Years From Now: the Reunion

Spin the Bottle’, suggests Richard, after he finishes his can of cider.

  All heads turn in disbelief.

  ‘You are joking?! Therese responds for all of them.

  ‘Yeah, yeah… Just joking’. He laughs; a thin, unnatural laugh and they all relax. Richard can’t help himself; his eyes and thoughts cannot stay away from Therese.

  Soon, the group are listening to an impromptu, stand-up comedy routine, by the restless Jesse, whose tuxedo looks askew, and somehow subversive. He mocks everything and everyone. Especially himself. He is brilliant and funny and wise, but he doesn’t really know it.

  Richard feels a stab of jealously. He mostly feels superior to his friend, as he, after all, has the superior academic abilities, and musical talents. But Jesse has something else. Something a little bit dangerous, and original.

  A game of charades is underway; Sonja is in the middle of mimicking one of the teachers, when there is a loud knock at the front door, which reverberates strangely down the hallway. Kerry jumps up quickly and dashes down toward the front door, disappearing into the hallways tunnel of darkness. The door opens, and the dim, hall light is switched on, to reveal three females. A muffled and intense conversation begins, with only snatches and single words floating outward. Marco looks on intently.

  Suddenly, the three females turn to leave, but one turns back, to kiss Kerry somewhere on her face.

  ‘That’s odd’, Sonja whispers conspiratorially, leaning toward Marco.

  ‘Catholics’, states Marco evenly, looking around at the group.

  Sonja nods. Her Catholic family are always kissing. It does get too much sometimes.

  ‘Friends from primary school’, Kerry explains, breathlessly, when she returns. Kerry had attended the local Catholic school for some years, until her mother ran out of money.

  Kerry still remembered the shock she had felt, when entering the state school for the first time, at the age of 16, where other kids laughed and poked fun at The Church, which they saw as a company of reactionary, unmarried men, wearing silly outfits.

  An old clock somewhere, in a room of the house, chimes 12 p.m. Sonja suddenly looks stricken and desperate. ‘I have to leave soon. I have to be home no later than one. Tata will be waiting for me…. Please, can we dance…can we do something!’

  This time, Therese handles the music, and the song, ‘Girls just want to have fun’, startles them all. Sonja staggers about suddenly, saying, ‘I feel so drunk’. And yet, she only drank one cider. She is making a beeline toward Marco. Perhaps he notices. Perhaps he doesn’t. But he is suddenly in a close dance with Kerry, and Sonja immediately recovers. After a while, she goes off to ring for a taxi. Then, she leaves, after kissing all her friends, and weeping with regret.

  A 2.pm, the music is still playing. Softly now. Kerry has fallen asleep next to Marco on the lounge; Richard and Therese are moving slowly about the room to the regretful melancholy of, ‘Careless Whispers’. A little while later, Richard and Therese disappear into a bedroom, and soon, various moans and murmurings vibrate from within.

  Jesse has already slipped away, silently stealing out the backdoor, to meet other friends, on the other side of town.

  Outside, the glowing blade of the moon hangs above, and a low wind builds, adagio tempo; it begins to creep about the house.

  Morning comes and Kerry wakes on the lounge, not feeling well. She is alone.