“I know a lot more than you think but,” he waved his hand as
if to brush away something nasty and uncomfortable. “One of the things you
don’t know about me is that I love monsters.”
“Monsters?”
I scoffed mockingly.
“Monsters,”
Emryl confirmed.
“You mean
like little blue furry puppets or…”
“I’m
serious, Syd. And you know what I mean.”
“Like
Frankenstein and vampires and…”
“Werewolves
and mummies and,” his voice trailed off when he saw the incredulous look that I
knew was on my face.
“Are you
telling me,” I said with a forced calm, “that you were freaking out because you
thought you saw monsters?” Over the years I had thought many unkind things
about Emryl. I thought he was boorish and chauvinistic. Sometimes I even
thought he was verging on stupid. I thought he was silly and impulsive. He
could be rude and outspoken. There were times the mere sound of his voice was
enough to make me want to gag. One thing I had never classified Emryl Pemstein
as though, was crazy. He was weird maybe but who isn’t weird in their own
right? But could he be insane?
“Not
thought.” He muttered.
“Not…
thought…” I stammered in response. I couldn’t help it. A blinding rage took
over. I reached out and as hard as I could I punched him in the arm. Then I
jumped up and momentarily forgetting that we were in a chapel of a church, I
let out a screeching yell and then hit him again.
“Syd,”
Emryl pleaded. He was scanning the chapel for other patrons, but aside from the
priest, who was making his way over to us again, and the two of us, the chapel
was empty. I wanted to kick him but I didn’t. I simply turned to walk away and
get to class. I glanced down at my watch.
I was already fifteen minutes late and irritation flashed through me
once again.
But Emryl
grabbed me and held me, “You don’t have to like it. And I know you’re not even
going to believe me at first, but at least hear me out.”
“I stopped
believing in monsters, Emryl, when I was five years old!”
“Sir, miss…
I’m so sorry but… this is a place of worship and I must ask you to leave.”
I could
tell the priest didn’t want to chastise us and he was uncomfortable doing so
but we were being very disruptive and my anger once again was channeled toward
Emryl.
“We’re
going,” Emryl assured the priest and he stood rather quickly and once again
grabbed my elbow. I tugged myself away from his grip and stomped towards the
exit ahead of him. He caught up to me though and before I could heave open the
heavy door Emryl grabbed it and he peaked cautiously out.
“You have
got to be kidding!” I cried irritably.
“Just hold
on for a minute. We’ve got to make sure.”
“Make sure
of what, Emryl? That no little green men are out there to get us?”
He glared
coldly at me but nodded. “Will you please let me explain?”
“I’m late
for class. You’re late for class. And there are no such thing as monsters.
You’re wasting my time Emryl and do you know what? I don’t want…”
“I don’t know
who else to turn to, Syd. Please.”
It never
occurred to me that Emryl didn’t have any other friends. I imagined him sitting
around at night playing computer games online with a bunch of other math geeks.
Everybody had friends, didn’t they? If I was the only friend he felt
comfortable enough to share his problems, I felt very bad for Emryl Pemstein
indeed. But I found that I was starting to feel for the guy and even though I
dreaded doing it and figured that I would regret it, I agreed to let him take me
down to I-hop for breakfast and a cup of coffee so that he could explain
himself. “Your treat!” I told him firmly, waving my finger in his face. He
agreed readily and threw both of our bags over his shoulder.
I watched
him as we walked. Emryl wasn’t a bad looking guy, really. I mean, he was a geek
through and through with his big thick glasses. And his face was kind of
pocked. As a teenager Emryl had the worst case of acne in the whole high
school. He truly was a pizza face and he had been teased relentlessly. The acne
had cleared up, but he was left with scars, a horrible reminder of the
unpleasantness of his teenage years. He had thick, slightly curly dark hair.
Sometimes I did have the urge to just run my fingers through it, just to see
what it felt like. But since the hair belonged to Emryl Pemstein, I knew I
never would.
He was
still acting kind of paranoid and weird. He continually looked behind him, and
all around him and he kind of lowered his head into his coat, as if that would
hide him. I was reminded of a turtle with its head just peaking out from its
shell. If he was trying to be discreet, he was failing miserably. People would
glance at him trying to figure out what in the hell he was doing and I wanted
to tell him so but he looked so scared I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
When we
reached I-hop I was very relieved. I was embarrassed by Emryl’s behavior and I
just wanted him to tell me his stupid story so that I could tell him what a
stupid idiot he was, and then I could get on with my life.
“What do
you want?” Emryl asked.
“Just some
coffee. Emryl… you know this is ridiculous, right?”
“Not so
much,” he squeaked. “Look, Syd… I…” he cleared his throat nervously and
suddenly he was smiling, “Hello.”
The
waitress looked bored but offered us a fake smile and asked us if we wanted
something to drink before we ordered. Emryl told her that we both just wanted
some coffee and water.
He waited
until the waitress had walked away again before he continued. “I’ve never told
anybody about this before.”
“It’s a
good thing,” I mumbled callously. “It’s crazy.”
“I’ve been
studying monsters since I could remember,” Emryl told me, ignoring my rudeness.
“I’ve read every book, I’ve researched and researched and…”
“Emryl, you
can’t research monsters! They don’t
exist. They are pretend. They are make believe. It’s fantasy and stories! It’s
not real!” I exclaimed. I was growing increasingly annoyed.
“All
legends, all stories have some basis in truth. Sometimes the facts are
embellished over the years, yes. Sometimes there are exaggerations and… when we
were little kids we used to play a game, Syd. It was called the telephone game,
do you remember it?”
I rolled my
eyes and sighed, “Yes. We all would sit in a circle and somebody would whisper
something to the person sitting next to them. And then that person would
whisper whatever they heard to the person sitting next to them. By the time
we’d get around the circle though, what was originally whispered isn’t the same
as what the first person hears after it’s gone all the way around. I remember.”
I said impatiently.
“That’s how
it is with legends. That’s how it is with history. What we think happened…
usually isn’t what happened at all.
Society, as a whole dismisses a lot of the more...” I could tell Emryl
was struggling with the word he wanted to use and he finally settled on
“unexplained events of the world’s history.”
“Unexplained?”
I asked.
“Unpleasant,
maybe.”
“Well
that’s not true,” I argued. “I know lots of the more icky and deviant behavior
of mankind throughout the timeline of history!”
Emryl
studied me for a few seconds and shrugged, “Maybe you’re not ready.”
“Maybe
not,” I agreed coldly. “But do you know what? I’ve already missed class and
you’ve got me here and,” I exhaled very loudly and I narrowed my eyes at him,
“Okay… I promise I will not interrupt or say anything until you’re through.” I
went through the motion of clamping my mouth shut, zipped my lips and threw
away an invisible key.
Or after the heartbreak?
