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#Post#: 25--------------------------------------------------
Late Night -- Two Takes
DIR By: StoryGod
Date: November 30, 2019, 5:56 pm
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Zia had begged Miella for an ironing board and now went to work
killing her gray skirt with an iron that went kush-kush, while
she hummed. Marion decided Zia's humming with the prettiest
humming she'd heard in a long while, maybe forever.
Marion lay on her bed belly down. It was in-building curfew for
the next hour, and then suite curfew for the next hour and
then... Saturday night was slowly winding down. Marion thought
of the line dancing to dopey music. It was an advertisement for
line dancing lessons and it was an epic fail. There were dumb
adults everywhere, Marion mused.
Marion realized she should have picked up some reading material
at the browsing library, but she had spent her time listening to
dumb song lyrics and watching the dancers. According to Miella
and other Suite Advisors, she needed to select an activity for
tomorrow morning with the app, and then another activity for the
afternoon if tomorrow's activity did not go all day, oherwise,
she would be in study hall with nothing to study, except perhaps
the Sunday Times if she was lucky enough to beg a library pass
and if the library was open.
Marion went over the activity list again. There were over a
dozen choices. Some like Christian church services were out of
the question. Zia, was getting her skirt ready for church. Since
she wasn't a Baptist, she decided to give liberal Protestant
services a try. Koosh-koosh went the iron as Zia flipped her
skirt. Zia glanced up at the ceiling and stopped humming. She
seemed to be in an invisible conversation with somebody.
Marion minimized the app and texted her mother. She hoped Mom
was not busy partying or stoned, or that more realistically,
since she was in a sober home, that she was not under curfew.
"Mom, what should I do tomorrow? There are all kinds of
activities.Can use your advice."
Marion went back to looking at the activities, and then her
phone played marimba, a signal for a text from Mom. "Try to get
down to the City," Mom replied. "Thank you," Marion texted
back.
That made things easy. There were still four places open for a
trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That was in the City,
and it seemed like a great opportunity, perfect for the Sunday
before Labor Day. Marion did not care that the description said
MUST PROVIDE OWN LUNCH. She had cash, and there was nothing
much at the moment she wanted to buy. If the Suite Advisors or
teachers or whomever chose a restaurant that was too expensive,
she could always order a Coke.
Zia was humming again. Since Marion wanted to hear it and didn't
want to make Zia, the roommate self conscious, she lay perfectly
still on the bed pretending to fiddle with her phone. Up and
down Zia's song went, and then silence. Zia put her skirt over
the back of her chair. She had turned off the iron and was
trying to fold up the board.
"Do you need a pants hanger," Marion found herself asking.
"No..."
"For the skirt you just ironed."
"Oh..."
"It just clips the skirt at the top and then it hangs down. I
have a couple of extras."
"Thank you, Marion." Marion handed her roommate a pants hanger.
"What are you doing tomorrow?" Zia asked her.
"Going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There are still places
left. Want to come?"
"I can't. I have church in the morning and then I have to tell
them I can't swim."
"You can't?"
"Not well enough to pass the swim test. I may as well get that
over with."
"What about the rest of the day?"
"I have to pick something else out don't I?" Zia sighed and then
opened her lap top. In the end, she decided on a walking tour of
Central Avenue. There were several of these and she signed up
for the tour at 3pm so she would have the swimming test done.
"I'll miss you at the museum," Marion told her.
"Really? We hardly know each other."
"What does that mean?"
"What it means. I only saw you the first time less than twelve
hours ago."
"True... but the Met is sweet."
"Yes, but I have stuff to do. We'll meet for supper, hopefully."
"Deal..." Marion replied.
#Post#: 108--------------------------------------------------
Re: Late Night -- Two Takes
DIR By: StoryGod
Date: January 5, 2020, 9:49 pm
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Marion decided she hated the nights after quiet hours worst of
all. The inability to text her mother was a gaping hole. There
was just no other way to describe it. During the day, and even
well into the evening, Marion could keep herself busy, and soon
when school work became too much or too dull, she'd be scraping
silk screen wax.
"You want to come with me to a meeting tomorrow for Junior
Achievement?" asked Zia from a happy planet where she chatted
with her mother in Kikuyu. Actually, the chats did not sound all
that happy, but they had to be better than being totally cut
off. Also, like most kids, Zia's mother worried about her not
vice versa.
"It's that business club isn't it?" Marion landed carefully on
Planet Zia.
"Business makes the world go round."
"I thought having a job did that and going to school."
"Yeah, but you have to know how business works, and they teach
that."
"I was thinking of going to the Environment Club meeting."
"And what do they do..."
"Plan about reducing our carbon footprint and work for global
warming regulations."
"Your President won't listen."
"Congress can override him."
"And then what. Who do you think pays for the Congress people."
"If the voters don't elect them, they're out of work."
"If you say so."
"Look, I'm more interested in the environment than business."
"OK...OK..."
"You should have seen some of the harbors where we docked. My
dad always..." "When Dad was not stoned," Marion added as she
usually did, but then she remembered the Ship was gone. Even if
the trial ended and she spent summer with her parents, they
would be on land and unable to be laws to themselves. The Ship
had been seized, and those no good fucks, Judith and Niles had
no interest in seeing her parents got it back. It was over. It
really was over. Marion's face hurt.
"Are you OK," came a communication from Planet Zia.
Marion buried her face in the pillow.
"Oh shit. I'm sorry, Marion."
"You're not and it doesn't matter. It's not your fault. My whole
family got a really raw deal."
#Post#: 110--------------------------------------------------
Re: Late Night -- Two Takes
DIR By: StoryGod
Date: January 5, 2020, 10:27 pm
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Zia lay with her phone under the covers. Marion was no longer
sobbing so she must be asleep. Zia wondered whom Marion's
parents had offended to get in trouble. It seemed so impossible
that the kind of parents who would send a kid to respectable
boarding school like Kotiah-Yovanovitch would end up arrested.
Marion had said something about a sober home, but Zia could not
believe her roommate's parents did drugs.
Zia thought about her mother and opened the Kotiah-Yovanovitch
app. There were Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic students who
worshiped off campus. There was even a group that went to a
Spanish language mass, but nothing of the kind of church Zia's
mother wanted. Zia felt a twinge of relief.
Then she checked the app again. There were of course several
Protestant services that met on campus every weekend. The
Liberal Protestant service with the boy who had a French
manicure was just one of them. The others were Society of
Friends, which Zia was unsure about, and the third was Cru which
was short for what was once Campus Crusade for Christ. This was
closer to a typical African Church, though the proper word for
this form of Christianity was Evangelical.
"No!" thought an angry Zia. Evangelicals had been behind passing
those barbaric laws in Uganda. Zia had no desire to be part of a
religion that hurt people, even if the kids in the local Cru
chapter had no idea where Uganda was on map. "I know so that
would make me culpable." Zia wondered if she could give her
mother a little white lie. From several thousand kilometers
away, she could probably get away with it.On the other, hand,
she generally preferred honesty as a rule. Sunday was still
several days away. She'd figure something out she told herself.
"When I'm an adult and have to put in an appearance at a
conservative service, for the sake of keeping the peace, I shall
do so, but I don't have to do that here."
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