Works and Days

Four

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Part One

Chayne and Russell were early to Saint Adjeanet’s for choir practice. Chayne was scribbling in a notebook at one of the pews, and Russell was finishing up his homework as Diggs came into the church. He was followed a few minutes later by Father Ford and Ann who came in through the side door, by the little chapel. Then, loud and raucous, becoming suddenly quiet as they realized where they were, Jackie and Chip. Chayne waited as the others entered the church, Jeff Cordino and Anna Castile among them, until Jeff Ford finally said: “I think that’s about everyone,” and Chayne and Russell went up to the choir loft.

Chayne cleared his throat, and folding his hands behind his back began, “I am Chayne Kandzierski—”

A round of applause.

Chayne smiled nervously. “Thank you... And Father Ford asked me if I could take over the choir—”

Ann Ford was clearing her throat loudly.

“Actually, it was Ann who asked.”

Ann smiled.

“And...ah... here I am. So why don’t we do some scales? As soon as you get into sections.”

“Sections?” said Diggs, who was standing beside Jackie.

“Sections, Diggs,” Chayne said flatly. “You know.... Altos, sopranos, ra ra ra.”

They all looked at Chayne. Even Russell, since he’d never been to practice and didn’t know what was going on.

“We don’t have sections,” Jeff Cordino said after putting up a hand.

“Well, I’ll give you five seconds to work out something. Deep voices together, moderately deep voices together, high voices together. Men together, women together. Come on people, you can do this.”

There was some shuffling, and when they had finally gotten into some formation, Chayne said, “And now for scales.”

This time it was Dena Dwyer who put up a hand.

“Yes, Dena?”

“Excuse me, Chayne,” she said sweetly, “but what exactly is a scale?”

Chayne swallowed.

 “Gang, we’re in for a long evening.”

 

The nights were still warm, and Chayne and Russell walked up Kirkland Street toward Curtain. It was such a quiet night, and they climbed up to the roof to look over what they could see.

Russell heard a car pass along the gravel below and leaned against Chayne.

“Look at it all,” Chayne said.

“It’s hard not to believe,” Chayne said. “It’s hard to be depressed looking at heaven. Sometimes life seem too silly to go on, but then I look up and I am reminded... no matter what little dramas going on here, in the very little sections of our lives that we inhabit for the moment... It’s all good.”

“Who is that?” Russell said.

“Huh?”

He pointed below and Chayne looked down to see a slender man gracefully coming up the walk. He wore a feed cap and tech vest and Russell said, “Is that your cowboy?”

The bell rang below.

“It appears to be.”

“You gave him your address?”

“How else is he supposed to find me?”

“Should I make myself scarce?”

Chayne looked at him.

“Did you need to ask?”

 

Friday night there was a knock at the door, and Thom ran to get it.

“Liz!” 

“Thom!” her voice was alive with laughter. She looked so happy. Liz Parr threw her arms around him.

“I just got out of the shower!” he told her, taking her coat and going to the closet.

“You shower in a white shirt and red tie?”

Thom laughed. “Well, I’ve been out of the shower a while. Can I get you a drink?”

“Whaddo you have?”

“I don’t actually know. Let’s see.”

Liz followed Thom into the little kitchen, and he looked under the island. “We’ve got... well... some old daiquiri mix and a thimbleful of gin.”

 Smiling, he displayed the bottle.

“We can get drinks when we get to the restaurant.”

“Good idea.”

“You sure do smile a lot, Thom.”

“I’m just happy to see you. Let me get my jacket.”

“It’s not very chilly,” Liz told him.

They decided to take Thom’s car, and as he drove he told Liz, “There’s a great restaurant on Jerrold Parkway, on the border of Saint Gregory.”

“Have you ever had Indian food?” Liz asked as they sped along the Parkway.

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Oh, Thom, I think you’d like it. We used to have a lot of fun. Let’s find an Indian restaurant.”

“I wouldn’t even know what to order.”

“I’ll order for you, but do you think there’s an Indian restaurant around here?”

“Saint Gregory’s is nothing but strip malls with little restaurants. They’ve got to have one that’s Indian.”

They drove along Jerrold Parkway, and onto Merrimore, Thom searching for something that seemed Indian until he shouted, “There! See!”

Liz laughed as he turned into Rawling Plaza where there was a little restaurant called Kerala House.

“Tandoori chicken is the one dish I can remember,” Liz told him when they’d been given a table.

“I thought you said you really liked Indian food.”

“Yes,” Liz acknowledged before admitting, “but it’s been a while. I kind of forget what’s what. So this should be an experience.”

As Patti had commented, Liz was shorter even than Thom. She also aged at the same rate as Thom, which was to say, hardly at all. They could have almost been kids again, and as she tried to describe what she wanted to the bronze skinned waiter, Thom alternated between chuckles and outright laughs. She was radiant and little and pretty, the light shining on her golden hair, into her dark eyes, her red lips.

“And then there’s this one thing,” she was explaining to the waiter. “It’s kind of red, and it’s chicken—I think—and it’s got yogurt in it. Don’t frown, Thom, it’s delicious. And then... biryani is it called? This rice thing with lamb in it. And then I want him—” she pointed to Thom, “to try this one thing. The bread, it has different sauces—yes, chutney, that’s it! And curry! Oh, any kind!”

 

Liz was teaching Thom how to eat, and what to eat first when she reached across the table, wiping away some of the sweet sauce from Thom’s mouth.

“Thom, are you ever going to tell me what happened between you and Patti?”

“If you tell me what happened with you and Lionel Tremor.”

Liz frowned, and then said, “First, I want to know what happened with us?”

Thom stopped eating and looked awkward.

“We were together, and then the next thing I knew you were telling me you were with Patti.”

“That was cowardly of me,” Thom said. “I bet you were pretty pissed with me.”         

“When we got back to school after summer I saw you and Patti and wanted to run the two of you over with my car!” Liz laughed. “You’re damn skippy I was pissed! It was a long time and a lot of voodoo dolls before I could talk to you again, Thomas Lewis.”

Thom had stopped eating, and Liz said, “Don’t just stare at me. Eat.”

“Even the really hot stuff?”

“The more painful the better,” Liz laughed. “It’s payback time.

“No, really. It’s not like I didn’t see it coming,” Liz said. “Or actually, it’s not like I didn’t see us dying, and you getting on with Patti. We were having all sorts of problems.”

“We did fight a lot.”

“And we fucked a lot.”

Thom grew crimson.

“Well, that’s what you call it,” Liz said.

“I prefer to call it making love,” Thom said, spearing a bit of lamb on his fork.

“You can call it whatever you want. And Patti was a good Catholic girl, so I can’t imagine you all did anything.”

“No,” Thom said. “I never had sex with Patti while we were engaged, but you were a good Catholic girl too. And I was a good Catholic boy.”

“No,” Liz shook her head. “We were goody goodies. We were really respectable and Republican, but Patti was the real thing. She was the wildest, craziest person I ever met but she... She always had integrity. She knew who she was. I really admired her. Even the other day on the phone. Thom, whaddit you do to lose her?”

Thom bawked at Liz. She kicked him under the table.

“I don’t know,” Thom said. “We stopped talking. Things have changed between us. I have a good job. She’s upset that she doesn’t have one at all. All she wants to do is sit around and chain smoke all day. I don’t know.”

“I think you do,” said Liz. “And I think that what you said is only half of it, and I also think that you’re not willing to confront everything that happened. Or able to. So let’s not.”

“What did Lionel do to you?”

“He couldn’t read my mind,” said Liz. She shrugged.

“We never talked. He never paid attention to me. Don’t forget the cliché ‘we had grown into two different people’. All that we could have gotten past.”

Thom put his fork to the plate, realizing he was full, and asked, “What was it that you couldn’t get past?”

“Walking into the bathroom and finding Lionel in the shower with my brother.”

Thom was too shocked to laugh.