Arcas and Callisto

"F**k!" The last one shattered. After the first three Theo just started handing them to me. By the end I was covered in a sheet of sweat all over my body.

"You ok?" Theo asked.

"Yeah, I just, needed that," I said, out of breath.

"You're scary when you're pissed."

"It happens. Let's go home."

"Want to come over? You can cut through the trees behind my house when you leave."

"What about your mother?" I asked.

"She's not home by this hour. Graveyard shifts, you know," he said and shoved his hands in his pockets. "We can drink some of the booze in the fridge."

"Sure."

Halfway back to his house the second sober boys came running from behind us, all half naked with their skin turning blue. They whooped and hollered in utter freedom. Derek shouted his 'hello' and his ‘hell yeah!’ of rebellion. The cold was lending them adrenaline and excitement. I looked to Theo who watched them with an appraising glance.

“What are you thinking?”

“Nothing, just watching them,” he said. His eyes glanced up to the sky. “It’s pretty clear up there tonight.”

I nodded.

“You can see the big dipper, and then the little dipper. Do you know their story?”

“No. Aren’t they two bears?”

“Not quite. In the sky they are, but to the Greeks they were humans once. A mother and a son, Callisto and Arcas.”

“Oh really? And what was their story?” I asked.

“Well Zeus liked Callisto, and one day he was with her when Hera came looking for him. He didn’t have time to hide her so he turned her into a bear. As fate would have it Hera found him and the bear and didn’t trust Zeus so she demanded he come back to Olympus with her.”

“Ok, short version,” I interrupted.

“This is the short version,” he insisted before continuing, “Zeus couldn’t change Callisto back before he left with Hera so Callisto stayed as a bear for the time being. However, her son Arcas was out hunting one day. When he saw the bear he took his arrow and shot it through the heart, only to be horrified as it changed into his mother with an arrow through her heart. He knew Zeus must have turned her into a bear and he became angry, crying and shouting and everything. Zeus heard him and was worried Hera might, so he went to fix it quickly. Unable to help Callisto he turned her back into a bear and placed her form in the sky. To placate Arcas he turned him into the little bear and put him beside his mom. And you see how the little dipper is pointed at the big one? It was said Arcas turned while Zeus put him in the sky so he could watch over his mother for eternity."

"That's kinda sweet."

"It's one of my favorite stories of the stars."

"Why?"

"The guy gave such a fit over it the Gods could hear him. Zeus had to appease him. And after, he made sure he could look after his mom while they were in stars. He's a-okay in my book."

"Yeah, I'd say so too."

"Would you have done it?" he asked.

"For my mother?"

"Yeah."

I let silence rest his hand on my shoulder and he extended his hand to Theo as well. Theo dropped the subject and I wondered if I was a-okay in his book like Arcas. I must have been because he still invited me inside.

Sharing a drink with Theo was an experience. He'd down a swig and spit out his comments on life. Devoid of obscenities, his opinions under the influence were still intelligent.

"We're all just looking for something. Characters in a story that has no author to tell us where to go. There's conflicts, plot events, but there's never a resolution." He downed another gulp.

"Well we die."

"Death's not a resolution. It's an unsatisfying ending."

I sipped from my bottle adding a nod for convincing. "Hate those kinds of books."

"Because they're real. We like to deviate from reality. Pretend its all leading to something that's worth it."

"Not for pretending," I said, "forgetting."

"Damn straight," he said and lifted his bottle to me. We clinked them together and downed the brew.

Theo grabbed another two from the fridge, but I refused. My buzz was serving it's purpose. He shrugged and cracked open his second.

By his third his theories turned to secrets.

"Didja know my dad's a jailbird?" The red by his eyes had spread to his nose, his cheeks. "Crack smoker."

My mind had been rendered useless, burnt out. There was nothing to do but listen. I couldn't even stop this breaking dam of secrets I didn't want to know. Secrets he had to get drunk enough to tell me. I wanted to tell him to stop, or at least let me have a turn.

"My ma is all I got and she works for food. An’ I work down at the diner to make sure I have lights on," he said. “I use ta have a jacket, but when we left the alley I forgot it.

He picked up the bottle and swirled it to see how much was left. This freckle faced genius standing across from me lived in an alley.

"The fables," I said.

"Wha’?"

"The German fables."

He pushed off of the counter and disappeared into his house. Had I just said something wrong? I heard a door pushed open and his staggering footsteps back into the kitchen where he left me. He tossed a ripped up paperback at me.

"I learned how to read on my own when my mom left me at home. I found this in one of her drawers."

I flipped through the pages. There was writing on most of them. Lines were highlighted and underlined.

"Read it later. Put two and two together." His drunken eyes staring me down haunted me for the next three days. The beaten paperback became forgotten under my pillow.

I visited the busboy at Higgins just before the place was closing for the night. I sat at the table he was cleaning with his wash rag.

"Any news from Derek?" he asked.

"No, far as I know nothing tonight, lake froze again and Blondie forgot our stuff."

"Still want to go?" he asks.

"For what? No, actually I'm staying home."

"You sure?"

"Yeah got homework to work on," I said.

"Since when do you do homework?" Theo asked. He picked up one of the empty glasses and wiped it before placing it in his tray to bring back to the kitchen.

"Since I couldn't get high tonight."

"Well I'll be there."

"Yeah, you do that Theodore."

"Theo," came the insistent reminder.

"Sure."