Steshka's Weblog Site • NuTang.com

watching: the sun play hide and seek
listening to: modern Chinese cinema theme songs
mood: sleeeepy
Her feet were shod with adventure shoes. Her pouch was newly restrung with a hair ribbon and a necklace chain and fortified with paper clips. The pouch held all that was necessary for a trek across campus—cell phone, keys to get back into the dorm room once the adventure was over, cash for uncertainties and potentialities, and extra paper clips. Just in case. She looked out her window to survey the parking lot. Nope, he was still on campus. The jeep was parked serenely just where he had left it that morning. That meant he should be in his room. Jumping from the bed she carefully tucked her adventure pouch across her shoulder and hip and ran to the stairwell. Trotting down the concrete steps that separated their rooms by a single floor, she paused as she re-entered the corridor. The stairwell door echoed behind her in closing. All was silent. She peered cautiously around at the rooms and felt her steps heavy on the carpet thick with waiting. She prayed for the right words to ask him to join her. They came. She would ask, “Do you want to go on an adventure?” She’d been working on the speech all afternoon. It went something like, “There’s a trailer parked at the edge of campus that I can see from my room. It could be perfectly fine, but just in case it’s a circus or something I think we should check it out. Secure the perameters, you and me. We can take it down, whatever it is. And then we will terminate our mission with a desultory game of air hockey!” This was the plan when she had energy enough to dramatize it. The simpler version ran as follows: “Would you please take a walk with me on my last day of being 20? Tomorrow I’ll be 21, so this is my last chance. I want to explore and have the adventure end at the rec center beside the air hockey table.” Yes, that was the simpler version.

But now she had her opening sentence, and she had energy enough for the dramatic delivery of her invitation. She paused beside his room, looked both ways, and knocked lightly. She didn’t want to disturb him if he was napping. He had looked tired in the elevator that morning. There was no response from the room. She listened closely. No sounds of movement, no scuffles that could indicate a groggy sleeper walking cross a linoleum floor. Her shoulders fell. He must not be in. She walked away slowly, still listening for any possibilities. Regaining the stair well she walked to her room and plopped down on the bed. Looking out of the window she leaned her head against the glass and traced with her eyes the path of her adventure, the one that hadn’t happened. Their his car was parked, and there the path led into the tree-ish part of the campus. It would have taken them towards the wooden canopy where her class had once been held on a lovely spring day quite unlike this one. “It’s drizzlyly beautiful outside,” she had planned to tell him. “Adventures happen when it drizzles. You know, drizzle could quite possibly be the opening factor between this world and parallel universes. It’s quite possible. Let’s go find out!”

And then they would have passed the tennis courts where no one ever played. They’d be lit up at flickering night and you could see nets swaying like scarves in the breeze. They’d have to steer right, but from there they would have found the trailer that still lurked suspiciously at the bottom of the furthest parking lot. Across the street from there was the golf course, which she’d never visited. Perhaps the adventure would have taken her there, perhaps not. The golf carts like WeePeople cars trundled across the greens. Maybe her professor was out there like he loved to be. Maybe she would have seen him and waved. Maybe the caddy would have frowned to see her with someone else, someone other than him. She smiled. Vengeance was still pursuant in her course, though she had liked to think she had forgiven him.

But they probably weren’t there, just like he hadn’t been. And the trailer was probably harmless, just like her flutters of revenge. And they probably would have stayed on the path, rather than visit the canopy.

But still. It would have been nice to have an adventure.