JOilH HARRISON HOSCH lIBIl RC Editor: Sheila Casper , ~n• . c.nege 10.. 1 'Sf Gainesvill e, GA 30S03 Associate Editor: Joanne Martin

Art Editor: Andy Scott

Staff: Andrea Blachly, Ally Eidson, Bill Feagins, Jessica Jackson, Elsie Nelson, Katherine O'Neill, and Usa Roberts

Faculty Advisors: Sally Russell Robert Westervelt

Special Thanks To: Our proofreaders, Monique Kluczykowski every tn'knl and Barbara Thomas Dr. Oscar Patton and Cindy Ryder of The Anchor for Lnfi-ni.te. " photographic assistance.

Perceptions is a creative arts magazine published by the Humanities Division and Student Activities of Gainesville College to encourage the arts among students, faculty, and friends of the college. Some of the works published herein are the creative products of art and writing classes; others are contributions from friends of the creative arts.

All unsolicited manuscripts and art work should be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. While care will be exercised in the handling of these materials, the editorial staff cannot assume responsibility for them in the event of damage or loss. Submissions will be accepted for consideration during fall and winter quarters for publication each spring . Submit all materials to Sally Russell, Humanities Division, Gainesville College, Box 1358, Gainesville, Georgia 30503.

Authors and artists retain all rights to their works in this publication.

Cover: Michele Cash collage

For Reference TdiePage: Richie McDowell watercolor Not to be taken from this room Table of Contents Poetry Connie Baechler Angallna Guntarlna p . • Dandelion Dream p. 7 A Day In the Llle of a Dlat.r p. 17 Get the Picture? (on Nazi Germany) p. 20 The Puppet p. 17

Wally Beck Untitled p. 7

Andr•• Blachly Traffic Jam p. 12

Shalla Casper August p.21 ExperlmentaUon witt'! a Fetal Soul p.22 HotOrMn p.25 Impr.sslons p. 24 Part. of Me p. 21 The P.aceful Masochist p . • Shadow p. 20

Emily Duncan The Casta System Never Ole. at Oms'. Diner p. 25

Ally Eidson aecau .. of lo•• p. 11 Welcome to the Real World p. 15 VardwOfk p. 21

Jessica Jackson Old Men p. 24 Reflections on Loalng or My Window Leaks p.17 Solstice p. 10

Rain Song p. 11

John McKay Airborne p. 12

Joanna Martin Daughter p • •

D. Thadlu8 Monroe Enough p. 10 Kell S, p.16 Untitled p. 15 Wo. p.20

Remembering p . • Simple Pleasure. p. 15

Katherine S. O'Neill Encouragement p. 7 Traffic p. 12

Lisa Roberta As I Grow Older p. 10 He and She p. 14

Barbar. T. Dream p. 18

Dondl Vickers Kentucky Blu p. 14 prose Connie Baechler You Have to Draw the LIne p. 30

Andre. Blachly Acceptance p. 46

Sheila casper love Is the Better Psychosis p.51 Teresa Byler graphnednlwfng Bill Feagins Science Project p. 58 Sons and Moth.... p.44

John McKay Until ONth Do Us Part p. 50

Joanne Martin MIdnight Hours Before Dawn p. 52

8. Nelson Potc_ p. 33

Katherine S. O'Neill Katrina p. 35

Usa Robert. ThoFInaJ~. p."

Scott Wiley Ashes to Ashe. p. 41 Wasted p.38 All Annee.aaec 011 painting p.S

T ....sa Byler graphite drawing p. 3

MIchelle Cash collage cove,

Glenn Chand_ pen and Ink p. 45 cola

Andr.. Cooper gropIl" drawing p.23

Km"'-'""" pen end Ink p.24 Itoneware sculpture p. 29 stoneware sculpture p. 37 cont. p.37 COfT1)uter design p.47 _color p.57

Robert Huff conte p.12 stoneware acu Ipture p. 29 computer design p. 61

Gloria KIrby pen and Ink p. 34

Chrlstlna Martin ato .... ware sculpture p. 29

Richie McDoweI _color p. 1

Scott Penoncello atoneW8re sculpture p.14

Jessica Peterman charCOllI p."

Andy Sco. computer design p.33

Sheila Waldrip stoneware sculpture p. 29

Joame Wallington ponondlnk p. 43

SUzanne Watkins ponond Ink p. 26

[)tanne Whee., 011 painting p. 8 Anne Bessac 0/1 paIntIng Who's Who In PerceptIons p. 62 Untitled

A desperate look of need in your eyes strikes me Out of the darkness of the night you seek me POETRY ~ Hold me, ~ you plead We embrace each other in an endless aura of warmth ~ It's all right, ~ I say, feeling the shiver of your frail body on mine The Peaceful Masochist "Please hold me," you ask

Here stand I, We gently caress each other, Engulfed in a fiery sea of passion the peaceful masochist. My hands exploring the slender curves of your body Hell-tranced emotion My tips tasting the sweetness of your smooth skin spreads through my soul. "Love me ," you whisper Catch the message tarrying on recognition: Silence now . . . Look,see yourself Motionless ... you lie in my arms as my mind imagines. My heart pounds, my breath returns as I whisper in your ear My imagination projects "Love me?" one million people reacting the same way I would react Silence . .. the coldness returns ... when I hurt someone, I am realty pinching my own heart. WalyBeck Expectations monopolize liberty, they immobolize the freedom to Kbe ,K If I could be anything other than a peaceful masochist I would be a circle because circles never change and always know the beginning and the end. Does it surprise? Love is the highest form of masochism, Dandelion Dreams Love is given, Encouragement and once given, what then? Dandelion dreams Love is self·inflicted danger Describes my world Limitations happen without effort if you do it right. Made up of puffs 01 my imaginings ReselVations flood my passionless lungs if you follow the rules, Often blown away as two do battle for my soul. give, but don't expect anything. Fragile things Please. These dreams The one loud, insistent, proud Here stand I, So quickly gone laughing out "You foolish childl with thriving masochistic heart in hand. There is no purpose that makes life wo rthwhile." Offering to whosoever is willing A dandelion dream to taste salt That is my love for you The other quiet, genUe, meek to touch scars, Built up and up says "Come my dear, Why do you fear? and every so olten alleviate the chest bruise left behind. Along came the wind Before your birth was the path made clear." All is blown away Sheia casper KaU'eme S. aNd How sad it seems Can't help but want to hotd My dying Dandelion dreams

Connie Baechler

6 7 T Daughter Arms aching to hold her eyes fixed on her face I gaze through glass In wonder beholding a part of myself one step away.

A smile on her young face lunch pail clutched tight my expectant child confidently walks into the classroom one step away.

Radiant Beautiful Remembering she walks down the aisle There she sits in her rocking chair all satin and lace And quietly combs and braids her hair. our happy tears blur each other's face Her face though wrinkled holds a glow one step away. For in her mind H's long ago .

She holds close her newborn There's bacon frying in the pan love glows in her eyes And she's made biscuits for her hungry man the circle is complete A grandchild in the kitchen doorway appears I relive my first oom joy 01 my heart She reaches out and draws her near. one slep away. -Breakfast is almost ready,- says she Joanne Martin "Will you run out and tell Grandpa for me?­ Then the three at the table take their place And bow their heads while Grandma says grace.

Elsie Nelson Angelina Gunterina

I think I miss you, Angelina Gunterina I miss what you were And the aura of sophistication you carried Like a taste of some sweeter day Sitting here with my thoughts all astray I miss the part of me that was you With all the right friends Amid a myriad of lovers Always interesting, forever bubbly I am you, in some small part And I try to take sophistication to heart For as I watched you enveloped in a glamour world As it dragged you down I remember thinking how unsound The world leaves us I think r miss you, Angelina Gunterina Dianne Wheeler 011 painting Indeed I do. Cornie Baechler

9 Enough As I Grow Older Because 01 Loss tt was merely another battle Rain Song When I was younger Because of loss in an endless universal war, I was afraid of ghosts. Roses grow In the garden fought throughout the world, As I got older Pounding, continuously pounding, on my rooftop, Not a war started by the young, I grew afraid of people. The rain sings to me. But strangled thorns of time lead by the young, Darkness fil ls my room. Forgot fought for the young. When I was younger The only visible light comes from the street light which Envy imprisons the bitter a war for growth, I was afraid of being confined. vaguely peeks through my window. Soul for principles, As I got older Pounding, continuousty pounding, the rain sings to me. Of those whose Garden's stench doth for freedom. I grew afraid of running ;r.Nay. My room is quiet. Toll a never ending war, All that is heard are the thoughts that run through my mind. Love is entangled, shredded, without a winner, When I was younger The rain eases my mind and helps me to think. Torn where no blood is seen. I was afraid of starting high school. Tomorrow is another day. Never emotions dear are Yet hearts can be broken, When I got olcler Pounding, continuously pounding, Bom tears can be shed, I grew afraid of graduation. The night is slowly fading and I sleep. But jealousy, blindness, anger and lies are often told. The rain sings to me . Greed The battle scars are shared I am now younger- Stifling growth of the bird's fine by. every warrior, I am afraid of starting my life. GarlY Ke' Menitt Seed never to be healed. As I grow older InseOJrityof Hera's tainted It is inevitable I will be afraid of its ending. Fire unavoidable, Despises the dove that can endure the predictable. Usa Roberts Pyre For years, Drives forth, the dove doth leave, the garden I'd watched the war, Rot yet always sat by. The flowers died, yet no lesson Battle after battle, Taught the scars tallied up and the anger built inside. You SUddenly someone believed Solstice and I joined the army j trust You, of unbanded freedom fighters. This summer of plenty yet, i don' know if i can I lei my voice be heard has been long. give You my ... for thfit first time evefytIirg and she almost listened. If only the slow, temperate No winner was named days will last, we say. i love You, oh yes! i do! in my first active battle And if only the frost ye1, i I'lJrt You but a truce was called. won't come too early, i nal You to rTly' Though the war rages on we'll have a good harvest. ansa .. as it always has and allNays wilt, But there is nothing to reap j'm alraid of You. I now know I can fight, from what we have sown. (You are Awesome!) ... and so does she . The autumnal equinox will yet, i know You wouki never be cold, bringing betray ... me. D. Thadius Monroe frost of a new kind. You are my Lord, Another summer will vn:hout You, be a long time coming. iam Our season of sun is ending. Soon the winter solstice brings Darkness.

Jessica Jackson 10 11 Inner Man To An Ant Airborne Monarchs copulating·· You make your civilization of sifted dirt Can you tell me you are not an animal? nestle between blades of sharp crabgrass. Noise like a blanket, wrapping me in sound Can you tell me that I am the sun? Many bodies scurry about working as if Wrapped in a wave 01 nylon , a helmet for my crown With the dusky noises of the dark the Sun wilt cease to rise. Poised at the door, a bird ready for flight Igniting errOers in my heart One slap and GO!, into a bowl of blue light Can you tell me I am not an animal? The focus midst your traffic Sounds fade away in a rush of wind-shipped tears With butterfly wings floating in the sun? is a temple or a shrine with one black hole in its apex. The earth approaches faster, though strangely I feel no fear You show me the beauty of a kiss Your cherished mound of dirt sparks my curiosity. A sudden pull, a snap, a pop, then a rush of billowing cloud And I need you Ant. what do you have hidden in that most holy place? Delicate web of risers embraces me to that shroud Duck's feathers envelope me Swaying suspended below tightly bound in that comforting fuse In a soft, siky pillow Don't you know, don't you realize I pull the toggle, turn and swoop, dance with the airy muse UlXln which I float that I have the power to determine your fate? All too soon, a jarring crash in a muddy bog The animal inside me unveiled. I can squash your temple with my big toe, I roll over, look up again, into the face of God and leave crushed bodies for your survivors to mourn over. Connie Baechler JoIYlMcKay But you do realize my power, strength, and superiority over you. You also are smugly satisfied with the knowledge that despite my destruction of you r civilization, Traffic Jam you will never reveal the secret hid in that dark cavern. Traffic jam , dreaming

YetJow--Sunflower! warm, fiery tranquil sunset, earth sleeps. the su n's fire Quenched , ever so .. slow ..

Man-Made Aesthetics Red--brilliant roses for love, lovers. early--earth awakes Rosin, beewax, Calcium Carbonate, from darkness night Waler, aloe, Vitamin E Acetate, .. stops! Methylparaben, Cetyl Alcohol, Garlic, nylon, Dimethicone Copoyol. Traffic Green--Nature's Zion Camphor Stearalkonium Chloride, beauty, new exhilaration! Kangaroo Paw Flower, Polyacrylamide, geese ... HONK! Chamomile , Calendula, horsetail grass The senti net flashes gold at me higher as they Cherry Bark, dandelion paba, and fragrance. The sun his signal captive screams GO! All these plus Hydroxethylcellu lose Hasten on my fair steed Creates the natural woman that men love most. dare not my path to impede. Andrea B1act;y

ErrWy Durcan Then--my foe feet before me Crimson glare his only greeting Thunderous peels as my stallion stops Teeth clinch till my temples throb

Without warning pastures appear lincoln fields open wide My lingers white tight like iron Spur my mount. I cry "Thank Godr

Raben Huff cont. Katherine S. O'Neill

12 13 He and She untilled Kentucky Blu Simple Pleasures She said: Do not search for me I was afraid I will not be found Are you They were simple pleasures in the beginning I have hidden myself crNay an inmate in your own emotional prison, A rainbow's delight I'm sure I'U be afraid Behind a wall of fear living behind thick walls Catching fireflies till the end that keep your love from coming out On a hot summer night But she took my hand The past is gone and others from coming too close? Enticing doodle bugs and waked away with my heart You were mistaken From under the floor Emotions I'd never felt I kept myself from you Did you A nickle or dime emotions I didn't understand Nothing is all that is left sentence yourself there Candy from the store As I try to figure it aU out in desperation, Eating blackberries until I can only close my eyes Stay away from my heart thinking you would be safer inside Juice ran down our faces and thank whoever's in charge, The me you knew is gone than out? A family meal up there Only my memory remains with everyone in their places And now, I've found my somebody To haunt you forever. You know The criSp clear sound and I can share my thoughts you don't have more in your life A church bell ringing my roost intimate details because those same walls Sunday morning And she too can do the same He said: If the you I know is nol you that protect you from pain Mother sweetly singing I am afraid SOrTlf;lOne will pinch me, You have tied from the beginning also keep out happiness and love. Simple pleasures and I will wake up from my dream Who is this girl 1once called friend? Yet etched in time But she promised it would never happen Where is she now? You have Precious memories and she would catch me when I fall the power inside to release yourself, In the niches of my mind. But stili Yesterday has gone a key that unlocks the doors and walls I am afraid .. . I thought we knew each other and allows you, once again, Elsie Nelson very afraid .. . Where did you hide the real you? to feel the sun and breathe freely. How can memories be called nothing? Use it. Welcome to the Real World D. Thadius Monroe Keep your love and life The you I knew ran away Dendi VICkers When I was young I used to dream You are a ghost in my memory I dreamed of things to come. Never to live again. I dreamed of places far beyond The boundaries of the sun. Usa RobeI1s Scott Penoncello sculpture I longed to see the real world To view it in its glory. I yearned to step out on my own And live to tell the story.

And then one day I lost that dream It changed as I grew older The real WOrld's lights are dimmer now Its red sun has grown colder. I see the world for what it is I fight to reach the top. But now the real world comes for me And I can't make it stop.

I'm alraid to leave and seek my dreams I fear what I might see. But the hands of time keep marching on and even though I'll be afraid I know I'm not alone. Forwe all have had our childhood dreams And we all fear the unknown. Allison EicIson 15 14 Kell S. Reflections on Losing or My Window Leaks (for dgh) I. The Past Imagine The cold November rain blew in over the boards a world full of pain and water leaked from the window frame. a world full of fears I could hear it dripping a world full of emptiness regular as a clock

Imagine drip drop a world where loving is giving hate drip drop The Puppet a warkj where truth is telling a lie a world where living is wanting death Nights are the worst when you're losing Strike . .. and the raindrops ticked off the minutes Strike at me Imagine as I lay there listening, losing. Stifle .. . a world of stone hearts My aeativily a world of cloudy skies II. The Present drip drop a world of blood-stained tears drip drop Love me .. . Imagine FormyseH I was the imagined... a soul that has no feelings The passing stonn reminded me of you. Lift me ... a soul that is no longer scared Counting the slowing drops, I could imagine Down from my sheH a soul that has given up hope I was counting miles between us. Play ... But mostly I just thought of you: With my ermtions Imagine Take me ... a soul that no longer loves or hates Drip ... At your notion a soul thai no longer knows lies Dr9. Dance . .. a soul that no longer fears death Oh dance with me Jessica Jackson I'm falling Imagine To the crystal sea a soul whose stones cannot be broken Dream ... a soul whose skies cannot be cleared A Day in the Life of a Dieter My dream arlVe a soul who cannot care enough to cry Taut slrings ... Stand straight and tall My love survives I am the imagined .. . Bend down--flex Hok:tme .. . Up again A yearning chikt Ill. The Future Grace in motion Music pulsing Imagine Body leaping Connie Baechler a heart that will never hurt again Slenderness emerging a heart that will never be afraid All the stomach crunches a heart that will never be lonely All the sweat Is finally Imagine Worth it . . a heart that is full of love a heart that is full of honesty Delectable danishes a heart that is full of life Steaming hot pie Meets the coolness of ice cream Imagine Stay away a heart without walls Pass up the cave of the refrigerator a heart reflecting the sun I will not fail a heart that cannot be cut Temptation--so sweet (Want to be fat forever?) I want to be the imagined ... Tum away Thus passes another day. D. Thadius Monroe 16 Connie Baechler 17 Dream

See now the old as they sit in the open doors of their tin-sided shacks Their bodies tired and worn out Their faces lined w~h age and the pain of living The flies circling in and around their eyes as they stare into the distance

Hear now that precious commodity--Iaughter The blessed sound of children as they play in the dirt streets 01 the Township Oblivious to the worn out tires and junk cars dust filling the dry, hot air

Laugh now you children and play For soon laughter will be heard no tn::)re-­ Only tears as you cry and ask why As have we of Old Only to be pushed deeper into the grave of despair

Dream now in the age of innocence as once we dreamed 01 a caring world as once we hoped for honesty and justice as once we believed in human decency and compassion Only to be tortured on the rack of prejudice Until there was no lile Only emptiness

Dream, my children, dream

Dream for a day when the world is Weary of injustice Intolerant of apathy

Bobby Nash felt rip pen

18 Shadow Web I live in a shadow-­ August a product of light. As we weave our webs of life I am doused in the dark apparitions I wonder of worldly and unwortdly of every object things. Will He weave a wonderful The smell of Autumn and every man's soul. life for us or are we in burns the August wind. control? Do I wish for too much Leaves lusciously green That likeness--one's self-made mystery when I ask for answers? Parts Of Me malinger on their stems never leaves. Am I too weary of love and are threatened by and yet we remain two untouchable elements. or perhaps it is the unknown On my private beach the golden-red paint of late September. This shadow I wish to avoid. seaweed wrapped around my wrists, August is neither light There is safety in knowing bangles from the furlorned deep, is the first conspirator nor darkness, they became a part of me. in the plot to re-throne the harvest moon but a spiritual avatar constricted to air. Every time I tum around, my I gazed blankly into a water sparkle wave, for the celebration of October, a dimension-less ear hears everyone else's no diamond thrills me more, and the silent bridge that unites the emotion dilineated upon a silent glow, problems. All etching out it became a part of my mortal orb. embankments of Summer and Fall. this shadow, my true companion-- their lives in stone, only Stretched o'er my lot of possession the fervent secret-sharer of my soul. to be eulogized and summarized I plucked inspiration from a tiny grain of sand. Sheia Casper with an epitaph. But around That inspiration flickers-- St1eia Casper every corner, the unknown but it is part of me. existed and so they stay Though the winds blow until the rocks blink on the straight road of I stand steadfastly on the cliff Get the Picture? knowledge. and cloak myself in courage (On Nazi Germany) For there is safety in knowing to withstand the tidal wave that became a part of me. Get the picture? Because I believed I was sale I ride the waves That's what they ask I brought her into my world I imbibe the wind A form of speech but she became a battering ram I hold gray mist Yardwork 00 you understand? that bowled me around that corner in my battered hands. and I could no longer avoid I bathe my face in thought 01 heroic mariners. I was workin' out in the yard What picture? the unknown. The beacon shines on your island, When my mind started to wander Do I understand There is safety in love. the light pierces like rays of salvation As I pulled the weeds from the ground The boy who sleeps into the abyss of my soul. Of life, I began to ponder. In my picture frame at home D. ThadUs Monroe On the buoyancy of perplexity Do I comprehend I am drifting on eaten wood, Grass grows and is promptly cut off, The tears 1weep? And when at last I'm secure Is not life just the same? on the island where the beacon shines, When life becomes very interesting Do I know I shall repiece the shattered shell of misplaced time, Something happens, and we pu ll up lame. What's to see I will pause to glance at the turmoiled sea, My little one take n from me but never shall I set afloat Weeds are weeded out, unwanted; In his dreaming the parts that are undoubtedly me. Like troublemakers, they are isolated. No solace What in the end happens to them? Soldiers came Sheia Casper Is this how they'll always be fated? Battering at my door They left me battered I was wornin' out In my yard Helpless on the floor When my mind started to wander. Despite the problems it presents, I am not of them Of life, I've never been fonder. An outlander, I admit it I am punished MiyEi:lson And I finally ... Get the picture.

ComieBa_

20 21 Experimentation With a Fetal Soul lance had a dream. It was as futuristic and ideal as any of yours. It was average but nontheless, worthwhile to come true. One day it tapered off into a horrible sequence of nightmares and ghost games. All at once my new and quivering dream faded into an unheard chant- like a child's cherubic wish upon a star. Being the fetal soul that I am, I have actually experienced far less than I profess, I had not the knowledge of alternate or numerous dreams. I did not understand that to live without one's mind in the bustling air was to really be no more than an ugly and sickly fetus, unable to breathe on its own. And so from that moment on I helplessly swallowed the ambivalent and watery juices of the womb of a world I felt foreign in . A womb whose reaches pinched me and caused my thoughts to bruise up and bleed a much 100 common jargon. I would look at any reflection of what I remembered as me and scoff at the flaky passion produced by the demised dream. I would scratch the poison sensitivity off and lick the sores of a skinless brute. How simple- rruch too easy to live unknown for dreaming; for I have already discovered the insomnia of the ferocious awakening and J know how busy one's mind can be­ even without the soft sultry delta of a flighty and carefree dream. What I mean to do is to sleep forever. As if the prince had never kissed Snow White, and I intend to Dream my doubtful dreary days away­ like Rip Van Winkle free from the chaos of an alarm clock. Sheila Casper

22 Andrea Cooper grahlts c/r8WIllIJ Impressions Old Men Hot Omen

Caked up flattery telling stories, Wind sucks the vibrating water flakes in shallow eyes remembering woodlands, into its succulent mouth of freshness, as worthless syntax thicket and forest, and the ducks behead themselves gurgles through purple lips·· land they know better with the water's surface. there is no connection from the brain to the soul. and have travelled more often Swans guffaw at petty duckling feathers Jibbergroshy verbatim·· than the varicose highways as gracefully they circumnavigate a hollow word of their dead wives' legs, the border of Lambert's pond. resounds in defeat when thumped land they will never walk again. I sit on the bank, by an honest forefinger. If they live long enough, rounded at both ends Complimentary deeds the scent of midnight passion like an oblong ornament sear like lethal acids will fade from memory, and picture tiny sailboats into the rope of virtue but never the scent of new spring growth, behind the grass stalks. when self-satisfaction ties the hangman's noose. the scent of pine straw in autumn. Rich summer days in Georgia Mirrored respect reflects fools. perspire thought out of me Impressions Old men as I boil for the silent visions 01 engrave themselves into the skins of wordly people telling their lives, snow-capped Dogwood trees in January like unwanted war tatoos. each re-telling a prayer swaying with the weight of icy branches. that someone will hear _IaCasper and remember. Sheila Casper

Jessica Jackson The Caste System Never Dies at Oma's Diner

Kim Freedman penandlnk Callie Rae worked at Oma's Diner every afternoon after school serving some old men outside Coca-Colas and peanuts in a glass bottle.

Sitting on discarded theatre chairs wearing heavy-duty overalls and wornout Goldkist baseball caps, they's take a swig of their Coca-Colas with just a hint of peanut and taste the grease that lined their tongues and throats.

They'd shake their heads when Callie Rae'd turn to leave and say, "She ain't nuthin' but white trash from that holler--hardworkin'-­ but ain't never gonna 'mount to nuthin' just like the rest of 'e m .~

I reckon one day she heard them say that 'cause one day she didn't show back up at Oma's. They say she got ruint. She believed what them old coots said to be true.

Then Oma hired Dory Etta. She brung them old men Coca-Colas and peanuts in a glass bottle just like Callie Rae, and soon she didn't come back either.

Dory Etta got ruint too , but that's life and Oma keeps flipping hamburger patties on the grill.

25 -

focused on the light that soon became a JPROSE fire with people dancing around it. It didn't take him long to realize what he was witnesssing was an actual ritual of the OCOJh. He watched the dancers as they orbited the fire; some of them were groveling on the dirt as if they were seized in a fit. This barbaric behavior interested him, so he watched them carry on with He peered through his telescope their primitive practice. until it seemed the stars had become one He continued his observation and cosmic streak of light that stretched across the sky. He stood back, rubbed his eyes noticed a tall and attractive blond woman being led to an make-shift altar near the hard,and walked over to his personal-sized fire. He could tell that she was struggling coffeemaker to pour out a cupful. He then to escape but was shoved to the altar proceeded to pop a NoDaz in his mouth anyway by several people. Clad only in a and resigned himself to the fact that he simple white robe, she was forced to lie would be awake for the next two hours down on the ahar while her arms and legs studying astronomy. were strapped together by the dancers. It was quiet throughout the entire She was terrified as the leader approached dorm, but he knew that no one was sleep­ her. ing. No one slept the night before finals. The clock on his desk read 2:55 a.m. As he pushed his trashcan filled with wadded The priest closed hiS paper to his window, he heard mischievous hand on the dagger __ noises coming from the silent surrounding dorm rooms. He threw up his window, and as he stuck his head outside, myriad heads As the leader regally sauntered were already there waiting for other heads over to the woman, the student could see to emerge from every window. As the last the red robe and tall hat with a five pointed head appeared, they all yell led and hoi· star in the center the leader was wearing. lered as loud as their voices could get. The leader smiled with delight as he Every head craned its neck out in the chilty grabbed the young woman's head and outside like a crazed wolf howling at a full yanked her head up to spit in her face. moon. Crumpled balls of notebook paper The student focused more on the showered the air and covered the ground leader and saw clutched in his hand was like a blanket of snow. The tradition of an ornate dagger that glimmered in the releasing stress university-style had once light. He could see the carving of a skull more been fulfilled, and slowly the heads and an upside down cross on the handle. vanished to continue their studying. He The priest closed his hand on the dagger's remained though; something had caught handle and poised it up above her stom­ his eye up on a hill while watching the ach. The student stared hard Into the barrage of paper fall to the ground. A priest's face then gasped as the priest glowing light captured his attention so lifted his wicked eyes and stared back at much he didn't realize he was the sole the student as if he were well aware of his remaining head sticking out of the window. audience and the telescope. The student Figures appeared to be Circling around the shuddered as the priest plunged the knife light, so he reeled his telescope down and into the woman and ripped open her body

27 Suzanne Watkins pen and Ink Sheila Waldrep (left) Fox as the worshipers fell to the ground, "This quarter's focus in archeology beating the earth with their fists. is pagan artifacts . ~ Kim Freedman (below) Mask The student let out a yelp and With that sentence, Daemon stumbled away from the telescope, landing opened a lab drawer and pulled out a in his bed. He panted for breath and dagger with a skull and an upside down placed his hand on his chest feeling his cross on the handle. thumping heart; he was certain he could By then the student's heartbeat hear it beating too. He jumped out of bed, was racing; he was trapped with a demon threw his window down, and pulled the bent on taking human life. The door shade all in one second. He stepped on opened and the blond that he had thought the bed not caring about what he broke or was sacrificed walked over to the profes­ knocked over and pulled the covers up sor and flashed a smile to the class. He under his chin. He stayed there until the gulped and turned to the professor. morning. He then got up and took his u ••• and this quarter for this course astronomy final-or did he? He was too lab, my loyal lab assistant, lisa, and I will dazed to remember. reenact an actual pagan ritual that is Two weeks later he shuffled his believed to have orginated around 700 B. feet into the science laboratory. It was the C. This lab is only one of many labs you S beginning of a new quarter, but to him it felt may participate in, but I find this lab to be T like last quarter had never ended. Since most beneficial to your learning. Besides o that horrifying night he had not been able lisa does a wonderful acting job. She N to sleep through one entire night without should get an Academy Award for her E S waking up from a reoccurring nightmare in portrayal of a human sacrifice." We the dead of the night in a cold sweat. The The student couldn't believe what A u pictures of the sacrifice played over and he was hearing as the entire class laughed A L over on a screen in Mis mind. Dark circles at the professor's remark. He began to E P had formed around his eyes, and he was feel dizzy as thoughts rushed through his T not aware of anything or anyone. He was brain-the sleepless nights, the altar, the U not even sure why he had registered for dagger, the blond, the dancers-it was all A archeology; he certainly did not need it, but fake, but it had seemed so real. This is too E something persuaded him that he did. mUCh, he thought, as he fainted. He sat down in the desk and The class erupted into a demonic stared at the blackboard as the instructor cackle as the student's limp body slid down strode into the room and began to write his to the floor. Two brawny athletes sitting name-Dr. Daemon Sands~n the board. both behind and in front of the student The instructor turned around, and the grabbed his arms and legs and carried him student found himself gazing Into those to the front of the room. With a sinister grin same oppressing eyes that stared back at spreading across his face, Daemon him through the telescope that night. The snorted, "Take him down to the basement emotions he felt that night crept up his boys; Master Lucifer should be welt neck and face as they both turned red and pleased with this offering~r shall I say broke out into a sweat. His throat turned this lab?~ dry as he squirmed in his seat desperately searching for an escape but found none The classroom filled with laughter Robert Huff (above) Figure except t~e door in the front of the room and chants as the witches and warlocks near Daemon. What a nightmare, he joined with their priest in the celebration. Christina Martin {right} Figure thought~ now I know the real meaning of hell on earth! • • • • • •

29 28 someone older, they thought perhaps 1 car isn't safe-it just... .. mindedness??", while my heart was would learn more that way. So every "I'm not TALKING about the muffler: saying, "You CAN'T go against your morning I rode to school in Tab's '78 he growled. wI'm TALKING about the fact parents. It wouldn't be right. R Anyone who Camara, which had severe muffler prob­ that you didn't tell me she was a NIGGER!" has ever found himself in a similar situation lems--namely, the lack of one. It made a I couldn't beHeve my ears. He hadn't can surely empathize with my plight. glorious racket, I can assure you. Both of even MET Tabitha yet, so who cared what Eventually, I had reached my my parents worked earlier than I left for color her skin was? What right did he have decision. Surely, it was not MY fault that Attaining the rank of sophomore i~ school, so I wasn't unduly concerned about to insult her? my parents were not understanding this high school was exciting! No longer was I the noise. "Dad-what DIFFERENCE does it make if time. I should not be forced to suffer for a lowly freshman, at the bottom of the I felt that I was expanding as a she's black? She's a great person, and someone else's stupidity . I would see her ladder of social worth. I had climbed a person. Tabitha's style rubbed off on me, you haven't met her yet: I said, trying to anyway, without my parent's knowledge. rung, and my little world was revolving . and I began to dream of owning a sound calm. Life went on. To some extent , I made quite steadily. Then I met her. It was like sportscar so I, too, could speed down "Meet her?! I just TOLD you-she will Tabitha aware of my parent's views. She a scene from a dime store novel, when the expressways at 85 mph. Through not take you to or from school! She will didn't seem surprised, and she made no hero is smitten at first sight. Suddenly, my Tabitha's poetry I gained new insights. take you to all kinds of nigger hangouts complaint when I asked herto pick me up world was topsy-turvy, and I was giddily Through her, I also met all sorts of interest­ and the next thing you know some black at a spot farther down the road from my trying to regain some semblance of control. ing people. We spent hours talking on the man will rape youl" my father yelled, fully house. Certainly my neighbors would She was compelling-very charis­ phone, and we wrote piles of notes. She losing his temper. inform my parents if they knew. matic. Tall, with an offbeat. yet totally cool knew all the ins and outs of the high ~ But dad-you're missing the point ... " way of dressing, she commanded attention school, and several limes we cut class for ~ Yo u will NOT see her!" he bellowed. wherever she went. I met her through my the sheer excitement of it. Enveloped in a Definitely maximum anger level here, job in a local fast-food joint. She would sense of camaraderie, I was content. I thought to myself. There was no use drop in occasionally to chat with friends of One morning my father, being arguing--it would be like trying to break hers who worked there. I was always human, overslept. He was leaving for work down a steel door with my bare hands. struck by her hair, which she wore in So I turned to my mother, who was just as Tabitha pulled up. I had a At home, the air always lelt strained. several braids, with a single blond tuft left always calm and genlle. She was the moment's worry about the car's loudness, I would look at my parents through the free in the front. She was quite beautiful, peacemaker between my father and I. but Dad just smiled as I waved goodbye. 1 eyes of a deceiver, and though most tim~s and above all , she was wild. She was the asked her to explain my feelings to dad. relaxed and felt more at ease. I should I fell guilty, sometimes I fell nothing but bIt­ epitome of what I wanted to be, and she She looked, and her eyes seemed sud­ have known better. Returning home that terness. I went to parties with nice white was a senior, a being who automatically denly tired. afternoon was not a pleasant event. friends, who dropped me off at Tabitha's received respect. "Your father's right.Rs he said. "You on the way. I spent nights with my child­ Our friendship began on an intriguing have to draw the line." hood friends, who were approved by my note, which set the stage for our entire What?? MY mother saying these "You are not to ride to parents for being lighter in p i9me nt~l io n , relationship. One day, she handed me a insane things to me? Draw the lines?! school With that gill!" and left at midnight to stay With Tabitha. Slip of paper with her phone number a.nd a You have to be nuts! There IS no line Llfe became a web of deception, and I brief message: ~ Call me," the note said, except the one of bigotryl often wondered at my capacity for side­ and it was signed simply, "Tabi.w And so it All these thoughts ru shed through my stepping my parents. happened--just like that. Tabitha said I 'Where does that girl live?" my father mind as I stood there, dumbfounded. Then different things started to occur. looked like an interesting person and she demanded, as my mother sat quietly at the I retreated to my room without speak­ Tabitha introduced me to a friend of hers wanted to talk to me. And talk we did. We kitchen table. I told him, and then I tried to ing and sat down on my bed, dazed. How who was dealing speed. My rebellious had the exact same interests. Tabitha explain about the car's noisiness. I as­ could I possibly deal with this? My parents side said that I should go ahead and try always had a knack for the mysterious su red him that Tabitha would get the had always been understanding of me. I muffler repaired soon. some, since I was always open to new qualities of life. I came to idolize her. had never realized that they were preju­ experiences. But, though I was friends We quickly became inseparable. I "You are not to ride to school with that diced, since the subject had just never with this person, I never did go that far. I informed my parents that I now had a girl! I can't believe you didn't lell mer my come up before. My brain was telling me , rellect back now, and I think to myself that friend who would be driving me to school falher fumed. wYou are right! Why should you give up a perhaps I would have gotten away from and back. My parents were glad I had "I'm sorry, Dad. It doesn't mean the terrific friendship over THEIR narrow-

30 31 - dice. And yet they were right, I said to Tabitha's influence then, had it not been for myself. But Tabitha was not a bad person my decision to persist in spite of my haps they had already had their day and this due to her skin color. She chose to be parent's opposition. Tabitha and I went to was my day. It felt so good not to be told, "To herself, just as all people, no matter what Atlanta, we danced at Mardi Gras, and we run and play." their skin tone, must choose between right fan from the police one memorable night, After I had stood and watched for some and wrong. for trespassing on private property. Yet I time, I finally got enough courage to ask if I Now, I think I was right to have defied still did not break away. Surety she was could quilt. "Granny" Jackson pushed back my parents over the issue of prejudice. I good underneath it all. As my mind turns back the pages of her chair . .. You can stand by me and rll help also think that had I been allowed to It took me six months to realize that I time, a sea of color immerges. The sea has you," she said. Pausing to take a can of snuff continue my friendship with Tabitha openly, didn't want to be around her anymore. been created from small squares of cloth that from her pocket, she took a pinch of snuff and I would have broken it off before it went so During those six months. I gave her stolen have been stitched together in an array 01 put in her jaw. Then, she passed the can to far. I was very lucky. I could have ended food from the restaurant I worked in, I gave colors. Without regard to pattern or design, Mother. The smell of tobacco makes me feel up in jail on several occasions, and I kick her fifty dollars, and I masqueraded as a the squares of solids, prints, checks and sick to my stomach; I will not, however, myself now for not gelling away from her student and gave a forged pass to a stripes intermingle to form a quilt top. retreat. Although Mother doesn't use snuff sooner. But the unavoidable fact remains teacher in order to get one of her friends Since the squares have been sewn in regularly, she takes a pinch to be sociable. that my parents should have known more Qut of class. I guess reality hit me when I patch-work fashion, the primary purpose of Mrs. Henson and Mrs. Wilson also took snuff. about her before making judgement, and in found myself standing in front of the this quilt will be for warmth. Therefore, a little, Mary, however, refused, saying that she didn't spite of the outcome of my ill-fated decision assistant principal whose initials I had inexperienced quilter will be allowed to learn want to stain her teeth. forged. Ten days detention can not be put to see Tabitha, I am proud of my initial the skill of quilting. out of one's mind so easily. reason lor making it. The only lines to be On this particular day, Mother has invited So there I was, back with myoid white drawn are those of judgement for oneself, some of the neighbors to come and help her specialty. applesauce cak e. which be nearly invisible at times, bul friends. I had to separate where I was right may quilt. Before Daddy leh for work, he and which will always exist. from where I was wrong. Because she Mother set up the quilt frame In the back was black, my parents assumed that I •••••• bedroom. Mother had made her specialty, I was too small to sit in one of the would get into trouble. This WAS preju- applesauce cake. Just before time for the straight-back chairs that the others occupied, quilting party, Mother had put JFG coffee in so I stood by "Granny" Jackson while she in­ the coffee pot, filled it with water and put the structed me on how to make stitches. I was pot on the back of the stove to brew. quilling! Although I tried to make small "G ranny" Jackson was the first to arrive. slitches, I knew it really didn't matter because She lived at the end of ou r road. And, as Mother looked at me and smiled. usual, she was wearing a big apron. Today, it I can't recall how long I was a part of the was white with red roses. "Granny," who was quilting party. But I do know now as I look slightly plump with short gray hair, came in back that a square of color was stitched into talking and wouldn't stop until she left. my unconscious mind on that day. It was the Mrs. Henson, our next door neighbor, color of self-confidence. whose hair was as white as snow, arrived ••• next. Her twinkling blue eyes matched the blue flowered dress which covered her willowy body. When she looked at you , it was as if she knew something exciting and couldn't wait to share it with you. Mrs. Wilson and her "old maid" daughter, Mary, also came. They lived just across the road from ou r house. The ladies stretched a quilt bottom across the quilt frame and covered it with layers of cotton. After the quilt top has been attached, nimble fingers began to make stitches. The room fills with talk and laughter. I stand and stare at the colors in silence, trying to remember who had a dress of pink checks. And, wondering why none of my Andy5cott other four sisters were standing around like I was, enjoying a part of an adult scene. Per- I Robert Huff stonewa/'B sculptu/'B 32 33 we would walk down the street to Sherman's Drug Store. Beaumont had several drug stores (and lots of old ladies to keep them busy) , but Sherman's was the best. It had a soda fountain in the back where you could get ice cream and Coca­ Growing up in Beaumont meant Cola ( this was back when Coca-Cola was Saturday afternoons on Main Street. served in glass bottles, back when Coke When I was young, my mother would drop was fresh and COld, not flat and metallic). me off at the movie theatre where I would Kelly and I loved the movies which is why meet my best friend Kelly for the Saturday we sometimes felt guilty for loving short matinee. My mother would shop at the Big movies the most. but really it was Mr. Save al the far end of the street and pick Sherman's fault. me up when the movie was over. On short days the three of us Kelly and I loved the movies and walked down Main Street together. Just to the brightly lit marquis. The marquis was the right of the Theatre was Me the highest thing in town next to the McMulligan's Hardware Store. Next to that steeple of the Baptist Church on the was the Post Office, the smallest, bleakest square. Ours was a small town and our office in town; it was even worse than the theatre only played one movie at a time Public Library which was so awful they which was the way Kelly and I liked it; that didn't give it a space on Main Street, but I way we never missed a one. Some were guess mail is more important than reading. war movies; some were comedies, or On the corner, just past the Post romances, or westerns, but all were larger Office was Preston's Ladies Fashions. It than life. Everyone in those movies was was the snootiest and tackiest store in handsome or beautiful. Everyone who was town. Those of us possessing the practical supposed to fall in love always did by the nature to select our polish-free cutlery from end. It wasn't just bigger than life; it was the Sears and Roebuck's Catalog did not better. Saturday was the best day of the even window-shop at Preston's, and week; in fact, it would have been periect­ Katrina proved the rule. It was always a bit except for Katrina, Kelly's twin sister. They of a mystery to me why Katrina was so looked just alike, but they weren't. interested in Preston's. Nothing in there Kelly and I would always leave the could possibly be worth missing ice cream theatre fantasizing about the movie: from Sherman's Store, and stopping cer­ dancing with Gene Kelly, watching Gene tainly never improved her disposition. Autry ride out into the sunset, blowing Preston's was the corner and smoke in Bogie's eyes. Sherman's was just across the street. "Don't you know that isn't real?~ would always order chocolate ice cream, POOF-needle-tongued Katrina bursting and Kelly would always order vanilla; then bubbles again. I never understood why. we would swap halfway through. Katrina Not having any dreams or imagination always fretted over what to order. She didn't mean she had the right to ruin ours. would talk and fuss till Mrs. Kranzt was "Those movies are just make thoroughly disgusted and then she would believe; nobody really lives that way," she always order Swiss Almond Mocha. would say-every Saturday. By the time we were in high school When the movie was short, we we had all stopped going to the Saturday would have a little time before our mothers matinee. Instead we worked on Saturday came from the Big Save to pick us up, so afternoons; we would go home at 6:00, eat

Gloria Kirby pen and Ink

35 Gloria Kirby pen and Ink dinner, and come back to town at 8:00 to whole evening dragging him from one see the evening show. Afterwards we all circle of guests to the next as if they were went to Sherman's. They were the only a close couple. Ricky looked rather bored , ones still open at1 0:00 at night. and they and it certainly didn·t matter to anybody stayed open because alt the teenagers else; Ricky had never been good to a girl came in after the movies. and probably didn't know how. We all thought that Katrina was just making a We thought Katrina was spectacle of herself, and that sooner or making a spectacle later she would be disappointed. I went to that dance and every of herself . .. other with Andy. We married shortly after graduation, making me queen of hardware. Kelty went to that dance with Joey, Like I said we all got jobs. Kelly and to the spring dance with Jimmy Reed, and I agreed not to work at Sherman's. the new guy in school. Four years and half Mr. Sherman would only hire one of us and a dozen boys later she finally married it wouldn't be the same if one of us wor1

36 bloody mess; his shirt and even his pants choices, as far as I was concerned. He did time of ours. The fact thai he was in a were becoming soaked red. Th e only thing it to himself, right? class for gifted students and that his father that kept Shane from throwing more One day, I saw Kenny in a depart­ was a suspected drug dealer and a well punches was his hand, which had broken ment store and I ducked down an aisle to known drunk provided us with plenty of in two places. avoid him. It was just a few minutes later material. I can't say what was going through when I rounded a comer and ran directly Egghead. Spaz. Fart-machine. Kenny's mind, but 1believe that incident into him. Kenny had been called them all and more. took away whatever hope he had left . His "Hey Kenny, what's Up,MI asked We made fun of his clothes ("Hey , Kenny, The boy stood in front of ou r third entire life had been an uphill battle. He stupidly. waitin' for a flood?"), his body odor, the grade class speaking nervously. endured name-calling and a screwed-up "Nothin' much," he answered. His wild inflection he used when reading aloud "The third President was Thomas home life only to get beaten senseless. glasses had been replaced by contacts but in class, and anything else we could think Jefferson. His Vice Presidents were Aaron Kenny slowly became a problem his eyes were heavy and wandering. of because we didn't understand and we Burr and George Clinton. Jefferson served afterwards. He would sometimes come to Grease was on his hands and his shirt, didn't care. two terms from 1801 to 1809." class with alcohol on his breath , and he which had YWood's Garage" and his name He shifted his weight from side to would interrupt the teacher by talking to no embroidered on it. He was the oldest and side on his cheap crate bottomed shoes one in particular. By the beginning of our most tired· looking nineteen-year-old I had which had earned him the nickname junior year, thin red tracks could be seen ever seen. ~ Supercrates." Between the shoes and the on the veins of Kenny's left arm. uYou going to school?" he asked . bottom of his pants was about a two inch Kenny made no attempt hide his ~ Yeah, Gainesville." gap that exposed his dirty socks. His shirt drug problem. Instead of memorizing Kenny nodded. "I thought about was also too small and was now raised to Presidents, he now memorized the differ­ going to school a few times. But after my show his navel. He wore thick, black­ ent types of drugs and their side effects. old man got killed, I just said fu ck it. Just rimmed glasses which made his eyes look But even drugs couldn't completely cover fuck it all." like those of a fish. up his intelligence; Kenny got his GED by There was an awkward silence as I His name was Kenny Ross, and he There was one prank I played on the end of the eleventh grade. He immedi­ tried not to look at Kenny. 1was getting a was perhaps the smartest person I have Kenny that I will always regret. On the last ately began to help in his father's "busi­ quick flash of a small kid with thick glasses ever known. But in the third grade that day of our fifth grade year, I tied Kenny'S ness." trying to get out of a chair, but he couldn't didn't matter much; from my second row backpack to his seat. When the dismissal After one year, I had read of a least because someone had tied him to it . seat, I yawned and wondered how much bell rang, Kenny went to get up and was two occasions when Kenny was arrested "Well, I gotta go. See you later, longer it was going to take Kenny to recite immediately jerked back into his seat. He for possession of drugs. I also heard a Scott." And he was gone. all the Presidents of the United States. flailed his thin arms wildly trying to get free . story about the police checking out a I ask myself why I did it; why was I The girl sitting behind me tapped my I laughed until my side hurt, and then, I left disturbance a Kenny's house and finding so cruel? Kenny was never a mean kid. shoulder and handed me a Slip of paper. It Kenny sitting there as he struggled and his father lying on the floor with a gashed He never had an attitude that he was was a note that said, ~C heck it out. Kenny's cried for help. head. They also found Kenny standing in smarter than everyone else; he just liked to

barn door is open. Pass it on. M I looked up Kenny excelled in all academics. the kitchen sink, with his arms out­ learn. He was just different and I con­ to see Kenny's zipper gaping wide. I He had straight A's through junior high; stretched, trying to fly . demned him for it. He had so many giggled and passed the note on. three of those A's were in accelerated It was after I graduated that I read obstacles and I played my part as one. "The sixteenth President was classes. He was well ahead of everyone an article about Kenny's father. It said that Would it have been too much for me to Abraham Uncoln. His Vice President by the time we got to our freshman year of Kenny Ross, Sr., had been found behind a have been his friend? God forgive me; I was .. ." Kenny stopped in mid -sentence high school. convenience store in Lawrenceville. He helped him go to waste. when he heard the snickering. He followed About a month into that freshman had been shot in the head at point blank the eyes to his open fly which he quickly year, Kenny was sitting on the bus when a range. • • • • closed. MVice President.. .uh, was Hamil." big junior named Shane Grizzle told Kenny During all the time we spent in Kenny continued on with his voice shaking to get out of his seat. When Kenny re­ school together, I didn't think much about even more noticeably until he reached fused, Shane began to hit him in the face Kenny. He was just somebody who Jimmy Carter. repeatedly. After a couple of pitiful swings, messed up his life by making the wrong This was not an isolated incident. Kenny threw his arms up to guard his face. Making fun of Kenny was a favorite pas- . When it was over, Kenny's face was a

38 39 "Did you fight?" Jake asked. "No way, I left." "How do you feel about the issue?" "I think the guy should have put the thing out if it was annoying somebody." There was a long pause before Jake spoke. "What about the man's right to Most everyone has heard it said that it smoke if he wants to. When I'm around only takes a spark to start a fire , and the you, you never tell me to put out my glowing tip of the Camel belonging to the cigarette." elderly gentleman sitting two table away "It doesn·t bother me that much. was about to start an inferno. Besides, you're my friend." -Excuse me, sir, could you please put ·Oh, really?" he said. I could tell by his out your cigarette?" a clean cut young man voice that he was getting irritated. seated behind the smoker asked. "Settle down," I said. "It's no big deal." "Why should I?" the elder gentleman "'No big deal ?!'" he screamed. "You asked, clutching his Camel a bit tighter. call wanting to take away my lawful right to "Because the fumes from your 'cancer smoke 'no big deal?'" stick' are ruining my meal." "What are you getting so mad about, -Why don't you make me put it out?" buddy?" The smoker was now on his feet. "Buddy?! Ha! you don't know the "You have no right to poison me," the meaning 01 the word. Don·t ever speak to young man protested, also rising to his me again." There was a loud bang and feet. then silence. "Let the man smoke!R someone from Needless to say, I was puzzled by the other side of the restaurant yelled. Jake's behavior. I decided to worry about "Stay out 01 itl" someone else returned. it later, and I sat back down to watch the Suddenly, the entire restaurant was rest of the news. divided: smokers on one side, non-smok­ For the next few days, more reports ers on the other. Both sides swapped came about smokers and non-smokers insults and obscenities until, inevitably, a confronting one another. The most notable light broke out. I don·t know who won of which took place in New York City in the because I immediately found an exit and middle of rush hour. A nun asked a hot made my way home. dog vendor to extinguish his stogie. He That night. the local news had a report refused and the nun picked up a nearby on the incident. I grabbed the phone and wino and used him as a battering ram called a friend of mine. against the hot dog stand. The stand flew "Jake, are you watching the news?RI into the streets, causing a multi-car acci­ asked. dent. As motorists exited their cars, it "Naw, I'm watchin' wrasslin'," he said. wasn't long before they too picked up on "Well, they were talking about this fight the topic of conversation between the at this restaurant today. I was there, man." vendor and the nun. The ensuing melee "Was it some kind of political thing?" took police five hours to get under control. "No." Aweek later, Nightline had a special "Racial riot?" about the escalating violence over the "No, it was over smoking. Some guy issue. During the discussion segment, the wouldn't put out his cigarette." advertising executive for R.J. Reynolds

JessJea Peterman 41 called a member of the Surgeon General's Two hundred thousand LOONS gathered glorious struggle for freedom?" staff a ~commun ist fairy." The staff mem­ on the border of Los Angeles and readied "Not so well . The split up has caused ber retaliated by calling the executive a themselves for an anack on the nearly one a lot of turmoil." "propoganda-spouting mutant." Tempers million fighting TURDS stationed there. Just then, 1 heard a "click" over the flared, fists flew, and Ted Koppel was But the smokers were re ady; they had set phone. nearly trampled to death as ABC workers up an intricate array of tobacco leaf fields. "What was that?" I asked. stampeded to join the fracas. As the unwitting LOONS began to storm "Just a lighter." After this nationally televised incident, the city, the fields were set on fire. The "Oh, I guess you're lighting your the haired grew. Known smokers were smoke as too much for the pure lungs of cigarette." tied to posts and pelted with nicoreHe and the non-smokers and they quickly re ­ "Are you kidding?! I was lighting a fire Smokey the Bear dolls. Also, it was nol treated. The smokers had won the now bomb. Who's got time to smoke; there's a uncommon lor a non-smoker to wake up famous "Battle of Black Lung Hill." war going on, you know." with a camel's head at the foot of his But the TURDS happiness was short bed. lived. Fricto n between top officers caused •••• a four-way split. The pipe smokers, cigarette smokers, cigar smokers, and the smokeless tobacco users (who were never really accepted anyway because they were Joanne Wallington penaOO/1lk concidered unclean) went their separate ways. But even with this split, the nation was still divided down the middle: LOONS to the east, TURDS to the west. The few On one particular, rainy April night, neutrals like myself fled to Alaska. Even several smokers stormed the home of as I sit writing this , my fellow countrymen Larry Hagman, stuffed the dazed actor into to the south do battle. The split ranks of a burlap sack, and took turns blowing the smokers still send bombers lull of smoke into the bag. A group who called flaming Winston cartons east, and the non­ themselves the Tobacco User's Relatively smokers still burn Jerry Lewis in effigy at Deranged Society (TURDS) claimed the dusk of every day. Friend against responsibility. In retaliation, the Lunatic friend. Brother against brother. Teamster Organization Of Non-Smokers (LOONS) against teamster. This war knows no was quickly formed. bounds. Finally, the Federal Government Just a few moments ago, my phone decided that it was time to intervene. rang. Armed with tear gas and rubber bullets, the ~ Hello? " I said cautiously. National Guard was instructed to get things "Hey man, it's me ,~ the voice on the under control. Things did not work out other end said. quite so easily. "Jake?" The LOONS chased the guards away "Yeah, how ya doin'?" with gasoline-soaked smoking jackets, and "I'm okay. How'd you find me?" the TUADS simply ignored the tear gas. "I'm cleared for just about everything, Heat~ debates in Congress were telephone numbers included," he ex­ getting no-where, and it wasn't long before plained. "So, have you ever considered practically the entire country was divided signing up and fighting for our cause?" and teetering on the brink of anarchy. "No, not really," I said, and then quickly Then the largest battle yet took place. tried to change the subject. "How goes the

42 minutes dwelling that one over. (Of course It seems to me that mothers should be can be worn again; and on top of the desk, If Sons and Mothers I spent a good thirty days on restriC1ion, able to understand that a kid's room is his they're clean. All of my socks are In one which was about how long it took to clean own personal space in which a young mind, drawer, although, I'm not sure which one. All by all those gas caps.) And what about the much like mine, could learn to formulate and my shoes, and I think their matches, are in my Bill Feagins time I decided to do my bit in helping the hypothesize such universal questions as to bookcase. I think this whole room cleaning homeless? Yes, that's right. I brought why the sun comes from the east, where do routine is a big waste of time. As a matter of home a hermit. However, he wasn't little baby siblings come from and why, and fact, the last time I cleaned my room was discovered for three days because I kept why does Johnny Cash sound like Mr. Ed. A Christmas, 1987. I'm still not quite through. I've only been on this small spaceship him in my room. kid's room is where one can find all sorts of I used to wonder what my mom would do Earth for close to twenly years; however, in If you haven't noticed, I was a very fun-filled hours of joy and amusement, as with her life if it weren't for me getting into all this short span of time, I have noticed a socially conscious kid. I used to think that long as you're not having to clean it. A kid's those jams that she somehow always seemed thing or two that is universal to all "nearly­ my mother was socially unconscious, for room is where great minds have been molded, to get me out of. Now that I'm ~almost-an­ an-adult~ kids. It seems to me the kids are she always seemd to hit the roof over my not to mention adult," I've always the bad guys. The first thing that ecological and social Uoutbursts" as she three-month-otd found that my I've noticed is that it's usually the mothers called them. PBJ sandwiches. mom can be who are doing most of the complaining And hobbies ga­ more than just against kids. Usually the only fathers who lore can be found a mother. I find speak Qut against them are those who are within a kid's her often cast in getting paid to do so, like Bill Cosby or room. For ex- Ihe role of Robin Williams. However, let a mother get I ample, with mother and But it's not just the hair-brained ideas hold of a pen and some paper and she enough left-overs friend, a friend lets us kids have it with both barrels. Then that kids have got to come up with, for like the PBJ sand­ with a social to top off making us look like little mon­ whatever reason, good or bad. They also wich, one can conscience and sters sent from hell, she always ends her have to work on picking out the absolute easily start an ant love of hobbies. horror story with some cute little anecdote worst best buddies in the wand. Mothers farm without all Every know them all, the ones they're sure are on that makes the writer seem like "super­ the dirt and once in drugs or deal in drugs or were simply an iII­ mom~ for being able to handle an other­ glass to sepa­ awhile, wise normal situation that most all mothers fated alter effect of a bad hit that their rate master you parents had in the sixties or something like around the world have had to deal with. frompe!. This, might that. Mothers should realize that it's not Well, I'm here to settte the score. I've of course, catch us out practiced for almost twenty years at being easy for kids to sort through all the nerds, ranks right up doingfunstufl one of those titlle rug-rats from hell that dorks, wastoids, and other neo-maxi-zoom­ therewith her­ like protesting give out those proverbial gray hairs, and dweebies, just to find the right sort of mit sitting. against the I'm here to tell you that I've proudly done people that they know will totany disgust like I said unevendistri- my bit by giving out my fair share. you. But then again, mothers should also before, my but ion of be thankful for these friends, for they give I've often wondered, do mothers really mom gave up wealth by think it·s that easy for kids to come up with them one more reason to blame the on trying toget super-gluing hermits to outcome of that ungrateful child upon. these hair-brained ideas? Well, let me tell me to clean rich people's cars. you, it's not. In my youth, I sometimes had Another thing I never lully compre­ myroomwhen to spend a good ten or fifteen minutes hended was a mother's constant bickering I was twelve. I wasting my valuable time trying to come up for her child to clean up his or her room. had, and still have, a ••••••• with something else for my mother to yell My mom finally gave up when I was around very good organiza­ .. -. -: . ~ -- at me about. Believe you me, I came up twelve when she had called the police to tional system to every­ with one or two doozies also, like the time I report a missing child when aC1ually a thing. Everything goes whole group of us were in my room playing went around the entire neighborhood and right where I need it so I know where to find super-glued all the gas caps on the cars in an intense game of poker for three days. it if ever I need it again, whatever it may be. Glenn Chandler Pensndlnk protest to the Alaskan oil spill. As a (Of course all these guys had the qualities For instance, the dirty clot her go on the floor, matter of fact, I think I spent a good thirty Ihal mothers loath.) if they're to be washed; in the closet, if they

44 45 went to the specialist at the community kitchen) , but it was home to Anna. She feh She baked the rolls and stirred Mom's hospital. Anna admitted to Jason that she safe there, but she knew her solitude lobster bisque. She sat on the porch as was more than a little scared of what the would soon be broken, as Memorial Day she snapped beans and started to worry­ resuhs could be, but the specialists had was approaching, and all of the summer what if her parents didn't make it today? seen no immediate danger to the baby and families would be coming to occupy their What if no-one was actually coming to see had determined that Anna would be able to summer homes. She began to think again her? carry the pregnancy to full term. Anna did of Jason, and she hoped he would come to Anna put the dinner on the Anna stood on the dock and exactly what the doctors said: she ate only see her. She couldn't go back yet, not this beautifully set table and waited for her thought. once again, how alive ahe feh foods that would not aggravate her condi· soon, but he probably wouldn't be able to parents to arrive. Her panic grew as dark next to the bubbling sea. She looked tion, she avoided sah, she got plenty of afford to come see her, either. Oh well, she fell. Finally, Anna saw the headlights come around and noticed the sun as it made its rest. and she worked so liUle at her job that thought, at least I'll see Mom and Dad. Her around the comer. Anna ran out to meet first appearance through the early morning she could hardly earn enough money for family would tell how Jason was, and she her parents, but then she stopped short. fog and drizzle. The rocky shoreline of the gas to get there. Anna never thought would see him in three more months. Jason stepped out of the back seat and small Maine penninsula looked dark and anything could go wrong. This child was Anna walked to the cabin, came towards Anna. She felt him wrap his menacing, but Anna felt comforted by the loved, and she would have done anything went inside to where the bed and dresser arms around her as he whispered, "I love familiarity of the sea-weed and barnacles for her unborn baby. sat in the far corner, and put on her work you, Anna. I didn't think I was going to ever on the rocks. This was the place where she clothes. She hummed as she cleaned the see you or hold you again. Happy anniver· would recover herseH, where she could at cabin, but her heart wasn't in the song. sary, sweetheart," last be free from the nightmare that had led Anna put the dinner She felt vaguely like she had forgotten Anna began to sob. MJason, her back to Maine. on the beautifully set something, but she didn't know of anything I. .. I lost our baby." she could have possibly over-Iooked. As "Yes, Honey, a year ago Anna had been ecstatic when table and waited ... she had found out that she was pregnant. the day progressed, the feeling that today." Jason had been happy, too, even though something was amiss persisted, but Anna the baby was five years too early. They Anna thought about the baby had other things to worry about. Her had finally started to build their first house and Jason, and she began to cry softly. parents were coming tonight, and she had in the Georgia mountains, and the nursery She sat on the dock with her feet in the lots to do, As evening neared, she put was the first room to be decorated and water and slipped silently into the ocean's Dad's favorite fudge cookies into the oven. • ••••• made ready for inhabitance. Even her abyss. COLD! her body screamed as she parents were looking fOlWard to their lirst swam to the very bottom of the sea. Just grandchild, and her younger sister and when her lungs would surely explode, she brothers had eagerly offered their services reversed her direction and made her way as future baby-siuers. Jason's parents towards the gray light of the surface. She were happy, too, but they worried that gulped and gasped for air, and when she Anna and Jason would get too far into debt was able, she climbed out of the frigid with the house and a baby. Even so , Anna water and onto the dock. She feh new, couldn't have been happier. She wanted alive, baptized by the ocean. children more than anything, and this was Anna stood, naked, wet, and the realization of her dream. She was wrapped a white towel around her body finally starting on the family of six that she until she was in a safe cocoon. She could wanted. She knew that she would be a think now and remember-today was the good mom. anniversary of her marriage to Jason. When Anna was three-and-a· Jasoll--()h, how she missed Jason. She half months along in the pregnancy, the hadn't seen him in two months. He had to doctor told her that she had an arhythmic stay in Georgia and work, and she needed heart beat and that he wanted her to go for to be atone in Maine to regain peace of further testing. Anna knew that he was mind. The family vacation home was small concerned for the baby, so she willingly (it was only a one room cabin with a small

Kim Freedman COI7p

46 47 - The Final Good-bye by lisa Roberts even with the window rolled down. The siren yelped and wobbled and echoed I realize now I should have done some­ through the buildings and alleys, feeling thing nice for her before she left. I wanted to like an icepick in my right ear, but still all give her a going away present that Monday the Yuppie · scumbags won't pull over or afternoon, but I couldn" think of anything let us by until we force the issue. Not that I appropriate. She had everything she needed, mind, you understand, about having to force the issue. The only good Yuppie in and I didn't see the point in spending a lot 01 a s th e d a y betOI e "I still can't see how you can stand money on something she'd never get 10 use. to hear Ihat stuff- sounds like cats bein' my book is a dead Yuppie, preferably I guess I was trying to console myself. omecomll1 9 a nd ... tortured to me." caused by my unit pushing his BMW into a because [ knew I'd miss her a lot more than I put on my best Scottish brogue, nice sturdy telephone pole, where he can she'd miss me. Hell, I don't know if she'll "I can't. I'm gonna go to Carrie's. We'll and turn down the wail of the bagpipe tape. scream out his final moments in over· even think about me. I mean, when you're a talk tomorrow. I gotta go now, OK?" With "Well, that's because y'er just a whelming agony. And they say we don't long way from home you have a 101 of things that, she hung up. sassenach, old man, but I tell you it's good have a sense of humor. on your mind. It'll be practically a lifetime I'm still not clear on what happened that stuff, 'specially the pibrochs .~ ... "Four-o·five, ten·se .... en on the before I'll get to see her again. It's a good night, but it changed my life. It changed Mark looks sidewise at me with scene, APD not in sight." thing her Father will be there to look after her. Jeannie's too. And while it was Monday that twisted smirk of his, and turns the "Ten·four, four·o·five, proceed with It was the day before the Homecoming before I actually had to say good·bye, in my ambulance into the Majestic, "Fine Greasy caution." Well, no shit, lady. dance, and North Gwinnen had just won its heart I knew she had really left us that Friday Food for 50 Years." And with a damn low 1 reach up and turn off the lights as only game of the season. The air was brisk night before. She did stick around long mortality rate too, all things considered. Mark eases the unit around the corner, and and comfortable for a mid·OCtober day. My enough for us to throw her a going away "Four-o·five request in' signal 12- we glide to a halt just down the street from brother Anthony, Jeannie's father, had raked party; she e .... en wore that emerald green M." the address given. No lights are on, even mountains of lea .... es In my front yard, and I dress she had picked out for Homecoming. Long pause. Dispatcher must be the streetlight is out. A dog is barking remember seeing Jeannie jumping through She really looked beautiful. We all gave her scratchin' her ass again. somewhere in the distance, but I can't hear the air and landing in the middle of one of the some flowers to take on her trip, and we all "Four-o·fi.... e, negati.... e on the 12-M, or see anything moving in the dark house. t piles. Laughing, she picked herself up and went to see her off. prepare to copy .~ Shit. Damn near mid· can feel the hairs start rising up on the brushed off the lea.... es that had clung to her "I'm really gonna miss you little girt,8 1 night, and this'll make the fifth call already. back of my neck - dammit, I hate this kind clothes. She skipped o .... er to her car, a red whispered to myself. I looked back to wa .... e Gonna be another Gomer call, I can feel it of shit, and just where are those friggin' 1968 Mustang, a se .... enteenth birthday good·bye to her, but this time she didn't wa.... e comin'. cops? Mark quietly opens the door and present she had recei .... ed the month before. back. After days of being strong and trying to "Go ahead, radio." slides out, so I grab the ju~ bag and ease Taking out the dress, she held it up to her and deny her departure, I finally broke down and "Four-o·five, respond code three to open my door, and drop as quietly as I can said, "It'll be perfect for the dance tomorrow cried as the undertaker closed the casket on person down, unknown trouble, comer Hill to the ground. Still can·t see nothin', but night, don't you think?" She was so happy Jeannie's young and broken body. and Cherokee, shots fired, APD enroute." Mark's spooked, too, cause he's got that that aftemoon. She was Ii .... ing the high school Well, goddamn, might actually ha .... e same look on his face he had the night we dream: the dance, the football game, the • • • • • • • somethin' interestin' here for a change. spent behind a fire truck, pinned down by a football player, dinner, a new dress. She .. Four-o·fi .... e, ten·four, respondin' sniper. had the world at her fingertips. I remember code three." "Ted, work your way around to that wishing I was in her shoes, wishing that I Mark slams the unit into re .... erse as mailbox, an' I'll go back up the driveway. could be back in high school again. My I reach up and click on the lights and siren. And stay Iow,M Mark mutters. thoughts were interrupted by the phone, and Heads pop up in the restaurant with the Yessir. Going down the street in a I rushed inside, hoping Jeremy would be on first blast of the yelp - whatsamalter half crouch, half waddle, I'm no more than the other end. He was. Fi .... e minutes later people, ain't ne .... er seen real live hero· halfway there when I see a dark shape Jeannie came in to get her jacket. "I ha .... e a types this close up before? We wheel into lying on the sidewalk in front of the house. lot of things to do today," she said. "I' .... e galla the street, and screech off down Ponce de Well, hell, I guess APD did make it here go .~ I nodded, and lifted up my hand to wa.... e Leon towards Boulevard and HitL before we did. I crawl up to the body, roll it good·bye. Jeannie wa.... ed back and left. I It had been another hot day, and overand , yup,oner~htbetwee n the gazed out the window as she pulled out into the e .... ening air was suffocatingly sticky running lights. Mark crawls over, we look at the street. I could still hear her blaring radio each other like, what the hell do we do as she rounded the corner.

48 49 now? and then I hear a door Slam , followed breathless minute passes, but nothing eventually changed into a streaming mass by a long, low moan comin' from the back happens. I stick my head in, nothing there of dark red blood. He did such a good job of the dark house looming up over us. but a na sty looking bed and some junky­ at condemning himself while he scratched Mark reaches over and pulls out the dead assed furniture. In the background we can his face off. What a crazy thing to do! cop's gun while I get out the radio and tell hear police sirens as we collecUvely let out I tried to figure out why he was so upset, the dispatcher to send many, many police our breath and stand up. like the man and could only reason that he was in right goddamn new! said, nothing to it . agony over taking the innocent life of a "Ready?" The first cops come barreling A thin man leaned against the waiting lower being. And out of a selfish need at Ready for whal.? I want to scream, through the door, guns in hand, fingers on room door. He seemed to have been cut that! I watched that man and I did not feel but instead I just nod, and we crawl up the the triggers, 'bout as shook up a bunch as out of poster board. He resembled Woody anything. I did not say anything. I did not steps and hunker down on either side of I've ever seen. One of 'em goes over to the Allen in a sick and degrading way, having attempt to think. Oh, it didn't really matter the closed door. I feel something wet body on the couch, looks at it a minute, long, bushy "Bozo the Clown" hair and a to me or to any other of the tired, worried soaking through my pants leg. Without then runs out to lose his lunch on the ridiculous nose. The hospital waiting room people. Hell, we've all had our insane even looking I know what it is and at the grass. Another cop goes in the back room was full with tired and worried people. It frenzies, our moments on the flip side of same time know that this is gonna get real and we follow, fully expecting to find more seemed odd to me that everyone in the normality. Most of us lived to tell about it. bad real quick. Lookin' at the twisted bodies. Damn, it stinks in here, funny I room was smoking , even though it was This man was just a flea on the body of in­ grimace on Mark's face I know I'll have to didn't notice that before. Cop starts root in' against the rules. I sighed, then inhaled sanity, and he was carefully being plucked follow him inside, even though my heart is through the shit on the bed, munerin' under imaginary smoke from a pretend cigarette. off by Doclor Morrow and his assistants. pounding in my ears and my palms are so his breath while me and Mark look around, I don't know where I left those damn I blessed the man's aura as they slick that I'm scared I'll drop the flashlight both of us seein' the blood trail at the same things. moved him into sedation. and my mouth is too dry to say anything time, leadin' into the closet. I just have time The strange man had a Quiet abounded me. The quiet when Mark eases open the unlocked door to think, not say, dammit Mark let's get the candy bar. First he fondled noise moved into my left and right there is another body, a young hell out of here right goddamn mut as the it. He stroked its pretty pack­ armpit and moved down my Iookin' cute girl with two holes in her face closet door lIies open and before the cop age and cooed at it as if he arm. And then, like a true and most of the rest of her head missing. can finish his curse comes a blast of light were some damn pigeon. I epiphany, I remembered were The smell of cordite is damn near overpow­ and noise and I try to turn and run but it's could tell he dreaded eating I had put my cigarettes. I ering as I crawl past the girl and follow the like a nightmare cause 1 can't get my legs the food. It took him at least reached into my back pocket wet trail leading into the back. Mark grabs to move and then he comes out of the twenty minutes to muster to retrieve them and became my leg and silently points off to the right. In closet with eyes like glowing coals and enough strength to unwrap very frustrated. A switch the dim light t can see what's left of another without a word looks at me and fires. the candy bar. Oh, he didn't went off in my brain and the body sprawled across a couch, and can want to open it. He would wrong nerve was activated. hear a faint splash as wet drops flow off ThiS IS crazy , dammlt! have been content just to All of the cerebral Gnomes the still fingers. This is crazy, dammit, let's have memorized the ingre­ popped out of their hiding Let's get outta here! get out of here! but my throat's too tight to dients listed on the side. places and started to braid make a sound, and my heart slams in my I Finally he succeeded in my eyelashes together until I I don't know why I'm alive, or why chest, and Mark is crawling past me, ever unwrapping the candy bar, but I knew and could no lo nger see. Stealthily quiet Mark and the cops are all dead, but I don't so slowly up to the last door, pulling his he knew it would not be an ordinary least. moved through my bloodstream and 1 body up tight against the jamb, looking really care. Every night it's th is same Lovingly he undid the tapered and thought my skin would mold, it itched so over at me with his eyes wide and gleam­ dream, every day I sit looking out the glued ends. Apologetically he cocked his badly. Then I gave up. Damn, those ing in the darkness. I scrarriJle over and window at all the people who don't know head and smiled as the candy bar's naked straight jackets are bitches when you goUa kneel on the other side of the door. Mark that they're really dead, too. I can't play my and brown body was exposed to him. For scratch. looks at me, I nod, and he reaches over, pipes anymore. The wood chanter feels a moment he gazed tearfully into the •• ••••• takes the doorknob, turning it ever so like death in my hands, and the loud unreal soul of what was in his hands, and slowly while it fainlly squeaks, then slowly drones sound like the moans of the dying. I like a self-excused cannibal, he buried his pu shes open the door. I close my eyes, never left that room. I never wilt leave that entire face into the candy bowl of his two take a deep breath, then turn on the room. This is my dream, this is my night­ scrawny hands. I suppose everyone else flashlight and stick it in the doolWay. A mare, unUI death do us part. was either too tired or too worried to notice Stephanie Crisler computer design ••••• that this man's chocolate-covered lace

50 51 -

Midnight Hours Before Dawn the living room, she glanced around the knit sweater over her head, she k>oked in that was all around her on this glorious fall by neat room filled with new furniture she'd the cheval mirror next to the dresser. day. Ahead, on the left, she saw a tumout Joanne Marlin purchased two weeks ago, knowing that Brown eyes fringed with black lashes where she could park. She crossed the ~~ next Saturday everything would still be the gazed steadily back at her. High cheek­ yellow line and parked the car. same. No evening papers would be bones inherited from her Cherokee grand­ Below her, the mountain dropped Jonni shivered in the cold night air, scattered across the coffee table, no toys mother complimented her oval shaped away into a valley that stretched as far as knowing the temperature would drop below or games would be strewn across the floor. face. Jonni ran her fingers through her she could see. Jonnl got out of the car to freezing before dawn. Carefully, she tried WStop it,~ she hissed through clenched dark, shoulder length hair, noticing a few see better. She was standing on the to move her leg closer to her body. In­ teeth, "Don't think about it: Jonni quickly more strands of gray as she pushed it summit of the mountain. Blue sky en· stantly, pain shot through her left knee. left the room. She picked up the grocery away from her face . In the kitchen, she hanced the perfect view of the valley wHow could you have been so stupid ,~ she list from the kitchen table, grabbed her red poured coffee into a thermos, telling herself below. She sucked in the cool, thin air as berated herself for about the tenth time. down-filled ski jacket and pocketbook from one more time, that she drank too rruch of she gazed across miles of desert, empty The sharp pain subsided, returning to the the hall closet and hurried out of the house, it. Before walking out the door, she stuffed except for an occasional clump of sage­ familiar dull ache. Jonni sat under a pine locking the door behind her. a Hershey Bar and a bag of peanuts in the brush. The enormousness of the land­ tree in the dark, her shoulders hunched Although the sun was shining pocket of her Jacket. She might get hungry scape made her feel small and insignifi­ forward, her arms wrapped around her brightly, it was cold outside. Early Septem­ and she sure didn·t have to count calories. cant, as her eyes feasted on the wonder of right knee that was tucked closely against ber in the mountains of northern New Jonni locked the back door, then got in the God's Creation. Her vision blurred when her chest. Her injured left leg stuck Mexico often brings freezing temperatures car. she thought of Mac, and how he would straight out in front of her. She gently during the night. Jonni got in her car and Driving north on the highway out of have enjoyed this sight. A tear spilled touched her leg, slowly running her hand started the engine. The weatherman had town, she marveled at the beauty sur­ down her cheek as she thought about her over and around the knee. It had swollen promised the temperature would reach the rounding her in this wild, desolate place. son and husband. Quickly, she got back in so rruch, her jeans tightly encased her leg mid·fifties today. Driving through the small On her right, the Chuska Mountains soared the car and started the engine. She willed from below her knee to the middle of her town to Griswolds Trading Post, she 10,000 feet high, ri sing miles beyond the the tears away and wiped her eyes. MI thigh. She was cold and afraid, wondering passed the octagon-shaped elementary flat topped cliffs that lined a deep gully . To can't think of them ,~ she whispered softly to if she'd be able to hobble along on her school where she would begin teaching her left, a wide valley sprawled west and herself, as she pulled back on the highway, injured leg in the morning, or if she'd have next week. She was a little nervous, north, until it met a smaller range of driving back the way she had come to crawl on her stomach to reach the car. because it had been almost two years mountains. Sagebrush, tumbleweed, and minutes before. That is, if she could determine the right since she'd stood in front of a clas room small Pinon trees grew in the sandy soil. direction to the road where her blue Ford looking into bright, expectant. litUe faces. Jonni drove across the edge of the val1ey Meadows filled with grazmg The grocery list was short, so it was parked. It had been a good day until a at a leisurely pace. There was little traffic sheep slipped by .... couple hours ago, Jonni thought, as she didn't take long to pick up the few items on the road. She found the cut-off to remembered the beginning of this day. she needed. Wonderful smells drifted from Fannington and turned east. The land­ The sun crept over the horizon and the small cafe inside the trading post, scape changed as the road climbed higher. reminding Jonni she hadn·t eaten anything Jonni noticed a dirt road ahead on peeked in Jonni's window about 7 o'clock. It curved around outcroppings of rocks, the left side of the road. It looked welt­ Its brightness increased until she awak­ all morning. After a late breakfast of bacon dipping and rising over gentle foothills. traveled and in good shape, so it must be ened. Glancing at the clock, she was and eggs, she lingered over a cup of Meadows filled wilh grazing sheep slipped used a lot, she figured. Interested in Ihankful for five hours of peaceful sleep, coffee, indulging one of her fa vorite past by as she drove steadily up the mountain . times; watching people and making up seeing what she might find, Jonni steered but she had intended to sleep late this Small thickets of aspen trees, with bright, the car across the highway. Driving morning, after re ading until 2 A.M . Now little stories about them. She also decided butler yellow leaves contrasted sharply cautiously, she was delighted to discover that she was fully awake, she knew it it would be a good day to do a little sight­ against the dark green of the pine trees little meadows on the summit of the would be useless to try to fall asleep again. seeing. The mountains would be a good that grew in abundance on the mountain mountain. She passed two hogans, small For one night at least, she had cheated the place to spend the afternoon. She paid the rage. Across narrow valleys, the earth had Navajo huts made of logs. Further along, a dream and slept undisturbed for a few bill, left the cafe and drove the short eroded into deep, jagged trenches, caused distance back home. tiny lake nestled among aspens and pine hours. by the rushing torrents of icy water after trees, shimmered In the late afternoon rays After a shower and a cup of coffee, She put the groceries away and warm spring sunshine melted the deep went into the bedroom to change from her of the sun. It looked so appealing, Jonni Jonni listened to Rimsky-Korsakov while winter snow. Jonni could feet the loss of pulled off the road and stopped the car. sweat suit into a pair of je ans and a power in her Ford, as the elevation in­ she tidied up the small house. Finishing in For long moments she looked around, then sweater. When she pulled a green cable- creased. She was immersed in the beauty

52 53 po

decided to walk over to the little lake. living was gone. With a last desparate surge of strength, Jonni ripped the night­ Picking up the thermos so she could enjoy she'd run quite a ways in her headlong answer. Jonni shivered in the darkness. mare apart, screaming "No-o-o" in a long, a cup of coffee, she left the car. She flight. Stars twinkled overhead and slivers The dream crept into her mind and she mournful wail. walked leisurely among the trees, listening of moonlight fillered through the branches allowed it to stay. That evening fifteen The sound echoed and faded in to the fallen leaves ru stle and crunch under of the trees. There was enough light for months ago, when the doorbell rang, she the still darkness around her. She was her Reeboks. On the far side of the lake, a her to make out shapes in the darkness. had thought it was her son Mac at the cold, wondering at the strange new twist tree had fallen near the water. Walking to Straining her eyes, she looked for door, too impatient to wait for his father to this familiar dream was taking . With a it, Jonni sat down, and poured a cup of the familiar shape of her car. Carefully unlock it . David and Mac had gone to start, Jonnl realized her eyes were open. coffee from the thermos. It was very quiet she searched, as it slowly dawned on her Pizza Hut to get a pizza for dinner that Terror mounted as she knew she was no as she watched the water wink and sparkle that she didn't see the faintest glitter of evening. They'd been gone longer than longer dreaming. She saw the outlines of in the sunlight. The light breeze stilled star1ight upon water. Her terrified mind usual, when Jonni heard a car in the trees silhouetted against the faint glow of and the sun seemed warmer. Then she refused to believe the insist ant voice driveway, and the familiar sound of two the rising moon, and remembered walking scooted down until her head rested against saying "You ran the wrong way." Search­ doors closing. When she'd opened Ihe to the tiny lake. Scrambling to her feet, the fallen log. Jonni closed her eyes ing frantically in every diredion, seeing door to see two policemen standing before she turned to her right and started running. against the glare of the sun. Within only the dark shapes of tree trunks and her, she'd known Mac and David were She had to get out of here. Stumbling, she seconds, she was sound asleep. bushes, she finally listened to the voice dead. Days later, her mind became clear dodged around trees, running toward the Ding-Oong. Hearing the doorbell inside her head. She knew that she had enough to understand that a drunk driver road. The high altitude with its thin air chime signaled the beginning of the dream. bolted and run away from the road instead had run a red light, smashing into the car. seared her lungs as she ran blindly, Jonni struggled against the pull of the of toward it. In terror, she had scrambled After the funeral, Jonni returned to Oregon gasping for oxygen. "Run I Don't stopl" her nightmare, but was powerless against it as up and turned to the right, away from the with her parents, so they could take care of frenzied mind kept repeating. The terror of it pulled her oTl\Yard . Reaching the front road. The certainty of her act triggered a her for awhile. Day after day, she sat in the nightmare lingered, mingling with the door, she pulled it open. Two men in dark scream that she managed to choke down. her childhood bedroom, overwhelmed by new fear. Suddenly, her toe caught under blue uniforms stood on the porch. "How could you be so stupid!" she said in her loss. She didn't want to keep on living an exposed root; her leg twisted abnor­ "Are you Jonnette Foster?" the place of the scream. She tried to visualize in a world without David and Mac. Gradu­ older man asked. Unable to speak, Jonni mally, as she feU forward heavily, face the location of the lake, then thought it ally, time and the loving care and concern down on the ground. The breath nodded her head. "Is your husband's didn't make any difference, because she of her parents, helped her to heal enough whooshed out of her lungs, as pain ex­ name David Ray Foster?" he asked. couldn't walk and even if she COUld, she to face life again. Three months later she ploded In her left knee. Struggling for Dumbly, she nodded her head again. "Do might wander so far into the mountains returned to Albequerque, determined not to breath, gasping for just a tiny bit of air, you have a son about ten years old?" she'd never find her way back to the car. think of her husband and son. To do so "Yes. Mac. Why?" Jonnl found fearing she's never breathe again, Jonni The smartest thing to do was to stay where caused too much pain and she needed the slowly regained the ability to breathe her voice again. She looked from one she was. It was also the only thing she pain to go away. man's face to the other. Seeing their normally. The pain in her knee was could do, unless she pulled herself along sympathetic, sad expressions, she knew excruciating. "Dear God: she whispered, on the ground like a soldier crawling under what they were here to tell her. Jonni "Please help me." Carefully, she pushed barbed wire. Jonni slumped to the ground, knew at that moment that life as she had her hands against the ground and raised unable to stop the tears and cried in known and lived it until this second, was herself up, pulling her right leg up to frustration, fear, pain, and despair. over, gone forever. Two cops were at her support her weight. Gingerly, she moved It was cold and Jonni knew it front door" ...we come in .. ." to an­ her left leg. Pain over pain engulfed her would get colder, hour after hour, until after Jonni bent her head, sobbing, nounce the end of her world...... bad knee as she transferred her weight to it, so daylight. Pulling together every ounce of allowing months of stored up grief to leave accident ..." The nightmare within a she could stand up. The pain was mon­ determination she could muster and gritting her heart. She cried not only for the loss of nightmare pinned her down, .....sorry to strous, and as she tried to step forward, her teeth against the pain in her knee , she Mac and David, but also for the pain her inform you ..." helpless against its her knee buckled, collapsing under her, as dragged herself across the ground to the parents had endured for her sake. In the strength and power. The ugly reality " .. she fell once more. She felt nauseous as nearest tree. She managed to pull herself months folllowing her return to Albequer­ .both died ..... of those moments washed fresh agony ripped through her knee. She into a sitting position, after a great deal of que, she refused to think of Mac or David. over her, drowning her In pain and an­ rested awhile, wrestling with the pain, then pain and effort. Sitting with her back Whenever they entered her mind, she guish. The pollceman's mouth continued tentatively raised her upper body, holding against the trunk of a pine tree, she asked would do anything to banish the thoughts. to spew out words " ... come with us to her arms stiff, so she could look around. herself again how she could have done The only way she could live with their identify ..... Her life, her purpose for The road must be very close, because something so dumb, but she didn't have an deaths was to ignore it . Moving to Navajo

54 55 had been another attempt to stop the thing, but Jonni was so numb from Ine memories. Now, lost and hurt in the cold cold, and so fuzzy-minded, she couldn't darkness of the mountain, she allowed the think coherent ly enough to understand memories to stay. Intuitively, she knew the what was being said to her. It didn't nightmare was the result of pushing away matter, because someone had found her reality. She wondered if she might die up and she was safe. One of the men held up here, and discovered a strong desire to her thermos, and smiled from ear to ear live. David would be disappointed in the when she reached for it. He opened it , and way she had handled his death. That pou red her a cup. It was cold, but it was didn't make much sense, but he'd always liquid and she drank every drop. admired the way she could take everything -Haaleidzaa?" the second man in stride, not allowing set-backs or detours asked her. Jonni smiled when she under­ to bother her, or deter her from her goals. stood why she didn't understand him But nothing in her life came close to the before. Many older Navajos didn't speak importance of her husband and son. English. It was easy to convey to the men Instead of facing the reality of a life without that she had injured her knee and couldn't them, she had run away, refusing to walk. Gently, they carried her to their pick­ acknowledge her loss. Now, she might be up, where she reveled in the warmth. One facing death and knew she had to face her man drove her to the hospital in Ft. life first. Defiance,while the second man followed in Through the long dark hours, Jonni her little blue Ford. remembered everything she could about At dusk, Jonni was resting co m­ David and Mac. One memory triggered fortably in a hospital bed. Her leg was in a another as the cold night continued. She'd cast, elevated on the bed by two pillOWS . smile or wipe away a tear once in awhile. She watched the sun slip below the As it grew colder, she gritted her teeth horizon and saw the first stars appear in once more against the pain in her knee, the sky. The darkness brought no fear­ and managed to scoop up all the leaves she'd faced and conquered her terror in the and pine needles she could reach, to make darkness last night. Jonni knew she would a nest of sorts. It didn't really make her no longer run away from the pain and loss much warmer, but there was a small in her life, instead she would accept it, and comfort from her efforts. She remembered build upon the strength she had found the Hershey Bar in her jacket pocket, and within herself. She would welcome the ate it slowly, one small bite at a time. She memories of David and Mac and be saved the peanuts for tomorrow. Once the thankful for the years they had shared sun rose, she'd be able to see and would together. She was also thankful for the be able to do something to get off this night she'd spent in the Chuska Mountains, mountain. Seeing his face, and hearing learning to accept her Hfe , in the midnight once again the sweet laughter of her son, hours before dawn. Jonni fell asleep. ~Sh iki ani/yeed, ~ a man said. • ••••• "Hagoshii, nika ushyeed, shieh'e'e, ~ a second man replied. Jonni opened her eyes to see two middle aged Navajo men bending over her. Daylight had arrived, bringing help with it. Kim Freedman watercobr "Va'at'eeh. Haadi nihighan, sha 'achini?~ One of the men said some-

56 "Yes, ma'am." ance. Again, the central focus of this relief from Paris as Mrs. Rhea gave her Science Project "Well, why should we break a tradition project was to create paradise. Now who nod of approval. class? Ms. Dailey had always brought up would like to start?" "That was very good Paris. An A for by the rear before, so why stop now?" With that, there was an outburst of originality, an A for presentation, and as far B.II Feagins Gwendalyn's eyes began to fill with hands, all wanting to show off their talents as endurance, I don't see how this para­ tears, but she knew she couldn't cry, and what they had learned and created. dise cannot be around for years to come. Not too long ago, in our distant past, in because crying was an emotional reaction "Well, well, Paris. Let's see what An overall A plus. Now who would like to a small science lab .. . . and "emotions are wasted motions and you've come up with." go next?" Mrs. Rhea walked to the front of the waste has no place in science." "Thank you , ma'am." Paris smiled as Again the onrush of rising hands almost class, her hair just right, her dress just Gwendalyn could feel the other pupils he pulled from under his desk, a small created a whirlwind that swept through the right, basically everything about her, just staring at her, waiting for yet another brown box which he carried to the front of room. right. But then, that was only to be ex­ outburst. but she resisted. the lab. From within the box, he produced ~Well, well, well," Mrs. Rhea began as pected of Mra. Rhea for she ran a tight "Don't worry," she told herself, ''you've a small blue-green sphere with white swirls she looked around the room for another ship. "Everything has a place, and if ~ ' s still got your project, which is going to be circling within. volunteer. "How about you, Maia? What not there then it's out of place and if it's out the best on this class has ever seen." And "That's very interesting Paris. Tell the does your paradise look like?" of place, it has no place in science," Gwendalyn was conviced of this, so she class a little about it. " "Thank you, ma'am." Maia replied as Absolutely everything in Mrs. Rhea's held back and simply sat by passively. "Well, I call my creation 'Aphrodite she took from under her desk a box much science class was in perfect order. Even "Just don't let her get to you, O.B." Urania'. It is composed mostly of various like the one Paris just had, only smaller. the garbage seemed neat. Gwendalyn always called herself O. B. gases, which gives it it's color. There are As she reached the front of the lab, she As Mrs. Rhea reached the front of the which is short for her middle name, several lower form organisms deep within pulled her week's worth of work out. It was class, she turned and told the pupils that O'Brien. She never had been told where its core, but none that can cause any type a good bit smaller than Paris's, and was there would be a quiz the next day over such a name had come from, although she of harm to the perfect balance of gases red in color. It didn't look that exciting to everything they had covered today. had often imagined that it had been a long and other agents within the outer atmos­ Gwendalyn, but she watched none the Of course there wasn't one pupil who family tradition that was a symbol for good phere that I've blended together. A blend less. even let out a sigh of anguish, except luck and would some day bring her good which is an utterly perfect combination of Gwendalyn. and, of course Mrs. Rhea fortune and a "White Knight" type fairy-tale light and space to create a world of pure II my creation heard her. She then proceeded to make it with a happily-ever-after ending. Unfortu­ beauty, while at the same time holding ala ria ... a point that everyone else in the class nately, Gwendalyn's fairy-tale was being some scientific value by gining us a chance knew of Gwendalyn's feelings. interrupted at the moment by Mrs. Rhea's to observe the reactions of different gases "I call my creation 'Talaria'. The atmos­ "Well," began Mrs. Rhea, "It seems rambling on and on about studying and to different atmospheric conditions that phere is very thin and composed mainly of Gwendalyn is a little disappointed about a science and everything being in its right may occur within a single organsim." helium and other light gases, which allow quiz tomorrow. Is that right Gwendalyn? ~ place. With that, everyone in the class burst most of the light to reflect off its rocky, "Yes, ma'am," Gwendalyn replied softly. Mrs. Rhea finally finished her little into applause over Paris's own little silicated surface thus giving it a slight red "Is there anyone else who shares Ms. lecture by saying, "Well, we'll find out who paradise. Everyone, that is, except color. It has a molten iron center which Dailey's feelings?" has and hasn't been paying attention when Gwendalyn, who just sat there dreamy­ gives it a slight magnetic field around its "No ma'am," the entire class replied in we take a look at our projects. We do all eyed, hoping that her project would be outer surface. Very few organismscan unison, sounding like a choir singing its have our projects ready. don't we?" viewed as highly as the one she'd just survive under such conditions, therefore, I highest praise. Again, the class responded in an almost seen. added only a couple of minor organisms on "That's good. Perhaps you can explain ethereal unison. Mrs. Rhea rose in the back of the room the surface to allow us to observe their to the class why you are so diappointed "Yes, ma'am." Gwendalyn's voice and everyone fell silent. The entire class reactions and adaptability to such extreme about another test." could even be heard this time, though she turned in unison to face her and await conditions." "Well, ma'am, you see ..... tried not to make it seem like she wanted Paris's judgment. Mrs. Rhea just sltod And, just as with Paris, the entire room "Is it because you're afraid of yet to be heard. there, her face void of emotion. She burst into applause. And again, everyone another bad grade?" "Very good. You've all had one week to picked up her pen and grade-book, slowly fell into a dead silence as they turned to Gwendalyn was reaUy becoming em­ work on them. You've all had access to ran her finger down the list, (as if she didn't Mrs. Rhea for a repsonse. Just as before, barrassed, but held her head high for she most any materials within the lab that you know exactly where 'Paris's name was), she ran her finger down the roll and made was, quite unfortunately, used to it. wished to use. Your work will be graded make a few marks, then looked up and a few marks next to Maia's name. She upon originality, presentation, and endur- smiled. You could almost hear the sigh of

58 59 then looked up slowly and, much to the ·It didn't look this way last night.~ relief of the class and especially Maia, she The small sphere that had fallen from gave a linle smile. the bag was a smoky-gray color with slight traces of green and blue. There were "Very good Maia. Defin~ely an A for originality and presentation. And, just like holes in it from which offensive odors were Paris, I don't see how this paradise won't billowing out. be around for quite a long time. Now who "This is wrong," Gwendalyn said softly shall go next?ft as the tears began to build in her eyes. ~ I Again the whirlwind swept through the didn't create this." room, only to come to an abrupt end as Mrs. Rhea began to make her way to the front of the room. Mrs. Rhea said, ~ How about our happy quiz taker? Ms. Dailey, what do you have "Ms. Dailey, did you, in picking out your for us today? You do have a project, don't organisms to add, use a small container labeled "Dangerous"?" you? ~ "Yes ma'am, but they looked so inno­ cent, how could they have done this?" "Was ~ the "HOMO SAPtENS· that you used?" "Yes ma'am." Gwendalyn knew the entire class was "Well, Ms. DaUey. I hope you've staring at her, expecting her to reply no, learned your lesson. As far as your grade, but she had a surprise for them all. well, for originality, an A, for presentation, a ~ Why , yes, ma'am!" Gwendalyn almost C, and only an F can be given for endur­ ran to the front of the room, then suddenly ance. An F overall I'm afraid, for not realized she has forgollen her project. She following directions. You were instructed ran back to her desk and pulled out a lillie to create paradise, not to destroy it. ft brown paper bag, and returned to the front And with that, Mrs. Rhea called for a of the room. Gwendalyn knew this was her recess, and while all the other pupils went moment of glory. out to play, Gwendalyn O'Brien Dailey ~I call my paradise 'Terra Firma'. his stayed behind in the lab to clean up her an absolute beauty. It contains just the paradise. right amount of gases and particles to support almost any type of life-form. I added a mixture of liquid and solid to create a diverse area of surlace. The at­ mospheric conditions are also very diverse providing quite an array of weather condi­ tions from freezing snow to hundred-plus temperatures, both within fifty miles of each other in some casesl" Gwendalyn hadn't been paying allen­ tion to the bag which she held in her hand. Her presentation was suddenly interrupted by a loud thump as the bottom 01 the bag gave way and her creation came tumbling out in a massive heap of smke and dust. Gwendalyn slowly reached down and picked up her paradise. Roben Huff computer design

Glenn Chandler colored pencil

61 Who's Who in PERCEPTiONS Garry Merritt desires to be a successful person, and he would like Connie Baechler is an English major at Gainesville who enjoys to use education to be a contributing member of society. writing poetry. D. Thadlus Monroe - a.k.a Bill Feagins-is an aspiring joumalism Wally Beck enjoys playing football and studying physics in his spare major and an AncOOr staff writer. Bill hopes to one day see his name time . He would like to make a difference with his life in the area of in ~ magazine and have a book or two published. research and teaching. Bobby Nash is an art major who hopes to become a comic book Anne Bessac is an Assistant Professor of Art at Gainesville College. writer and artist.

Andrea Blachly enjoys reading novels, seeing good movies, and Elsie Nelson is a student who is also a wife, mother, and being around children. She hopes to go on to a career in social work grandmother. Elsie enjoys singing with the Gainesville chorale and and, eventually, to marry and raise a family with her fiance, John. working in her yard.

Teresa Byler is a Gainesville College art major who enjoys drawing Katherine S. O'Neill is a Political Science major who plans to go on with graphite. to study international relations at Georgetown.

Michelle cash is an art major at Gainesville College. scan Penencello is an art major. He plans to attend UGA this fall and to pursue a career in architec1urallandscaping. Sheila casper is an English major and the editor of Perceptions. Jessica Petennan is majoring in interior design and French. She Stephanie Crisler is an art major at Gainesville College. enjoys traveling and shopping. Jessica hopes to pursue a career in international interior design. Andrea Cooper is an art major whose interests include rrusic and entertainment. She plans to be a combination of artist, writer, and Lisa Roberts is a freshman English major. Upon completion of a professional S1udent. journalism degree at UGA, she hopes to become a television news reporter. Emily Duncan is a freshman English major, English Club president, and editor of the 1990 edition of hoi oolloi, Gainesville College's Andy SCott is a computer graphics major and the art editor of anthology of essays. Perceptions. Andy desires to have a career in computer graphic design at West Georgia College. Alty Eidson wants to be a succesful and rich person. She is not sure of her major this week. Carpe diem. Barbara Thomas is an employee of Gainesville College . For her, writing is balm for the storms of the soul. Kim Freedman, an art major, is also interested in engineering. She plans to pursue a career in Industrial Design at Georgia Tech . Dondl Vickers is an English and Spanish major whose interests also lie in play-writing. Robert Huff is an art major who partirularly enjoys srulpture and ceramics. Robert hopes to one day be in the ceramic tile business. Sheila Waldrip is an art major. She also enjoys gymnastics.

Jessica Jackson is a geobgy major with a heavy e"l)hasis on Joanne Wallington is an art major whose intereS1s lie in the field of environmental issues. Jessica enjoys dance, gymnastics, and scientific illustrations. Joanne plans to aHend the University of horses. Georgia after her tenure at Gainesville College.

Gloria Kirby is a Gainesville College business major who will transfer Suzanne Watkins is an art major. She likes to draw and also makes a to GSU as an art major. hobby out of dance. Although she is still undecided, Suzanne plans to pursue a career in art. Joanne Martin is a mother, grandmother, and student. Still learning, still exploring, still reaching, she is still trying to decide what Dianne Wheeler is a non-traditional student who finds time to paint she wants to be when she grows up. in spite of working fulltime.

Richie McDowell is an Art major. Richie enjoys fishing and country SCott Wiley, a steadfast Epicurean, Is a student at Gainesville music. College.

John McKay is a history major, and will graduate from Gainesville this 63 spring. He also does free-lance writing. •

+AP20 .G47 1990 V. 9

JOHN HARRISON HOSCH UBIlRC GcoI_III" . c.n~. at,lSsa GoInwYIs., 0" 30S03

In Memoriam

David L. Singleton For Reference Instructor 01 Mathematics Not to be uken from this room January 2, 1959 -- April 13, 1990

In gratitude lor the time we learned together.. .

1800 COpies -- $4200

64