as he sings he cleans it up into a pile and stuffs the pile into his bag
H: i am genius
i studied for twelve hours, partied the next six; slept for four, then woke up two hours before my alarm’s supposed to blow in hopes of making up for lost time
though already all my dreams are spent for most REMs engaged in driving forklifts ‘round a warehouse of clocks stacking and stocking anew twenty tons of em
unpacking boxes in slews, all varieties come and i choose
for what feels like an eternity
where each should go
tho i know with complete and utter certainty how long i’ve spent at my task
every tick tocks another perfect notch upon the once-sealed casket of my brain,
trephine rhythms knock another teensy slot; more air escapes and my neurons decay
i approach less & fewer radioactively positive days
i am zooming toward my half-life’s expiration date and have barely amounted to, idk, more than three-eighths
they don’t have to be stellar but i do wish my shits were a little more great, tbh
knock knock
leroy enters
H: interrupt my musical soliloquy, will you
L: excuse me?
H: never mind. anyway i should’ve guessed it doesn’t get so good
you must be my new roommate.
L: yes hi i’m leroy
i’d offer you a hand, but
H: no worries, we can shake later
i’m hamish.
L: word, well—
H: yes great back to work, see you
L: sorry, you’re working already? on what?
H: i’ve been in summer session since june the eleventh
just getting ahead on my pre-reqs; our last test is this wednesday
L: oh whoa
H: so yeah, i’ll be out of your way
mostly crunched w/in the stacks
squashing books in my face
for the next eight hours or so
but i’ll see you tonight; we should celebrate our lives
or whatever
L: ok, swell
catch you then
and he vanishes,
L: leaving me stock still standing still there with my hands filled
just a lil bit confused bout what’d just happened
jo enters
J: Um, who was that man in the hoodie, honey?
L: that’s my roomie-to-be, mom; he said his name was hamish and he had to go and study
J: Huh. Already?
L: that’s what i said, but he––
H: hi, i took summer classes to get a head start on my degree;
the plan is to be outta here in under three years. nice to meet, you ma’am
you must be his more responsible kid sister.
i’m just kidding.
mrs black, i presume?
J: Pleased to meet you too, Hamish. Please, call me Jo. Leroy’s dad would’ve been here but Labor Day weekend meant he had to work the big parade in town.
L: my dad’s a cop.
H: Ok then more drugs for me I guess
L: say what?
H: well i hate to depart so abruptly but i just found my pen
so i must be off to the library again
ma’am your son will have a ton of friends I promise
good-bye, trevor. don’t touch my shit
he exits
J: He seems fun.
L: ok, mom.
J: I think we can finish in two more trips?
L: then we should take lunch; i’m famished
J: Hmm, lemme think. Permission granted.
L: grand. i’ll head back to the van in a bit
J: where’s the bathroom? I gotta, well…
it’s down the hall on the right.
J: Do bathroom stuff. Okay, swell. This is gonna be fun, hun!
jo kisses him on the head & leaves
L: she says, unironically
she enjoys things like this
the whole new start thing
new leaves being turned
dying trees left unfailingly for better beginnings
try again
as for me, though, i can’t see for the world why it’d be in my best interests to try this again
i don’t think i’m cut out for a regular education
i learned too much as a kid then had nowhere to place it
couldn’t stick to it at fog top so I dropped and joined the army
got a specialist degree in data sciences
i’m thinking as i set my shit down maybe this was all a huge mistake
honestly for my time i can’t be bothered so instead i’ll turn around and be on my way
he starts lugging a box back toward the door; Jo appears in threshold
J: What are you doing?
L: i think i already hate it here
J: Oh please, don’t be such an asshat; we just got here, dear.
You barely know where the bathroom is.
L: but i think i might have met my nemesis
J: that guy? are you kidding me?
leroy that kid was hilarious
i know you’ll get along great
L: did you hear what he was saying?
J: lee you can’t take everything oh so seriously
and you can’t just go around thinking everyone’s your enemy
roy, it’s highly irregular
L: i’m not convinced
J: fine; don’t be; but if you think i’m taking all this shit i brought up twenty seconds ago back down in a moment you are sorely mistaken
L: touché
J: why don’t we take lunch, hun; and you think about if school is what you want
but one way or the other roy, you’re moving out
L: say what?
J: your habits are too out of whack w/ mine & dad’s
L: what are these offending habits, may i ask?
J: ahem:
figure A: sleeping patterns in a scatter-plotted graph
number 2 tallies times you left out food overnight
& the box marked iii should contain all reminders of chores and gas receipts outstanding
L: Dad made charts of my bad habits?
J: you know how he gets
L: yeah, fucking righteous on his high horse perched
J: but in this case he’s right, sweetie
& i’m in agreement; we both think you need to leave
L: but mom!
J: no but moms, anymore, honey
you’ve got this scholarship, dude: it’s quite literally free money
and if you don’t like that your GI bill stipend should be enough to get by for a bit, but take this opportunity that’s sitting on your face
L: um, phrasing?
J: no, i mean sexually
L: um, double phrasing?
J: leroy look at me
boy do i know that you’ve been through the shit and you know i’ve been there for you every damn step of it
but here’s where the training wheels come on off, kid
the old roost's no longer taking squatters
what i’m saying, son is parental cohabitation no longer sits among your living options for the future
you need to find some other domicile prospects
ya got it?
L: i’m more afraid i’ll fail again than anything
J: no shit sherlock, the unknowns of our future loom most menacing when we think they sit riddled with illness
we will strive for success and avoid what may make us of impotence
but i think this place—this whole scene will only mostly be a good influence
L: you truly think so?
J: eh who knows how it may go. but you can’t say if you don’t try it out.
L: fine i’ll stay
J: and i’ll take that suspension of doubt as a good sign of things that will come!
let’s get the last set of boxes and take lunch
now that all your fears have been vanquished
it’s time to seal the deal w/ some ham&cheesy sandwiches
L: damn. just like this, then. i matriculate instantly
the next hours blink away; suddenly i’m kissing mom, waving farewell as she pulls from the parking lot, then returning to my hobbit hovel
i espy through the window five stories below the bright blue-grey seagull ease from the campus grid back into Harmony proper
and I pause frozen momentarily before it thinking if i call out aloud & plaintively enough right now she’ll hear my cry and whisk me in a heartbeat back safely to Bartle’s Creek, OH, four hours from anywhere, including here
but i don’t when i realize she wouldn’t
so i turn for a book and curl up in the corner of my bed
and get twelve pages in before there is a knock upon the door
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