Since he was sixteen, Van has held an annual summer solstice costume party for his high-school buddies at his parent’s house in Kamloops. Van, who was twenty-six liked to think of himself as the “party guy”, on-trend, zany but not too crazy. But in the last two years, the whole thing was getting a little lame. He lived in Vancouver now, had a great articling job at Lemelin Moore and was going to specialize in sustainability law. Most of his high school buddies, mired down in mundane jobs with mothering partners and messy babies were boring. He thought of Kim in particular. In high school, Kim and Van had been on the debating team together, and they both had wanted to be lawyers maybe even politicians and change the world. In those first few years, they talked and texted everyday.
Van thought back to last year’s party when Kim had shown up with his very pregnant wife, Cheryl, a bottle of homemade soda water and their stained and stinking eighteen month old.
“Baby number two, Kim?”
“Got a promotion and a raise. It’s all happening for me.”
“Sure looks like Tim Horton’s is treating you well.” Van said gagging on his
martini. “I hope you guys are OK with the dope around the baby?”
“Yeah. Thanks for thinking about that. We’ll just stay outside by the pool.” God. He doesn’t even get sarcasm anymore. And worse, he had the beginning of a little potbelly, a dad bod.
So this year, Van had not invited him. Yes, it was shitty but the Kim-Cheryl smugness thing made him sick. How had he and Kim ever have been such good buddies? It scared him that he if he wasn’t careful, he could end up like Kim.
Van scanned the living room. He was playing the mix from their Grad Year so the floor was pulsing with flailing costumed bodies. Van was thinking that the playlist was sounding a bit dated when he saw her. There she was up on the landing, a long-legged female body disguised with black and white blocks that covered her dress and her face. How she had made such an elaborate costume. Were they yoga props? Styrofoam? Who was she? Not from Kamloops, that’s for sure. Van always dressed up as Leonard Cohen. He had his lines figured out.
“Suzanne?” He had a nice baritone voice.
“How did you guess?” Her voice was husky and accented with a vaguely Scandanavian accent. He slipped his hand around her waist.
“Can I feed you tea and oranges,” he said.
He took her wine glass and gently steered her towards his parent’s bedroom door.
Five minutes later, Van came bursting out of the bedroom door, his face crimson, nostrils flaring and gripping a broken, black Styrofoam block. “OK Kim, where the hell are you?” he yelled at nobody in particular. The girl was Eve. He hadn’t recognized Eve. How could he not have recognized her? Eve had ditched him in Grade Twelve, right before finals. She had gone off to Montreal. He had been gutted.
August 30th NIC Writing Challenge 1
The family doctor had put him on antidepressants to get him through his finals. And for a few years after, he had stalked her on social media. He had finally weaned himself off his sick addiction two years ago. He hadn’t had a serious relationship since. Only Kim knew all this. Van hated it that he had been so obsessed.
He burst out on to the pool deck. There was Cheryl swirling about, her sturdy breasts and thick thighs wrapped in folds of a diaphanous blue toga. He heard the splash of her body before he realized he had shoved her into the pool. And then he felt Kim’s firm shove as he was launched into pool on top of her. A frenzy of shrieking erupted and everyone on the deck was propelled into the thrashing water. The pulsing big bass dancing tunes swirled in the air above them.
Van, Kim and Cheryl sat on the deck, bundled up in identical blue, fish bordered beach towels. Eve sat perched on a deck chair, her slender dancer’s legs folded elegantly beneath her, her black crepe dress clinging to her perfect dancers body.
Van stared at Kim. His face looked like a velvet painting of pug with his outsized moist eyes bugging out from his skull and the angles of his mouth frozen in a mournful grimace. Van had never seen him look so glum. Kim tightened the towel around him. “It really hurt when everyone in town was talking about their invitation. Cheryl and I didn’t know what we had done. I couldn’t believe you wouldn’t invite us.”
Cheryl piped up. “So I thought, hey remember Eve.”
“So we found her. We thought it would be funny.” Kim said.
How could Kim not know how mean that was? After all those times he had
spilled his guts out to Kim. He flushed when he remembered the time he had actually cried in front of Kim. He forced a smile at Kim and Cheryl but could not bring himself to look at Eve.
“Van, I’m sorry. I get it. What we did was cruel.” Kim said.
Yes it was thought Van but was it any crueler that what I did. God I’m an arrogant shit sometimes.
“I was coming out here anyway for a workshop in Banff for a few weeks. I hadn’t been home since we graduated. I’ll be here for the rest of the summer.” Eve said, her Scandinavian accent vapourized.
The following year at the summer solstice party there are two couples sitting at the patio table beside the pool, chatting and sipping their drinks. Van’s parents are inside watching TV – they are not travelling this year and are watching Kim and Cheryl’s two kids. Van is roasting a chicken while Eve assembles a Caesar salad. Van has been hired at his firm and Eve is dancing with the Pacific Ballet.
“ Do you miss the big party Van?” Cheryl asks.
“Nah. It was time to move on. I just hadn’t realized it.” Van puts his arm around Eve’s shoulder and hugs her.
August 30th NIC Writing Challenge 2