Lobby, prior to Medieval Banquet...

                                           

It is the lobby. Streams of crimson jackets are sprinting past. Trevor is holding up his hand in future Little League fashion. I am hoping maybe to see Rita. Still there is no Harmony. Near the door I see Our Wendy. She is wearing a red dress. It is not as grandiose as the prom dress she somehow managed to configure into origami triangles when she packed her suitcase back in the states.

I look around.

There is no Rita.

There is no Harmony.

Everyone is dressed to kill.

The Counselors are even all G’d up. It is a Medieval banquet but in a lot of ways it feels like we are going to church in the middle of the week for a Lenten service. 

I am still disconcerted and somewhat loss for equilibrium from my elevator altercations with Spencer. It is pretty clear that I am the only one not wear tie. Near the elevator I see Nat, whom I told off last night in front of his girlfriend before the skit wearing a suit, perhaps the same suit her wore when he won the contest three month earlier. .I wonder how Nat was able to so precisely pack a suit so that it didn’t crease in his luggage.  I wonder if he somehow purchased a travel iron.  Heath is wearing a tie and a sweater. As is Denis and Matt. Even Longhorn and Dimas are dressed up. albeit a tad bleary eyed.

 Everyone is dressed up. I am in jeans and the teal sweater.  

Even eagle Scout Josh is wearing his tie.

I want to ask him when he plans on giving his girlfriend the ring he bought her with his Grandfather's credit card at Harrod's earlier this afternoon.

It is the last night and we are leaving.

It is the last night and we are saying goodbye to this wink of a wished-for dream.

Outside a light rain tickles the porte cochere. Kevin, whose brother has won this contest every other year due to some sort of corporate nepotism notes that it seems to rain every other second in this country.

 I see mostly older kids. Apparently buses #2 and 3 has already left.

Choctawhatchee Heather is attired in a modest yet-somehow alluring dress that brings out the Amy Grant in her eyes. She waves at me and I pretend I don't see her. Elbert, one of only two black males who are Young Columbusians on this trip wearing a no tie button up shirt with a visible necklace. I see Elias Das and a girl named April who rumor has it is also Harvard bound. I have my camera although I am perilously low on film.Greta and her perfect smile is wearing the same cool boots she wore on our dinner/dance cruise on the Thames. Sheila, Rose and Tamera are wearing jeans, Tamera clad in her ubiquitous trench coat as if she is storing a gun.


I enjoy our intellectual rendezvous. I want to ask Tamera if she is currently mulling over the deeper modalities of Dendrites or Metaphysical mitochondria.  As I walk in her direction.I see the polite Baptist boy from Alabama. He is wearing a tie and his hair is gelled. He is by himself, next to the statue of the golden stag.

“So how was your meeting the afternoon with the British teens. You gonna be in Parade?”

The polite Baptist boy looks down and smiles. He said that they really have a lot of cultural differences but that it sure was a learning experience.”

Yeah, none of our group got to go. St. Pauls was pretty cool though.

He nods. The polite Baptist Boy said that he felt kind of out of place since the discussions they were having were pretty liberal.

“You know, we talked about birth control and contraceptives and abortion—things we just don’t mention in public to a room full of strangers at a town hall meaning in Mobile. Alabama.”

I laugh. I tell him that I’m sure he doesn’t. 

“Hey man, listen, I feel I owe you an apology the other morning at breakfast when we got into the argument about the Branch Davidians and gay rights and all that stuff. I didn’t mean to belittle your beliefs. It was really sophomoric of me. ”

The polite Boy from Alabama smiles and looks down. He says that’s 'kay.

"No, you were defending something you feel really passionate about and I was just trying to argue for the sake of debate. I apologize man. It wasn't cool."

Again he tells me that that's fine. I jut out an apologetic kay. I looks around the room. Half the buses have apparently already left including Harmony's and Rita' It is pretty much just Bus #1 and Bus #4. 

I need to somehow surreptitiously find Vivian.

I need to thank her for this afternoon. The Big Ten have all but swarmed to one side of the lobby. I want nothing to do with them.

All I want is to find Mark who is still nowhere to be seen. The lobby is beginning to implode. As I walk into the direction of the concierge desk. Perhaps I should go upstairs and put on my father's tie, 

 There is a tug on my shoulder. 

It is Daisy.

She is dressed to kill.

“Hey,” Her hair is combed differently. Already several members of the Big Ten have responded to Daisy’s outfit with a colloquial damn look at Daisy.

She is dressed to kill.


She is giddy. She is jumping up and down with her knees welded togeter as if she needs to pee.

"Can you believe? Can you believe that Vivian freaking took the rap for us?"

I nod. I look frond the room. I don't want to be having a conversation about how we got away with something with Liz Madigan in the room. There us also no sign of Vivian. I need to thank her. I need to thank her for going out of her way for us and 

Spencer is by himself standing awkwardly near the stag. For the first time in the trip he is not jouncing in his usual caffeniated kernal self.

For the first time this trip.

I look around again for Harmony,  Several buses have already left. 

"Hey, I just wanted to know. Did you talk with Spencer.

"I talked with both of them Actually I pummeled the shite out of Jim Baker. I then actually got into it with my roommate for never standing up. Hopefully the Daisy Train is now officially derailed.

"And Spencer,"

Again I look at Spencer. He has his hands in his pocket. For some inexplicable reason he is sucking on a straw. 

"Yeah, I spoke with him in the elevator. I told him how you feel and I told him to knock it off with the taunts."

I look over at the gilded Stag. Spencer is still chewing on the side of the staw as if it were cud and he bore udders. 

Thee is still no sight of Vivian.

"Hey, did you ever get your suitcase back?"

Daisy seems confused. She asks what?

"You know. I was wondering about your suitcase. Vivian walked off with it. I was wondering how if she ever got it back to you?"

"It is almost and obvious question since she obviously went  upstairs and changed. 

"Oh," Daisy says. "There was a knock on my door and when I went to answer the door the suitcase was there but no Vivian was in sight."

 Behind I hear Simone telling everyone in her group to stand close because it is time to go.

I mean to tell Daisy that I again have the makeshift saffron hijab in my room only I forgot.  


Listen, we need to thank Vivian. I mean, she took the rap for us. We literally both could have gotten busted and missed the remainder of whatever trip is left. 

There is a standard shoulder fist pummel. I turn around. It is my mentor. It is Mark is wearing a really cool sweater that looks like a cubist stature outside of the Centre Pompideau in Paris.

"Attaboy no tie man, Attaboy!!"

Denis is next to him. He is still wearing his cool Doc Martens.

I am next to Mark. 

I am next to my brother.

I want to tell him all about my day.  I want to tell him about getting into the verbal tiff with Jennifer Flood and  then hashing it out with my roommate before deciding to emulate the coolest personal I have ever met by jettisoning the electric security blanket of the Gloucester and taking teh tube down to Sloane Square, purchasing an identical pair of shoes. I want to tell him all about Rita in her lavishing dress and how it always seems like every time we have two seconds 

I want to give him a hug, In that moment I want t have a one-on-one and thank him. I want to thank Mark for always spending time with me. 

I want to thank him for always accepting me and making me feel so important. 


I want to give him, and his Centre Pompideau sweater, a hug.

I want to tell him all of this when I hear a voice. 

From somewhere above I hear Trevor's voice.  

There is referring to my name as Hair. There is Big Ten give it up. Spin Doctor Kenny is nudging Spencer saying Damn look at Daisy, man.  I am wildly looking around for Harmony.  I have not seen her since we left the Skit night together almost 24 hours ago. I want to ask her about the interview with Lynn Minton. 

This is it. 

We are leaving out into the breath of night. We are leaving our port one final time.

As I am stepping out into the direction of the bus I see Rita dressed to kill in the dress she was wearing earlier in the day. She is surrounded by three guys.

I have not seen Harmony since last night at dinner. Again I wonder why it felt like she was intentionally blowing me off when I rang her room in the afternoon. 

I make a motion to Mark telling him that I will see him at the banquet.

It is Big Ten time to do this,

                                               



It is Big Ten time to say goodbye.