Star by Eliza Witte - HTML preview

10

The girl disappeared behind the door and the only thing left for Annie to do was follow her. All of a sudden, however, she cried out, ‘Annie? My name is Ankaa. Hey, wait a minute!’

But the girl had slipped away into the corridor so Annie just shrugged her shoulders and walked after her.

VI

The canteen was a large, neat place with a bar offering a fair choice of food. While queuing up to take their meal, Annie noticed that the place was getting decorated. Later on, sitting at the table, excited to have the soft warm sandwich in her hands for the first time she could study the place at leisure. At the other end of the canteen students were hanging a poster announcing ‘THE ANNUAL BALL - SUMMER 2009’ Then Annie concentrated on the hamburger. She looked at it from above, from below, she rolled it in her hands, and she even tested its softness again and again. In the end, the girl beside her just asked, ‘Well, aren’t you gonna eat it? I thought it was your favorite.’

Annie obediently took a bite, ‘Oh, boy! This is just great!’

The girl burst into laughter.

‘You say it every time!’

A nothing-special kind of guy passed their table and politely greeted Annie by name.

How come they all knew her by that name and that… they knew her without her knowing any one of them.

‘Who was this?’ Annie asked the girl beside her.

‘I beg your pardon? Are you falling from the skies? You were studying with him like crazy for the Renaissance Art exam last term. That’s Aaron.’

‘Last term? How long have I been here?’

The girl was trying to swallow, but couldn’t as she burst into laughter again.

‘Annie, this is not funny any more!’ She growled.

At this moment Annie froze. From the far end of the canteen, smiling and handsome, Stuart Reynolds walked straight up to her along with a long-legged girl with raven locks.

They passed by Annie and she tried to suppress the emotions that had come over her when it suddenly dawned on her, ‘I am down on Earth!’ She exclaimed. Then several things happened almost simultaneously. The girl was choked with laughter again. Annie desperately needed to call her name just to share this moment of joy. She glanced upon the name of ‘Jessie’ written in purple ink and all surrounded by hearts on the girl’s 11

copybooks left on the table, and she shrieked out, ‘JESSIE! THIS IS STUART

REYNOLDS!’ She was all shaking with emotion.

‘Sure, it’s Stu! Mr. Untouchable.’ Jessie was still trying to get back her breath. She was rather indifferent, though.

‘But, but he has changed a bit.’ Annie said.

‘Changed? He’s pretty much the same as he was yesterday.’

‘But he used to have longer hair.’

‘THE ANNUAL BALL - SUMMER 2009’. Stuart Reynolds walking towards her –

young, full of charm. Jessie’s notebooks with her name written on it. Annie sighed noisily in relief and thought that the Boss knew his stuff. But then she also realized the most important thing - she had been given time. Time to complete her task. She extended her gratitude from the bottom of her heart to Saturn who was the one to patronize time.

‘He looked the cutest during his college years, anyway,’ Annie proclaimed, playing nervously with Jessie’s copybooks.

‘Oh, yes,’ you wanted to copy the last lecture,’ Jessie said without even hearing her,

‘You may have it! OK, gotta go now but we’ll see each other tonight at the bar.’

‘What shall we do there?’

‘Hey, working girl! It’s Thursday, remember? It’s our shift tonight. See you!’

Jessie got her stuff and went out. Annie was left alone and took a look around. Stuart and Dian were not to be seen anywhere so she could follow them. Jessie left. Annie was clearly at a loss as to the next steps to be taken and for awhile she just kept on sitting at the table as a small child might if left alone to wait quietly for the return of his or her parents. Then all of the sudden she got an idea.

‘Excuse me,’ she stopped a girl passing by, ‘do you by any chance know where I can find a positive magnet field?’

The girl gaped, ‘Try the Physics Department at the College of Science and Technologies,’

she answered caustically and wanted to go but it was a pair of puppy eyes that checked her midway. The girl relented, ‘What do you need this for, for God’s sake?’

‘When you travel and you get lost you better go to the first place where you could be directed. I need to find a positive magnet field in order to receive enlightenment on the way.’

The girl seemed to be getting it, ‘Try the chapel down the main alley of the college park.’

It was a beautiful spring day and Annie didn’t mind going for a walk at all. This was her first expedition here so to say. The trees full of blossoms, the lush grass, the warm earth underneath. She was strolling on the main alley when she felt it – energy radiated more and more powerfully and brightly from everything around her. Then she saw it - a 12

small building, all painted in white that was situated under the trees. There was no mistaking it – this had to be the chapel. She entered and sat on the pew. The vibrations here were even stronger then outside and the small neat place gave her as much comfort as the real positive streams that ran back home. She didn’t see the big gate to the Boss’s Secret Space, yet she felt as if she were standing in front of it. She took her chance for a talk with Him, ‘All right,’ she spoke softly, ‘I admit it now I don’t know what to do. I don’t know where to go. I don’t know anyone… except Jessie. You promised to take care of me so you have to do it now.’

She was done with all said and she waited… And she waited. (The lock around the finger.) And she waited. (The tapping of the foot.) And she waited. (This part of the truth that was… well – relevant for the moment.)

‘I had to prepare myself but you also said you’d prepare things for me.’

Nothing. (The eruption!)

‘OK, I know I have chosen it myself but won’t you help me?’ (Still nothing) ‘OK, stay there! I’ll do it myself.’

Annie stood up in anger and walked to the exit. On the doorstep she just cast an angry glance back to the inside and left.

‘Maybe it doesn’t work as it does at home,’ she thought, ‘maybe they don’t use it for enlightenment here. Maybe they use it for something else but why then are all the parameters like back home? Maybe the parameters look like the ones at home but they slightly change because everything is on a much smaller scale. Yet, when you feel the positive magnetic field you simply know that it is IT. You can’t mistake it for something else – for space dust, for instance.’ It was an endless monologue on Astro-physics.

VII

‘It’s too melancholic.’

It’s never too melancholic. It expresses real feelings.

‘Stu must be brokenhearted again.’

‘Again? What do you mean again?’

‘I mean you are never content, Stu. The chick is hot for real.’

Stuart, Chris, Bob and John had a rehearsal. It was one of those rehearsals, which, in fact, they spent in a more casual than professional atmosphere. This was helpful in overcoming the emotional differences with regards to this or that song as the guys, themselves, were only too different from each other. Chris, for instance, was the ultimate heartbreaker of the band – the drummer with the long blond hair and the green eyes, who 13

could make just about any girl behave inadequately in his company. Bob was THE guitar-player. He was the pro. He had the habit of studying you when you least expected it under his bang which practically always hid his eyes. He had never been seen to put much effort in his playing but in return the playing itself was so full of emotions - as if they were spurting in a magical way right under his fingers. John was the quiet guy and the bassist.

You’d never hear him talking just for the sake of it. However, when he did, he was equally capable of cutting you like a pickle with just a couple of words if he thought you were not right or calm you down better than your own mum could if he felt you needed it. And Stu…

well, Stu was THE passion.

‘The hot chick said some things she didn’t have to say,’ murmured Stu in response to Chris’s remark but Chris kept on teasing him.

‘She hurt your feelings, eh? Stu sleeps with his guitar and that’s because he cannot drag the piano into the bed,’ he explained to the rest of the group. They all snickered.

‘I’ve had enough of this crap,’ Stu retorted, ‘now put a bit of a blues rhythm to this and let’s try it again.’

VIII

Annie walked down the alley kicking at a stone. It rolled and rolled and Annie measured every time with her steps the distance she kicked it away from her. 7 steps, 8 steps, 15 steps. They used to do this whenever an asteroid shower came around, only she didn’t measure her steps then but the light miles. The stone rolled into a curve and stopped right before a building which indicated the Students Desk. Annie smiled at this discovery and couldn’t refrain from thinking about the Boss, ‘Yes, I told you I’d get by’. She was still a little bit angry that she was not taken care of, as He had promised. She entered the building.

Margaret was behind the counter as usual, busy – as usual. She was one of the senior students here. Almost in her 30s, she still wore a punk-style hair, military boots and piercing on all possible body parts. However, she was a very good administrator.

Now she was focused on doing several things at the same time – talking on the phone, and trying to arrange a meeting for the Dean, while copying a book on the copy-machine, trying in the meantime to get a coke from the automat for soft-drinks.

For a moment Annie observed her fascinated. When the telephone conversation was finally over, and the coke can was finally in the machine’s slot but not before a tough kick with a military boot had been delivered to it, did Margaret just peacefully and quietly turn the next page of the book to put it on the glass of the photocopier. And if 14

so far she had not given any indications of noticing Annie, now she turned with a broad smile to her, ‘Hi Annie, what’s up?’

‘Eh, I was wondering, if you could help me,’ uttered Annie.

‘Lost your keys again! I knew it!’ Margaret knit her eyebrows.

‘Keys? What keys?’

‘That would be the second time this month, but you could sleep at Aaron’s, y’know!’ Margaret’s look changed quickly from grumpy to mischievous.

‘I could arrange it, y’know. He fancies you.’

‘But he’s a boy!’ Annie objected. Margaret burst into laughter.

‘Well, what’s your problem?’

‘I… I…,’ Annie stuttered. ‘I don’t know where to go.’

‘This depends on where you want to go,’ Margaret adopted now the professor’s manner of speaking.

‘I want to go home!’

‘Oh, well, freshmen!’ Margaret thought. She has seen tons of them and it has always been the same story. She could sense the real problem.

‘Annie, your home is here now! Guys, parties, fun – 24/7. Don’t be sad! You will never have a problem with me in case you wanna go out of campus – to a bar, a disco. I won’t give you away. You can count on me for it.’

‘Oh, yes, the bar too!’

‘Don’t worry - I won’t tell anyone.’

‘But I work in a bar!’

‘Oh, this is no secret to anyone!’

‘To anyone?’ Annie murmured, and then added, ‘But Jessie told me only this afternoon.’

‘Oh, are you switching jobs then?’

Annie was wondering how she was supposed to know given that she had just arrived. The only thing she could do was to try beating about the bush.

‘Oh, well… Actually… you know….’

Margaret was getting curious, ‘Now tell me, tell me…It used to be The Blue Bar, right?’

‘YESSS! The bar is called The Blue Bar.’ Annie thought excitedly. Then she said aloud ‘Right! It is still The Blue Bar.’

‘Oh, I was about to congratulate you on a new job but ... You know… don’t pay attention to what all these jerks tell you about your job! They are all mum’s and daddy’s kids. Never made an effort in my life to deserve a thing! You shouldn’t be 15

ashamed that you have to work. I also have to do it if I want to stay here as you can see. OK?’

‘Yeah,’ Annie replied but now it was again time for the troubleshooting, ‘Well, so can you help me now because…?’

‘Oh, yes, back to the topic! Lost your keys again! They were in your bag the whole day, but now they are gone.’

Annie instinctively put her hand in her bag and while Margaret kept on lecturing her on how absentminded Annie was, Annie felt something metal between her fingers. She took it out and saw a tag with a key on it.

‘Oh, well,’ Margaret exclaimed – ‘All’s well that ends well. You see! Block B - the best dorm, too! Do you still enjoy the view from your window so much?’

‘Sure, it’s great! I can see all the way to the river!’ Annie answered and it was just afterwards that she realized that she shot it out just like that before even thinking of it.

She stopped amazed at what she’d just said but Margaret only smiled, ‘When I was in my freshman’s year my favorite place was the river, too,’ she said. Annie thanked her,

‘Thanks a lot. You were really very helpful. I hope some day to be able to return your kindness,’ She was ready to go but now Margaret stopped her.

‘Annie, wait! Well, talking of kindness… I wonder if you could do me a favor… I hear there will be a check… Y’know, for the stuff… No one will search YOUR room, for sure. You’ve always been the good girl, so could you just have these with you for awhile?’

Margaret pulled out a drawer and took out some funny, little sticks. They looked really bizarre, but harmless too so Annie just took them and dropped them in her bag.

Margaret winked at her.

Annie was too happy with her discoveries to bother about the little things. Once outside again, she couldn’t hold it any more, ‘Now to Block B we go! YESSS!’

IX

Annie opened the door to her room and got in. The first thing she saw was Stu’s poster on the wall – this time a paper one, off course but who cared.

‘YESSS! I’m at home!’ And she just threw herself on to the bed. She stood there for awhile trying to fully take in what had happened that day. She didn’t have any memory of the journey itself but eventually it all ended… ON EARTH! Too excited, Annie got up to take a look around. There was a desk covered with books and notebook, and also many sketches. Some of them were lying on the floor practically covering the entire area 16

around the desk. She checked one or two but they were not of much interest. Then she turned around and saw the wardrobe. She opened it carefully and saw her clothes. Her first thought was how come they were so colorful when all she had ever worn were silver-white tunics, but then she remembered that all would be prepared for her and she felt a wave of ecstasy just because even the disguise had not been forgotten. Retracing her way from the wardrobe to the bed again she noticed a side door and she almost froze…

The bathroom. Again it was time to check the truth, her own personal truth. It was going to be ages before she could forget this moment but yes, when she opened the door on the small tub there it was – the TOOTHBRUSH. She screamed out of excitement. Then she took it happily like a box full of treasure and didn’t put it back before all its scientific specifications were studied most thoroughly – the color, length, number of bristles, the material they were made of, aerodynamics of the form etc. etc. And just when she put it back in place and thought that now she was for sure the happiest person in the Universe… she saw her reflection in the mirror above the tub.

‘Oh, my God! OH, MY GOD! What do you think you’ve done to me? No, just tell me what do you think? He is a ROCK-STAR! Or he will be! You always say you know everything, don’t you? Didn’t you know that rock-stars date only actresses and top-models? Couldn’t you do me at least like… like Liv Tyler? No-o-o-o – everything should be more difficult because Ankaa is stubborn, and she decided to get down here by herself and you should prove her wrong! How could I ever look at him… with a FACE

LIKE THIS!’

She got out of the bathroom, and slammed the door. She was helpless, and angry, and upset at the same time. For awhile she just nervously walked around – to the bed, to her stuff on the desk and back but then she went up to the window. Outside something was going on but, still being angry, Annie didn’t realize at once what was happening. She gradually did and this caught her attention– the sun was setting.

‘NIGHT!’ She exclaimed enlightened. ‘AN EARTH NIGHT! The Earth Sun goes below the horizon. I have always observed this from above but NEVER from below! It is also known as nighttime!’ And she began reciting a lesson, ‘ Goodnight – a common wish for a good sleep! Tonight means this night. Hi-hi-hi-hi, tonight is the time mostly preferred for dating at a restaurant or a bar. TONIGHT!? Jessie said that tonight WE ARE at the bar.’