny thought the play was going to be a bomb, even if Dante was his great, great, great, great, even greater-grandfather. Who wanted to dress up like a girl with wings and a ring over his head? Not Danny! He exited the building and started down the sidewalk. He stopped at a sign and read it.
[Illustration: Danny, with a book marked "Algebra I" under his arm, glaring at a sign which reads, "Come See the School's Presentation of 'DANTE'S INFERNO'--The Divine Comedy."]
"What made you so famous?" Danny asked the sign. He walked on and kicked a stone. It was beginning to get dark and cold, so he decided to take a short cut [sic] through the woods. But along the way he found himself hopelessly lost. Hearing a shuffling in the woods, he turned and saw his pet spinoni [sic], Chuffy Boy, working his way towards him. [Note--a Spinone is an Italian breed of dog. I had a couple of big dog books and was very interested in them, once even teaching myself to recognize all American breeds. Unfortunately, I should have familiarized myself with the fact that Spinone is the SINGULAR and Spinoni is the PLURAL! I only just found this out while double-checking my text for upload. I think my dog book misinformed me...]
"Chuffy!" Danny exclaimed. [Note--the name has no meaning; I just came up with it out of nowhere. Like most of my writing back then, I guess.] "Are you lost too?"
Chuffy nodded and whimpered.
"Don't worry, ol' boy. There's a full moon tonight and we'll find our way home."
He sat down and rubbed Chuffy's long, floppy ears. He must have dozed off, because next he knew, it was dark, cold, and someone was tapping him on the shoulder.
"Huh?" Danny asked, turning and looking up.
"Are you okay?" said a strange dog next to him. [Note--take note again that all my early writings were "furry"--with anthropomorphic animals (you could see this in D Is For Damien and The Great Shriner Caper, with their references to tails and such)--hence Danny here is a dog himself. The difference between him and his pet is that Chuffy is not anthropomorphic. Kind of like Mickey Mouse having the doglike Goofy as a friend, even while he has a pet dog named Pluto.] But there was something familiar about him. He wore a long, white robe, sandals, and a laurel crown on his head, definitely reminiscent of Roman times. Plus there was a glowing halo around his head. Danny thought he looked like, sort of, but--no, it couldn't be!
He looked just like the statue of Virgil at the school!
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