Page 14 - Demo

Fools%u2019 Journey8A few days before our meeting, I had called a girl I%u2019d known at Ball State, and asked her out. We%u2019d known each other during the school year, but had never dated. She lived about 30 miles away in Goshen, and we went out to a club she%u2019d heard about for a meal, a couple of drinks, and dancing, while Lynn was back in Kalamazoo. The loud music was ok for dancing, but not at all conducive for talking, especially because the place was so crowded that we were seated at a table with a couple we didn%u2019t know. In any case, I wasn%u2019t very attentive, because I couldn%u2019t take my mind off Lynn the entire evening. I kept replaying our first day together over and over in my mind. I pictured her that morning walking out of her duplex, I saw her smile, I watched her eating a Coney dog, walking around Kendallville%u2019s town park, writing down notes for a curriculum, relaxing in my living room, sleeping peacefully. And then there was the kissing. I was certainly smitten.Although she lacked much furniture, Lynn did have some nice pieces of artwork. There were several ceramic pots she%u2019d built by hand, and two beautiful hooked-rug wall hangings she created in a textile class. There was also a museum reproduction of an American Indian bowl, an earth-toned tapestry a friend had woven, and an ink-and-crayon drawing featuring a pair of raccoons an old boyfriend had given her. A few weeks before I left Ball State, a classmate mentioned an antique coffin he was trying to sell. He%u2019d found it in a second-hand shop, where it had been gathering dust for decades. Not long after he installed it in his apartment %u2014 with a mannequin inside, and a blue light shining up on the face %u2014 his roommates told him to get rid of it because it was creeping out their girlfriends. I took it off his hands for $20. It was made of cheap, darkly stained basswood, and had a lid with a glass window for viewing the deceased. I tore out the decaying oil-cloth lining and the small straw-stuffed pillow, then painted it with the same poppy-red color used on %u201867 Ford Mustangs. To set off the inside, I installed a lining of black crushed velvet, then added walnut panels on which I mounted my stereo amplifier, AM-FM tuner, reel-to-reel tape deck, and turntable. It was very cool, in a ghoulish sort of way, and Lynn really liked it %u2014 something that endeared her to me even more.