#coup card wally

[latenightist]

the menagerie of lovely things

[lisannastraussisanangel]

Children of the Tower of Heaven Headcanons:

Shô and Wally end up joining Fairy Tail years later. Wally debated joining Crime Sorciere but he didn't wanna be around Jellal that much

Millianna pulls the “do you know who my sister is?” Card all the time. It always works

Shô is very gullible. He’s the victim of so many pranks

Wally and Gildarts use similar magic. A fact that terrified the Fairy Tail guild when they found out

Jellal is the strongest magically. Erza is the strongest physically

Simon had been planning a coup against Jellal for several years before ToH arc

Millianna’s nickname is Milly but only Shô, Wally, and Simon can call her it. Surprisingly she’s also okay with Meredy using it

Erza’s group and the Oracion seis were friends. They disappeared months before Erza’s revolt. She assumed they were dead and it took her way too long to realize the Oracion Seis were those kids

Shô has the most evil sounding laugh ever. He’s a freaky little dude

[mysilverylining]

The Case for Vivian Stoll Being the Big Bad...

*Disclaimer:  I’m a forever Jason Dohring stan, who’s afraid if he goes back up in those fruit trees we’ll never coax him back down again.  So when it comes to Chase Graves?  There’s a bit of confirmation bias here.  I’m pulling for him to survive the next episode, preferably outside of a cell or a freezer.  I can’t believe I spent almost 3 days rewatching and writing this up.  I like to tell myself I’m being Veronica Mars, but I’m probably closer to Bo John.  

Personally, I LOVE Vivian Stoll.  There aren’t enough ruthless female villains in fiction, by far.  I was really looking forward to what lying liar, RT was planning to do with her this season, and was really disappointed when she was “killed” off.  

Her motive?:  Zombie Island won’t be ready for another 1.5 years, and she is  beyond ready for D-Day.  For somebody who could rattle-off the time span between the July 4th retreat and Wally’s murder (21 months and 21 days), I can’t see her sitting around waiting for disaster.  She peddles worst-case scenarios, and would want to take the fight to the humans before they had the opportunity to gather in numbers or call in the National Guard.   As a secondary motive, I think she was staging a coup with Fillmore Graves, a company she married into.  

Point-by-point analysis under the cut.

Helicopter Crash:  

We never see Vivian get on the helicopter.  Was her body recovered?  Burned beyond recognition?  Scattered in tiny pieces over the countryside?  We’ll never know, because Liv conveniently mutes the television during the news report.  

Harrison Graves

Vivian’s beloved “deceased” husband.  First scratched and extorted (by Blaine?).  He wanted to selflessly leave her so that she wouldn’t have to be celibate, but while he slept, she scratched herself and became a zombie.  He found his own source of brains, and a week later, he never returned home again -- implication, killed by Blaine.  Vivian vows revenge.

Some Possibilities: 

Harrison died at the hands of Blaine or another party.  Vivian died in helicopter crash.

Unsatisfying story-telling.  You shouldn’t tease a vendetta and then kill off the injured party before they can get answers or revenge.

Harrison died at the hands of Vivian.

Infinitely more interesting.  Did Harrison learn of Vivian’s plans to escalate a zombie/human war?  Did he have to be silenced?  Did he inform his thoroughly-ripped, but absent brother of his suspicions?

Who would make a better scapegoat than a formerly criminally-opportunistic amnesiac?  He can’t even defend himself.

Harrison is alive and being held prisoner somewhere.  

Vivian’s prisoner?

On Zombie Island?  

Harrison is alive and pulling the strings from behind the scenes

My #2 theory, if Vivian turns out to be dead after all.  The lack of closure on his death really stands out for me.

Additionally, why does she volunteer the information that Harrison was going to leave her.  “He didn’t want her to lead a sexless life” is valid reasoning, but a bit TMI for complete strangers.  Had Harrison drawn up divorce papers at some point?  Was she trying to get out in front of it  in case those papers surfaced?

Contracting Zombie-ism:

We only have Vivian’s word for how it went down.  A General in Equitorial Kundu (ha!) turned biological weapons on his own people and a dozen Fillmore Graves employees.  Two weeks later, later at the annual 4th of July retreat, every single Fillmore Graves employee contracts the virus.  Vivian, motherly saint that she is, cures them all with a scratch.  

Where else do we hear about biological weapons?  Oh yeah, Ravi tells us in ‘Looking for Mr. Goodbrain’ that ‘Aleutian Flu’ is code for biological weapon. And Katty Cake is doing the investigation.  

Did things go down at the retreat like Vivian said?  Or did she turn a biological weapon on her own employees as an experiment in creating super soldiers?  A pre-Max Rager Super-Max?  She owns the formula for that, by the way.   

Another theory - does she hope to infect Seattle’s humans with the bio-weapon to force a join-us-or-die situation?  

Vivian and Chase 

Vivian volunteers plenty about her husband and her employees.  Just one great, big, happy family, she says.  But she never mentions Chase even once.  

Right after the news report of the helicopter crash, Major tells us that Chase is taking the reins, and is flying back from Tripoli (via Paris, perhaps?).  

Our first glimpse of Chase is at Vivian’s wake, where he has a bit of a temper tantrum, shutting off the music and berating everybody for their revelry.  

Is Chase the enemy of fun?  Does he have a stick up his existent and totally adorable ass?  Only Liv knows the answer to that, but a few episodes later, we see him at Finnegan’s and Coons’ wake, laughing and smiling in the background while Major sings with his crew.  What makes this wake different?  #NotVivian.  

When first introduced to Liv, he sharply cuts her off when she’s attempting to express her condolences for Vivian.  But relaxes enough to give her the Dohring-smolder, once she lets the Vivian subject drop.   While Vivian seems to have a “Bring it on/Come at me” attitude towards D-Day/Chase seems much more cautious and disciplined about about discovery, doing everything possible to maintain zombie secrecy.  He worries exposure will lead to extinction (is he lacking confidence in his army?)

He immediately quizzes Liv on the Tuttle-Reed murders.  His language is specific.  He wants hard evidence to have the culprits “put away”.   

In a later scene, he  worries about the safety of the Chaos Killer victims, but he never says a peep about catching Vivian’s killer.  Which, I suppose, could be an argument that he’s her killer (revenge for killing his brother?)

Some possibilities

Before his death, did Harrison Graves confide in Chase about concerns with Vivian?

Does Chase suspect Vivian of less-than-pure motives for zombifying the Fillmore Graves employees?

Assuming Vivian is the Big Bad, is Chase the fall guy?  Once he’s killed/arrested/neutralized, will she come out of hiding with a sob story about how she tried to stop him from starting a zombie/human war, but he overpowered and imprisoned her?  

Tuttle-Reed Murders

We start the season immediately after the Max Rager massacre.  Vivian learns that Clive Babineaux, a human with connections, knows about zombies.  She has three choices.

Do nothing - Pray that Clive keeps his mouth shut, and doesn’t ruin everything.  Walk on eggshells, hoping not to make him suspicious.   

Kill him.  Make it look like an accident - Too risky when she doesn’t have anybody inside the ME’s office.  If caught, she could make some powerful enemies. 

Turn him into an ally 

We know that Vivian went with option number three.  First, she gave Clive/Liv/Major a tour of the campus.  Humanized the experience with warm stories of her love for her husband, her employees, her family. She’s caring, nurturing, and has all the PowerPoint slides to put a mind at ease.   However, Clive isn’t so easily convinced.  After the tour, while still on campus property, he expressed his uneasiness with the secrecy of a private army, “armed to the gills”.  He needed an incentive.  How sweet was it, the way he peeked through the classroom window to make sure little Wally was getting a proper education.

Of all the zombie families in all the gin joints, it just happens to be the family Clive shares an emotional connection with that wound up dead.  

A visibly sad Vivian hears the news about the Tuttle-Reed murders, but was she sad about the murders themselves, or in the necessity of sacrificing Wally and his fam?  Liv visits, and in dialogue-less montage, allies Team Z to Fillmore Graves.

Vivian fans the flames in the aftermath, selling the “humans want us dead” tale to her employees.  

Zombie Truthers 

Where are they getting all of their information?  

Assuming Vivian wants this war to begin sooner rather than later, are the Truthers her unwitting ace in the hole?

Did she post the Tuttle-Reed address on the zombie message board?  

Did she anonymously give Harley a heads-up about the tracker in his vehicle?  

Baracas 

Is utterly crucial to Fillmore Graves in a post D-Day world.  In 3x1, we learn that the Chaos Killer victims were whisked away from Max Rager to Fillmore Graves, where they’re debriefed and sold a cover story.  

Vivian hand-picks Baracas as her mayoral pawn, and will do anything to get him elected. 

While Chase Graves is understandably invested in helping Baracas win the mayoral race, the writers go to the trouble to show us they have no past association.  

Chase:  “Carey, I should probably meet this candidate we’re bankrolling”. 

Baracas: (when told Chase wants to meet him:  “Who?”  Carey Gold:  “Only the most important zombie on this planet.  Endeavor to impress.”  

Did Chase arrange the shooting of Baracas?  Possibly.  It definitely helped win the election, but I don’t get that impression.  The best response for the mastermind would be to let the shooter get away, but Chase fires WAY too many bullets up into that balcony.  He’s not trying to miss.  

I’m with Peyton when it comes to Roxanne’s murder.  Baracas doesn’t want his predilections getting out, but he doesn’t seem to be complicit.  

Weckler 

We know Vivian put security details on the Chaos Killer’s victims, including her pet politician Baracas.  Presumably, security reported back to her about Baracas’ visits to Roxanne the Dominatrix, and the peeping tom who witnessed everything.  

It’s two birds with one stone - turn Weckler’s daughter into a zombie, and then blackmail him with her safety.  “Keep your mouth shut about Baracas, and while you’re at it, we’re going to need you to steal the memory card evidence.”   Oops.  You weren’t supposed to murder her.

I’m guessing that the second lawyer’s whispered comment to Weckler had been for him to confess and halt the investigation in exchange for Tatum’s safety.  

The prison guard is almost incidental. Anybody could have paid him to kill Weckler, and anybody could have paid the second killer who killed the guard.  

Stolen Cure 

Why did Vivian learn that Major was human again?  She didn’t do anything with the information.  In fact, she was dead ten minutes later?  So why did the writers go to the trouble of showing us that scene?  

Major, right before the crash:  “She wants to talk to Ravi about how I was cured when she gets back.”  

***Sidenote.  Ravi doesn’t share a single scene with Vivian or Chase.  I’m predicting this is on purpose, and he’ll do something undercover in the finale.

Assuming Vivian wants to start a human/zombie war, a cure for zombie-ism is her worst nightmare.  She can’t have her fighters being captured and cured.  

Chase, on the other hand, doesn’t ask about a cure.  He seems to assume Major was human all along, and just really fucking lucky.  

Aleutian Flu

So Aleutian Flu is code for a bio-weapon, and this particular strain has been traced a specific Paris - Seattle flight.  At the time of Katty’s killing, all passengers have been interviewed, with the exception of four first-class passengers.  

Old racist woman, who knows nothing.

Sikh father with a baby, who heard a barking dog nearby

Miserable husband, whose wife ended up in coach due to a mixup.  To appease her, he traded seats with 17D, Patrice Gold.  

???  

Between the barking dog and the napkin with Katty’s name written on it, my boy Chase is looking awfully suspicious here.  

On the other hand, (1) Liv and Clive have a list of the four passengers, and would both recognize his name if he used it.  (2)  is he stupid enough to leave evidence connecting him to a murder on his nightstand?  (3) is he even more stupid to bring the woman investigating the murder back to his bed, knowing the napkin was there?  

Possibilities

If Chase was on the flight, did he also switch seats with another coach passenger?

Or had Katty already interviewed him and cleared him from suspicion.

Is that why he had the napkin with her name on it?

He clearly did not have sex with her.  His scene with Major earlier makes it clear that he knows Zombie/Human sex is off limits.

And Catty wasn’t a zombie at her time of death.

But SHE wouldn’t know the danger of sleeping with him, and there was nothing stopping her from shoving a napkin at him with her room number.

I mean, I WOULD!!!

Or is the napkin there for another reason?  He jotted the info down while listening to a voice mail?  He thinks their luggage got switched?  Vivian manipulated it somehow?  

Assuming Vivian is the Big Bad, she would know the date of her “death” in advance, and would have time to send Patrice to Paris to await further instructions.  

Like “Chase will be on flight xyz at this time.  Make sure you’re on the same flight, and release the toxin then.”  

Vivian Stoll vs. Chase Graves 

Most of this analysis rests on the assumption that Chase remained in Tripolli prior to Vivian’s death.  It’s completely possible that he came back to Seattle weeks or months earlier in order to wreck mayhem everywhere.  

Where Vivian edges Chase out, is that we’ve been shown her connection to the different entities:  the Tuttle-Reed family, Harley John and the tracker in his car, Baracas and the other Chaos Killer victims, the cure, and her admission of infecting all of the FG employees.  If Chase shares any of those connections, we haven’t been shown on screen.  

Where Chase edges Vivian out, is we’ve been shown a connection to Katty and the Aleutian Flu through the napkin and White Fang.  If Vivian shares this connection, we haven’t been shown on screen.  And if Chase was in fact on this flight, that negates the idea of him being in Seattle all along.

Potential Accomplices:

Zack Stoll:  Share’s a last name with Vivian, but seems genuinely decent.  Also, caught in the blast, though it looks as if his upper half makes it out.

Carey Gold:  Maybe?  A little TOO convenient, especially with Clive learning she’s Patrice’s mother.  Has constant access to Chase.  Capable of slipping Katty’s napkin in his pockets while he’s naked tanning (thank you Rob Thomas!).  At least mildly involved, as Tatum is living in her home, and her daughter was on the flight from Paris.  Still, I don’t think she’s the main accomplice.  She seems surprised too often, and only owns one everyday dress.  Pay your employees better, Chase.  

Patrice Gold:  Probably capable of conspiring without her mother’s knowledge.  Her seat number was written down on Katty’s napkin, and she was obviously the passenger Katty was killed to keep from interviewing.  Also, Tatum seems more frightened of Patrice.  

Justin:  My choice for most likely suspect.  

Becomes Major’s Insta-BFF at a time when he needs one the most.

Convinces Major that he’s a great guy, then targets Liv for romance with Major’s blessing.  

The cans of Super Max.  Liv initiated that request, but from Chase’s reaction to the theft, I’m guessing they were under lock and key.  

Not saying Chase wasn’t an asshole to shoot him, just that I feel like there’s something more to the Super Max angle.  

Who found the guns in Harley John’s truck?  Oh yeah.  This guy.  

Who worked the Baracas party where a shooter fired the same guns?  You guessed it.  Justin.

In Conspiracy Weary, Justin lies and tells Liv that Harley John’s compound wasn’t worth checking out.  It hadn’t been used in months.

Liv questions this statement aloud once she gets a look at it. 

Harley’s been building his underground bunker for all this time.

And the machinery was so loud, even the neighbors could hear it.  

 Justin conveniently pulls Major out of the party mere moments before the explosion.  

Too. Good. To. Be. True.   Nobody’s that sweet and pleasant.  

[rtirman-blog]

22       “Go West Young Man...”

When I was a kid, I didn’t know my Uncle Wally and Aunt Harriet as well my brothers did. Al and Mickey probably knew them better because whenever the three of us got to stay overnight at someone’s house, I was always sent to Granny’s, while my brothers would go to Wally and Harriett’s.  I really don’t know why it was done that way, but the long and short of it -I grew up thinking that Wally and Harriet didn’t like me as much as my brothers.  Anyway, I liked being Granny’s boy.

It was a real shocker, when I was 15 years old, Wally and Harriet asked me to come out to Bluffton, Indiana, to spend some of the summer with them and my three cousins, Sari (pronounced Shari), Bob, and John. Wally, a physician, was doing his residency in radiology at the Caylor-Nickel Clinic in Bluffton.  Other than my trip to New Jersey to “see a farm”, I had not seen any part of the U.S. outside of New York City and Long Island.  I traveled to the City, and connected with them at Pop’s house, where they were visiting.  I knew Sari and Bob from before, and it was the first time I met John.  Sari was about 7, Bob 5, and John 8 months.  

Our trip to Indiana was a bit more difficult than it is today. The only super highway was the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Turnpike’s in New Jersey and Ohio were non-existent.  Riding on the Pennsylvania Turnpike was somewhat exciting- the speed limit was about 70 mph, there were tunnels bored through the mountains, and places to stop to rest, get something to eat, and gas up.  Also, you could buy lots of souvenirs to show you traveled the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  

The plan was to get me settled, and help me find a friend or two. Wally and Harriet thought finding me some work out on a farm would also be really good for me.  A kid from their neighborhood found out I was coming to Bluffton, and I would be available to help out on a farm. I can’t remember his name, but his mom worked for my Uncle at the Clinic. Anyhow, very early in the morning, two days later, I was out in the hay field with a pitch fork, turning over rows of cut hay.  The idea was to let the sun dry it out before it was baled and stored. We worked a couple of hours. It was hard work, especially for me. There wasn’t a pitch fork little enough for me.  Like most jobs I do with others, I secretly get competitive, trying to turn over more hay than anyone else. I also get self-centered and begin to think that everyone must be impressed with how superb I am at turning hay- they must be very pleased with me.

Then came the surprise! It was time for breakfast!  The plan was to relax, gain our strength, and eat a hearty breakfast.  Eggs, pancakes, sausage, grits, etc.  I’m sure I ate much more than my share.  Even though I was a little squirt, I could eat like a lumberjack. Then it was back out to the field to bale the hay.  I was asked if I wanted to bale or to work in the loft organizing the bales as they came through the doors of the loft. I said I would like to be in the loft. Than the farmer asked me if I was strong enough to move the bales. He added, ”they are about 9 pounds each.” Only, that’s what I heard. What he actually said was 90 pounds each.  A huge ramp was set up in front of the barn. The ramp went from the ground to the loft, and it had a wide belt that moved upward. It worked like a people mover you see at airports. It allowed for a bale to be placed on the belt, to reach the loft level, and to fall into the loft.  I was cautioned about not being under the loft doors when a bale came falling over, and once the bale was on the floor of the loft, move it away quickly. If it got hit by another bale, hay will sort of explode  all over the place.  Got it! No problem!

There I was, about 4’10” and 95 lbs, ready with an iron hook to snatch the first bale that came through the loft doors.  I watch it drop and hit the floor.  I made a dash for it, hooked onto it, and pulled. It didn’t move!  I yanked with both hands holding the hook. That bale must have taken root right there on the loft floor- I couldn’t budge it.  I looked up just in time to see the next bale getting ready to take its fall.  I knew I needed to yell to everyone to stop the ramp. But with the noise of the ramp, I could scream and not be heard.  The loft doors were way too high for me to climb up there and yell down to them from there. I needed to get down there and let them know I can’t do it. Now, for me to admit I couldn’t do something after I assured everyone I could do it was far beyond the capabilities of my character.  So, when I reached the ground level and walked out of the barn, I went the other way. No one saw me as I walked toward the fields. I simply made myself disappear. It was like leaving the game after being lonesome in right field.  As I walked on a road, I got a distant view of the bales being lifted up to the loft doors. Yeow, they didn’t know I was gone.

I was wishing I was back home in New York…maybe the country road I was on went that way.  But the best I could do was to find my way back to town to Wally and Harriet’s house.  I was ashamed of what I did.  I can’t imagine the mess I caused, or the panic. I’m sure when they went up to the loft, hay was everywhere. Where was I.  In all likelihood, I was buried under the hay!

When the truth became known, I got a very long talk with my Aunt and Uncle, I think their neighbor was very upset, and I never, no not ever, worked on a farm since.  I got to do odd jobs for other folks.  Instead of going into detail about each job, here is a summary., I went on a day long bicycle trip toward Fort Wayne without telling anyone, I backed a pickup truck and bored a huge hole in the Williamson’s horse barn, and I got stung by a swarm of wasps that chased me around the Almdale house 4 times before those wasps got me, and while learning how to drive, I rode Wally’s 1946 Plymouth coup into a humongous ditch- Wally was in the car.

Those were the big negative things that happened, but there were lots of positives. I got to know my cousins better, and Wally and Harriet, as well. I liked my cousins a whole lot.  Sari, as I said previously, was one the prettiest girls ever.  The day I left, she ran over to me  and kissed me hard on my cheek as she hugged me tightly around my neck. That was a great surprise, and I didn’t get embarrassed.  I returned home on The Pennsylvania Railroad. I know my trip to Bluffton was positive for them because they wanted me to come visit them again.

When I was a senior in high school, in 1954, Wally and Harriet were to intervene in my life far beyond anything I could have imagined. Wally was about to join a radiology group in South Bend that spring. He asked if I would like to come out to Indiana, during my Spring break, and help them get settled in their new home.  I took a train from Penn Station, in Manhattan, to Plymouth, Indiana just 30 miles south of South Bend. If I would have taken a train on the New York Central Railroad, I could have gone directly to South Bend. However, since my father worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad, the train ride was free.  Although. I did have to pay six bucks for an upper berth in the Pullman Car. When the train pulled into the Plymouth station, I could see Wally, Harriet, and my cousins waiting on the platform for me.  

As soon as I got settled in the house in South Bend, Wally asked me where I was going to college. I told him I had been accepted in a pre-med program at Davis & Elkins College in Wheeling, West Virginia. You know, up to that day, I had never been to Wheeling or to Davis & Elkins, but it was the only college that wrote to me in my senior year of high school. So I applied. I did have applications to Princeton and Columbia in my hands, but after hearing that another senior I knew got turned down by Princeton, I knew I’d never make it. That kid was an excellent student, he was one of the captains of the football team, he was on the debate team, and he was one of the most popular kids in our school. There was no way Princeton would look at me.  I had a C average, and I did nothing in high school. Wait! I take that back. I did manage to be the homeroom representative to the Red Cross in the 7th grade, but that was junior high school. I tried out for basketball my freshman year and my senior year. No luck. I was just too small. You know, when I graduated from high school, I was 5’1” and 110 pounds. That’s what it said on my draft card.  As I’ve been saying all along, I was a shrimp.

Stupidly, I never applied to Princeton. Anybody who knew me would have thought I was going to apply there. After attending Princeton Summer Camp, being a camper, a counselor, swimming with the Princeton swim team, and becoming friends with the Princeton students, my world turned Orange and Black. Since Daddy worked for the PRR, I traveled for free to a slew of football games at Palmer Stadium, I got to eat at the Canon Club with Dave Cockcroft, and I visited some of the guys I knew in the halls. I even got to see a building that was home to the graduate school. I was in awe to find out people would go to school after college.  In summary, I suppose I have been a “Princeton Wana-Be” all my life. I ended up going to Notre Dame. I never went to school at Princeton for one simple reason- I never applied for admission. Someone once told me that not applying to the school you want to attend was stupid, as I essentially put myself on the admissions committee and turned myself down.

Well, back to Wally, and to me going to Notre Dame.  After I told him about Davis and Elkins, he suggested, why don’t I go to school here, meaning in South Bend. He would arrange for me to talk with someone. I asked him what college was in South Bend, and he said Notre Dame. I asked him if that was the same school that played football against Army. He said that’s the one. Wow! Wouldn’t that be something? Before I learned about Princeton, I was an Army fan. I hated Notre Dame, and I hated Johnny Lujak. I was a “Doc” Blanchard, Glen Davis and Arnold Tucker fan. I was nuts about the Black Knights of the Hudson. I could even whistle their fight song.  I told Wally that since it was April, it was probably too late.  But, I added, it wouldn’t hurt to go talk.

The next day, I was in an office, under the Golden Dome, talking with Father John A. O’Brien, the most prolific writer of Catholic literature, in pamphlet form, in the entire history of the Catholic Church. If you’ve ever been in a Catholic church usually there is a display of pamphlets concerning salient issues for Catholics in a modern society. In those days, I’ll bet 50% of the pamphlets were written by him.

He was a super kind, thoughtful man.  Talking with him was as good as talking with God Himself!  At the end of our hour long conversation, Father O’Brian encouraged me to make application to Notre Dame du lac, “Our Lady of the Lake.” Well, I completed the application, and sent a request for a transcript of my grades to be forwarded to Notre Dame.

At home, a week later, I got a call from Harriett telling me that my acceptance didn’t look good, as I was in the lowest quarter of my class. Something was wrong! I was, at least, in the top half of my class.   What turned out to be wrong was that they received my brother’s transcript rather than mine. Mickey, as I have shared with you earlier, was dyslexic. Reading was very difficult for him, and his grades suffered.  He was left back in 8th grade.  We went to school together from then on. So, he was a senior, also. The other aspect to that was Mickey was a terrific linebacker on our football team. So when Freeport High got the request to send the transcript to Notre Dame, Mickey’s transcript was more logical to send.  But Notre Dame wanted my transcript. The correction was made.

Then, during the following week, we had a bomb scare at school.  The entire school was evacuated.  All the students were standing outside while the authorities searched for the bomb. It turned out to be a hoax, but the school was bound and determined to find the culprit. We filed back in to our classrooms.  No one was allowed to leave his or her classroom.  It was a lock down. Then an announcement came into our homeroom requesting that I be sent to the principal’s office. I’m certain, everyone in my homeroom thought I was the guilty party-the Bomber!  I went to the principal’s office ready to defend myself, but feeling scared. When I got there, Mr. Southard, my 7th grade principal,and now my High School principal, was smiling at me. He told me there was a phone call for me, and I could take it in his office. Believe it or not, it was Harriett on the phone. You would have thought she was the Chairperson of the Admissions Committee for Notre Dame. She congratulated me, and told me the good news- I was accepted to Notre Dame. She told me I could come and stay with them my freshman year. I hung up the phone, and walked out of Mr. Southard’s office.  All the people in the secretary’s office were applauding. They all looked so happy for me. I couldn’t believe everyone in that office was excited for me…probably everyone in that office was Irish. My letter of acceptance would come a few days later, officially making it a done deal.

(I would like to interject my thanks to Mr. Southard’s unyielding support of me throughout all my years at Freeport Jr.- Sr. High.   I had very blond hair through those years.  He got around to calling me “whitey” which made me feel special to him. As a principal, he was the tops- in a class all by himself!)

When I got back to my homeroom, it was hard to be humble. I tried to be cool, without gloating. Word spread like wildfire. Richie was going to Notre Dame. Some people might have attributed my success to my brains, rather than to Wally’s connections. Believe it or not, as far as the Irish were concerned, Notre Dame outdistanced any other college in the country. To any Irishman in New York, I was about to enter the Pearly Gates.

You know, my father never really said to me how he truly felt. He seemed happy for me, and proud of his little Richie. But my brother, Al, told me years later, Daddy was really pissed off at my uncle for interfering in my life. Perhaps I was naïve.  I just never had a clue.  My father had a non-intervention policy regarding our education. Al said that the old man told Wally that I was doing fine on my own, I had found a school, and that Wally should not have done what he did.  If Daddy was alive today, I bet he would never tell me about that.

[writetoremainsilent]

8/23/19 coup d’eblah

I woke up, and was all set to go to the gym, but I forgot to charge my phone.

This led to my brother being upset that I had baited him into thinking I’d go with him. So the day’s already off to a good start.

I eventually went on over to the gym, after turning down having lunch with my dad and one of his business buddies (a sweet offer, but what would I do at lunch, dad?). 

At the gym, I got super lazy and bored, and went home despite promising myself I’d tryhard there. 

But I didn’t. I drove home and listened (read: sang terribly along) to Modest Mouse, which is honestly the one thing I look forward to when I go to the gym. Can’t really do that if I go with others.

Allen swung by to get a paper signed for our apartment moveout. I like how his hair looks now. 

I kind of goofed around for the better part of the day. I watched more of The Boys with my dad. I’m really liking it. I think it’s pretty nuanced and funny. 

Much later in the evening, I moseyed on over to Tye’s place to hang out. Descartes was visiting, and she had mentioned the ‘psychiatrist’ game I played with my anatomy friends to her sister and Descartes. Wally came by too to hang out.

So we were all hyped up to play--which was a fatal flaw. 

Somehow, the game tanked. I don’t know how or why it ever succeeded with my anatomy friends, but this time was just awkward. AND, it would’ve been one thing if it was just Tye, her sister, and Wally. 

But Descartes was there! I felt so ashamed. I feel shame so much more powerfully when I’m trying to look cool and self-assured to someone I don’t know all that well. I guess that’s normal. 

So, the game flopped. Fine. There were other games to play.

We played Coup, which I didn’t remember playing at first. As the game was being explained to me, I stared at the artwork on the cards, and I remembered that I had played it before, at Piotr’s house many months ago. I think I had shown my cards immediately after they were dealt, and Piotr and everyone else there threw up their hands in exasperation. The hangout ended shortly after that.

Anyway, the game was fun. I screwed myself one round by going all in on Wally suspicion wise, and got wrecked because of it.

While this was all going on, Allen messaged me about the pawn shop story I had written earlier. He said he liked it. 

I was tickled and flattered. Foremost because I didn’t expect it to be read, and secondly because he actually liked it. 

It’s like if you submitted some art poster in a high school class, and then when you visit that classroom years later, you see that your teacher had hung it up. 

Well, maybe not that cool, but still, nice. 

Back in the real world, we had switched to Monopoly Deal. And the game, as Wally had said from the start, was entirely luck based. Three cards ruined everyone else’s chances. 

It was still fun, though. Tye’s sister, whom I should probably give a name at this point, brought out another game whose name eludes me. Something like Bop or Bonk or something. It was a modified version of Speed. I sucked at it.

Like, sucked at it. 

After that had run its course, we all chilled for a bit, and then Wally and I decided to roll out.

And in rolling out, I rolled up in my blankets and fell into a content sleep.