Katie: Part Five

"Pan?" Katie seemed to become alert for the first time. Since Pan didn’t go to our school, most people had a hard time categorizing him as anything other than some variety of weirdo, a weirdo, however, with enough of an underground reputation to make them wonder if maybe they weren’t missing something.

"Yeah, full moon," I said with exaggerated cool. "You know Pan’ll be having a party."

"But isn’t he, I mean, doesn’t he live…" She wasn’t really sure where he lived, or much else about him. There were so many stories and confabulations about Pan that even I, who knew him better than most, had a hard time separating the B.S. from the frequently equally improbable reality.

"Near New Kensington. It’s not that far, we’re practically half way there already.."

"Pan." As she considered her eyes narrowed to near invisibility. Katie was brave but not especially adventurous – she probably would have rejected the idea of going to Pan’s out of hand if boyfriend Bill weren’t back there in a bedroom feverishly consoling himself with Ungie.

"Come on, it’s better than starting a fight. Somebody might get hurt."

"I wish." She slowly uncrossed her legs and hopped off the table, standing there, rolling up one sleeve of her yellow button down shirt, not speaking again until she’d started rolling up the other. "Listen, you’re not like, thinking that I’m going to go for some kind of revenge screw type thing, are you? Because you can just get that out of your head, I can tell you right now it’s not ever going to happen." She’d obviously heard the word orgy applied to Pan’s parties.

"Hah, yeah, thanks a lot, Katie," I said. "But, really, that didn’t enter my mind, not that you’re not hot and everything. I just thought you might, you know, want to get your mind off things, try something different. I’m going over there anyway, so I’m just saying, if you want to come along…"

She swayed slightly, the way she did before the 440, tensing one leg and then the other. "This isn’t going to be some kind of drug thing, is it?"

"No! Well, yes, but nobody’s going to make you. I mean, there’ll be a keg there too."

I think that was what clinched it. Like many of the athletic crowd, Katie considered beer the one controlled substance whose consumption didn’t entail breaking training, and this party was only offering downers and a murky punch made by the indiscriminate mixture of everything in the parental liquor cabinet.

"Oh, all right." She looked back at the house regretfully, no doubt picturing the effect of one good right to Ungie’s pasty face. "But we’re taking two cars."

Well, UBUFANS, I’m making a little jaunt northways to the big island to commune with the Great Spirit and watch fireworks, so there won’t be another broadcast from RADIOFREEUBU for a week…why not take your own tour through the now extensive archives and have a refresher dose of UBUANITY ? And go ahead and celebrate independence any way you like….