Cherub

New and wonderful places are not always far away. Sometimes they’re just a twist of fate or a few syllables out of reach. We had entered a new and wonderful place that night. I was holding a grease soaked doggie bag we had gotten from a diner as I watched Kristofferson speak animatedly into the receiver of a pay phone just across the street. After attempting to find a decent room for the night and failing miserably due to steep prices and the blatant unsavory nature of some of the places, we ended up completely defeated with no temporary roof over our heads that night which leads us to the nature of this phone call. Kristofferson had contacted an old friend from high school who had now been staying in the city working as a musician in hopes that he would be able to provide us with a place to rest our heads and feet that had been sore from the time we had spent walking on broken cobblestones.

Soon after he hung up the phone looking completely dejected. “Oh no, he said no?” I probably looked completely terrified and to be truthful I was as I thought of the possibility of sleeping In the Dodge. Kristofferson shook his head. “No, worse, he said yes.” We began to walk the way of the trolley that a nice redhead waitress had been so kind to direct us to. I was completely puzzled by his answer. “Worse? I thought you were friends?” He smiled a strange uncomfortable smile (it was more of a grimace really) and shook his head again. “Well, I suppose a more accurate description would be frienemies. You see, me and Ed were, are friends I suppose. The thing is we’re both pretty damn competitive. Back in school we used to turn anything into a competition. I mean anything! Sports, music, girls, everything was a competition and it wasn’t always pretty. Why, once in gym we were determined to see who could spend the longest time underwater and sure enough, Ed almost drowned trying to beat me out!” He laughed so loud that his laughter echoed through the small square we had been walking through. There had been a few people sitting at small candle lit tables getting their palms read and they all turned to look at him with the same irritated look on their faces. The combined candlelight made it just bright enough for me to see the crinkles next to his eyes. “You should have seen his face when he came to and discovered he had just locked lips with our gym teacher, Mr. Beecher!” That made me laugh just as hard as he did, earning my own annoyed glances. “It seems like you have at least some fond memories of him as a friend.” His face once again held that strange smile. “Yeah, that’s true but I must say, the last it definitely wasn’t all fun ‘n games with us.”

We continued to walk. Our footsteps clacked sharp and white against the cobblestones and we ventured further and further away from the cobalt whispers of other night strollers and the few believers who had been putting their faith in the power of the mystic. I had been far from understanding this complicated friendship but of course I hadn’t had much experience in the matter. “Anyway, we’re both a bit older now and I’m sure we’re both a little bit more mature than we were back then, or at least I am.” I hoped so. I didn’t want anything to mar what was the most exciting bit of life I had ever had the joy of experiencing. “Alright, little gal, we’ve got a few more blocks and theeen, we’ve just gotta wait for the streetcar.” I could tell that we were coming to a busier street. I squealed with excitement and I grabbed onto Kristofferson’s freckled arm. “I’m so excited! My first time in a streetcar!” I released my grip on his arm and began to run towards what appeared to be the brightly lit main street and he ran after me laughing and calling to me. The groups of people strolling the streets enjoying the night air and the overabundance of booze at their fingertips parted in front of us and we dodged the others. I heard bits of bright yellow laughter from a heavily intoxicated group of businessmen, the deep bronzy snippets of a ranting bum and the warm caramel rumble of the patrons of the many bars lining the road. Usually I would have been overwhelmed by so much noise but I couldn’t help but feel alive running through the streets like that, experiencing every color, smell, sight and sound and I cherished it. Every sensation became precious.

“Haha, hurry up you slow poke!” “Well clever little miss! I’d say you do best to do some slowin’. You’ve got no idea what do once we get there!” I didn’t drop my pace and laughed loudly into the moist night air as Kristofferson continued to chase me down the bustling street. Slowly, but surely the noise around us began to grow louder. I must have stopped on a dime. We had reaches a very large, very lively main street. There were bright lights and so many people and so many sounds. There were people walking in every direction, making all sorts of noises. There were cars and music and footsteps. They all fought for my attention and somehow they all won. I had been so afraid standing there amongst so much color that I instantly clamped my hands over my ears. I had been so stunned that I didn’t even notice Kristofferson standing behind me. Suddenly I felt two hands on my shoulders. I turned and our eyes met and suddenly I was breathless. Kristofferson’s eyes were bright with excitement just as mine had been and his face held no trace of pink despite the fact that we had ran a few blocks. I was awakened out of my stupor of sound and sight. I slowly lifted my hands off of my ears in attempt to adjust to the apparent over-stimulation and he spoke. “And now we wait.”