AREA 47

SECTION 89:

COURTNEY, Chapter 4

“Courty, you’re really moving along.”  Vlad looked at Reed.  “Hi.”  Blue was eyeing him too.  “Hi.”  Casually, he put his arm around Courtney’s waist, and looked around expectantly.

Vlad appeared curiously out of place among them, in his blue-blood preppie genteel elegance; Ralph Lauren Polo from neck to ankle.  Both men seemed to Courtney to be about the same physical size; slightly above average.

Courtney indicated each, one at a time, with her hand.  “Vlad.  Reed.  Blue.”  Finally, herself.  “Courty.”

“Now there’s a name!” Reed said.

Courtney felt disoriented; Vlad’s arm was touching her intimately, but she felt nothing, nothing, while just looking at Reed, stimulated her.

“Howdy,” Reed said to Vlad.

“OK,” Vlad said.  “Let’s go back down.”

Courtney was exhausted.  She had been about ready to give up on the climb and wait for Vlad.  But this was exactly the wrong thing for Vlad to say.  He was such a big, energetic young kid; insensitive, and so sure of always getting his own way, that she was suddenly frosted at him, too.  She didn’t care if it killed her: she was going to the top.

Courtney’s lead legs began to move.  “The top, anyone?”

Vlad’s hand pulled against her waist to stop her.  “But I’ve already been there.”

That was beyond insensitivity, beyond male chauvinism.  “How much further do we have to go up?” Courtney asked Vlad.

“Up?  A thousand feet.”

“Closer to five hundred,” Reed corrected.

Vlad looked at Reed.  “Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah.  I climb this sucker every year.”

A peculiar mix of emotions passed across Vlad’s face.  Then, he burst out with: “Byron Reed!  Courty, why didn’t you tell me?  Hey man, I got all your albums.  I even got Boys of Brash 1.  The original one, not the stupid remix they issued in ’89.”

Reed said, “I’m flattered,” but his facial expression was: Oh, shit.

“Wow, this is great!  I’ve been trying forever to get that ballsy Krane-and-Reed sound for my demos.  Care to clue me a little?  I’m a musician too, man, and like . . .”

For about the next forty minutes of the awful climb, Vlad and Reed completely dominated the conversation, with Vlad excitedly doing most of the talking.

One of Vlad’s “twenty minute” careers had been rock guitarist.  The current twenty minute slice of his life was passionately caught up in videotaping, and he had tens of thousands of dollars of high-quality video equipment.  He was always trying to get her to act for him: Forget That!

But Courtney gathered from the conversation that Reed had once been a famous rock star.  Krane-and-Reed was a super-popular rock act a few years back, when she was in her teens.  Reed was the Reed of Krane-and-Reed!  Her best friend had had a hopeless crush on Krane in those days, and was forever playing their albums.  Courtney didn’t have any of their albums, but two of their songs came to her mind, and she could recall the tunes, with the melody and lyrics dancing through her head, as she remembered high school days for a melancholy moment.  He certainly didn’t look like a rock star.  Ex-rock star.  Except maybe for the long hair.  But weren’t they all burn-outs or druggies?

Blue was completely disgusted.  Poor kid, Courtney thought.  She’s a loser in this too.

The boys then charged into a technical discussion that completely left Courtney in ignorance.  Something about MIDI.

The two guys seemed satisfied to let Courtney and Blue set the pace, they hung back, involved in the argument.  Blue walked ahead until she was along side Courtney.

“Thanks a lot,” Blue said, ironically.

“I know, Blue, being young is a terrible way to have to spend the first piece of your life.”

“Oh, you’re so funny!” Blue snapped.

Blue drank from her canteen, and after a thoughtful pause, offered Courtney a swig.

“Goodness, thanks!” she said.  “I’m parched.”

The kid was silent, so Courtney asked, “Well, have you solved it yet?”

“I’ve heard it before.  She knocks the stone out of his hand.”

“Oh?  Then why didn’t you stop me?”

“I dunno.”

The full answer was that the girl should pick any hand, but in reaching for the stone, she should intentionally stumble against the old man, and knock the stone to the ground where it would be lost among the other black and white stones so that its color would not be revealed.  Then she was to say that it was still all right, because whatever stone remained would be the opposite color of her choice.  When the old man revealed the black stone in his other hand, it would mean that she had picked the white stone, and thus she could marry the boy she loved.

The argument behind them was really slamming into a rip-roaring word contest.  MIDI-this, MIDI-that.

“I don’t suppose you know what MIDI is?” Courtney asked the little girl.

In a bored voice, she said, “It’s the Musical Instrument Digital Interface.”

Oh great.  That explains everything.

And then they were at the top.  Actually, they still had some climbing to do, to get to the top top, but the final fifty feet in altitude were charged with the vision of the final goal right there.

Before they split up, there was a moment when Reed was close to Courtney and Blue, but Vlad had gone off into the bushes to relieve himself.

Before Courtney could react, Reed quickly reached out and pulled her glasses off of her face.  “Ah, much better,” he said.

With her glasses in his left hand, one-handed he clicked off a bunch of fast photos of her face, close-up.

She shook her head.  “You nut.”

Then he gave her back her glasses.  He looked smug, satisfied.

Then his eyes bored into hers.  Reed asked, “Come on, what’s your phone number?”  His brown eyes were so intense, it was almost frightening.  His energy was ferociously attractive.  Raw, undeniable.

“No way,” Courtney said.

“Come on!  I don’t see a wedding ring.”  Reed picked up her hand.

She was on the verge of telling him the number, some strange thrilling excitement coursing through her, but his touch silenced her tongue.

Courtney snatched back her hand.  It tingled.  Then her whole back and arm tingled.

Vlad came back then.  The magical moment was passed.  They started to walk over the last stretch of boulders toward the edge next to the waterfall.

Reed said, “Blue, can you write down Vlad’s address for me?  I want to send him some technical information.”

“Hey, I’ll give you my phone number too.  I’m producing my own videos now.  Need someone to put together a hot video on a tight budget?  That’s me!”

“Do you have samples you can send me?”

“Tons!”

“OK.  Blue will give you my address.  But we’d better split up now, so I can spend some time with my daughter.”

“Fine, fine, hey this is great!”  Vlad said, really excited about making the connection.

Courtney collapsed in an exhausted pile of weary bones, in one of the free spaces.  There were about fifty people around at the large top area.  It was exquisitely beautiful, and peaceful, with the gentle breeze and the warm summer sun and the rushing of the water nearby that led to the waterfall.  She wanted to take a nice long nap.

“Beautiful, huh?” Vlad said.

Courtney thought: I have to go back down?

She watched Reed and his daughter walk along close to the edge about fifty feet away.  He was holding her hand, firmly, carefully keeping them away from danger. Then Reed gave the girl the camera, and she started taking pictures.  It struck Courtney as odd, then, that the little girl could get such satisfaction from a 35mm camera, in these days of Polaroid instant gratification.

“Had enough?” Vlad asked.

She just looked at him.  What had happened to her?  She was a rush of new emotions she couldn’t fathom.  It ripped at her heart that she hadn’t given Reed her phone number.  But that made no sense at all.  She had only known him for an hour and a half.  He had a child.

At that precise instant she realized that she no longer loved Vlad, that she had been out of love with him for sometime, several months probably, but hadn’t realized it or wanted the romance to be over.

“Let’s go, Courty.  I’m hungry.”

But it was finished now.  It took a minor little infatuation to signal her about her own true feelings.

When she looked up again to see Reed and Blue, they had moved out of view.  It was the last she saw of them on that trip to Yosemite.

 COURTNEY, Chapter 5

Copyright 2005 Area 47