“The day we graduated from Overburden Junior.”
It rained every twenty minutes in the Tropical, starting with distant thunder, the calls of birds, and then the first drops gave way to a regular downpour on each of the little cabanas. The rain dripped to one side into the series of connected pools, and a waterfall at one end of the two-tiered room hissed and splattered throughout the evening. Wade and Wendy and Larry and Stephanie sat near the wall mural opposite the fountain. The wall was painted as a Pacific seascape stretching to the golden blue horizon. When the rainstorms ended, the birds began again to chitter, now accompanied by a soft soundtrack of ukuleles. It was a fun place with the overwritten, oversize menus and the waitresses with their leis, but the whole evening Wendy cast sober looks at Larry while everyone else ate the pupu platter and the island teriyaki chicken. Wade poured his whiskey into his skull and offered around a pint of Jim Beam. “None for me,” Larry said. “Not in the tropics. Remember that one guy.”
Wendy laughed. “He went too far.”
“That was the general opinion of Miss Argyle’s class.”
“Where are you going to college?” Stephanie asked Larry.
Wade said, “He’s going down to Laramie with me—roommates. It is going to be a blast.”
Larry felt the first part of his life end. It was a slow-motion moment. He’d never seen Wade in a tie before, and he didn’t recognize him, and Wendy’s face was shining. The word blast had made him angry; there was something stupid about it, and he felt stupid, and he knew whatever he said next would be crosswise. “We’ll see,” Larry said. “I’ve been such a good boy, as you can all attest, every day of my fucking life . . .”
“Larry,” Wendy said.
“It’s okay,” Larry said. “I’ve been saving up. I’ve got a shitload of foul language to accompany the wild life ahead. I am going off the tracks big time. If you look for Larry in the good-boy line, you’ll be disappointed.” He leaned and poked the table softly with his finger. “Fucking disappointed.”
Stephanie laughed and took his arm. “Good, you savage. You untamed savage.” Her head collapsed against his shoulder, and she laughed and whispered, “Good-boy line.”
“Oh, you’re headed for prison all right, sunshine,” Wendy said.
“Don’t call me that unless you mean it.”
Two waitresses appeared with four large and two small platters of kung pao chicken and kung pao beef and ham fried rice and kung pao shrimp and white rice and chicken curry and wontons and an orange bowl of sweet-and-sour chicken. Chopsticks were distributed, and the table was bumper to bumper as the young people filled their plates. The plates steamed in the rainy room, and they ate for a while.
Larry leaned and pointed at Wade. “A blast. I don’t know. Wade’s already got a scholarship at every two-year school in the state and a few in Idaho. He’s got some choosing to do.”
Stephanie leaned away from Larry, squinting. “You should be a teacher.”
“Right,” Wade said. “You could be Mr. Peck and give a ridiculous quiz every day.” He held his ceramic skull in front of his mouth with both hands, sipping. “I think it’s time to get out of school and into the real world.”
“This is the real world, Wade,” Larry said. “Look at the four of us. It could be thirty years from now.”
“Wow,” Stephanie said.
“No, it couldn’t,” Wade said. “High school is not the real world.”
“This will be revealed to us,” Wendy said.