Aldous.doc.rtf

Part one

He sighed loudly and the lady next to him on the bus glanced at him. It was an inconspicuous glance, she did it through the reflexion in the window, so as to make it secret, and it worked, he didn't notice. The lady smiled at her ingenious way of sneaking a glance, which she had developed over five sordid years of the city transit system on her way to and from work. She has to transfer, but only once, she was thankful. Her friend, Martha, has to transfer twice on her way to work! Once at the mall, and once again at 41st Avenue, but then again she has her husband to pick her up on the way home, unlike herself. She lingered in the thought of maybe having someone to pick her up from from work at the end of a long hard day, a day such as this maybe, and save her from the harsh, long, and really just uncomfortable rides to which she had sadly become accustomed. 'Maybe it wasn't too late to find a man' she thought to herself, 'people always say there is someone for everyone, surely there must be someone for me, out there' even if it was way out there. She wasn't mistaken, she was only twenty seven and still a very attractive young woman, or lady, as people often called her, though she felt the term suited the dog more than herself. She had long brown hair, somewhat sun kissed from her last couple weekends at the beach, and a thin, slender figure, with curves accentuated by her tight fitting dresses or business suits. She didn't consider herself a businesswoman by any means, although in truth she supposed she was. She liked to think of herself as more free spirited, more lively with emotion and free thinking, she liked to think of herself as an artist. she found that a common misconception people made was that being a bad businessman, or woman for that matter, makes you a better artist, but it was just that, a misconception and, sadly quite common. In her life she had found a steady medium between her boring, number crunching life in the upper floors of GE's main office and the open minded free spirited persona she adopted over the weekend, hence the sun kissed hair, and she was even getting a tan, which she quite enjoyed the thought of, seeing as how it was only the beginning of June. So here she was sitting on the bus and the guy beside her was now yawning. She snuck another glance in the window reflexion, a longer glance this time, so as to catch some of his facial features in her minds eye. She caught several and was pleased with the results. He was a good looking young man, of age not dissimilar to hers she thought. The man had ear length dark hair, it was a bit wavy, or so she thought, the reflexion wasn't too clear after all. The last feature that caught her eye was his eyes, they stood out bright in the reflexion, they were green, no brown, wait she remembered the name for this color, her old high school boyfriend had had the same color, oh what was it now. Hazel! The man beside her had hazel eyes. She smiled to herself at this little success, it's always a pleasure when you remember something you thought you might have forgotten, and she thought it suiting to indulge this pleasure with a cute little, no teeth showing, smile.
He glanced at the window again. Still she was gazing into it. Was she really looking out it? At what? There was nothing of much interest outside, just boring old buildings, nobody even seemed to be on the streets. Then again there are a lot of lost souls on the bus these days, all of which just look out the window, he guessed they were dreaming when they did this, but she didn't look much like a lost soul type. Anyhow, he was sure he had seen her smile at him in the reflexion, just after they had caught eyes. If she was interested in him why didn't she just turn to him for real and say something. Maybe she was shy? Girls sometimes had a funny way of showing interest, well guys did too, he just didn't take interest in that much. No, he was sure she was secretly looking at him. Now that that was decided what was the next step? Any guy in his right mind would say something, after all this girl was beautiful, she had a very cute smile and she was pretty much gazing at him. But what if she was daydreaming? What if she wasn't looking at him at all? He blushed very easily and he didn't much like the thought of saying 'excuse me but i couldn't help but notice you were gazing at me through the window's reflexion and, well i-i was wondering if you would like to go out to dinner with me friday night' (today was now wednesday but he figured friday was the safest). If he did that and it turned out he wasn't right at all about her reflexion gazing then that would really be quite embarrassing for him, there were probably about twenty people on the bus, and they were near the front. After much contemplation he decided he would simply write his number down on a piece of paper and slide it seductively into her hand as soon as the bus reached his stop. He smiled at his plan, he often indulged in little, self satisfied smiles. The bus rolled along. It gained speed too fast before the next stop and had to nearly slam on the brakes as to not enrage an especially angry looking businessman. At the next stop, a horrifying thought occurred to him, what if her stop was before his? He scrambled for his pen and paper, and managed to scribble in barely legible handwriting, even though, as a writer he often pulled out his pad to write down hand written notes. The note read, 'I'm glad I caught your eye in the reflexion. Aldous, 778-868-6214' He was lucky, he finished just in time. The girl turned to him, smiled softly and said 'excuse me this is my stop'. He looked at her, she was indeed gorgeous, he wanted to tell her , 'alright' he said and he stood up, the piece of paper folded carefully in half in his right hand, he was right handed, in case you were wondering. She stood up and he caught a whiff of perfume, what was it, lavender? No, he never learnt his flowers, it smelt good though. She was just brushing past him her hand touched his waist by accident, this happens often on busses, you may have noticed but Aldous took this as his chance, he took his right hand and slid it softly, safely into hers, pulling it away quickly but leaving it completely empty. He had done it, now all there was to was wait and hope that she would call.
She was off the bus before she had fully grasped what had just happened. She unfolded the note and sat down at the bus stop to read it, even though she could see it was only a line long, she felt if she sat down she could take it in better. She unfolded it carefully and read it 'I'm glad i caught your eye in the reflexion. Aldous 778-868-6214'. She folded it back up, there was a slight smile on her face, but mostly she was wondering how her inconspicuous glances had been noticed, perhaps he had also been shooting inconspicuous glances, in her direction. Either way, if she wanted a boyfriend, she supposed she could have one now, and he was quite handsome after all, even if he did take the bus.



Part two

He walked the 6 stairs up to the entry of his apartment complex. It was an old building, built in the 50's but it had been completely refurbished. It now had a fine new interior, the main entry was itself fully furnished with a decorative armoire and a little beige couch with an antique coffee table. On the coffee table there was a photography book called So80's with pictures of all the VIP's throughout the 80's, Aldous liked to look through it once in a while when he was waiting for a ride to come or something, it had some great photos of Christopher Walken. He passed through the old hardwood door and began the climb to the staircase to his apartment, which, after 3 weeks of climbing he had still not tired of. His apartment was three floors up in a four story building. Well, he approached his door and he could hear singing on the other side of the hall, just his neighbor, Martha. She sang often when her husband wasn't home, or at least she had been for the last three weeks, before then he couldn't be sure as he had only been living there those three weeks. Her husband would go out for walks every evening. Once when Aldous had had to go over and borrow some sugar for his tea he had asked where Mr. Philips went all the time after work. Martha had responded he went walking and when Aldous then asked why she didn't accompany him the phone had rung and she had to go answer it, she ran over to the kitchen picked up the sugar virtually threw it to Aldous and picked up the phone, leaving him there wit the sugar and the door open. Aldous didn't know whether to head back and make the tea which must have been finished steeping by then or to stay and be polite, after all he hadn't said thank you or been dismissed. He decided he would wait. He heard Martha's voice lofting out from the study, 'ohhhhhhh really Vanny you didn't have to, I think you overdid yourself this time, really, he was just dying to get his hands on a pair of those tickets'. Aldous figured he was probably overstaying his welcome. He had visions of her reappearing at her doorway with a look as if he had just broken into her house and eavesdropped and they did not appeal to him. He closed the door and returned to his house. That's how he knew where Mr. Philips went nearly every night. Though he never found out why Martha didn't go along, maybe she had a bad hip, she walked with a bit of a limp he thought. Back in the present, Aldous opened his apartment door and put the kettle on. Tea seemed of great importance at the moment, he couldn't think of anything he needed more.
Aldous sat in his loveseat with his tea and his book. He was currently reading 'the doors of perception'. He was reading it because it was by the same author who had written 'Brave New World' which was one of his favourite books, which he had only read in the first place because the authors name was Aldous Huxley, or Aldous Huxtible, as it was said in Garden State. He was just getting comfortable in his loveseat when he remembered that it was called a loveseat and that made him feel temporarily lonely. He wondered if the girl from the bus would call. It was a long shot, he knew it. He wasn't even sure that she hadn't been dreaming and not looking at him at all. But he had a feeling that she would, or maybe it was just hope. Lately him and his friends had been pondering the sense in having a girlfirend. Aldous wasn't looking for love. He was looking for fun, and a girlfriend seemed a pretty good way of having fun. But along with a girlfriend came complications, so many complications. First there was the matter of always having to think about her when you go out with your friends. Do you take her along? Or is it just a guys night. And then there was the fact that once you got to know each other well enough she would eventually start taking interest in your health and every girlfriend his friends had ever had eventually tried to get them to stop drinking or smoking weed. He certainly would not do that anytime soon. And lastly, there was the drama. Everyone knew that girlfriends meant drama, whether you were the perfect boyfriend or not, they always meant drama. He had never known a case to prove this wrong. Aldous and his friend Brian had been talking about this about a week ago, when they climbed up to the roof of this apartment building and were smoking some prime times. Brian didn't think he could deal with all that shit that came along with girlfriends, and therefore, for the time being, didn't want one. Aldous on the other hand, believed that if you have a relationship where it is clear that you don't want to fall in love, or even where there is no possibility of love there would be a lot less consequences and a lot more fun. He was caught in this thought, (about how he really should try to get a girlfriend and have some fun) when the telephone rang. His heart skipped a beat, or two, or maybe even three, which is quite unusual and highly dangerous, even for a man of twenty nine


Part three

Was it too early to call? she wondered. It was about an hour after the bus encounter and she just couldn't shake this boy from her mind, not that she wanted to, she really had nothing better to do at the moment. She put the kettle on and made tea, this seemed an ideal day for tea, the rain was just beginning to patter on the window outside. Well, I shouldn't say patter, does rain ever really patter? Or is patter just one of the many inaccurate onomatopoeias we have learned to use daily though out our lives? She believed the latter, and deciding upon this she then proceeded to come up with a better onomatopoeia , you know, one that would suit the sound of rain hitting her window pane better. She came up with 'tipp', for this particular rain at least, 'tipp' fit it quite well. So the rain was tipping on the window and she was sipping her tea and she was also thinking, (oh that didn't have any assonance) about whether or not she should call 'Aldous' or the man from the bus as she still thought of him. She remembered watching all the television shows where the girl had got a number, or the guy had got a number and they went and talked to her friends about whether or not they should call and the friends would always say 'if you call too early then the girl will think you're desperate, but if you call too late then she'll think that you don't care enough' or in the case of a girl getting a guy's number 'if you call too soon then the guy will think you're desperate, but if you call too late he'll think that you don't care'. She thought about this for a moment and realized it wasn't an altogether foolproof way of thinking, and that it certainly depended on the kind of person the number giver was. For instance, if the number giver was really very much in love with the girl to whom he had just given the number to (from now on the theoretical number giver will be a girl, not a boy, as this was the case with her and the boy from the bus), or if the number giver was desperate, or even lonely, he would not care at all if the girl called him right away, in fact he would prefer it, and he would probably be much more distressed than insulted if she called later. Score on for the book readers over tv watchers. And then again if the guy was depressed he probably wouldn't care at all when she called, not that she wanted to go out with a depressed boy, but again, another point for non tv watchers. It was turning out to be a more difficult decision than she had prepared for and when this was the case her business side of her came into effect and she decided she would just face the problem head on and cll him right away, that way if it turned out bad, it would be over quicker, and if it turned out good, it will have been started earlier, a very logical approach to take going into the realm of the unknown. She picked up the phone and reread the message, she dialed the number; 778-868-6214. The phone rang twice.
It rang again and Aldous managed to regain his composure and he sat down quietly beside the telephone. He took a deep breath and picked up the receiver. It was an old telephone and it was the manual kind so once you pick up the receiver that's it, you're in the call, and the other person knows it because to hang up you have to set the receiver down, and this one clicked before it got halfway to hanging up. Aldous knew this and so he took another breath, as if the increased air supply in his lungs would fill him with confidence and uttered a single two words;
'Um hello?' His voice was really very nervous, it hadn't even occurred to him that it might not be the girl. To his surprise a comfortable, easy laugh came from the other end.
'Haha oh my... is that how you always answer your phone?' It was a girl speaking, he didn't recognize the voice...
'Excuse me? Well as a matter of fact it is usually very close to that, occasionally I leave out the um.' He attempted to make his voice sound somewhat hurt, as if this sudden criticism had struck a chord, which it almost had, but he found himself growing more confident, he could keep up this sarcasm all day.
'Oh, well then, I suppose that's alright, Just I was expecting a nice manly "Hello, this is the residence of Aldous, fine afternoon, may i ask who is speaking?"' The girl's voice was absolutely full of humor, he quite enjoyed listening to it.
He retorted 'may I ask who is speaking? Please!'
"Why the girl from the bus of course' The statement was plain enough, but each word was filled with a certain hidden excitement that both of them shared. Aldous personally was on the edge of his seat.
'Does the girl from the bus have a name? Or shall i have to refer to her as 98 b-line for the rest of my life.' Ohhh he thought, mistake, he had said the rest of his life, would she think that he was looking for a long term relationship? Relationships can get pretty scary sometimes, he hoped he hadn't scared her off.
'Well' she hesitated, it only seemed fair he knew her name, she knew his 'I don't much enjoy the idea of being called 98 b-line,my name is Madolyn,'
Aldous smiled, he hadn't scared her off, and he got her name. Things were going well.
'That's quite a pretty name, can you sing in french?' Surely she would get this, everyone knew about the little french character Madalein who lived in an orphanage and sang songs.
'What?Why would I sing in french, that's weird.'
...Evidently Aldous was mistaken, now what.
'Oh ok, well haha nevermind i guess, there's just this little french cartoon who lives in an orphanage and..well..she sings in french i thought you might know her... i mean, know of her, you know seeing as how you have the same name, well kind of... it's spelt differently i mean, i mean i think hers is french. Are you a french Madalein? Or one with the y?
Oh god, this turned bad quick, what the fuck was he doing he was just sort of rambling, surely she would think he was retarted or else ADD or something, oh fuck ok just stay cool.
'Haha I'm with the y, no french in my family, although i think it's sort of soon to start finding out where each others origins are.' She sounded just as comfy casual as she had starting off. Oh my, what a girl! he thought to himself. He discovered some newfound strength.
'Oh i quite agree, just, well, french is the language of love and i thought maybe a girl such as yourself would be well acquainted with it.' Oh he was smooth, a little cheezy maybe, but damn smooth, not unlike kraft peanut butter, damn smooth.
She giggled and opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again.
'Well Aldous. I would like to hear some french' She said this matter of factly. A simple request, not one to be turned down.
'Right now? In our very first conversation?' He was surprised. Usually he used french a couple dates in and he could woo the girl quite well.
'Right now' Very firm indeed. It seemed he had no choice.
'Well usually I wait'
'Haha what do you mean usually you wait? Why wait when you could do it now?'
'Dinner on friday?'
'Sounds lovely' She smiled, it did sound lovely, she hadn't had a friday date in ages.
'Ok, there is no doubt it will be worth the momentary embarassment' He smiled and covered the mouth piece as he cleared his throat.
'Madalein (he converted her name to french, she giggled) Il y a seulement deux heurs depuis notre permiere rencontre mais en ces deux heures j'ai penser a rien sauf vous. J'ai sue la moment que nos yeux ce sont devenue un dans la reflection que tu avais ce qu'il faut pour prendre ma coeur, et que peut-etre, si nous jouent les cartes parfaitement on pourra trouver ce qu'il manque dans nos vies'
...There was a pause.
It continued for about ten seconds.
'You know usually you say something after that, like "that was french? Huh." Or "ohhhhhh i liked it."' He waited for a response.
Madolyn's voice sounded a bit weaker, like her voice was suddenly coming from far away.
'ohhhh i-i liked it.' She really had, it sounded beautiful, she had no idea what he had said, but it honestly... it- it sounded so beautiful. It was as if a brick had been placed on her lungs and her breathing became heavier.
'Umm, what did it mean?' She really was curious. What were the words that had made her feel so strange inside?
'That, my dear Madolyn, is for another evening. I'll call you on thursday and we'll set a time and all that for friday ok?'
'Why don't we just do that now?'
'Because with my way, i get to talk to you on thursday.' Aldous couldn't help but smile.
She laughed.
'Ok, Ok that sounds perfect. I will await your call with much anticipation Aldous'
'As will I Madolyn, goodnight' he said, as it was nearly seven thirty now.
'Goodnight'
He went to put the receiver down. But picked it back up quickly.
'WAIT'
She heard the shout just in time. She put the receiver to her ear again.
'Yes?'
'I don't have your number...' This was indeed a problem.
'Oh right, haha man, and I would have waited, ok it 604-786-4326'
Aldous used the same pen and paper he had used to write the bus note. He copied down the number, this time legibly, with great care.
'Got it?'
'I do!'
'Ok, goodnight bus boy'
'goodnight b-line'
There was a beep and a click and a 'blurck'
His tea was cold by the time he remembered it, but that was alright, so was hers.


Part four

He had to get up early for work the next day, at about six o'clock. Now i said that he was a writer, and that was all truth, but he wasn't a writer by profession. No, by profession he was a salesman for a small pen manufacturing company. The name of the pen company was "Lechange" and they were very high quality pens, their most reasonable being sold at thirty five dollars and their most expensive being seven hundred dollars. Why anyone would buy a pen for seven hundred dollars he had no idea but he supposed for an avid pen collector, seven hundred was nothing, after all, he alone usually sold about five of those models every month. His job wasn't all that interesting, he worked in a white collar office and every day was more or less the same. He got a fifty percent discount on the pens, which was great, and as Lechange also sold notebooks paper he could usually get those quite reasonably as well. In fact, both the notebook and the pen he had used on the bus had Lechange's little italic name scribbled somewhere on them. Either way it was almost nine o'clock when he realized he was quite hungry and that he hadn't eaten dinner. He lit the stove, put on some water and made pasta. He took a package of homemade spaghetti sauce from the freezer, took the cap off and put it in the microwave. He then proceeded to stir the pasta with a large wooden spoon. Now, if you happened to be looking in through the window and watching this man stir his pasta with his wooden spoon, (as his old widowed neighbor Ms. Graham was actually doing at the moment. As that's how she speant a lot of her time now. She had a very good view into three different people's windows; Aldous's, Mr. Pattenson's, (who was a middle aged man, divorced and lost custody of the kids because of a drinking problem) and the Williams household, which consisted of the Williams, James and Rachel, their two year old son and a very cute dog, of which breed Ms. Graham couldn't be sure, as she didn't know her dog breeds very well.) As i was saying, if you were in Ms. Graham's position, looking in at Aldous stirring his pasta, you might say he was looking a tad distracted, or maybe, preoccupied would be a better word. Ms. Graham wished she knew what was on his mind, it had been the first time since the arrival of her favorite spyee that she had seen him looking quite this way. Usually, she thought, he seemed content to just sit in his loveseat with his lap top in front of him and his notebook beside him with a cup of tea and write. But not this night, not this night. No, he certainly was preoccupied. Meanwhile back in Aldous head he felt as if all the random thoughts in his head were being absorbed by this one large thought of...(he couldn't help but sigh) Madolyn. He was trying to think of a word that best suited her, not that he knew her very well but from what he had gathered he was trying to find a word. Was is sweet? Luscious? Suitable? Enchanting? Drop-dead gorgeous? He had to laugh at this one, his imagination was getting away from him. He tried to get back on track but one word came to his mind; ripe. Yes, she seemed terribly ripe. So fun, so full of life, so ready to be picked! He had to laugh again, his imagination was really too much for him. Ms. Graham seemed taken aback, why was he laughing, was there something funny on the radio? He hadn't said anything to himself. He certainly as being different today. But 'ahhhhhhhhhh' Aldous though to himself, 'how very, very ripe Madolyn was. How divine, how beatific, and yet how personable her laugh had been, how very comforting her soft voice, it had not betrayed any sense of doubt in him, he knew that this was a girl with whom he would be well fitted.' His pasta was done, he took it off the stove, put on the sauce and gazed out his window. To his surprise there was an old lady gazing back at him, she looked suddenly startled and scrambled up from her chair by the window, spilling her tea on her fine grey housedress. She glanced back at him and walked hurriedly away from sight. He pondered what he had just seen, and then, after quickly checking his reflexion in the micro wave door to make sure his face wasn't horribly distorted or frightening, so as to scare an old lady, sat down to his dinner, quiet, alone, but alone with his thoughts which suited him quite well.


Part five

After dinner he got up, put his dishes beside the sink, he didn't want to wash them tonight, you might say he wasn't in a washing mood, and you know something? You would be right! He picked up his laptop and began to type:
"The bus home from his work was beginning to become a dreary affair" He selected the typing and clicked with a straight finger the 'delete' button. He sat back with a pensive look on his face. Let gravity pull his head back from towards the floor, away from his heart. He thought maybe he could think better this way, if his head wasn't quite so close to his heart. An idea came to him. He sat back up and placed his hands carefully over the keypad. He wrote:
"J'ai eu l'impulse qu'un bague m'approchais. Ahhh oui, oui, une bague m'approchais. J'ai couvert ma bouche et laisser a faire n'importe quoi qu'il voulait. AAAAAHHHHH. Oui, oui, une grande bague. J'ai eu l'impression que quelque me regardez. J'ai pris une petite glance a ma droite. Non, rien ici. J'ai pris une petite glance a ma gauche. Hmm, il y avait une fille. Elle semblait etre a peu pres mon age. Elle etait tres belle. Mais elle avait une qualite, peut etre, approchable? Elle regardez dehors, mais a quoi? Il y avait rien. Sauf des rues desertes et des vielles batiments. J'etais en train de tourner ma tete en l'autre direction quand mes yeux ont vues une autre paire. Ils appartenaient au fille. Elle me regader dans la reflection? Hmmm, j'ai pense a moi meme si cela pourra etre le cas."
He continued writing, writing out pretty much a journal of the events that had taken place since his bus encounter, in french. Except that he wasn't actually very good at french and so there were many spelling mistakes and he was quite certain he had made up at least one or two words. But all in all he was pleased to have something to write about and, at ten forty seven, he set off to brush his teeth, wash up and "head to bed". He had good dreams that night. He even remembered them in the morning.

Part six

The day started off as any other. A brutal awakening by his alarm clock at six. An approximately fifteen minute long shower, the first twelve of which he was still mostly asleep and the last three he spent vigorously trying to wash and condition his, and wash his body as quickly as possible so he wasn't late. At six seventeen he poured the milk into his vector cereal. At six twenty one he was done his cereal, had briefly scanned over the news, nothing catastrophic, thank goodness, and was making his morning mug of tea, which he would take with him to the bus stop and usually lasted him until the end of the bus ride before he finished. At six twenty seven his tea was steeped and he put his milk in and a teaspoon of sugar (he was gradually cutting the sugar out) it really added up after a while. At six twenty eight he glanced out his window at the trees blowing in the wind. Something caught his eye before he turned away and he looked up at the windows across the terrace, weird, he thought he had seen something. He left and locked the place up at exactly six thirty. He walked the two minute walk to his bus stop and waited two minute until his bus came at six thirty four. 'You know what that is?' he said to himself, 'That's precision?' He laughed to himself, ahhh one of his favorite lines from one of his favorite books "the catcher in the rye". The bus was fairly empty, as usual, he recognized the faces and he felt that maybe today, as his spirits were high, he should try to get to know one of them. He chose a middle aged man, in a business suit, he was reading the front page of a 24. Aldous went up and sat two seats away from him.

'Ahh, i see you're reading the front page, really the only interesting page' he said conversationally.
The man looked up at him and did one of those smle nods, as if to agree but then went right back to reading the gossip page.
Aldous was not discouraged.
'Well, i suppose the back page is alright, but i never learned Sudoku, i'm not too hot a crosswords and that damn puzzle box on the first page? That has the answer on the back page? That's just stupid, I couldn't think of worse puzzle box riddles if i tried.' Surely this would get a response...
The man laughed and said.
'Oh, i agree with you on that one. I once came across one that was a tall, narrow box with the word air written in the middle. I swore it was air tight, or maybe air tank i could have settled with but the goddamn answer was "compressed air'. Can you believe? As if anyone would ever even think of that. I mean, compressed air? Come on. Seriously though, you should learn to do the Sudoku. It's fun."
Aldous smiled.
'Math was never my forte, but if you say so, I'll give it a shot... I'm Aldous by the way.' He reached out his hand, the man took it.
'Fred' The shake took place.
'You do look like a Fred you know!'
'Yeah, I've actually been told that a fair bit. I guess you look like an Aldous.' At this Aldous smiled. He leaned in, so as to make the conversation more private.
'You know,' he said 'I recognize just about every face on this bus. I could pick them out f a crowd and yet the only one I know the name of is you Fred, and that's only because I came and introduced myself.' Fred looked a bit embarrassed 'No, no, it's alright haha, i only came up to you because you looked the friendliest. But don't you think it's sad that, in the twenty first century we can't even sit next to someone on a bus and make simple conversation? I mean, you would think we would know each other after all these bus rides bu we just grow farther and farther apart the longer we don't talk to one another.' Fred thought about this. He wasn't terribly bright.
'Well, we're all very busy people I'm sure...'
'Oh yeah yeah, we could make a thousand excuses I'm sure' Fred looked insulted, Aldous would lose him soon if he didn't do something quick, 'well, it's true we could, but where would that get us? Seriously where? Haven't you ever wondered, when you feel alone, how many other people are feeling alone at the very same time? Don't you think it would make sense to meet new people? Well we have an ideal opportunity here. What do you say?' Aldous knew he would say one of two things, either, "look kid, I got a good set up going here, I don't need anyone interfering, do what you want with your life, let me be, or he would agree with him and ask what he was suggesting. It was the latter.
'So what do you propose we do?' Fred's tone was a bit reserved but he could sense a bit of excitement.
'I say, my new friend, that we do exactly was I did today, see how many we can recruit until the we've talked to every face you recognize on the bus. Sound like a plan?' Aldous was getting excited.
'Sounds like a damn good plan Aldous!' Fred smiled, he certainly did think it was a good idea, and it would give him something to do instead of read about celebrities lives every morning on the bus, and really what was there to lose? He was a happily married man. He supposed Aldous was lonely right now, but he knew it wasn't his place to judge him, besides, what a great idea. Let's see who would his first target be. The bus was getting close to his, stop he would have to do it on the way home but he knew some of these people got off work the same time as him. He picked his target. A fortyish year old lady in black dress with a red chapeau, ah, this would be fun indeed. He turned to Aldous.
'Who you gonna get next?' he inquired. Aldous replied.
'The college student I believe.' He nodded over at a twentyish year old man, dressed in a purple hoodie and a blue and yellow striped shirt. "This guy would be easy" he said to himself. Unfortunately his stop was next. He pulled the string, stood up, bid his good-day to Fred and walked to the doors. The bus stopped, green light came on, he pushed gently on the bars and walked through the open doors with a grin on his face. Today would be a good day.

Part seven

On the way home from work, it had been a good day at work, I'm sure you were dying to know. It was Craig's birthday today and he had brought doughnuts for everybody, Krispy Kremes actually. And seeing as how three of the girls in his office were dieting he got an extra one. Oh indeed, it did not take much to make it a good day, just a positive attitude and unexpected doughnuts. Madolyn wasn't on the bus, in fact he had never seen her before, and he would surely remember her had he seen her before. She probably took a different bus usually she was probably going to a friend's house, or maybe she usually just caught it at a different time, it was not unlikely seeing as how he got off at four thirty and most people got off at five or later. Either way he went and sat down near the back of the bus, in a seat facing the front, he didn't like the seats facing sideways, every time the bus accelerated you fell against the person next to you, or had to use all your strength not to. The bus was much too crowded to do his little experiment, besides he wasn't really in the mood right now, he wasn't too thoughtful, he was more vacant feeling, not in a bad way though. When he reached his stop he did the usual "get off the bus" ritual and walked the two minute walk to his apartment. Once he got in he went and sat down in the little couch in the entry, it really was a very cozy room, it had just started getting a windy out, a blustery day! He looked through So80's and smiled as he came across a great picture of Kate Moss at a party.

Part eight

Ms. Graham was having a very quiet day today. First thing after she had got up she had sat in her chair by the window to see if anything interesting were happening. She spotted Aldous (not that she knew his name) just as he looked up in her direction and she darted out of sight. Deciding that she would give spying a rest for the rest of the day she drew and had herself a long bath, with bubbles! Just like her mother used to draw for her when she was a little girl, she thought. She had grown up in a very rich family in Connecticut, and there had never been any trouble with her having a nice hot bath every morning, she had loved every minute of it. She still loved it just as much, she found, maybe a little more because now she had a more luxurious bath, and even thicker bubbles that lasted for hours. But alas, she had had to get out of the bath, she very well couldn't stay in it all day! She made herself some french toast and tea and sat down to read the morning paper. There had been another gang shooting. Horrible stuff, she thought. Why, in her day, crime had at least been reasonable, they didn't need eight armed men to rob an old man, and they certainly didn't beat him senseless for no reason after they had done it. Oh, it was brutal. Why, she could remember being in a bank once when she had been traveling out west with her friend Elliotte, and it was being held up. She had almost admired the two men that had done it, she had to respect them just because of the way they did it, they made sure they didn't have to hurt anyone, in fact they even said that was the last thing they wanted to do. Yes, crime had been run by gentlemen in those days, and even though they were still criminals, one couldn't help but feel respect for them. But now, now she thought, people driving by with machine guns! Shooting a car to smithereens, and now police were saying, the gang had targeted the wrong car. An innocent man dead because of these, stupid, stupid gangsters. Oh, what she would say to them if they ever had the nerve to pick on an old lady such as herself. She couldn't help but remember the words of her husband when they had been talking about this very subject some years ago "The trouble is," he had said "is that none of them feel the slightest bit of remorse any more. It's almost as if they're not human, they have no conscience." Well she thought, just wait till they were through with Susan Therealle-Batcher Graham, she would show them to feel remorse! She put the newspaper away with disgust and folded it up. Then she sat sipping her tea quietly. What was she going to do today? She thought she would spend some time out on her terrace, fixing up the garden it needed a bit of attention. She sipped her tea and changed into something more suitable for gardening. She owned the most gorgeous little apartment. It had all dark hardwood floors, with granite counter tops. It was carefully decorated with artifacts from all the places she had been throughout her life. She had a medicine man, from africa. She had a forty thousand year old crocodile fossil that she had snuck through customs from Australia. Carpets from India. Shells from Mexico, Jamaica and Costa Rica. Glass blown specially from the best glass blower in all of Spain. And finally on her wall, perfectly preserved in picture frames, were woven posters from Peru. Then there was the terrace, with two french doors that opened up to it from the kitchen, in the summer in flooded her house with sunlight. Not many apartments around here had terraces, she knew, there were only two in this building, and they were not cheap! But it was worth every penny when she stepped out into her homegrown paradise with a cool cup of iced tea or maybe even, if she was feeling adventurous, lemonade! She could spend entire days there. Last year she had set up a little coy pond she had seen at a garden show. The ladies in her book club certainly loved coming over to her place, she knew, and she never failed to disappoint. You see, Ms. Graham is also a great baker and cook. Her favorite meal in the whole world was Souffle Mignon, and hers was absolutely to die for. She had gotten numerous compliments over the years. She worked in the garden for most of the day. It really was a paradise, she absolutely loved it. Then, once she got tired, as old ladies do, she went back inside for a nice refreshing glass of water. She was sipping her last few drops when the telephone rang. She answered it the way she had learnt when she was twelve.
'Hello, Graham residence, Susan speaking' she spoke lightly.
'Well, hello ello! It's Sherry!' Sherry had been Susan's friend since they had met in Africa, they had been the only two white ladies in all of Kenya, or so it seemed. She smiled. The phone call took up most of the rest of the day and when it started getting dark she thought she should say goodbye. It sure was nice hearing from Sherry though. Sometimes it seemed like says went passed that she didn't speak to a single soul, but she knew that wasn't true. It was hard for a woman of her age, at eighty four a lot of her friends had passed away, Why, Sherry was the only friend she had left within ten years of her! But no one could ever say she hadn't lived. She most definitely had lived, and she had two sons to prove it, though they both lived over in Britain now and she rarely heard from them apart from the letters she got every month, which she awaited with pleasure. Now it was almost ten o'clock and the drunkard across the way was starting to stir, perhaps she would have a watch, she was never much a fan of television. Oh, but she had promised herself no more spying today. What should she do then? She picked up her book, went around to her little chesterfield and lied down. The light was just enough but she had to use a magnifying glass. She was reading a the book her book club had decided on, it was called "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" my, she thought, some people had quite the imagination.


Part nine

One or two days later. To be perfectly honest i forget what day this story started on, I think it was a tuesday, but it could have very well been a wednesday. So, supposing it was a wednesday then we'll go with "the next day". The next day, which, of course we know now to be thursday. Was a day to which Aldous had been looking forward to, anyone know why?..................................................................................................... if, in the second it took you for your eyes to scan over those dots if you were thinking in your head "BECAUSE ALDOUS GETS TO CALL MADOLYN AND DETERMINE THE SPECIFICATIONS OF THEIR UPCOMING DATE!!!" then congratulations, you win, unfortunately I'm fresh out of prizes so just go and give yourself a pat on the back. That's what Aldous did, not literally but figuratively. The day, I'm afraid to say started off fairly poorly. He woke up, did the regular rituals that defined his morning workdays but, at six twenty seven, when his tea was done steeping, he took a brief moment to relax and gain composure for the day. He gazed out his window and took a big sip of tea, it was the perfect temperature, just a little bit under "too hot". Now what happened next is really quite interesting, so I will describe it in color. His gaze started in the terrace just behind his building, a little dog was doing his morning business while his owner casually looked the other way. It then moved left slightly to the poplar tree just beside his window, where he saw a squirrel with a nut in it's mouth, he smiled and thought to himself 'ah, perhaps the only squirrel I know that hasn't been humanized.' Next, his gaze wondered upwards, but before it did he took another big sip of his tea. His gaze wondered up, he intended to look at the sky but something caught his eye before it reached it's destination, it was that old lady, she was sitting in her chair by the window, and she was staring exclusively at him. Aldous was taken by such surprise that his mouth opened wide and the tea fell out of it, as the tea was falling down towards his shirt he tried desperately, with both hands, forgetting his mug was in one of them, (with the top open), to stop it from hitting his shirt. Unfortunately, he spilt more tea on himself and ended up with a sullied shirt and half a mug of tea. Aldous looked up towards where the woman was, she was laughing. Ok... what the fuck was this. He shook his head and took his shirt off, put a fresh one on, put a piece of paper towel on the tea and hurried out the door. The time was six thirty one and three quarters, he would just make the bus, but he ran anyways. That motherfucking old lady, he swore it was like she was spying on him, enough to give him nightmares. On the bus he sat next to the college student. He tried feebly to make conversation but his heart really wasn't in it. To be honest he couldn't figure out why he didn't feel up to getting to know the college students, the kid had his ipod in first of all, which made it more difficult. when he got to work he found his boss was in a bad mood and, seeing as how he didn't feel up to getting yelled at he stayed in his cubicle nearly all day, the only time he talked to anyone is was when Angie came over to ask him if everything was all right. He responded with a despondent nod, and with a somewhat put off, but understanding face she turned away. The rest of his day was pretty much the same. Once he got home he went to his fridge for a little snack and realized he had run out of food. He took some cash from the stand beside his bed and went to Safeway. He picked out all the necessary items for daily survival, you know, green peppers, red peppers, apples, bread, a half a watermelon, peanut butter, some wagon wheels. He had never in his life had to worry about getting fat, he was always quite healthy and fit, even if he didn't exercise regularly. When he was paying for his change he felt miserable, again he didn't know why, he just did, he felt like taking it out on someone, even though he knew he probably shouldn't. The total came to thirteen twenty three, the clerk was about eighteen, still in highschool he thought, he handed him a five dollar bill, and on top of the five dollar bill he put the change. This infuriated Aldous. He tried to fold the bill up with his one free hand, his other was holding the groceries. The bill folded but not before the change slipped off and onto the floor...
'Really? Really? Does this bill look like a plate? Does it really make sense to put the mother fucking change on the bill? Clearly with one hand, when I go to fold the bill and put it in my the change is going to fall off, it's inevitable. How many people do you do this to. Do you have any idea how annoying that is? Look do me a fucking favor alright? Put the bill down after the change next time. Can you do that? Do you think? Maybe?' He heard a voice behind him.
'Excuse me sir, it's not that big a deal.' Aldous laughed, he turned in time to see another customer speak up.
'Actually I agree with him completely, it just doesn't make sense, I mean, it isn't a plate after all.' The lady looked pleased with herself, Aldous was pleased too.
"Thank you', he smiled and walked out the door. He felt better.
He went home. Took out his notepad and wrote notes on what had just happened. He had fun doing it.
He called Madolyn at seven thirty, he realized she might be eating dinner but he really didn't care. Besides he was calm again by that time ad he really felt like talking to her.
The telephone rang once, then once again, then once again, then there was a pause, and a very out of breath voice answered the phone.
'Hello?' she was pretty out of breath, it sounded hot.
'Hey, this is Aldous, I'm uhhh, I'm not interrupting dinner am I?' he asked it politely.
'Oh no, no, I usually don't eat till later' there was a pause, she figured she would say it 'I, ummm, I was just in the shower had to run to the phone.'
'Oh haha sorry I guess'
'What? No you didn't know... I hope, haha just kidding.' God her voice was cute.
'Well, if it makes you feel better, no I wasn't spying on you, but yeah I have a good story about spying ahah, it's actually got me kinda worried. If I call in the middle of the night it's probably because I'm having nightmares alright?' He was clearly joking, she a a smart girl she would catch that.
'Cute!'
Aldous laughed, so he was cute, alright, he'd take it.
'So as you probably know I don't have a car. Well, I do have a motorbike but not here, it's at my parents house, but that's beside the point. I don't have a car...'
'That's alright we can walk, I know a place close to where I live, it's great and they know me there, it's all very nice and romantic'
'Romantic sounds nice. Where do you live anyways?'
'Right by the bus stop you saw me get off at oooonnnn what, Tuesday? Wednesday?'
'Oh dope, ok, I haven't seen you around before I thought maybe you were just visiting someone'
'No man, this is my hood'
'Ha, gangster? Aight then girl, you know we're within walking distance of each other eh?' I got off the next stop. What's your address?'
'How about I meet you in the park?'
'Sure, at seven?'
'Seven sounds good'
'Seven sounds great' Aldous smiled
'Hahah yes, yes it does' This man could really make her smile. Everything he said sounded so simple and yet, in his voice, so deep, so meaningful. She had to tell him.
'Aldous, I think you should know now, I'm not looking for anything serious.'
'I'm just looking for fun and maybe a little companionship Madolyn' He hoped this hadn't sounded to straight forward, but she would find out eventually.
'Oh, well then I guess we'll be good for each other.'
'I believe so.'
'I'm excited for friday eh? To be honest I haven't been on a date in ages'
'We have so much in common Madolyn' he said jokingly, but seriously at the same time. She smiled, she liked his sense of humor, that was a big thing in guys. A lot of guys she had been with before were complete idiots, you couldn't share a laugh with any of them. She knew Aldous would be different.
'So see you on friday then?'
'Friday in the park'
'Goodnight Aldous' she said it affectionately. Was it too affectionately? Maybe...
'Goodnight Madolyn' he said it with an affectionate smile.
She was reassured. There was a beep and a click and a blurck
They slept soundly that night. Adlous didn't have any nightmares.