THE DAY WAS A BIT COOL BUT THE SUN BOUNCING OFF OF ALL THE CARS PASSING BY MADE EVERYTHING SEEM MUCH HOTTER. ONE CAR, parked at the shoulder, was making several sputtering attempts to start again, to no avail. After several minutes it just ceased making any noise altogether, and a woman in a suit and sunglasses got out and opened the hood, looking at the mysteries shielded within.
"Should've taken auto mechanics instead of psychiatry," she said to herself, shaking her head. "Oh, well, Phillips was right. Phillips is always right." She slammed the hood and looked around. "Way out in the middle of the highway, too! I wonder if Charlevoix's always this busy or if these guys just drove up out of nowhere." She turned her head. Coming along was a jeep with the hood down, and it was slowing and pulling to the side. [Note--I think I meant "with the top down." Whatever they call that thing.] The woman saw a hood ornament of a silver, stylized arrow and nearly smiled, thinking of the irony. The jeep pulled up and the driver--a man with a long brown ponytail, Army boots, and a trench coat--tipped his wide-brimmed hat.
"It looks like you got a problem," he called over the noise of his own engine.
"It looks that way," the woman replied.
The man turned off his engine and got out, going around to the front of her car. He looked around for just a second or two, then shook his head. "Engine's dead. But that's kinda obvious. Any idiot could tell you that." He looked at it a moment more, then the woman noticed he was staring ahead as if he had just realized something. He put a hand to his eyes. "Not again." He turned to her. "Look, I mean, if you didn't understand, you're not really an idiot, I just meant that--well, it seems--"
The woman shook her head with a laugh. "No need to apologize. I know what you mean."
"Whew!" the man replied, momentarily taking off his hat and wiping his brow. "Would you like a ride? I was just on my way to the university. It's not that far away from here--just across from the power plant."
"I was headed that way myself," the woman replied. She held out her hand. "Katheryn White, M. D.. I hate the name Katheryn so call me Katie."
"M. D.?" the man asked. "You a doctor?"
"Psychiatrist." [Note--I don't think psychiatrists' names are followed by "MD." Didn't know that back then.]
"Ohh! A shrink!" The man removed his hat again and shook her hand. "Yoopy Irvins, from da U. P.." [Note--double period. Yoopy is from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The informal name for people from up there is "Yoopers" (UP--get it?). The stereotypical Yooper talks like a stereotypical Canadian. Eh? This is also how I gave my character Yoopy his name--it came from an album by the novelty group Da Yoopers, which I think was called Yoopy Do Wah. Rather obvious, I know.]
Katie laughed. "Well, I suppose we should get going," she said.
"Sure thing," Yoopy replied, getting back into the jeep. Katie entered on the passenger side and slammed the door shut. A moment later the jeep had started up and driven off.
"So, what brings you here?" Yoopy asked conversationally. "I mean, there's not really that much to--to, well--well, to do whatever it is that you people do."
"I'm working on a report for a psychiatric journal," Katie replied. "The supposed effects of the belief in astrology on human behavior."
"Astrology!" Yoopy exclaimed. "I know someone you'd love to meet--can you guess what I am?"
"Let me see." Katie put a finger to her chin and studied him thoughtfully, though in truth she was almost entirely certain of what he was already. "You're Sagittarius--born in mid-December."
"Wow!" Yoopy said, amazed. "December 13--how the heck did you know that?"
"Quite easily, really," Katie said. "Number one, the arrow on your hood--I've never seen that on a car before so I figured it must be personalized, and who else would want an arrow except someone who either likes hunting a lot or was born under the Archer? And number two, you kept mixing up things when you talked, making insults when you didn't mean to. Sagittarians have a way of putting their foot in their mouth."
"Ain't that gee-golly dandy!" Yoopy said, shaking his head. [Note--Yoopy does NOT talk that weird; he's just being funny, here.] "You'd just love to meet up with this lady I know--here we are!" He pulled into the long driveway of Little Rock University across from the Big Rock nuclear power plant. "Hey, you wanna study the effects of astrology on people's behavior? This would be the perfect place. There's this lady, her name's Psyche, she's really the one who started it all but it's caught on--Zodiac Week. She gets really deep and weird at times and she's kinda hard to understand, but heck, I know you two would get along just fine." He obviously didn't notice this slip, for he continued driving without apologizing. However, Katie understood and said nothing. The jeep pulled in in front of the college building, a small but rather imposing-looking stone edifice with twin pegasus statues flanking the doors. Yoopy got out and nearly ran to the other side of the vehicle, quickly opening Katie's door and bowing dramatically. "After you," he said.
Katie smiled and climbed out, straightening her skirt and looking around. Yoopy slammed the door and proceeded on into the building. He stopped in the doorway to see that she was coming, then continued on inside.
They found themselves in a large room--obviously a gymnasium--with a stage and bleachers. [Note--LRU's layout seemed to change according to what school I was currently attending. Entering immediately into the gym sounds like my junior high. I obviously didn't write this story in junior high, but parts of the college were based on parts of schools I went to. I can't remember the last layout map I drew of LRU but I don't recall the gym being the first room someone entered. I assume it would be a hall near the office instead.] Several people were setting up what appeared to be a sort of background for something. Katie noted the decorations--the backdrop was completely black, save for a big O with what appeared to be an arrow sticking out of it--the sign for Mars or, as it was more commonly known, for the male. Intrigued, Katie walked around the set, examining the speakers and instruments the students were setting up.
"Having one of your Zodiac Weeks now?" she asked.
Yoopy shook his head. "This is for a dance--or concert--or maybe a bit of both. So maybe you could call it a cance, or a doncert." He howled with laughter at this silly joke.
"Then what's this male sign here?"
"You mean that?" Yoopy asked, indicating the giant red Mars symbol. "That's kinda what you'd call Ozzy's trademark."
Katie turned to him. "Ozzy?"
"Oh, yeah! You two haven't met yet!" Yoopy suddenly realized. "I mean Oswald Lewis, but no one calls him Oswald. At least I've never heard anyone call him that. He's a student here, from around Boston--leader of the soccer team and one of our best wrestlers. He's also a pretty darn good singer. [Note--early on in my writing, Ozzy was meant to be lead singer of a band called "Atlantis." After that, he joined Damien's band Radioactive. In my current line of events, he's probably just been a member of Radioactive and Atlantis likely never existed.] You see, there's this necklace he's got, Psyche gave it to him a long time ago--they came here together from Massachusetts--and he wears the thing all the time. It looks just like that. So naturally everybody noticed this, so he made it his trademark as you might call it--something people all over campus can look at and say, 'Oh that, that's Ozzy's.'" He looked around the gym. "Well, I gotta go now. Somewhere there's a quiche with my name on it." He tipped his hat with a broad grin. "Hope you can get your car working. This is a weird place but you could probably fit right in with all these wackos. See you later!" He turned and walked away, exiting through a side entrance to the gym. Katie shook her head with a smile at his rather glaring slip-up, but again said nothing about it, instead slowly circling the room, looking around at nothing in particular. She stopped to read the sports records on the wall behind the basketball hoops. The name Oswald O. Lewis was painted there at least four times for everyone to see. [Note--the "O." stands for "Octavian."] Obviously quite the sportsman. Katie read his records, one for wrestling, another for soccer, a third for swimming, and the last for hockey, when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around.
Behind her stood a tall young man, his sandy blond hair pulled back into a short ponytail, smiling at her with his pale gray eyes. [Note--Ozzy's physical description was based on an older student I saw only from afar in my high school, named Bart Something-Or-Other. Psyche, who appears shortly, was also based on a high school student I never met. She was a teacher's assistant in one of my classes; can't remember her name though.] He had been leaning forward, as if reading over her shoulder, and now leaned back with a real smile. There was a sort of wicked look in his eyes, as if he were playing some incredible joke.
"Whatcha readin' up there?" he asked, gazing up at the board.
"Sports records," Katie replied, then, as that seemed kind of obvious, "This Lewis person seems to really be into sports."
"Singing, too."
Katie looked back at him. The man shrugged. "Oh, anyone can tell you that. He's a singer. Then again, who around here isn't?" He yawned with a sort of bored look, then turned to walk away. "Come on over to the concert tonight. Maybe you'll meet him."
Katie watched the man leave, wondering who he was. Undoubtedly a fire sign, her acute astrologer's mind thought. Leo, perhaps. Or Aries. Yes, that was it. Definitely Aries. [Note--hence the Mars sign. No, Ozzy's not into men, he's just born under Mars.] She herself turned, and left the gym.
The alarm clock went off with a shrill ringing. From somewhere beneath the sheets, a hand reached out and knocked it silent again. For a moment nothing more happened. Then, as if finally hearing the clock for what it was, the hand came out again, accompanied by another, and together they pulled the sheet down as the bed's occupant sat up with a huge yawn. Damien rubbed his eyes groggily and looked around the room, took a moment or two to figure out that he had been napping, and got out of bed. He stumbled to the door and opened it to go out, only to nearly run into a young blond woman just about to knock. She let out a small yelp and he did the same. Then he sighed and put his hand over his eyes, leaning against the door casing.
"Psyche, what the heck are you doing?" Damien asked.
"Coming to wake you up," Psyche Cooper replied, putting down her hand. "Where've you been all day? Sleeping. What kind of a pastime is that? There's at the very least seven people asking around for you right now. And that's nothing compared to how many were looking around earlier."
"Let them ask," Damien snorted, retreating back into the relative quietness of his dorm room. "Let them look around. Let them eat cake. I don't care. I just want to take a little nap in peace and quiet, and that's what I'm gonna do."
"But you were just waking up," Psyche said, following him in. "At least you were until I showed up. But don't let me deter you; just go on and take your little nap. You won't even know I'm here."
"Heck, I can't sleep with awake people around!" Damien whined.
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