Thursday, March 19, 2009

Coming of Age

Morvan awoke and knew everything had changed. It wasn't until he had groggily stumbled to the bathroom when he realized what it was. He looked into the mirror and realized that he had come of age. He went down to the breakfast table and tried to sulk as he had the day before, but found he could only sulk in new, wholly different way. It did not go unnoticed. The twins, who were 8, started chanting: "Morvan came of age! Morvan came of age!" Their mother, upon hearing the squealing children entered the room.
"Oh honey, that's wonderful." She said, kissing Morvan gently on the top of his head.
"What's this?" Their father said as he entered the room.
"Morvan came of age!" Their mother said, almost bursting with pride.
"Oh, well that's good I suppose." He said as he picked up a danish and cup of coffee and left the room.
Morvan finished his breakfast and gathered his things for school. His mother met him at the door.
"Have a wonderful day at school honey! Oh, I'm just so proud of you." She hugged him with all her strength.
Morvan didn't want to go to school, he really wanted to go to a bar. He thought that it was the most appropriate thing to do seeing as how he had come of age. Unfortuantely, he found that the bars were closed, it being eight in the morning. So he'd have to go to school until noon anyways. Then he would go to the bar.

****

Noon couldn't come fast enough, he was jittery all through his classes. When that time finally came he was out of there faster than a jet. The first bar he found was called The Runaway, and Morvan felt as though that name was symbolic and appropriate, so he chose that bar. It was dank and smoky. This song was playing on the jukebox. There were only a few people there, sipping half heartedly at their mid-day ales. The bartender noticed Morvan enter, but didn't seem to care. Either that or her knew that he had come of age. Morvan sat at the bar, the bartender gave him a beer. Morvan sat for a few moments reflecting somewhat melencholically about what it meant to have come of age. His didn't really know.
'What the fuck are you doing here?"
Morvan was stirred from his reverie by the questions, voiced rather harshly as it was. He turned around. It was his friend Isaac, whom everyone called Isaac the Wolf.
"Huh." Morvan said, trying to sip his beer nonchalantly and failing to, as it was a mediocre brew.
"What're you doing here? Shouldn't you be in school or some shit?" Isaac said, sitting on the stool beside him.
"I guess." Morvan replied. "I came of age."
"Just right now?"
"No, this morning. Maybe last night."
"Oh, cool. Wanna get high?"
"Sure.'

****

Moments later they were standing in the alleyway with Yulia Yemkova, Isaac's girlfriend, waiting for Johnny the Fox to come with the pot they were going to smoke. Morvan kept asking questions about smoking pot and how to do it, and if it would make him crazy.
"Vaht is vith ze boy?" Yulia Yemkova asked.
"Don't mind him, he just came of age." Isaac the Wolf replied. This seemed to satisfy her. They heard the sound of a raven, it was Isaac's phone. Johnny the Fox was at The Runaway beacuase that's where he thought they were going to meet.
"Fuck!" Issac the Wolf said as he hung up the phone. They trudged back to The Runaway and met Johnny the Fox.
After exchanging pleasentries they found out that Johnny didn't bring the pot because he thought Yulia had it. Isaac called him a stupid fuck because Yulia never had the pot. They decided to get drunk instead. Isaac put this song on the jukebox
After four beers, Morvan was feeling wobbly. He went to the bathroom and when he returned he saw that his father was sitting at the table with his friends.
"Hey Morvan." His dad said when he returned to the table. "I was just talking to your friends. They're pretty cool."
"You're pretty cool Mr. B." Johnny said. He high fived Morvan's dad.
Morvan didn't really feel mortified, like he would have yesterday. No, he had come of age, so he could only feel bemusement, which he attributed in some part to the beer.
"Well we should probably head home Morvan."
They said their goodbyes to Johnny, Isaac and Yulia and left.
On the ride home they were silent, until Morvan's father turned to him and said "Y'know Morvan the same thing happened to me when I came of age. It's perfectly normal."
"I know Dad." Morvan replied.
"Ok, good." They remained silent for the rest of the ride home.


______________
This post is an installment in a continuing series of content coordinated by theme or motif with posts from Enoch Allred of Chiltingham, John Allred of clol Town, Jon Fairbanks of Funkadelic Freestylings of Another Sort, Eli Z. McCormick and Miriam Allred of Modern Revelation!, John D. Moore of Whatnot Studios, Joseph Schlegel of Sour Mayonnaise, Sven Patrick Svensson of Sadness? Euphoria?, William C. Stewart of Chide, Chode, Chidden, and WiL Whitlark of The Real McJesus. This week's theme: 'Metamorphosis'.

2 Comments:

Blogger G.C.C. said...

Coming of age in such a manner would be rather disorienting, though not entirely unpleasant, as, unfortunately, we live in a culture that doesn't clearly delineate with a ritual a person's coming of age.

10:26 PM  
Blogger Wiglaf said...

This is so weird.

4:30 PM  

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