As I got closer to Park Circle Station, I could hear one of the trains getting in. Even if I ran, I still wouldn’t make it before it left. Besides, Madge probably wasn’t even there yet.
I continued up Day Street but took my time. The uneven sidewalk I followed matched the cracked and crater filled road. Two people were shouting at each other in a backyard on Yale Ave. I could hear them pretty good. Sounds like another Transcona tragedy. I just kept walking with my head down and the shouting became distant. I only looked back when I heard a loud smash, like glass. I don’t know what it was or if anyone was hurt, but it sure wasn’t my job to find out. I quickly came up to the station and saw Madge waiting for me on the platform. Madge was a cool guy who wore bright colours, contacts that completely blacked out his eyes and these goddamn silver shoes. The guy just resonated good times. If you saw him, you wanted to know him. We were good buds.
“Hey man,” I said, “hope you weren’t waiting too long,”
“Nah, s’all good, man. Ready for tonight?” he sneered.
“Tonight? I take it the Madge-ik Man’s got something epic planned?” I assumed. I figured we were just going to the mall to see who we could meet.
Madge smiled like he had this well orchestrated plan. “I got us a party to attend tonight, Ollie. Good times, good music and a lotta girls,”
Good times, good music and lots of girls sounded like the makings of the perfect Transcona night to me. I couldn’t say no. “Cool man, I’m down,” I replied.
We made our way back onto Regent Ave and we stopped at the pipe shop to buy a couple joints from the guy with Madge’s fake I.D. We wanted something to smoke on the way to the party, seems as how we both didn’t have jobs, we were broke. It was either the joints or beer, and free beers would be easier to get ahold of. Much of downtown Transcona had been rebuilt when I was still small. There was a huge fire that burnt down the strip between Day St and Bond St. It was pretty bad. I remember the whole neighbourhood walking over to see the firemen put out the fire and the blackest clouds of smoke I have ever seen billowing into the air. It was all brand new now. I don’t really remember what the strip was like before the fire, but I’ve seen some pictures. Either way, it was still a cool place to hang out, whether we were underage or not. We always found shit to get up to. I remember this one time me and a few buddies climbed up onto the roof of one of the bars and the waitress came out and went ballistic on us. Never in my life have I jumped down from somewhere so high up and run as fast I did that night. Good times.
Madge and I walked for awhile before coming to the field across from Murdoch Mackay. A stop on top of Crocus hill to catch the sunset and a joint seemed like a good idea. When we got to the top it seemed to be just our luck that two girls were sitting down on the grass. We thought we’d make ourselves well acquainted. Madge did the talking, he’s better at it.
“Hey, you girls got a light?” he asked as we approached.
“Yeah, I do,” said the blonde one. She reached into her hand bag to grab a lighter and tossed it at us.
We lit our joint and I took a good long puff. I wanted to just forget about all that crap at home.
“You girls want to smoke a joint with us?” Madge asked.
“Sure, come sit down,” said the other girl. She had long wavy brunette hair. The first thing I noticed was the Pink Floyd shirt she was wearing. This chick was already in my good books.
We sat down and joined their circle and passed the joint around until it was done. We had the perfect view of Transcona up on the hill. From the green soccer fields below to the high school and neighbourhoods across the street; we could see everything. It was a beautiful sunset too. Not a cloud in the sky and pink and orange beams of light scattered across the entire horizon. It painted the perfect setting of suburbia. Transcona was far from it.
“What are your names?” I asked. I’d never seen either of them before.
I’m Clare,” said the blonde one. The girl in the Pink Floyd shirt looked at me and stared for a moment before replying. “I’m Saphyre,”.
“Saphyre? That’s your name? Really?” my mind was blown. Maybe it’s cause I was stoned. But the name Saphyre seemed pretty wild.
She looked at me as if not knowing how to respond. Like as if I was just making fun of it or something. She seemed confused but giggled, “Heh, ah, yeah,” she answered.
“That’s a pretty cool name, man,” I said.
Madge introduced the both of us. “I’m Madge. And this hear is my boy Oliver Rose!”
Both girls looked at Madge for a moment. He always seemed to get the attention. “Your eyes are really tripping me out,” Clare said, referring to his blacked out contact lenses he wears.
“They kinda creep me out sometimes too, dude,” I admitted. We all sort of had a laugh and it broke the ice a bit. “Where’d you girls get those beers from?” I noticed the poorly hidden cans of cheap lager in their bags.
Saphyre pulled a can from her bag and cracked it open. “Some dude we met on the way here. He dropped his case of beers, and I guess so we wouldn’t laugh at him too much he gave us a few,”
“There wouldn’t happen to be any for us, would there?” I boldly asked, anticipating rejection.
Saphyre pulled out another beer and passed it to me. Clare reached for another in her bag and handed it to Madge. Now we were in business.
Saphyre looked at me. “I figure we owe you guys one,”
Man, she was really hot. When she looked at me, her eyes were wild and entrancing. We made long eye contact for a moment. Her eyes foreshadowed mystery and trouble all at once, and she was daring me to be a part of it all. The eyes can say so much. There was something about this girl that I couldn’t pick out yet.
We quickly shot our beers back and tossed the cans away. We didn’t give a shit about littering. There was already shit everywhere in this town. I figured I’d invite them to the party we were heading to. “Hey, you guys wanna come to a party with us?”
They both looked at each other for a second, like as if they already had other plans but were now considering ditching them to come hang out. “Sure we’ll come,” said Saphyre. Her eyes caught mine again as she smiled and got up off the grass.
The four of us made our way down the hill and up Kildare toward the Floodway. There is a lot of rich suburbs on the other side of the Floodway, not like Transcona. Some kids from those suburbs went to Murdoch and TCI and other high schools here in Transcona. But for the most part they had their own. I purposely walked behind Saphyre for a few moments to sneak a peak. How I have never seen this girl around is beyond me. She must not be from Transcona, I’d of definitely seen her. She was short and wore tight jeans that complimented her figure very much. She had sewn patches of different bands up one side of her jeans. This girl was old school but at the same time I was thinking she’s far more intelligent than she was letting on. I couldn’t blow this. I knew I couldn’t act too Transcona tonight or she’d never come back to this town ever again. They both told us they were seventeen years old. I thought they were going to laugh and walk away when me and Madge told them we were sixteen. Clare looked a little disappointed when we told them. Tough luck for Madge, but Saphyre didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she didn’t really say anything. Maybe she was thinking of a way to get out of it now.
Arriving at the house where the party was at, it was getting pretty dark by now. The fun was in full swing and the music was loud. We walked in and it was all people me and Madge new from school and stuff. I kept secretly hoping that Saphyre would be impressed that I knew so many people there. I didn’t want to ignore her too much at the same time though. I looked behind me, Madge and Clare were already lost somewhere, but Saphyre was still with me. “C’mon, follow me,” I told her. We made our way into the kitchen where the haze of smoke thickened and the electro-rave music they were playing got louder.
“Ollie Rose!” said a loud voice followed by a high five.
“What’s goin‘ on, Owl,” I said. Owl was his nickname. Just his initials together. We were in the same grade and had classes together. He gave Saphyre the once-over before replying.
“Haven’t been here very long. Me and the boys just showed up. Are you going to introduce me to your friend?”
I knew that was coming. “This is Saphyre. We just met tonight,” I told him. He gave me “The Look” as he reached to shake her hand. Everyone would be expecting me to reel this chick in by the end of the night. We stood in the kitchen for awhile longer, had a couple beers each and chatted to a few other intoxicated partygoers. Saphyre and I kept making eye contact. Not awkward eye contact, but like she wanted something. Well, I can kinda guess, but at the same time I kept hoping she wasn’t bored. I didn’t really know her too well yet and didn’t know if this was her sort of thing or not.
“Where did the other two go?” she asked, trying to compete over the volume of the music.
“That’s a good question,” I said. “Let’s go find them,”. I started off toward the stairs to the basement and pushed a path through the dense crowd of people like bushwhacking through the jungles of south-east Asia. I’m not very tall, so it made things difficult. I felt Saphyre’s hand grab mine. I played it cool as if I was expecting her to do it rather than be surprised. We were in a total party house. Very bare, not a lot of shit around to break and a sweet light and sound system.
We made our way into the basement and could hardly tell who anybody was. It was dark and the only light was from a strobe light and neon lights everywhere. As stoned and buzzed as I was, I managed to guide us through the melee. Everything was fine until I felt someone cover my eyes with their hands. I stopped dead in my tracks, just about losing my balance. It was Saphyre. Grabbing my arm, she pulled us into the middle of the dance floor. She began dancing and just feeling the beat, and boy, was she ever good. I started dancing too, I loved dancing especially with a girl like Saphyre who was just wild. She hadn’t even done anything too crazy yet, but she just seemed to be so wild and free spirited. I guess it was an aura she gave off and people just picked up on. I was so into her. Her long brown hair tossed back and forth and her body moved with such flow and grace. I couldn’t even concentrate on my own dancing, I kept watching her. I don’t know how long we danced for but I was worn out by the time we stopped. She looked at me and smiled.
“Did you want to go outside?” I shouted over the chest thumping bass.
“After you!” she shouted back.
Once again, her small hand fit perfectly into mine. I led us outside and the breeze was a very welcomed relief. Some people had a fire pit burning in the backyard so we joined the crowd. We stood along the fence near the driveway sort of behind everyone. Saphyre and I sort of looked at each other and her face and eyes glowed from the fire in the yard. I could see the reflection of the flame in her eyes.
“Are you having a good time?” I asked.
“Yeah, I am,” she replied and smiled.
I smirked and looked toward the fire. I didn’t know what else to say. I knew nothing about this girl but drew a blank each time I wanted to say something to her.
“I think I need a haircut,” I said, as I brushed the hair from my eyes. It was getting shaggy. This was my attempt at keeping the conversation going. Lame, I know.
“I like your hair just how it is. Let it grow longer,”
“Oh, really?” I answered, moving in closer toward her.
“Yeah, really,” she answered back and before I knew it she was all over me. Or all over each other to be accurate. We were soon interrupted by a face popping up over the fence. It was Madge.
“Ollie?” said Madge.
“Hey man, where’d you go?” I asked, keeping one arm around Saphyre.
Madge hopped over the fence into the yard. “Nice fire. Hope I didn’t interrupt anything,”
“No, it’s all good. Where did Clare go?” asked Saphyre.
Madge shrugged his shoulders. “She told me she had to go like half an hour ago and she couldn’t find you. So I came out here and got talking to a few people out back. She said she’d call you,”
Saphyre tapped the RFID implant chip in her hand in a specific sequence to bring up the voice messages on the phone chip in her ear. “Oops, she did call. It must of been while we were dancing,”
“I just assumed I offended her in some way,” Madge joked. “Us Transconians have a way of doing that to people who aren’t from around here,”
“Ha Ha, yeah, you might have just scared her off, Madge,” said Saphyre. “Now she’ll never come back here with me again,”
Madge laughed. I was happy that Saphyre felt comfortable around my friends. Madge was a pretty easy going guy though.
Saphyre seemed to be on the phone with her friend so Madge took the opportunity to come up and put his arm around me and lowered his voice.
“So, what’s the good word, buddy?” he asked.
“She drives me crazy, man. I want to get to know her better. I gotta get going soon tho man cause I’m already fucking dead when I get home,”. Fears of my father’s reaction when he finds out I slipped through the window made my stomach turn like weeks old chicken salad.
“Well, walk her home, man,” Madge insisted.
“I don’t know where she lives,”
“Dude, she can’t live that far. She doesn’t have a car with her. Just walk her home,” he persisted. The guy made a good point.
I turned around as she was finishing the conversation on her phone chip. “Did you want to go for a walk somewhere?” I asked. I turned around and Madge was already walking back into the house. He gave me the thumbs up as he went inside.
“Sure, let’s go,” she replied.
Man, she seemed so outgoing. I was loving it. We walked up Kildare Ave and were back at Crocus Hill where we first met earlier that evening.
“So, where in Winnipeg are you from?” I held her hand again as we crossed the field.
“I’m from Hunts,” she said. Huntswood was the suburb next to Transcona but on the other side of the Floodway. It was a big suburb with a lot of snobby rich folk. Transcona and Hunts - or “Cunts” as we called it - didn’t get along too well. We liked our cheap beer and backyard bonfires and they liked their patio BBQ’s, big driveways and expensive wine.
“What are you doing hanging out in Transcona then?” I joked. “We’ll corrupt you if you stay long enough,” Man, she sure didn’t look like she was from Hunts. She laughed and squeezed my hand.
“I sort of live here most of the time. I try to spend as much time as I can away from my parents. I usually stay at my Uncle’s Jim’s house,”
Why did it seem like everyone had an uncle named Jim? I thought about her situation for a moment. I wish I could just take off and leave my home like that. My parents drive me insane and no one knows the half of it. “Why don’t you like it at home?” I asked, even though it wasn’t really any of my business. I hoped Saphyre wouldn’t get mad. She stared at the ground and watched her feet. She timed each step with mine so we walked through the grass in sync with each other.
“My parents believe in ‘the expected’. They expect me to go to university, they expect me to buy a house, they expect me to get married, all by the time I’m twenty-five. Fuck that ball n, chain,” Whoa, she swore. The first time I’d heard her swear. She meant business. “They don’t like me drinking, they don’t like me partying, they don’t like me having fun. They think money and status are everything. So I leave the house as much as I can,”
There was a brief silence for a moment. Things for her seemed a tad worse than they were for me at home. She seemed really smart. I, on the other hand, was dumb, skipped school and caused a ruckus. What the fuck was she doing with me? Did she want to fuck up her life even more? I wasn’t heading anywhere. Not many people in Transcona make it out of this town and become anyone important. “Man,” I said “For starters, your parents gotta be rich to believe in all that shit,”
“They own and operate a company that develops and markets RFID technology. Anything to do with the RFID Chips and software that enables and works with it. They’re whole plan is to condition me to take over the company one day because they’re getting old and want to start spending their time in nicer places,” she explained with an heir of disgust.
“And what about you? How’s life in Transcona for you?” she asked.
I chuckled for a moment. “It’s okay I suppose. Sometimes I hate it. Other times like tonight, I love it. As for at home, it’s got its issues. I rarely go to school and I’ve caused a bit of mischief a few times. Tonight was a mild one by my standards,” I felt bad not going into deeper detail about my home life after she had shared so much about hers. I just didn’t want to sound like I was going all sensitive on her, I guess. What I really wanted was to comfort her more than anything and help her the most. “Are you going back home tonight?” I asked.
Shrugging her shoulders she stopped. “I probably should. Just show my face for a night or two,” We were right near the Pulse station by now. The tall ancient Elm trees stood looming over us in Park Circle. I caught a glimpse of the Moon hovering brightly behind their bare branches. It was as if it whispered to me to make my next move. We stood and looked at each for a moment.
“Can I see you again?” I asked.
“No,” she assertively replied. “You’re too Transcona for me, Oliver Rose,”
I didn’t know what to say. She kept a straight face. Suddenly she burst out laughing. Man, did she ever get me good. My heart sank for that split second; this girl is unreal.
“Of course you can,” she said with a smile.
I gave her my number and she saved it on her chip. My phone rang a few seconds later and it was her calling so I’d have her number as well. I pulled out my phone and sort of smirked at her. “Yeah, yeah, I know,” I said. “I’m old-school I still use an actual phone,”
Saphyre laughed again. “Get with the times,”
It felt so nice to hear her laugh after everything she had just told me about her life. She leaned in and kissed me. I made sure it wasn’t a short one.
I escorted her up to the train platform and she waved her hand across the scan pad to pay for her fare. The RFID chip then just took the money electronically from her bank account to pay for the fare. If anyone came along to question it all they have to do is scan her chip and it tells them if she’s paid or not. If you’re caught, it’s an $800 fine to ride the rapid-transit in this city without paying. It was pretty steep and a real cash grab.
Her train came within five minutes. She gave me a quick kiss, which turned out to be a longer kiss and she almost missed the train. I should of let her miss it because it was the last one back to Hunts for the night and she could of come home with me. Dammit. But, oh well. I didn’t leave the platform until her train had disappeared down the tracks and into the night. I was now left alone on an empty station platform below it’s bright white buzzing lights. The ground was full of gum and gobs of spit, which was a bit shocking because spitting and gum chewing is illegal and there are cameras everywhere in The Pulse stations.
By the time I got back to my house it was pretty late. I figured I’d try and climb back in through my window but someone had closed it. Not a good sign. Luckily I had my keys hidden beside our shitty garage that was falling apart. It didn’t look so bad. It went well with the smashed up cars sitting in various driveways along our back lane. I turned over a brick and grabbed my house key and went back carefully along side the house to the front. As quietly as I could I began to put the key in the door. That’s when I felt a firm grip on my shoulder and was violently spun around.
“You little shit, where have you been?”
“Tara?” It was my sister. “What the hell are you doing out here?! I just about shit bricks!”
“Shut up,” she said. “Not so loud. Me and mom are in the car. Dad’s drunk again,”
I inhaled then exhaled deeply. As impossible and mean as my sister was, she did just save me from a few welts from the old man. Coming home to a drunk angry father was not what I needed tonight. I felt partly responsible for his actions. Maybe he was drunk because I ditched out? Fuck, who cares. It angered me to no avail and I didn’t even want to think about it.
“Fuck him,” I said. “I’ll come wait in the car,”
The three of us sat in the car and went for a drive until morning.
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