Chapter 5
The play seemed to be done by now. It had been called off by the playwright himself. Due to heavy rain, lights suddenly sparked and collapsed in mid show. The basses also crackled the sound that it became inaudible and twisted. Everything was ruined. Mediocre props soaked themselves on mud puddles scattered on Van Cortlandt Park. Ethan sheltered himself with Enid and Sebastian under a large commercial tent. He shivered from the cold, thinking of William who had been long gone since he left him.
The rain abruptly stopped when every single viewer had gone home. Sebastian grunted and stomped his feet like a thirteen-year-old brat. Ethan sighed and picked up his homburg that sat beside his feet. Enid delivered it when she took a restroom earlier. However, he still worried himself for William.
“So, how is New York, The City Of Dreams?” Sebastian asked, shoveling the stacked props/trashes behind the stage.
Ethan ignored him and watched the “The Safe Cross” actors vanish in broad moonlight. Van Cortlandt was now illuminated by a bright moonbeam. Less light posts, more green. Ethan tucked his homburg tightly to his head and tilted it to clear his vision.
“Are you even listening to me?” Sebastian asked another question with a disinterested tone.
“Sorry,” Ethan chuckled and pushed his glasses to his nose bridge. “The City Of Dreads,” he corrected before starting answering the first question. “New York is fine. Monochromatic. Delirious. Abnormal. Frustrating. Rude. Wry. Believe me they’re all compliments. I am working on a Technical Hardbound now and I know you will be an asset to our liability.”
“What?” Sebastian wanted clarification as he stopped his search. He turned to Ethan.
“Technical Hardbounds are books that explain a technical subject.”
Sebastian shrugged. “I know nothing about Med.”
They laughed. “It is nothing about Medicine or…”
“Not even religion,” Sebastian continued.
Ethan fired. “Slightly about religion but your help is not of God, though. I want you to help us about Trevor.”
Sebastian’s eyes grew bright. “How did Trevor came into this topic? Are you making an LGBTQ Technical Hardbound?”
“I believe LGBTQ rights is a very specific topic for a book. However, LGBTQ falls under Social Awareness which is the topic of our Technical Hardbound,” Ethan narrated and found Sebastian blankly gazing at him.
“What’s with ‘Technical Hardbound’? You did repeat it over and over.” Sebastian mused to exit the park to which the both gladly agreed. “Let’s talk about it on my favorite bar.”
“Oh no!” Ethan declined. “I don’t do bars.”
Enid giggled.
“We should head to our place.”
“No way I’d go to apartments. Half of Yorkish apartments are haunted. A café,” he heavily sighed. “A café perhaps will do me.”
Ethan quivered from the idea but he agreed with Enid who giggled most of the time.
Da Vinci Café and Library knelt, juxtaposed by two narrow streets. It was shrouded by a humble satin shed in front where two sets of tea-tables sat. From afar, it looked like a flower shop from the flowerbeds that created a balk between the bars that came from both ends. It had pots and baskets of various flowers that blew a very pleasant odor. Delights, the name any patron called the dishes in Da Vinci Café, lay linearly on the enormous shelf beside another shelf of books. Mostly, Technical Hardbounds. Ethan entered proudly inside and stood in front of the counter immediately.
“I’ll have an Affogato.” He pointed at the Delight that lay on the shelf.
“You can pick, sir.” The cashier grinned and Ethan obeyed her.
“You people?” he asked, sipping his coffee already after grabbing a book. “I had this for only a couple of dollars.”
Sebastian neared the counter and Enid followed as Ethan excitedly sat.
Carl Jung; the person who defined me: an introvert. Prejudicing myself as a complete human being after seeking my own soul. I might be knowledgeable of everything that unveils before me. Yes. I do need not to think too deep. What happens, I already know it will. However, it is only in the microscopic lens of life. It is where you decline everything as false and you are the only living person. You can do all things! You can kill. You can do everything you want. Again, it is still in yourself. There are millions of faces that you see everyday especially if you live here in New York, maybe even billions of monochromatic coats you will see in mid day. Those are the external factors that hinder me, you or anyone from achieving personal desire because they too have their very own. Ethan smiled.
“Carl Jung?” Enid finally spoke. He was sure Sebastian also noticed it. I’m not only capable of seeking myself. Enid stayed long enough for her to be part of my own soul as well.
Sebastian burst shocked.“I wondered what kept you quiet for sometime.”
She giggled again.
“Do you have a crush on him? I know you know that Sebastian likes only men,” Ethan asked Enid to which she blushed.
“I did not know you were knowledgeable about me too much,” Sebastian said and took aChrysanthemum beside him to weave a flower crown. Everybody’s encouraged to pick any flower they want as long as they water the other plants. Ethan picked up his water bottle that hid inside his bag. He poured it all to the pot and sipped Affogato again.
Ethan then squinted and lazily gawked at him. “They’re basics to homosexuality.”
Enid giggled again.
“This is a Technical Hardbound. I believe it is,” Ethan presented The Undiscovered Self to them. “This is what Enid,” he pointed at her. “And I will be making. The topic I picked which will be beneficial for us, malevolent for several but acceptable by few is Social Awareness.”
Sebastian grew clueless. Ethan saw it. “In simple terms, imagine a rip off… no… a combination and concatenation of Nietzsche and Jung ideologies. That is my book.”
Sebastian’s face grew even more confused. He began to ask: “Who is Jung?” “Who is Nietzsche?” “What is concatenation? In total, What are you talking about? Is it astrology?”
Ethan heavily sighed. “Can you contact Trevor and maybe we can have an appointment with them.”
Sebastian frowned.
Enid emptied her cup which and asked, “Why?” in her sweetest tone.
“How did you get to Trevor then?” Ethan elucidated her question.
“I-I-I wasn’t the one…” he stuttered. “To get to Trevor. A-Actually, I am the one to get to Trevor but I am not the one who went to Trevor.”
“Then who?”
Sebastian gulped. “My boyfriend… but we broke up. He traveled back to Greece. I cannot contact him anymore.”
Ethan sighed and sipped another drop. “You have any contacts to Trevor?”
Sebastian sadly shook his head and took off his floral crown made from Chrysanthemum. He put it down on the table and it straightened itself back like a world class gymnast. He shrugged and rubbed his slightly curly hair. Sebastian had gone to the realm of heartaches again it seemed.
This guy was not the guy back in Walter. He was the cliché heartthrob each teenage girl used to cry and squander, stalking him on his way home. However, even though these women were crazy detectives, no one found out his closeted demeanor until Enid accidentally made it public. Okay. So much for the mainstream way of telling his history. Sebastian was now a nowhere guy in New York. He applied as a bagger on some big scale grocery at Manhattan that gave him the opportunity to meet his sexually-driven boyfriend who now sprawled on some bed at Greece with some other person back there. Faith may fade but love never will except if you take tequila on one Sunday night and find your head dunked into one of the city’s trash bins. He did that one night but only found himself sexually harassed by some guys who drank that whole 24-bottle box with him. That day, he stopped everything and went to some clinic. Being given the report sheet, it listed him under millions of people who are now HIV positive.
Sebastian cringed and felt himself destroyed. He cried and Ethan asked his apology. He accepted it, although.
“I’ll help you. I’ll try my best to,” he said and pulled out a dollar. “Do you have mojito here?” he asked the cashier who disgustingly shook her head. She might have overheard. People sure were aware.
“Shall we go now?” he asked Ethan and he agreed.
“We don’t have mojitos at our apartment but please stay there for the night. I feel responsible.”
Sebastian was too tired to argue. Ethan and Enid dragged him out after handing out their dollars for the coffee. Sebastian forgot to treat her but they just blew it off. Enid called a cab and Sebastian seemed to still be stunned from the story he shared.
“You’ll be fine. Trust me. A kiki will be good for you,” Ethan offered to which Sebastian clapped.
“We’ll do this Trevor thing all together. When shall we start?” Sebastian determinedly proclaimed and the cab beeped in irritation.