Chapter 25

On a cool morning one day before classes, Icarus and I decided to go down to the pond and try to skip stones across it.  It was, in most respects, a complete waste of time, but it was one of those wastes of time I had grown so fond of since I quit FJC.

I don’t think the pond was on campus property in a technical sense, but it was so close to campus that it was always frequented by University students.  In fact, it had gotten so much use by the students that the University eventually decided to help with the up keep of the lawn.

Not that there was really all that much to keep up.  At some point in the past, probably before I was even born, someone had build stairs into the hill that lead down to the pond.  All the University had to do was make sure it didn’t get overgrown with weeds.  The grass was trimmed in a small area that led from the bottom step to the edge of the bank, but fortunately the maintenance ended there.  The beauty of the place was preserved by allowing it to grow naturally.  I suppose with all the attention the University gave to its own lawn, there wasn’t enough time to subjugate the pond as well.

Icarus and I wanted to avoid the crowds so we could enjoy the peace and tranquility of the place.  We went down at nine, a time we knew that few University students would be awake.  I had forgotten about FJC Cadets, who would be just finishing their training session at around nine.

I know, I know.  How could I have possibly forgotten about FJC?  Wasn’t I living every moment of my life in terror as a marked man?  Not really.  As I mentioned before, I tried to deal with the crisis by not thinking about it.  My forgetfulness that morning made me a victim of my own success.  Besides, it’s hard to think of anything serious when I’m around Icarus.  I mean, the guy is one walking distraction from all of life’s  problems, always kidding around and coming up with ridiculous philosophies about life.

The mist was rising off of the pond in the cold morning air, obscuring our view of the other side.  Icarus skipped a stone across the surface of the water, but it became lost to our sight as soon as it entered the mist.  He picked up another pebble.  “Boy, we’re going to run out of these things if the mist keeps gobbling them up,” he said.

“We might,” I agreed.  There really weren’t a lot of rocks around.  The grass went all the way up to the bank of the pond.

“I’m going to have to start bringing my own stones,” Icarus commented.  “I bet I could get a whole bunch from around the science building.”

“I bet you could,” I replied.  “If you wanted to go through all the trouble.”

“It would be worth it I think,” Icarus said as another stone disappeared in the mist.  “There, look.  I’m all out of stuff to throw.”  He thought for a moment.  “Hey, we could go to the science building right now.  We could go over there, fill our pockets with rocks, and be back here in a half-hour.  How about it?”

“Nah.”

“Oh come on man.”

“Nah, that’s too much trouble.  What do you say we just call it quits.  We can come back here tomorrow.”

I could tell Icarus was reluctant to leave.  He was gazing longingly back at the pond as I was already turning towards the stairs.  “You promise?”

When I turned around again to reassure him, a fluffy of movement blurred my vision.  Seeming to appear miraculously from the mist, three Cadets leapt out at us.  Icarus didn’t even get a chance to raise his fists before they sent his body tumbling into the pond.

My first instinct was to run forward and help Icarus, but three angry Cadets stood in my way.  One of them held a big metal rod.  I quickly looked around me, searching for a weapon of some kind.  Nothing.

I moved backwards quickly, and they fell into the trap.  One of them instinctively pursued me; the other two cautiously held their ground.  Now that I had broken their ranks slightly, I lashed out at the one who had followed me.  He must not have expected me to attack so quickly, for I caught him completely off-guard.  I kicked him in the stomach, and when he doubled over, my fist smashed into his nose.  By the time his friends rushed forward to help him, he was already on the ground.  The two of them advanced towards me.  Icarus, who had picked himself up, ran over and tackled one of them from behind.  Icarus and this Cadet began wrestling on the ground.

The other one held a metal rod in his hand about a meter long.  He raised his hand and tried to strike me with the rod, but I caught his wrist on the way down.  I twisted his arm around, forcing him to drop the rod.  I shoved him away, and kneeled down to pick up the rod.  Then, as he ran towards me again, I jabbed on end of the rod into his stomach as I stood up.  Grasping the rod with both hands, I struck him in the head with it.  However, because I did not swing the rod, the full fury of the object was never unleashed.

Icarus, meanwhile, was finding himself little match for a fully trained FJC Cadet.  In fact, his opponent was on top of him landing repeated punches on his chest.  (Icarus was using his arms to shield his face).  A well placed blow from the rod to the Cadet’s back was all it took to get him off of Icarus and on the ground moaning.

I gave Icarus a hand up.  All of our opponents were, for now at least, lying on the ground.  None of them were too badly hurt though.  They might be up again at any moment.

I threw the rod into the pond.  It disappeared as it spun into the mist, followed by a splashing sound.  “Come on, let’s scram,” I said to Icarus.  A couple of the Cadets were already beginning to get up.

Icarus and I sprinted up the staircase.  By the time we got to the top, Icarus was just about ready to collapse.  I was feeling a bit winded, but I was still in excellent shape from FJC.  “I need…to…sit down,” Icarus panted out.

“Yeah, go ahead.  I think we’re in the clear for—“  I stopped in mid-sentence.  Icarus was so tired he didn’t even notice.  He just turned and went towards a tree he could sit under.  I looked ahead, and saw my worst fears manifested.  Orion was standing a few feet away.

Without either of us saying anything, we began walking towards each other.  Orion had a serious expression on his face, but also a confident expression.  Maybe even a trace of a confident smile was hidden away in his lips.  His walk was certainly confident though.  Every movement of his exuded confidence.

I was nervous as I approached him, but a lot had changed since we were kids.  He was still big and strong, but I was big and strong too.  And I was almost as tall as him now.  Besides which I had beaten all the other Cadets who had come against me.  I would probably beat him too.

We were right next to each other now, but he didn’t do anything.  He just kept starring confidently, and that hint of a smile became more visible.  It was as if he was daring me to hit him first.

I had already mentally envisioned a couple of well-placed punches sending Orion sprawling on the ground.  But, when my right hand flew towards his head, Orion quickly deflected the blow with his arm.  My left hand flew forward as well, but this Orion blocked with his other hand.  Next, Orion’s knee struck my stomach.

I fell on the ground, more from the surprise of the blow then the force of it.  Orion tried to kick me, but I moved quickly enough to avoid it.  In the same motion, I swung my legs and struck the leg Orion was standing on while he kicked, hoping to knock him off balance.  Orion didn’t move.  It was like kicking a tree.

Icarus had, by this time, realized what was happening and ran over to help me out.  He grabbed Orion in a stranglehold from behind.  Orion, almost mechanically, as if shooing away a fly, shot his arm back in a rigid motion to strike whatever was behind him.  Icarus was hit right in the face, and immediately let go of Orion and collapsed on the ground.  Icarus had given me time enough to get to my feet though.

Orion and I eyed each other cautiously.  We began circling around.  He did not let the moment last though.  He lunged at me with a punch.  I managed to get out of the way in time and I struck Orion in the side.  Orion swung his arm wildly and hit my head.  I stumbled backwards.  Before I could regain my footing he was upon me, and his first hit my chest.  I thought all my bones were going to shatter, and I was knocked to the ground.

He kneeled down on top of me, pinning my chest to the ground with his knee.  I squirmed around, trying to get out from under him, but to no avail.  As I struggled to free myself, my hand felt along the ground for a weapon.  I found a rock, slightly larger then the size of my fist, and I seized it.  My intention was to smash the rock into Orion’s head, but he was too quick for me.  He grabbed my wrist, pinning it to the ground.  With his other hand, he began striking me several times.  His blows were painful at such a close distance, but he didn’t get many hits in.  I grabbed his neck and pushed upwards on it, cutting off his air supply.  He was forced to stop hitting me and instead use his hand to pry my hand off of his throat.  He now had both my wrists in his grip.  I couldn’t strike at him, and he didn’t want to let go of me.

Instead, Orion began putting more pressure on my chest, shifting most of his weight to his knee.  It became hard for me to breathe, and I started gasping for air.  His face broke into a full smile as he watched me struggle for breath.  I tried to use my legs to knock him off of me, but without success.

Next, I used a trick I had learned in FJC training.  By turning both of my arms inward, against Orion’s thumbs, I forced him to let go of me.  I acted fast before he could grab my wrists again, slamming my rock into Orion’s head.  To my surprise, Orion barely reacted to the blow, and I had to hit him twice just to get him off of me.

As soon as Orion fell off of me, I scrambled to my feet.  He stood up just as fast.  I still clutched the rock tightly in my hand, and I swung at Orion, trying to strike him with it.  He dodged the blow.  I swung again.  Orion stepped cleanly out of the way, then grabbed my arm.  The next thing I knew he had thrown me over his shoulder, and I was sailing through the air.

I landed flat on my back.  I must have dropped my rock somewhere in the surprise of being so abruptly thrown.  I barely had time to get to my feet before Orion was striking at me again.  My arm was able to deflect his first blow.  He was able to jab me in the stomach with his second blow, but I took the hit well and stood my ground.  His third hit I was able to block.

Then I decided to take the offensive.  I struck at Orion repeatedly and rapidly.  I was so angry and desperate that I didn’t think carefully about what I was doing and, to the best of my memory, Orion blocked every one of these attacks.  Then, when I began to slow down, his fist made a lightening attack, and I was struck in the chest before I had time to react.

My body was so sore and I was so tired.  My spirit grew faint at the prospect of Orion pummeling me more.  So, in desperation, I lunged towards Orion and grabbed him.  My hands gripped his shoulders tightly as I tried to push him over.  I almost got him too.  I think I surprised him with that move.  But, just when I thought this giant might topple, he regained his balance by grabbing onto me.  We wrestled briefly.  Then—

“Okay, knock it off you two.  This is a University Campus, not a war ground.  People come here to learn.”  I felt several pairs of hands being laid on me, and saw several people grabbing Orion as well, and we were pulled apart.  Some old man in a nice suit, obviously one of the University administrators, was yelling at us.  “We have students walking to class here, and they have to watch you two trying to bash each other’s brain in?  Not on my campus boys.  I don’t know what this is about, and I don’t want to know, but if I catch either of you two fighting again, you’ll be subject to disciplinary action.”  The old man glared at us, then became frustrated that neither was responding.  “Do I make myself clear?” he shouted.

“Yes sir,” I answered.

“Yes sir,” Orion sweetly replied, his voice so flowing and melodic.  I could tell the old man liked him at once.  Orion didn’t have a mark on him from the fight, despite having been hit in the head twice with a rock.  He wasn’t even sweating that much.  He looked like he was ready to go on a date.

I couldn’t see myself, but I knew I had taken a few blows and that it showed.  I could feel it.  My suspicions were confirmed by Icarus, who looked sympathetically at me once the administrator’s men had let me go.  “Boy, you look terrible Jonny.”

Icarus himself had a big black eye, so I just smiled in return.  I think Icarus knew what I was thinking.  “I’m going to have to stop hanging out with you Jonny.  I didn’t realize it was so dangerous.”

Clio ran into my arms as soon as I opened her door.  I grimaced in pain as she hugged me tightly, but she didn’t even appear to notice.  My chest was still tender after the repeated blows from Orion that morning.  “I was so worried about you,” she blurted out.  “The whole campus was talking about you today.”

“What were they saying?”  I knew what the answer was going to be, but for some reason I asked anyway.

“You know.  About the fight.  Are you okay?  I was thinking about you all day.”

“I’m okay.  You should see Orion though.  He looks real beat-up.”  I was joking again, but she couldn’t tell.  She had a confused expression on her face, and then just wiped it away.

“You don’t look that bad.”

“No, now that I’ve changed out of my bloody shirt I don’t.”  I couldn’t resist making some macho comment like that as a reminder to her that I had been in an all out fight and had sustained honorable combat wounds.

Of course she overreacted.  “Oh no!  Oh let me see Jon!”  Her voice was overly sympathetic, as if I might collapse dead any minute.  She started lifting up my shirt and peering inside, looking for wounds.

I tugged my shirt back down again.  “There’s nothing to see.”

She persisted, lifting the shirt back up.  I want to see,” she declared.  I didn’t resist this time.  Then, once the shirt was off, she could see the black and blue bruises that covered most of my chest.  “It’s worse then I thought,” she said in awe.

“It’s not that bad,” I asserted.

“Well, I hope you cleaned yourself off properly.”

“I did.”

She peered closer at my skin.  “No you didn’t.  Look, there’s an open sore and you still have dirt by it.”

Caught in my lie, I tried to joke my way out of it.  “Well, if you want to get picky about it…”

She was not amused.  “Wait there,” she commanded.  She left the room and went into the hallway, returning after a couple of minutes with soap and a bucket of cold water.  I didn’t protest as she thoroughly washed out my wounds, even though the water was icy cold.  I refused to let her dwell on it though.  “I was so worried something like this would happen,” she whined.

“Let’s talk about something else.”

“Like what?”

“Anything.”

She dabbed at my wounds in silence for a couple minutes, and then spoke up again.  “Well, Hermes talked to my brother last night.”

I laughed softly.  “I knew he would.  I’m just surprised it took him so long.  What did you brother have to say.”

“He’s doing it.  He’s agreed to give Art Guild another try.”

I nodded approvingly.  “I think that’s the right choice.  And, hopefully that will get Hermes off my back.”  I paused.  “It had better anyway.”

She looked up at me.  “Well, he has what he wants now, right?”

I let out a sigh.  “He’ll probably just find something else to bug me about.”

Chapter 26

        I made sure I went to art guild early the next time to avoid being embarrassed by Hermes in front of a large crowd.  Hermes and Orpheus were already there.  Tucked away in tow chairs in the corner, they talked loudly, taking advantage of the fact that they were the only two there.  Hermes bolted out of his seat when he saw me.  “There he is!” Hermes exclaimed, running toward me.  I braced myself to be tackled, but at the last minute Hermes relented, deciding to slap my hand instead.  “I got him here Jonny.  NO thanks to you certainly, but I got him.”

        “Glad to see you two are hitting it off,” I said, breathing a sigh of relief at seeing everything progressing so well.

        “Well what were you worried about?” Hermes asked.

        “Nothing.”

“Come on Jon, you can say it.”

“No, I wasn’t really worried about anything.  Really.”

“Come on, just say it.”

“Would you let it go man?”  I raised my voice, not really because I was irritated but because I thought it was the best way to get Hermes to be quiet.  Hermes had an odd quirk in that he took a great deal of delight in upsetting his friends.  He liked to take little things and push on them.

Hermes just smiled at my response.  “Hey, calm down.”  Hermes resumed his seat by Orpheus.  “Come sit down Jon.  Orpheus is showing me his portfolio.”

“These are just a few paintings I carry around with me sometimes,” Orpheus explained.  “Actually, my best stuff is in my room.  You’ve seen it Jon.”

Hermes’ eyes lit up.  “There’s better stuff?”  He seized Orpheus by the shoulders, almost shaking him.  “I have to see it sometime.”  Hermes looked up at me.  “Sometimes I am so jealous of you Jon.”

“It is quite amazing,” I admitted.

“This stuff is quite amazing,” Hermes bubbled.  “Have you seen the blue one?”

“Blue one?”

“Hermes turned to Orpheus.  “Has he seen the blue one?”

‘No, I don’t think you have Jon,” Orpheus said, paging through his stack of paintings.  “Here it is,” he said, pulling one out.  He set it reverently on top of the stack, and I leaned forward to get a better look, being careful not to touch anything.  It was a confusing swirl of dark and light blue colors.  It looked absolutely meaningless.

“Amazing,” I said softly, my voice filed with quiet awe.

“Isn’t it?” Hermes replied.  “Now, Orpheus, I have got to see more of these.”

Orpheus pulled out another one.  Hermes’ jaw dropped.  “That is absolutely incredible.  How in the world did you do that?”

“Oh, it certainly took me a while.  I went through ten, maybe fifteen drafts, before I finally got the colors I wanted.  But when I got it, it was perfect.”

Hermes seemed to lose himself in the painting, before turning to us and commenting, “you know, I’ve never seen student art this good before.  I’ve never seen any student art close to this good before.”

As other people started arriving, the art guild meeting got under way.  Hermes restrained himself from praising Orpheus too lavishly during the meeting, but a tone of reverence was in his voice when ever he mentioned the name “Orpheus”.

Our project for the meeting was to draw a picture of our greatest hope.  I drew a picture of a forest.  I’m not even really sure why, it just seemed like an appropriate kind of thing to draw.  Maybe I was just sick of city life at the time, and how it was so constricting, and how there was always somebody telling you what to do.  It wasn’t a very good picture, but it was recognizable at least.  You could tell what were trees and what were bushes.  A decent picture by my standards, but I wasn’t really heartbroken when no one paid any attention to it.  Everyone was too busy admiring Orpheus’ picture.

Orpheus had completely disregarded the assignment, but nobody seemed to care.  His painting appeared to me to be little more then a random collection of brush strokes.  Unlike most of his other paintings, which usually used several different shades of color, this only had two colors: black and dark red.  Kind of somber colors, I thought, considering the original assignment.  If he was just going to take two colors and throw them on a canvas, he could have at least used some more cheerful colors.  But, there it was.  Red and black, red and black, red and black all over.

Everyone couldn’t wait to flatter Orpheus.

“Amazing!”

“Outstanding!”

“Why I’ve never seen anything like it before!”

I was getting a little tire of listening to it, so I walked down the hall to get a drink of water.  When I came back, they were still praising him, so I just went for a second drink.  On my way back, I ran into Hermes.

“Oh, hey Jon.  What are you doing out here?”  He sounded surprised to see me.  He must not have even noticed when I left the room.

“I was just getting a drink.  What have you got there,” I said, indicating the canvas under his arm.

He showed it to me.  Like I thought it would be, it was Orpheus’ paining.  “Amazing, isn’t it Jon?  And he was barely even trying.  It was just something he threw together for Art Guild.  He wasn’t even that attached to it so he let me borrow it.”

Black and red.  Red and black.  I didn’t understand what everyone was so excited about.  “What are you going to do with it?” I asked.

“I was thinking about showing this to Icarus.  He’d get a kick out of this, don’t you think?”

“I’m sure he’d love it.”

“Maybe then we can get him to finally come to our meetings, huh?  Once he sees what he’ll be missing out on.”

I smiled.  “I wouldn’t count on it.”

Hermes returned my smile.  “No, you’re probably right.”

Hermes would later tell me how he had arrived at Icarus’ dorm room, and how he had shoved the canvas in Icarus’ face, blabbering about how Icarus had to look at it immediately.  Icarus did little more then glance at the painting before pushing it aside and changing the subject.  Hermes didn’t give up so easily, and tried to talk over Icarus.  Icarus ignored him.  Finally, Hermes had given up and left, leaving the canvas with Icarus in the hopes that he would look at it later.

Hermes was still rather upset about it when he told me.  “I don’t get it Jon.  I was so eager to show him that painting.  I thought he’d love it.”  The sight of Hermes, who looked so miserable from Icarus’ rejection, was just too much for me and I started laughing.  “Oh knock it off Jon,” Hermes said, irritated.

“You know, you really should have known he would do something like this,” I said.  I had stopped laughing, but I still wore a pretty large grin on my face.

“Yeah, I should have.”

I was sitting in the cafeteria one day, eating a sandwich by myself and trying to get some studying done at the same time.  I held my book in one hand, my sandwich in the other.  It was a nice arrangement, unless I needed to turn pages.  A friend stopped by the table briefly.  “Hey Jonny, where is everyone today?”

“I don’t know Peter,” I answered.

Peter paused by my table, contemplating why there were so many empty chairs during lunchtime.  Then he walked on.

I stayed studying for about another half-hour or so.  Then Peter came running back.  He rapped loudly on my table as if to get my attention, even though I was already looking up at him.  “Jon, you’ve got to see this,” he exclaimed.

“See what?”

“Come on!”

And so, my curiosity sufficiently intrigued, I followed Peter all the way to the auditorium.  My surprise, when we arrived there, was full.

Up on stage was Icarus.  Resting beside him, on an easel, was Orpheus’ painting.  Icarus was talking to the crowd, fully enjoying his moment in the spotlight.  He paced back and forth upon the stage, and made grand gestures with his hands.  I was too far way to hear what he was saying, but I just assumed it was ridiculous.  I was puzzled as to why so many people would gather to hear Icarus.

But they weren’t the most attentive audience by any means.  People were coming and going freely, walking in to see what was going on, listening for a while, and then leaving.  Others were simply in small clusters, sitting on the floor and talking to each other.  That was why I couldn’t hear Icarus from the back of the auditorium.  All I could hear was the hum of many different conversations.  Some students had gotten into the balcony, and were throwing food at the students below.  It was a rather chaotic scene.

Peter and I strolled down to the front of the auditorium.  The pathways were relatively free, but we still had to step around people sitting and talking.  There was even one person sitting in the middle of the aisle, in the midst of all that chaos, reading a book.

Icarus was so into himself he didn’t even see us coming.  He just continued talking, and as I got closer to him, I began to hear what he was actually saying.  “…and we see here quite clearly a call for something new.  A call for a new way of doing things.  A complete break from the past.  Different.”  He was certainly being repetitive, but that was understandable.  If he had ascended the stage without a speech prepared, as I’m sure he had, and then proceeded to make everything up as he went, he would have to stretch every thought out as long as it would go.  I kept listening as he continued.  “What we see here, my friends, is a call for a radical political change.  A new political establishment.”

Peter poked me in the side with his elbow and leaned in to whisper to me.  “I think he’s stretching things just a bit, don’t you?”  Peter looked at me with a smile, expecting me to make some sort of joke about Icarus.  I barely even heard his comment though.  My mind was too busy clicking.  I swore loudly, surprising Peter by the abruptness of the action, and ran out of the room.

I ran out of the auditorium, pushing my way past those entering or those leaving slowly.  Not caring how many stares I was receiving, I sprinted through the hallways and burst out the door.  Once outside, I jumped down a flight of stairs rather then walk down them.  My feet pounded rapidly on the pavement, and then I cut across the lawn and the sound was much softer, but then I returned to the pavement again.  I dashed into a dorm lobby, frightening all who were sitting in it.  I frantically bounded up a flight of stairs and turned into a hallway.  As I ran towards Orpheus’ room, I saw three FJC Cadets standing guard outside.  Their backs were to the hallway, and they were so interested in what was going on inside that they didn’t notice me even though I wasn’t running that quietly.  I quickly pushed my way past them and ran into the room.

Orion was standing in the middle, grinning that stupid grin of his.  “I thought you’d show up Jonny,” he said.  In the middle of the floor was a pile of Orpheus’ paintings ripped to shreds.  Orpheus was lying down in a corner of the room, his face all covered with blood.  Clio was cradling his head.  Orpheus was actually crying as he watched his paintings being destroyed.  Weeping maybe would be a better word for it.  Huge tears were coming from his eyes, and he would sob every so often.

“What’s going on here?” I asked Orion, my voice choked with fury.

“Surely you must have heard Jon,” Orion answered in a patronizing voice, “this art has been condemned as treasonous.”

“You have no authority to make that judgement.”

“I think the law is clearly on my side.  Now, Jon, as an official FJC Cadet, I’m going to have to ask you, as a civilian, to step aside and not to interfere with official business.  You know, of course, that the legal consequences for interfering with a government official can be quite sever.  Not that you need to worry about that, huh?  I mean, with your connections, you seem to be able to get away with just about everything else.”  Orion turned away from me and walked towards Orpheus.  Clio frantically tired to back away, but she was up against the wall as it was.  “Alright, Artist, where’s the rest of it?”  Orpheus just responded with sobs.  “Come on, I know this isn’t your best stuff.”  Orion turned around, disgusted by the crying.  “So this is the kind of company you keep, huh Jon?  You left the FJC for this?”  Orion looked around the room.  “Not too hard to tell what desk is your, is it Artist?”  As usual, Dagon’s desk was perfectly neat, but Orpheus’ was barely visible beneath the scattered papers and art supplies.  Orion waited for Orpheus to respond, even though Orpheus showed no sign of saying anything.  “Go on and cry,” Orion said at last.

“Here Artist, let me help you clean.”  Orion swept everything off the desk and onto the floor.  As if that wasn’t enough, he then picked a couple of paint brushes off of the floor, and snapped them in half, then casually dropped them back on the floor.

Orion pulled out one of Orpheus’ desk draws and emptied the contents on the ground.  Several papers fluttered out of the draw.  They looked like just simple sketches: black ink on paper.  Stuff Orpheus probably did in his spare time.  Orion gave a nod to the other Cadets.  They came over and started ripping up even the smallest drawing, and emptying the other two drawers as well.

“Where is it?” Orion asked again, this time his voice much more forceful.  “You might as well tell me Artist.  I will find it eventually.”

Orion walked over to the closet.  Like the rest of the room, the closet was divided into two halves: Dagon’s half and Orpheus’ half.  One half was neatly folded, the other had some clothes loosely on hangers, but most of them lying on the floor.  Orion didn’t even bother with the neat half, but began throwing stuff from Orpheus’ half out into the middle of the room.  It was not a big closet, so he only had to throw out a couple piles of clothes before he found what he was looking for.  “Jack pot,” he called out.

Orion carefully removed about twelve canvases from the closet and set them reverently against the wall.  He looked at them with almost a sort of admiration.  “Not bad Orpheus.  Not bad at all.”  He raised his eyebrows and turned to the other three Cadets.  “In fact, this is really impressive.”

One of the Cadets gave a contemptuous laugh.  “Looks like just a swirl of colors to me.”

Orion turned to Orpheus.  “You and me, we know differently, don’t we?  In fact, we’re probably the only two people in this room that truly understand what great art this is.”  Orion looked at the painting in silence for a while.  It was probably just half a minute, but it seemed like an eternity as we all tensely waited to see what he was going to do.  Even the other Cadets seemed a little uncomfortable during this time.  Then, Orion angrily kicked one of the canvases, breaking it in half.

I rushed forward to protect the other paintings.  Fist ready to strike, I lunged at Orion.  He calmly stepped out of the way, then used my own momentum against me by grabbing me and throwing me into the wall.  Several of the canvases bent or broke under me.

Orion looked overly pleased with himself at having used my body to break more paintings.  I didn’t want him to have a chance to gloat.  I launched myself off of the wall and plowed my fists into Orion’s chest.  I knocked him all the way back into Orpheus’ desk.  He fell onto the desktop.  Pressing my advantage, I was practically on top of him, hitting him.  He grabbed hold of me and threw me to the floor.

I stood up as he got off the desk.  I grabbed a chair and started swinging it wildly at Orion.  It was a standard dorm issue chair, old and wooden.  Orion waited patiently, slowly backing up to avoid the chair.  Then, he quickly grabbed one of the chair legs and yanked it forward.  I should have just let go of the chair, but I hung on tightly and was pulled forward with it.  I hit the wall and fell to the ground, resulting in more canvases being damaged.  Orion smashed the chair into the desk, sending the fragments flying everywhere.

I quickly turned around and sat up as Orion walked toward me.  He towered above me, but with both my legs I kicked him in the knee with all the force I could.  His body wobbled but he was able to regain his balance before he fell.  Instead of striking back at me, he just smiled.  “Stand up Jon,” he commanded.

I stood up cautiously.  No sooner had I gotten to my feet, then his hand lashed out.  I blocked the first hit, which had been aimed at my head.  Orion hit my stomach, and I bent over from the force of the blow.  His hand came down hard on my back, but I didn’t fall down.  Instead I flung my arms around Orion’s waste, and pushed my shoulder into his stomach.  I successfully knocked him off balance, but he grabbed me on his way down.  The tow of us fell on the floor.  I was on top of him at first, and got as many hits as I could in before he knocked me off.  He tried to get on top and, remembering what happened last time, I used all four of my limbs to knock him back into the wall.  Then I lunged at him but he knocked me back.  And so, the two of us scuffled on the floor for a while until Orion stood up after knocking me down one last time.  I quickly stood up as well, ready for whatever he had planned.  He just turned and walked away though, without saying another word.

The other cadets were just as confused as I was.  “What are you doing?” one of them asked.  “Now’s our chance.  Let’s get him.”

“We’ll get him later,” Orion replied.  “Our job here is done.”

The looked like angry children.  One of them took a few steps towards me.  “Leave him,” Orion commanded.  The cadet obediently stepped away from me.  I can’t say I blame him.  I don’t think I would have disobeyed Orion either if I were in that situation.

Orion was already out the door by this time, and the other Cadets reluctantly followed him.  “We’ll get you yet Jonny,” one of them said as he backed out through the door.

I didn’t move until all of the cadets were out of the room, and even after they had left Clio, Orpheus, and I remained silent until we were sure they were gone.  They stepped heavily, and their footsteps made clear thuds.  The thuds grew fainter, and eventually disappeared altogether.

I collapsed into a chair in relief, and Clio ran over and squeezed me tight.  As I looked past Clio’s head, I saw Orpheus, his hands shifting through what was left of his paintings.

Clio still held me tight, preventing me from standing up, but I could se Orion’s work from where I sat.  All of the paintings he had laid out had been absolutely crushed underneath our bodies.  That was probably what he had been planning in the first place, to use my own body against me in order to destroy Orpheus’ art.

Orpheus’ whole body began to shake.  His hands were shaking so bad he couldn’t even pick up the fragments of his art.  Although not a sound came from him, I knew he was sobbing.

Clio and I tried to comfort Orpheus, but every time I put a friendly hand on his shoulder, he shook it off.  He seemed almost beyond comfort.

“It will be okay,” Clio told him.  “You can always make more.”  He acted like he didn’t here her.

Orpheus was giving every indication that he wanted to be alone, and I began to feel increasingly awkward, as if I was interfering with some intimate moment Orpheus was sharing with the canvas fragments.  I started slowly moving towards the door.  Much to my relief Eurydice, Orpheus’ girlfriend, arrived in a short time.  I could tell by how quickly she came into the room that she already knew what had happened.  She must have heard about it somehow.

Now that Eurydice and Clio were both present, I took my opportunity to slip out the door.  They were both so absorbed with Orpheus that I didn’t even bother to tell them I was leaving.  And Orpheus was so involved with himself he had probably forgotten I was even there.

I made my way back to my dorm room.  The room seemed very empty.  Well, it was always empty.  I had it all to myself.  Somehow, though, it felt empty now too.  The whole dorm felt empty.  I tried to study, but soon ended up throwing my book against the wall in frustration.  I couldn’t concentrate.  I sat in my chair for a while and reflected on the day’s events.  Then I threw a bunch of stuff in a book bag, and decided to go to The Cave.  Maybe there I could study.  With so many people around, surely I’d be able to escape this feeling of loneliness.

The Cave was always pretty full no matter what time of day I went there.  It seemed to be the main place to hang out for campus intellectuals.  I managed to find a seat pretty easily, but I didn’t bother to order anything.  Things were disorganized enough there that I could slip into a seat without being noticed, and so I avoided the glares normally associated with a non-paying patron.  And it was a little easier to study in The Cave.  The noise helped to calm me down.

But it was not to last long.  I had just begun to study when a steaming cup was placed under me.  I looked up and saw Hermes.  “Mind if I buy you a drink?” he asked.

“Have a seat,” I replied.

I tasted the drink.  It was surprisingly sweet.  “I got you favorite,” Hermes said.

“Thanks.”

“How are you feeling Jon?”

“Okay.”

“Hey, I heard what happened.”

“Already?”

“Yeah, it spread pretty quick.  How bad is it?”

“Is what?”

“You know Jon, the paintings.  Are they damaged pretty bad?”

“They’re completely destroyed.”

“What?”

“Demolished.  They’re all in fragments now.”

Hermes hit the table.  “I never even got to see them.”

“He’ll make more.”

“But Jon, those were his masterpieces.  You can’t duplicate masterpieces.”  I just stared at my drink.  Hermes looked like he was about to tear his hair out.  “Jon, I’m so sorry,” he said after a moment’s silence.

“Sorry for what?”

“For this whole thing.  I had no idea Icarus was going to do that with the painting.”  It didn’t seem to me that Hermes was really at fault at all for what had happened, but he seemed so repentant that I didn’t want to argue with him.  I just shrugged and looked down at my drink.  “I just wanted Icarus to enjoy the painting.”

“No one can predict what Icarus is going to do,” I said.

“No, no one can.”  I looked up from my drink and Hermes locked eyes with me.  He looked somewhat calmer now.  “Well, for what it’s worth Jon, do you want to hear what happened?”

“Yeah, sure.”

A smile crept into Hermes’ somber face.  “It’s really a funny story actually.  Icarus has this literature class, and everyone in the class has a specific day where they’re supposed to bring in a piece of literature and tell the rest of the class what it means.  Apparently the professor makes a pretty big deal out of it.  It’s a major part of their grade for the class.  So, most students go to the library about a week ahead of time and pick out a well-known selection, and then read every commentary they can get their hands on.  Icarus doesn’t do any of this, of course.”

“Of course,” I repeated.

“In fact he wakes up in the morning, is just about to go to class, and then for some unknown reason, a flash of inspiration from God perhaps, he decides to check his schedule and see if he has anything due for that day.”

I was smiling now too.  “I don’t know how he ever made it this far at the University.  He should have failed out his first year.”

“Ah, Icarus is smarter then you given him credit for.  For instance, he’s smart enough not to enroll in any math courses or science courses or anything where the answer is right or wrong.  He wouldn’t last a second there.  But he flourishes in these literature classes, where sometimes all you have to do is sound like you know what you’re talking about, and that’s enough.  Anyway, he realizes he’s in trouble, but of course he doesn’t give up.  He looks around his room frantically for something he can bring to share with the class, and his eyes fall on Orpheus’ painting.  I don’t think he ever looked at it until then.  He probably forgot it was even there.  But he sees it, and he grabs it.

“But it’s a literature class,” I said, sounding as confused as I felt.

“Well Jon, who really knows what goes on in the mind of Icarus.  Maybe he just grabbed the thing and was out the door before he realized the thing wasn’t going to fly in a literature class.  Maybe he just grabbed it in desperation and was thinking the whole way there how he could justify bringing it in.  At any rate, he didn’t have a problem.  Once he showed the class the painting, even the professor fell instantly in love with it.  Icarus babbled out something about how art was a visual form of literature, but the class was so impressed by Orpheus’ work that they didn’t even need to hear it.  They couldn’t wait to hear what Icarus had to say about it.”

I rolled my eyes.  “Great.  I’ll bet Icarus loved that.”

“Well, that was the problem, yeah.  He loved being the center of attention, absolutely loved it.  And he immediately launched into his description of the painting, and the audience was hanging on his every word.  He wasn’t even talking about revolution at that point.  I don’t think it had even occurred to him yet.  He was just trying to describe the painting, and he was making everything up as he went.”  Hermes stopped and clinked his spoon around in his coffee cup.  He seemed to be fully in a good mood now.  “I would have really liked to have seen that whole thing Jon.  At one point someone in the class asks him what the artist’s name is, and Icarus has to pause, and think, and then admit he has no clue who the artist is.  Here’s this painting, that he’s been lecturing the class on for probably a half hour at this point, and the artist could be from another planet for all he knows.”

“Didn’t you tell—“

“Yeah, I did but he wasn’t listening.  It went right in one ear and out the other.  As you can imagine, Icarus begins to lose a bit of credibility at this point.  Some of the other students were beginning to see through him already.  They’re still listening quietly, but their faces start to turn from interested to bored stiff, and after a while even Icarus starts to come down from his cloud and notice.  So he begins to drop little hints that the picture might have political meaning.  Just the tiniest little vague hints at first.  But that’s all it takes.  The class snaps back to attention.  The professor is beginning to get a little nervous, but Icarus is talking in such vague terms that there’s nothing really he can object to.  The class time ends and people actually stay after to keep listening to Icarus.  Icarus is still talking in vague terms, but the professor is getting very nervous as to how far he’ll go with this, so the professor uses the end of the class as and excuse to clear everyone out, making up some lie about how another class has to come in and use the space.  So, Icarus leaves with his entourage and they spill over into the open auditorium nearby.  Icarus takes the stage and begins talking and it doesn’t take too long before his political references stop being so subtle and he stops being vague, and then the next thing everyone knows he’s talking about revolution and a new government and then people start flocking into the auditorium to see him.”

“And I know what happened from there,” I finished up.  I shook my head.  “Man, I bet that professor is wishing he would have kept this whole thing quietly contained in the classroom.”

“To late for that now, huh?”

“And what about Icarus?”

Hermes shrugged.  “He hasn’t been punished yet, but I’m sure he’ll be expelled.”

“Well, that will probably make him happy.  Just like his hero Clodius.”

Hermes looked straight at me.  “Those kids are insane,” he said gravely.  “I don’t know what kind of a game they think they’re playing, but they’re going to get hurt.”

I went out with Clio later that night.  As we walked around the streets by the University, she told me how she and Eurydice had helped Orpheus clean up his broken art.  Although she thought that some of the paintings were salvageable, Orpheus had insisted on throwing everything away.  “I’m not sure why,” she said.  “He can be strange like that sometimes.”

“Maybe he just wants to avoid further trouble,” I suggested.

“Maybe.”

It was silent for a while.  All that could be heard was a soft rain falling and our footsteps against the stone road.  The rain was so light that neither of us were getting very wet, but the air had a very misty feel to it.  The light from the street lights became fuzzy and formless in the mist.

“I was very impressed with you,” Clio said.

“With what?”

“With the way you stood up to those Cadets.”

I rolled my eyes.  “A lot of good that did.  I got beat pretty bad.”

“But you tried.  You knew he was stronger then you, and you still wanted to fight him to help us.”  She paused.  “You aren’t hurt, are you?”

“No, I’m alright.”

“You were very brave.  I was proud that you were my boyfriend.”  She stopped to kiss me.  She had to stand on her tiptoes to get to my lips.  I kissed her back, then extended my arm around her.  She snuggled in against me.  “You’re so nice to me,” she said.  “I’ve never had anyone do so many good things for me in my life.”  In the misty light, I’m sure she couldn’t see me blushing, but I was embarrassed by the praise.  She squeezed my hand tightly.  “There’s something I want to tell you.”

“Okay.”

“You have to promise not to freak out first.”

“I promise.”

“I love you.”

I probably should have seen that coming.  The whole conversation had been leading up to that.  It caught me by surprise though.  She was looking up at me, knowing she had just exposed herself.  She seemed in that moment so sensitive and fragile.  I knew I had to react somehow, but I didn’t know what to do.  I reached out and hugged her, and she was pleased with this.  “Well, that’s positive,” she said.  The hug was only to buy myself time until I had to say something to her.

Thousands of voices were screaming in my head.  There were a thousand different ways to handle the situation.  But the loudest voice of all was yelling, “You’re running out of time.  You’re running out of time.  You can’t pause much longer before you have to say something to her.”  The voice was so loud it drowned out all the other voices, and I never got a chance to think clearly about it.  When the hug was over, I looked at her and gave the only answer I could think of.  “I love you too,” I answered.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“You’re not just saying this because it’s what I want to hear, are you?”  She was giving me every opportunity to get out of it, but I couldn’t take it back after I had already said it.  I couldn’t even appear to be hesitating too long.  “Of course not,” I answered without hesitation.

Did I love her?  I wasn’t sure.  Even at age 21 I don’t think I had a clue what love is.  So, I suppose better to err on the side of making her happy.

Chapter 27

David came to visit me the next day.  I was sitting at my desk when he walked in.  He had long ago gotten out of the habit of knocking.

“Hey Jon.”

“Hey.”

“What are you up to?”

“Just some homework.  You?”

“Not much.  Hey, I heard what happened yesterday.”

“I figured you would.  What happened to Icarus?”

“I think he’s meeting with the disciplinary committee tomorrow.  He’s already started packing his bags though.  He knows he’ll be expelled.”

“At this rate I’ll be the only one from our old school to graduate.”

David gave me a half smile in response, then quickly changed gears.  “Hey Jon, are you coming tonight?  We’ve got another youth group meeting.”  I remained silent.  “Things are really starting to happen man.”

“I’d like to stay out of trouble for a change,” I replied.

David kneeled down next to me.  “You saw what happened yesterday Jon.  The state can’t allow us any freedom at all.  Not even artists are free.  We’ll all suffocate if we don’t break free.”

I stood up as I closed my book.  “Yeah, well none of this would have happened if our revolutionary friend could keep his mouth shut about things he knows nothing about.”

The words were barely out of my mouth when David started his reply.  He was so eager to disagree with me.  “Did Icarus smash those paintings?”

“He might as well have.”

“What did he do?  His only crime was speaking his opinion.”  I just glared at David in response.  Icarus knew full well what the result of his actions would be.  Or at least he should have, if he would have stopped to think for once in his life.  David spoke up again.  “Did you see the way people were packed into that auditorium?  How much attention he got?  That’s a sign Jon, a sign that our generation is ready to fight.  They just need someone to show them the way.”  He leaned in close to me.  “These are exciting times we’re living in Jon.  These chances come once in a thousand years, and I’m offering you a chance to be part of it.”

Well, I had to admit he was a good salesman.  “Alright.  I’ll come.”

I met up with Icarus, David, and Helen later that night and we went to the meeting.  I hadn’t spoken to Icarus since the incident, and I was still a little upset at him, but he apologized to me as soon as he saw me, and that defused my anger.  I told him he should probably apologize to Orpheus instead of me.  He nodded, but I don’t think he had any intention of doing that.  Then, Icarus began talking about his impending expulsion, and he made himself out to be a martyr.  My urge to strangle him quickly returned.

We arrived at the chapel.  Many of the same people who were there last time were again present.  And the group seemed larger too, but maybe that was just my perception.

Angela greeted us at the door, but this time had no objection to letting me in.  Once inside, Rosa was watching hawk-like over everyone present.  She scrutinized everyone with her gaze, and soon I felt myself being examined by her.  I didn’t dare make eye contact, so I just pretended I didn’t realize she was looking at me.  She deemed me satisfactory and moved on to her next victim.

I looked around for Simon, but I couldn’t find him.  I asked David about it.  “Does Simon not come to these things anymore?”

David looked around.  “Is he not here?”  David twisted his neck to look in all directions.  “He’s usually here.  Maybe he’s busy tonight.”

I was disappointed at not seeing Simon.  That was part of the whole reason I came in the first place.  After all, I’ve seen very little of Simon the past few years.  Every one else was very friendly though.  “Good to see you here again Jon,” Emma said to me.  “You were here a while back, right?  How many meetings ago was that?”

“I don’t know,” I answered.  “How many meetings have you guys had since Thursday.”

“Just a couple.  But, you know Jon,” she said smiling, “when you miss on meeting you miss a lot.”

“I’m still new to this stuff,” I replied.

“Well, good to have you Jon.”

Even Rosa came up and talked to me briefly.  “Jon, we missed you last meeting.”

“I know,” I responded.  “I was busy.”

Rosa gave me a strange look, but it was not a harsh look.  I think she was just amused by me, because her eyes seemed to light up and there was a slight smile in her lips.  “I don’t know what you’re keeping busy with Jon, but whatever it is I think your time is better spent here.”

I nodded in response and Rosa went on her way.  It was a short conversation , but the lack of hostility was a pleasant change.

Not too long after that, Rosa called the meeting to order.  “I think everyone’s here,” she said.  “Let’s begin.”

“I want to talk about Fenestram,” Pax blurted out.  There were several voices of agreement.  I looked around confused, but did not say anything.

“We’ll have plenty of time to discuss the situation in Fenestram, “Rosa assured everyone.  “Let’s take a seat first though.  We have business to discuss.”

We all sat down in a circle, just like at the last meeting I was at.  David, Helen and Icarus all sat near each other, and I sat on David’s right.  Emma sat next to me on my right.  Rosa positioned herself on the other side of the circle form us.

“How’s the leafleting going?”  Rosa asked, the question not really directed to anyone in particular.  A small chorus of positive responses filled the room.  Rosa held up her hands for silence.  “Good, good, I think we’re really doing an excellent job of getting our message out.  And, as far as I know, not a single one of our fliers has fallen into the wrong hands.  So, congratulate yourselves friends.  You’ve been doing an excellent job.”  The room broke out in cheerful applause, which lasted for a little bit and then immediately ended when Rosa held up her hands for silence.  “Now, a bit of news for you.”  Everyone in the room strained forward to hear what she was going to say.  “We’ve received another letter from Clodius through the underground.  We have a couple choices here.  I could read it allowed right now, or we could just leave it out and those who are interested could look at it after the meeting.”

“Read it!  Read it!”  The response was overwhelming, and from the smile on Rosa’s face I could tell that she had only been toying with the crowd when she made the second suggestion.

Rosa reached into her bag and pulled out a letter.  “This is only dated a couple days ago, so they must have rushed it over here.  I suppose they thought it was important, which isn’t surprising given recent events.  So, we should remember to appreciate the brave women and men of the underground mail delivery system.”  She cleared her throat and began reading.

“Dear friends,

“I am greatly pleased to hear the work you have been up to.  I am sure you realize the importance of what you’re doing.  I frequently boast about you to my friends here in Amicae.

“The winters here are harsh and cold.  Snow covers everything, and we rarely journey outside.  As you know I have been staying with an older gentleman named Apollos, who is very sympathetic to our cause.  He has spent his entire life protesting against his own government, and spent many years in jail.  Although the government of Amicae has made no move against me, Apollos is constantly worried, and has no desire to spend his last few years in a government prison.

“So, to ease the mind of this friend who has already made so many sacrifices during his lifetime, I have moved into the house of a younger couple also sympathetic to our cause.  Their names are Priscilla and Aquilla.  They are only a couple of years older then me and newly married and they deserve much admiration for the way they have so freely welcomed me into their home.  They provide me with shelter, plenty of food, and even some clothes in return for a few simple chores I do around the house.  They are to be highly praised.

“I can’t help but miss Fabulae though.  I miss our pleasant winters.  I miss the streets of Urbae.  I miss my friends.  I comfort myself by remembering that I am only away for a little while.  I am confident that the Revolution will take place in our lifetime.

“I have spent many of these lonely winter days at work on a new book.  The laws governing the press are much more liberal here then they are in Fabulae, so I am thinking of even trying to get it published, although the last thing I would want to do is bring down trouble on my benefactors, Priscilla and Aquilla.  If I do decide to publish it, you can be assured I will send you a copy through the underground.

“I am told that you are paying close attention to the upcoming war—“

I leaned over to David.  “What’s he talking about?  What war?”

“Shhh!  Jon I want to hear this.”

“—as well you should be.  I have also been closely following events up here in Amicae.  In fact, I am probably better informed about it then you, since news does not get censored here to the same degree it does back there.  Nonetheless, Old Flash is now dealing with events he can no longer keep secret.  Keep your ears cocked because information will soon pour into them.  By now I’m sure you’ve heard about the boarder skirmishes.  Don’t believe the official news.  Our troops started that, not theirs.

“I speak with confidence about the approaching war because there is no question in my mind that war will take place.  It is obvious neither government has any intention of settling things diplomatically.  Flash has spent so much energy on getting the people to hate Fenestram, and so I can not imagine that he has any intention of peace.

“However, I do not want you to be afraid of this war.  Flash wants a war because he believes it will distract people from the problems of inequality at home.  However, if the war is unsuccessful, it will only magnify Flash’s problems.

“We must oppose the war from the start.  We must remind the poor that their children are marching of to die to serve the interests of the wealthy.  We must tell everyone who will listen that this is not a war of self-defense, but a blatant imperialistic move by our government.”  Rosa’s voice rose with excitement as she read out the last few sentences.  I suppose it was only fitting given the intensity of what Clodius was saying.  Her voice became calm as she read the next paragraph.

“My heart goes out to all of you.  I wish I could be with you now.  I received a copy of the flier you have been handing out.  Most impressive.  Varro is to be congratulated.  I have enclosed my own flier, which you may also copy and distribute.  This is not because I want to compete with Varro.  I think he is doing a fine job.  It’s just that I need to do something to keep my sanity during this long, cold winter.

“Best wishes and keep me in your thoughts,

“Sincerely Clodius.”

Rosa put the letter back in her bag.  The whole room was silent.  “Well, she said, “Let’s keep those directions in mind.  And Varro?”  Varro perked his head up when his name was called.  “Yes?”

“Let’s get our revolutionary printing press ready to make copies of this flier.”

“I’ll do it as soon as the meeting is over,” Varro answered.

“We should only do leaflets concerning the war from now on,” Rosa said.  “We must undertake every effort to undermine Flash’s war campaign.