Fred Leaves

This is a portrait of my house, my roommates, and our unnamed roles. As a writer i am not supposed to tell you what a piece is about. You are supposed to just guess be reading it. You are just supposed to feel it. The meaning of a really good piece of writing cannot be put into words. This will not be a very good piece of writing.

Since Fred left, the hierarchy of our house has been turned upside down. At thirty-one he was very much the head and father type in the house. Not that he was in charge of us, but he got things done. He was the one with a job, he was the one working on the landscaping in the front yard, even if he never actually finished it. And he owned the house.

The rest of us, college students, lived the social, stay-up-until-three-wake-up-at-noon type of life. Nothing steady, nothing definate. We had our own little corner of the house that was very much ours, and we took turns owning the whole thing, presenting it to friends, having parties. When Fred left, the ownership fell to us for whatever amount of time it took for him to return. We fought over the house without words, without conflict. Little things that said more than a slap in the face might have. The pain of pysical fighting increases with the intent.

It centered around the tv, usually. Marshall playing video games on the tv all day. Daniel and i offering to host unannounced movie nights. The television was a thing of power. We wanted it to be ours, wholly and permenantly. Of course this was impossible, but we tried anyway.

It's funny that Karl left with Fred. Karl who had classes, tests and finals to worry about just up and left the college life to go with Fred. Don't get me wrong, Karl is 27, older than the rest of us, but that doesn't put him in the same league as Fred. Karl is a freshman at the college if that gives you the right idea. So anyway he left with Fred and i guess he thought he was important enough to the house to leave it. The way he went though, one day he was sleeping in class and the next day he decides to pack his bags and go with Fred to Utah or wherever. Didn't even tell wnyone hardly, just went. I can't imagine that was the case with Fred, not showing up to work one day, nobody knowing where he's at. I'm sure he told everyone he was getting married.

That was another thing, Fred was engaged. To the rest of us marriage was so far away. None of us were even twenty yet, except Karl. And for him, i think, marriage isn't right around the corner either. The way he just dropped everything and left for Utah, that doesn't seem like the married type. It's funny it always feels like Karl is so much closer to my age than Fred's. We were talking once in class or something and you know how old Karl was on September 11, 2001? He was a senior in high school. i don't know, that just really put it into perspective for me. A senior in high school. That was me one year ago, and that was Karl September 11, 2001.

I was so surprised one time when Kevin and Marshall and Daniel and i were all talking one night. Fred had been gone maybe a week and It seemed like we had been fighting over the house the whole time and never would be friends or anything. Like it was Daniel and me versus them. So it just really surprised me that night to see us all joking till midnight, not caring about who would claim the tv tomorrow. I guess that's just us college type.

Karl got home first, i don't even know how, but there he was one day with all five seasons of some tv show from abc family and suddenly it was a Kyle XY marathon 24/7. You could wake up at three in the morning to take a dump and there would be Karl out there starting another episode and eating his microwave popcorn. Marshall  and Nephi tried to follow the series for about three seconds, but Karl had a rigorous schedule. No class, no friends, just him sitting in front of the tv all day. The thing that really got me, though, is that Karl had his own tv right there in his room. I don't know why he wasn't using that one.

Nephi seemed to be over constantly. Nephi and that one chick, i don't even know her name. They're friends of Marshall's, but they come in here all the time and act like they own the place. They're even worse then us who live here if you can belive that. Like this one time Nephi was sitting on the couch soaking his feet and this chick was on her laptop next to him and they're flirting. They have this viscious way of flirting where they just fight each other, it's all very mature. And don't even think that they are going to be quiet about it. So anyway they're over here sprawled out on the couch practically and Daniel and I are supposed to be hosting a party. They were just over there picking at each other and we practicalyy ahd to beg them to leave, they were so disruptive. We asked them if they wantedd to join, honestly we did, but that chick just gave me a look i would not want to repeat and Nephi simply could not cut his foot soak short. They migrated to Karl's room, adn the whole time they were walking in and out like we were invading on thier privacy. It did not do much for my opinion of them, that's for sure.