"Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth (Act V, Scene V)
Chapter twenty-six - Out, out, brief candle
A single candle burned brightly, from its position in the ugly lamp that Neil had taken from the theatres unwanted prop box. It's steady orange flame lit up the centre of the old Indian cave but despite the much needed light, the carved lamp which Neil had fondly dubbed 'The God of the cave', was unsettling. Much like the eyes of Dr T.J Eckleburg, as Kathleen had whispered to Todd during the last meeting. Even in her absence, Todd had to agree. It was creepy.
He was pulled from his musings by a scuffling in the entrance...and giggles. The boys ceased their individual conversations, immediately apprehensive. Kat was away at a party with Knox; and only Neil and Charlie were expected. Not a single student in the cave had ever witnessed such a distinctly feminine noise emerge from the mouths of the pair. Camron pointed his torch towards the source of the sound, the beam of white light shook slightly, betraying his nerves.
"Go on in, it's my cave" Charlie's voice floated down the narrow entrance, "watch your step."
Meeks shot Pitts a confused look that turned to pure shock as two girls entered, bathed in the light of four torches.
"Hi" smiled a girl in brightly coloured top. Her friend waved shyly at the group of open mouthed boys.
"Hello!" Pitts called, shooting up from his perch on the log and whacking his head on the roof of the cave with a painful thud.
"Hey guys, meet Gloria and...uh?"
"Tina."
"Tina" nodded Charlie with a smirk, ignoring Neil's glare. "This is the pledge class of the dead poet's society" he explained, gesturing for his dumbstruck friends to move. "Come on folks, it's Friday night. Let's get on with the meeting."
"I tried to stop him" hissed Neil, out of the earshot of the unexpected guests. "He wouldn't listen."
"I'm glad" sniggered Pitts.
Cameron frowned "I hope that was sarcastic." For once in his life, Neil found himself agreeing with him.
"Guys!" Charlie stood in the centre, waiting for all eyes to be on him "I have an announcement to make. In keeping with the spirit of passionate experimentation of the Dead Poets, I'm giving up the name Charlie Dalton. From now on, call me Nuwanda."
Pitts was first to break the disbelieving silence with a splutter, "Nuwanda!?"
"Nuwanda?" Repeated Neil, his face contorted into a rare expression of cynicism. His eyebrow rose as 'Nuwanda' snatched Tina's red lipstick out of her hand and applied it to his face, an obscure symbol drawn thickly onto each cheek.
"We going to have a meeting or what?" He continued, but his nonchalance didn't fool Neil for a second. The actor could see that his oldest friend was basking in the in attention. Charlie had always been a fan of the shock factor.
"Yeah" agreed Tina boldly, surprising the boys as she spoke for the first time. "If you guys don't have a meeting, how do we know if we want to join?"
Neil almost choked "join?"
Cameron threw his arms out in silent protest. Even Todd's eyes flickered between Charlie and his guests in concern.
Luckily, they were saved from responding as Charlie leaned over to Tina with a smoulder that made Neil cringe. "Shall I compare thee to summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate."
"That's so sweet" she breathed.
"I made that up just for you."
"You did?" She blushed, oblivious to the smothered laughter around her.
Charlie slid over to Gloria, "I'll write one for you too" he said solemnly, reciting "she walks in beauty like the night." He pretended to think for a minute, stroking his chin as his mischievous eyes scanned the faces of his friends. "She walks in beauty like the night. Of cloudless climes and starry skies. All that's best, dark and bright, meet in her aspect, and her eyes."
"You've got to be kidding me" scoffed Cameron, but he was shushed by Meeks.
"That's beautiful" sighed Gloria.
"There's more where that came from."
Neil threw the society's book of verse at him.
XXXX
Kathleen growled, closing the back door with force. She had searched the entire house from top to bottom and there was still no sign of the best friend. Outside was almost as loud as the inside of the house; teenagers splashed around in the pool and music from the record player drowned out the echoes of the noise from inside.
She scanned the garden for a familiar face. Kat nearly cried tears of relief when she spotted her favourite blonde bombshell perched on the edge of the diving board, deep in conversation with a group of people in the pool. She hurried over, immediately catching the attention of Nancy who took one look at her before jumping up and shoving her heels back on.
"What's wrong? I left you a few hours, what could possibly have gone wrong?"
"Chet beat up Knox and he's passed out drunk in the bathroom after throwing up on me, he's black and blue all over and Thomas left me to deal with it alone while he looks after Chet, who won't stop controlling Chris and I'm tired! You weren't there, neither was Ginny and I just want to leave. This was horrible idea! I knew we should never have come, Charlie told me to stick with Knox and I didn't listen. How does he always know what's best for me, even before I know it myself? He was right. Just like you were right about missing him and I think I might be drunk, and Knox is sick and-and" she trailed off as Nancy swept her into a hug, "I'm smell disgusting."
"Let's get both of you home" Nancy squeezed her a little harder, "I'm so sorry for leaving you. I thought you'd have fun, I shouldn't have forced it. Forgive me?"
"As soon as we're out of here" Kat mumbled, cracking a smile.
"Five minutes, Murray. I swear!" Nancy turned to call over Johnny, who she sent to ready the car, while Kathleen led Nancy up to the bathroom, where Knox was still curled up asleep on the toilet seat. Together, the two of them woke him and guided him safely out of the house and into the vehicle. Nancy grabbed a bowl of chips on the way out, poured the remaining snacks into her mouth and gave the bowl to Knox in case he felt sick again.
The group thanked the heavens as they pulled up outside the Noel's house with an empty snack bowl. Nancy sprang up to unlock the front door while Johnny took most of Knox's weight from Kathleen who was beginning to sway.
"Go and brew some coffee." He instructed, "make it strong."
She complied, glad to free of the heavy weight. Twenty minutes later, the four teens were sat on the kitchen floor with empty coffee mugs, trying to force a strange drink that Johnny claimed was a hangover cure down Knox, who was slowly becoming coherent again. The girls had not asked what was in it, the smell was enough to convince them that ignorance is bliss. Let alone the thick texture and greenish colour.
"Oh, lover boy" sighed Nancy poking his cheek, "what on earth were you thinking?"
"Idiot" Kathleen said fondly, "I'm never going anywhere with you again."
"Don't worry" groaned Knox blearily, "I'm never drinking again."
"I wouldn't hold him to that" chuckled Johnny, "that's what they all say."
"Not so loud" Knox moaned covering his ears.
"shhh" Nancy brought the glass back to his lips, "keep drinking."
"I'll be sick if I have anymore."
Kat hastily grabbed the glass from Nancy and set it aside, "I don't want to risk it. Hager will be here soon and he has to hold it together. Can't we stick his head in ice water or something?"
"Actually" mused Johnny, "that's not a bad idea."
"I'll get the ice" Nancy volunteered, "keep him awake and fetch a tea towel from the middle draw on your right."
"Sorry, Knox" Kat apologised softly, "but you've brought this upon yourself."
XXXX
Tina passed the bottle to Neil, "go ahead. Pass it around."
Cameron motioned wildly for him to stop but with a shrug, Neil took a swig. Wincing as the amber liquid burned his throat, he passed it to Todd who passed it straight to Cameron, who discreetly hid the bottle behind the log while an awkward silence enthused once more.
"Me and Pitts are working on a hi-fi system, it shouldn't be that hard to, uh, to put together" voiced Meeks twisting his unused cigarette in his hands.
"Yeah. I, uh, I might be going to Yale" added Pitts, trying to gage the reactions of the girls who remained passive. Blowing out puffs of smoke. "Uh, but I, uh, I might not."
"Don't you guys miss having girls around here?" Interrupted Gloria.
"Yeah" Meeks and Pitts nodded enthusiastically. Anyone meeting them in that moment would never have guessed how high their individual IQ scores were.
"That's part of what the club is about." Charlie exhaled the smoke from his lungs languidly, "In fact, I'd like to announce that I published an article in the school paper, in the name of the Dead Poets."
"What?" The members whipped around to face him. Neil paled and Todd clutched his roommate's coat sleeve.
"Demanding that girls be officially and permanently admitted to Welton" he finished. Leaning back against the cold stone wall with a self-satisfied smirk.
"You didn't" groaned Pitts.
Charlie laughed, muttering something under his breath that made Meeks' cheeks flush scarlet.
"How did you do that?" Neil pressed his leg against Todd's in a subtle effort to calm the silent, but clearly anxious boy.
"I'm one of the proofers, I slipped the article in."
"It's over now" Meeks winced, thinking of the cane cupboard in Nolan's office and the de-merits and the detentions that he could see coming their way.
"Why? Nobody knows who we are" he argued, slipping off the rock he had been sat on in favour of pacing circles around the small space.
Cameron huffed, "well, don't you think they're going to figure out who wrote it? They are going to come to you and ask to know what the Dead Poets Society is. Charlie, you had no right to do something like that!"
"It's Nuwanda, Cameron."
"That's right" echoed Gloria, smiling up at the rebel "it's Nuwanda."
"Are we just playing around out here?" He asked, gesturing around the cave, "or do we mean what we say? For all we do is come together and read a bunch of poems to each other. What the hell are we doing?"
"All right" Neil said firmly, attempting to ease the tension. "But you still shouldn't have done it, Charlie. This could mean trouble. You don't speak for the club."
"Hey!" He sniped, "would you not worry about your precious little neck? If they catch me, I'll tell them I made it up." He turned his back on the boys and spoke to the girls, his tone softer but still tight and controlled, "how about you let Nuwanda walk you out of the woods? I think we're done here."
The girls nodded and the other boys said their goodbyes, still fuming reckless action. The rest of the Dead Poets snuffed out the light held by the cave God and trudged back to school. Their minds and hearts heavy with dread.
XXXX
It was approaching midnight when Hager arrived back at Welton with the two students, who he quickly sent up to bed, determined to get to bed himself.
By some miracle, Johnny's cure had taken the edge off Knox's drunkenness, leaving the young man able to appear sober in the darkness to Hager's tired eyes and unfriendly attitude. It was times like this in which Kathleen found herself grateful for the cold, impersonal approach that he took in teaching. As he had found nothing odd about Knox's silence, sleepiness and the coats pulled suspiciously tight around the pair.
Keating would have spotted the difference in his students within seconds.
But that didn't matter now, Kathleen thought as she helped Knox up the stairs.
"You can't go back to your dorm in this state" she sighed as he tripped for the third time, nearly taking her down with him, "let's hope that the boys are back."
It took ten minutes for them to take the three-minute route through empty corridors to the boy's dorms. She figured that the universe owed her another favour after her night of hell, and the universe seemed to agree as Neil was leaving someone's room as the sorry pair turned into the right corridor.
"Neil!" She hissed, her voice loud in the silence of the night, "Neil!"
The tall boys spun around, "Charlie. Look who's back" he whispered. Charlie poked his head out of the room which Neil had just exited.
"Holy shit, is that blood?" Charlie was by her side in an instant, pulling her undone coat away to check the blood which stained her dress.
She waved him away, "it's not mine, it's Knox that you need to worry about."
"Kat? What happened?" Neil inspected Knox's swollen face and eyed his wobbly legs.
"Woah" Charlie caught Knox who had fallen forward, half-asleep and still out of it.
"Chet beat him up and he's drunk, really, really, drunk" Kathleen chewed her lip, "he was unconscious for a while and then he was sick about an hour and a half ago and he's been asleep on and off."
"Knoxious, what did do to yourself?" Charlie muttered, slipping an arm around his friend and leading him into his dorm. "Neil, you and Todd get his mattress. Quietly. Bring it here."
Neil nodded, walking back out into the shadows.
"We gave him coffee earlier and Johnny made this gross hangover drink which seems to have helped" she explained as they propped him up against a cushion on Charlie's bed, "we dunked his head in ice water just before Hager arrived."
"Johnny? Who-" Charlie shook the question out of his brain, "has he eaten?"
"Only a bag of animal crackers. He refused to eat anything else" she smiled tiredly.
He nodded, "he'll be fine. Don't worry, I've been in a worse state. Are you sure that you're okay?"
"I'm tired, full of regret and wearing a dress that Knox threw-up on" she yawned, "other than that I'm fine."
"Oh God, he got you?"
She wrinkled her nose and nodded, "something I have no desire to repeat."
"And the blood?"
"Drunken Knox kissed Chris' forehead while she was asleep from what I can gather. I head the fight chants and saw Chet pinning him down and punching him. Chris was screaming at him and he wouldn't stop" she stared at Knox who was sleeping peacefully, blinking back tears "it took a few of us to get Chet off him. He threatened to kill him if he sees him again."
"Hey, why don't you go and get some sleep" Charlie suggested softly, "I'll keep an eye on him tonight and we'll talk in the morning."
"Thank you" she whispered, a small smile gracing her worn out expression.
"Knoxious, you idiot" she heard him mutter as she left the room, confident that he was in safe hands and too groggy to process the nights events.
She could deal with it tomorrow.