Tin Universe Monthly #6

by Brian C. Williams

  The art teacher Ms. Dry was talking to the golf coach Mr. Gibbons. A “the” and a “the” that don’t really match up, art and golf don’t normally go mutually together. Sort of like putting golf and sport together in the same sentence.

  Ms. Dry and Mr. Gibbons were talking about how they wish they had stayed at their old positions at their former schools, even though the money at F.K.H.S. was splendid (who says splendid?), their former principal was a bigger ass than Carol and that was bonding and sharing.

  Mr. Gibbons was in his lines of sharing in whole lying. His last boss was an ass in every meaning of the world they were using but the topic of him teaching at another school is total fabrication and will be an afterthought of sorts at the end of this book.

  All over things were happening, not happening, and ready to happen (can you tell I’m writing late on Oxycodone?)….Some of these things are happening with students from F.K.H.S. rival school Blind River High or B.R.H.S. if you must, crashing the dance….see all up to Oxycodone…

  A few football players from F.K.H.S. and a few from B.R.H.S. took off down to the football field for some late night roughhouse football for bragging rights. Better than switchblades and music numbers I guess?

  Karen and Gail walked into the gymnasium wearing matching vintage 1950’s dresses. Gail wanted to run into the middle of the half paying attention crowd singing, “Amok, amok, amok.” but her idea was shot down.

  She did love the vintage dress ideas though. Vintage being Karen’s favored fashion choice and would be her everyday wear if not for the cost of shopping for the like online.

  Both sisters had visited a beauty school friend of Karen’s just before heading to the dance and were each ornamented in new hair styles. Karen was decked out in an Eye Blind haircut which is cut at the shoulders and has bangs that go down to the bridge of the nose, hard to see? Yes, but also a very smart look. Little sis was garlanded in a F. Scott Zelda hair approach with its really short cut and sharp wing like bangs.

  I may hit you with a little more description than usual in this chapter. Don’t mistake it for talent or anything.

  Following in soon after Karen and Gail was Jeff and Fox arm in arm with Fox wearing a replica of a Victorian era prostitutes dress, black trimmed in crimson red, and Jeff was wearing black pinstripe dress pants, a black O.L.P. t-shirt, and a gray vest. Neither had shoes on of any kind and Karen had noted this being, “Jeff dressed up.” Before they all left the home of Karen’s hairdresser friend.

  The friends name is Foster Hill, the beauty school student friend, and there goes another name I have to remember.

  Joanna only to herself, ‘Look Karen Busiek and her pawn shop friends just walked in.’

  Such a simple statement layered with such venom that all those sitting at her table could taste it.

  Standing to one side of the gym was a television news crew setting up to do a story on the rare book Joanna arranged to be displayed here during the dance.

  A technician slash assistant, a camera man, and a Ken dolls haircut with a pocket dictionary were setting up and looking around wondering if their jobs have anything to do with journalism.

  Karen noticed the news crew, ‘How did she swing the news coverage?’

  ‘She has her prodnose in everything,’ Gail.

  Everyone gives the youngest of their group a confused look.

  ‘Her family has a boodle or two,’ More looks, ‘Money people, money,’ Gail.

  Everyone nodded their heads in understanding.

  Gail, ‘It seems Joanna’s father was able to set up a showing of a Gutenberg Bible tonight to draw attention to the dance and the fine young lady who worked very hard to arrange it all.’

  ‘The woman should work in P.R.’ Jeff

  ‘Beneath her, like the Queen Mother wacking off one of The Deputy Masters Of The Household,’ Karen

  ‘Hey, British stuff is my thing. And on that front I need the W.C.’ Gail

  ‘Really getting tired of your British Stuff.’ Karen

  ‘I need a pee.’ Gail

  Karen and Gail walked away in the direction of a snack table without leave or word leaving Fox and Jeff standing by the entrance doors. Actually they did tell them where they were heading but Fox and Jeff were distracted with each other.

  Karen, ‘You get to piss only after I get something with cheese.’

  ‘It’s always cheese, cheese, cheese with you.’

  Jeff pinched Fox’s arm, ‘Would you like something to drink my lady?’

  Fox scratches her head, ‘Quite thirsty here I think.’

  They smiled at each other sensing the shared, but for now ignored, sexual tension and headed to the refreshments table to get in line; which was a long line that will give them plenty of time for talking.

  Jeff, ‘Last night I was watching Bleak H…’

  ‘You know I want to make a bet. I bet you, you Jeff The Stud, that you can’t have a conversation more than a few sentences long without some sort of pop culture reference?’

  ‘Boring you am I?’ He smiles in a way most anyone, anyone including her would like.

  ‘No, just wanting to get to know you beyond Blake’s 7 references. Too much of anything besides stream lined human interaction is bad for the soul.’

  ‘I’m not going to ask what that actually meant. What do you want to know about me as we wait for bad tasting punch worthy of kings?’

  ‘From what I remember you were raised by a cousin?’

  ‘Yep, my father died before he even knew I was going to be born and my mother giving birth to me. I never knew them but they never knew me either.’

  ‘Sorry.’

  Jeff shrugged his shoulders, ‘If there are pointless deaths, there have to also be pointless lives, and frankly I don’t like that thought. I never knew what it was like to have parents. My cousin Ester was my guardian but she was batty as a loon and I mostly raised myself. When I turned 16 I got a job and when I was 18 with my savings I moved out to live on my own.’

  ‘And what about your cousin?’

  ‘Died a few years ago in a mental hospital in Virginia where our family is from. I was the only surviving member of our family line so I inherited her money and house.’

  ‘No sixth cousins twice removed?’

  ‘Nope, I’m not the black sheep of the family I’m the only sheep in the flock left. Not having family has its positions. At a forensics speech competition I did a comedy routine with my friend Ernie. He was Anne Frank and I was Hitler. If I had had any family I would’ve had to go home to yelling afterwards.’

  ‘How’d that go over?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘The routine?’

  ‘Oh, we had to home school for two years and neither of us will ever get any free hotdogs at any local church membership drives which is a shame since that’s how I got my car. The Wailing Wall is probably off limits also.’

  ‘How’d the routine actually go?’

  ‘You really want to hear it?’

  ‘Why not, my souls already corrupted and this lines getting us nowhere.’

  ‘First I have to warn you we both were high on his mother’s valium.’

  ‘Dually noted.’

  ‘Ernie walked onto stage as Anne-“Mr. Hitler I don’t need your trains to remind me I’m Jewish.” Hitler-“Oh climb into an oven and shut up.” Anne-“If you go to Jerusalem may a gang of Israeli folk singers kick your ass.” Hitler-“Why so hostile?” Anne-“Hello I had to keep an emo diary because of you. That’s how history is going to remember me. You read that diary by this emo Jew, wonder if she ever even got fingered” Hitler-“I try to be a good exterminator and all I get is…”

  Jeff stopped and gave an angelically evil grin.

  ‘And?’

  ‘A mob gathered like a Simpson’s episode and charged the stage.’

  ‘You’re not complex, you’re confusing, and that was a pop culture reference.’

  ‘So was Anne Frank. She’s on t-shirts the same as Chec Deviro.
The name and image has gone beyond any meaning.’

  ‘That cousin of yours?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘The one who went nutty?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Did she do Nazi and Jew comedy routines also?’

  ‘Don’t worry if you like me tonight, I’ll piss you off tomorrow. The reverse is the same also.’

  ‘Good to know, keep me on my toes.’

  Fox smiled and she likes how he makes her smile with his own insanity. That makes her feel normal.

  ‘But enough about Jeff, tell me about you Ms. Stud Fox?’

  ‘You know all of my families dirty little non-secrets.’

  ‘But I don’t. I think there is always more to add to the story to any single person’s life. Please add.’

  He’s a fan of hers also.

  ‘Well, here’s a bit no one around here knows…’

  And within that comes a dialogue interruption as over thirty people dressed all in various diverse sorts of black outfits each with masks burst into the gymnasium through different entrances, including the stage exit to the dumpsters door.

  These dance invaders moved with military precision and knew exactly where they were headed and where each item sought in the room was to be found. The whole operation was as if someone with a quantity of intelligence had planned it out.

  Lisa stands up and in actions that in retrospect would surprise some people she swiftly approaches one of the intruders but she is unceremoniously sent off the stage with a sickening slap against the side of her head and as she came in contact with the wooden floors below the stage with an even more sickening sound the whole gym went silent.

  Pick up a fat baby, toss it into the air, and think about anything else for a few seconds and you will get the feel of the sound Lisa impacting against the gym floor made.

  Before any teacher or tall older person could react to these masked intruders all of them were hunted by the trespassers, spotted, targeted, and beat down by them with collapsible night sticks they pulled out from their black outfits.

  One of the intruders, the very one who punked out Lisa, took the stage microphone in hand as casually as a singer walking up to the mike at the beginning of a concert. A mechanically manipulated female voice came through the speakers, ‘As the saying goes, no heroes and no one else has to be hurt. We are here tonight to introduce ourselves to the young Oracle back from Daniel’s sleep. The rest of you can just think of this as a bad trip, to her we introduce ourselves as we are The Tefnut.’

  Paul Hunt jumps up from the table with flashes of bad action films dancing in his head, Joanna rolls her eyes at this, and he charges the intruder on the stage and said intruder drops him with a straight right hook to the face.

  FOOTBALL PLAYER DOWN! FOOTBALL PLAYER DOWN!

  The mic she dropped to…well, drop Paul is serenely picked back up by her for some last words, ‘Watch for our tests young one. It’s going to be interesting seeing if you’re the real thing or not. I am so good at the bad soap opera stuff.’

  Then just as quickly as they entered the intruders exited rushing out the ways they came in leaving a gymnasium full of people wondering if they will ever find out whether someone spiked the fruit punch or there could have been a gas leak.

  Students were checking on teachers and pulling out cell phones for calls, photos, texts, and blog postings. The news crew who filmed everything are making calls themselves and starting incident interviews with people. Now this is how a new school makes its mark. Forget the winning state championships in any sports or being an “A” school. A little violence around banners with polar bears and everyone knows your school initials and fight song.

  Karen and Gail were helping Lisa up. Her arm was so severely broken. Her forearm bone had ripped through the skin and she was dizzy from what was probably a concussion and sick to the sight of seeing the state her arm was in.

  It wasn’t doing much for Gail’s stomach either.

  Karen turned around and looked up to see Joanna looking down from the stage with a very dissatisfied look on her face. Karen gave her a look that could kill and turned back to help her sister with Lisa who had now passed out and was bleeding all over Gail.

  Gail, ‘Now I will never forget my first dance. All we need is a little up’see, down’see and it will be memory book time for this night.’

  ‘Stop being Ms. Unrealistic dialogue and help me get her into a chair.’

  While all of that was going on Fox and Jeff had chased after two of the intruders. Not the normal action for either one of them, well, not the normal action for Jeff, while not a practicing turn the other cheek sort of guy, he wasn’t prone to punch ups that often either…unless he needed to.

  Anyone who has ever been in a school at night knows how creepy it can be. Fox has always compared it to the feeling you get when walking alone through a cemetery at the pitch of night. You have a familiarity with the place, you have felt safe in the place, but you also know of all the places where creepy things may crawl or stalk. Too many running off with those older than her for late night snogging sessions in locked up schools has her experienced in the subject.

  She chased one of the masked intruders into the main school building. Not an easy feat in a Victorian dress and bare feet, though it is a Victorian prostitutes dress, probably made for a lot of running.

  Fox walked by a bathroom but didn’t hear any sign of what was going on inside; which is really unusual considering how she is trying to get a hint of any sign of anyone, though no one noticing him seems to be the curse for the young man inside this girl’s bathroom.

  While all the action was taking place Albert Wallander was trying to survive his first time ever using hard drugs. He was staggering around the bathroom scared keeping his feet only by leaning against walls, heating unit, and sinks. He thought taking the drugs would help him get over his nervousness going to the dance, but right now his heart is beating so fast it hurts and he is sweating as if in a room with the temp turned up to 200.

  He got the drugs from his father’s bedroom but didn’t know what they were. He just took a couple of the pills his father had in a sandwich bag and began walking to the dance. But before he could even get near the gym he started getting dizzy and made his way inside the classroom building and to the nearest bathroom where he has been freaking out for the past 30 minutes.

  Albert fell into one of the stalls and his face hit the toilet paper dispenser which broke his nose. The impact caused him to throw up all over himself and the stall floor. His hands were shaking and he was starting to see things as he scooped up two hand fulls of sick and while on his knees began to rub it all over his face, he threw up again and started thrashing with his arms and legs with fierce violence hitting everything in the stall which was braking parts of his body but he would not be feeling anything for days.

  That is if he survived this alone without anyone to see his plight.

  Fox is checking out a chemistry room and thinking about why recalling too many episodes of Buffy may not be that good to her piece of mind during this situation.

  A voice comes out of the dark like in a bad B-movie, ‘You have no idea who you are chasing girl.’

  ‘You have no idea who’s chasing you.’ Fox responded

  Almost like a mask the expression on her face drops to reveal something no one in Melbourne has ever seen from her before. This was the face of a predator.

  ‘Fox Boggs, do you think your old friends here would like to know about Winnipeg? Would they understand what happen in Toronto or Vancouver?’

  ‘Would you like to hear the details of what happen in Toronto? All of the details?’

  Silence answered, “No.” into the air through an uneasy stomach in recall to things he was told.

  ‘Don’t try to play compare with me whoever you are. Why don’t you show yourself and we can chat?’ Fox

  ‘I’m going to disappear now.’

  ‘Your type loves that defense.’

 
Fox turns and leaves the classroom to try and track down Jeff. This isn’t some sort of school prank and she’s worried how much it may have to do with her. Those thoughts scare her for what maybe happening to her friends.

  Jeff had chased one of the intruders off school grounds, across the street, and behind the Ryan-Mart building. Now he was walking along the fenced in area of the garden section bouncing his fist against the fence as he walked.

  Then he also has a voice coming out from the darkness. They must have watched the same B-movies, ‘Trying to play hero Jeffery Borges?’

  Jeff gives nothing back but silence.

  ‘Soon you will be forced to make some hard choices Borges like remembering where your true family ties are.’

  Jeff turned around and raced back in search of Fox. If this is linked to some of his family’s dirty secrets he is scared shitless about the safety of his friends.

  The police were all over the school grounds as Fox and Jeff came walking back together to meet up with Gail and Karen who were standing outside the gymnasium doors.

  Karen punched Jeff in the chest.

  ‘Hey!’ Jeff.

  Karen, ‘You two were stupid running off after them.’

  Jeff was rubbing his chest from the punch when Karen gave him a sudden big hug and Gail and Fox gave hefty grins to each other at the sight.

  Gail threw out, ‘Lisa’s arm was gross.’

  Fox, ‘Anyone else hurt?’

  Karen released Jeff from the monster hug, ‘A lot of bruised teachers and Paul Hunt has a broken jaw.’

  ‘Lisa’s arm was gross.’

  CHAPTER 55

  She was once told a story about how her mother liked to bring her to this church when she was a baby. It was a place her mother found she could find comfort from everything else in her life. It was a safe haven from the things that ate at her soul, safe from family business.

  She needed one more time to connect with her mother before she began moving forward completely into a new part of her life. What she considered her real life ready to start. A part that has been in motion since the day she was born. A fact that unknown to her shook her mother many time awake at night in sweats.

  She called ahead and said some words, “I will fund you in memory of my mother but if the place is not empty by the time I get there with only you and the walls I will not only pull my money, I will pull the walls down around you.”