And so it continued. Same old paths that I had cut through this new forest. Though a forest not quite so new to me any more I suppose I should say. Some dark trails that I knew well, for they offered a soft quiet green darkness for me to steal away to. There were tall trees and a thick dense canopy that filtered away most of the light from the outside and tinted everything a light watercolor green. It was so much unlike the places of my childhood. So unlike the broad sandy Piedmont. The Piedmont was all broad sandy grass planes, without so much wild life as little white cattle birds and stray dogs... small kittens that had wandered away from their mothers to find the same kind simple people three miles away at the next farm house. It wasn't like that here. There were secrets in this wood. And no simple domesticated animals.... There were monsters. Black faceless spirits that had taken human form. Convinced of god that they should bend you to their will and slowly bleach out your soul.
I dropped into the Sargent Art Building and tripped down the stairs to the computer labs to check my email. Totally exhausted from the beige drone of class and the repetitive motion that I had been forcing in practice. I would conquer McDowell. I would.
I had two or so hours to waste here, surfing the portions of the internet that hadn't been blocked by that clever VPN that everyone had to use on campus. I was looking forward to something like peace and quiet, and the white noise that the ever so economical and tasteless looking gray wall hugging a/c unites made.
Of course looking for this little bit of solace, I was bound to run into both of the problem women in my life. Christine was typing away, working on some composition project, trying no doubt to reproduce the work of Hayden. Meh. She wrinkled her nose a bit and smiled as i shluffed in and tossed my bag on the floor beside a work station. "Hey!" I exclaimed loudly in her direction... much to the annoyance of the other people in the lab who no doubt had real work to do there. Deadlines and all that business.
I had noticed that I had a tendency to think of this lab area as my personal home. As such I would spread out all my personal effects across two or so work stations. Slide a cd of banned pop music into the drive and blast pop synth beats through the headphones, and flip through three or so of my messy looking notebooks to give the appearance of performing some intelligent work. I doubt seriously looking back on those times that I was convincing anyone of anything.
"What are you workin on sugar pop?" I leaned over and asked Christine, two work stations to my left.
"Oh... I can't get Finale to use the score format I want.... I think I'm going to have to get Dr. Wilson to help me out. The Finale handbook is 7,892 pages long." She sighed with a sort of washed out look on her face that can only be the result of working for more than 3 hours in a fixed position in from of a computer screen.
Christine and I had a very similar sense of humor. We could spend hours being heinously vapid and making fun of whomever walked past us in social situations. For example:
ME: "I wonder if she knows how thick that panty-line is?"
CD: "Or.... that no one really wears panties anymore."
Enter Melodie. The lab was instantly flooded with a cloud of Bath and Body Work's 'Japanese Cherry Blossom'. Within seconds my eyes started to water, and twitch ever so slightly. Aaaaah. Melodie. I turned to watch her stomp into the room. Typical gushy floral dress. Typical stiletto sling backs. Boobs Boobs Boobs.
"Hi Joshy!.... Oh! Hi Christine!" She blithered and sat down at the work station in between us. I was always impressed with how very graceful she managed to be... her girth not withstanding. It mystified me.
At her effusive greeting I glanced over to notice how Christine did not reply, or offer any sign of recognition. I thought I noticed little ice crystals forming in the corner of her eyes.
"What are yooooou guys working on?" Melodie tossed her hair back and batted a lb of eyelash in my direction.
uhn. Why does she do this, I thought. She's a machine.
"Oh.... well. Sort of just vegging I guess. Not much of anything." I shrugged. Didn't she know we couldn't act friendly in front of Christine? Im sure C already thought we were screwing around in the practice rooms. Woof. I just honestly doubted that anyone would be able to maintain an erection when confronted with that much perfume.
"Do you know how to do a key change in one clef mid system?" Christine asked across Melodie, giving me a black look.
"I.... maybe?" I would have given anything to have an excuse to leave... I was just worried that blood would be spilled if I left.
I waddled past all of Melodies things to maneuver over to Christine's computer.
"Can't you just.... do this?" I made a few stabs at the mouse with my finger. Hmmmm. click. click. click....
A message popped up on the screen... (Click OK to delete project.)
"AAAAAAh! Stop! (gasp) Stop what you're doing right now!" Christine exclaimed. "Do not press another button!"
"Gaaaah!..... Im sorry!..." I said laughing a little. "I thought I knew how to do that...." Truth be told, the error message had just sounded so dire, that I was having a hard time taking the thing seriously.
"Just back you butt over into your seat!" Christine swatted me away...
At this point apparently Melodies military training kicked in.
"Oh! I can fix it!" She smiled with pleasure and rolled her chair over to Christines.... Grabbed the mouse and turned the computer screen towards herself. Oooh God. This is going to be bad, I thought.
Christine bristled, but didn't object.
"All... you... need to do..... is...... " (Pause.) BOOP! "And done!" Melodie looked as satisfied as if she had ended world hunger. "There ya go!... You might wanna make a few copies of the file and save them somewhere where Joshy cant get to them! haha!"
Silence blanketed the room.
Christine blinked for a few seconds, coming to grips with what was occurring here.
"Well, thanks.... Melodie..." She finally said. "Well.... guess I should run. I've got practice in ten. Bye Josh."
"Bye lovie...." I offered a consoling smile. "Sorry for almost ruining your life."
"(Giggle!) See ya Christine! Lemme know if you need any more help!" Melodie offered with a healthy smile and hair toss.
Christine did not reply to this offer... but quickly gather her things and left the room....
Moments after she left my phone buzzed with an incoming text message.
Christine Dodd: (She MUST be stopped.)
