At some university What movie should I watch in prep for this pool Party a cozy basement, a red couch and a crt tv, carpeted floor walls and ceiling, with Victorian patterns. Enzo left these vinyl style movie disks in the vcr, I wonder what’s on them He said he was watching an old war movie, probably old long and boring, but idk what else he put on vinyl video disc. I probably shouldn’t fuck with it. I press eject to try and see if it has any type of name to it, there’s actually 3 slots for disks in there, in a row. Speak of the devil, he’s in there. “What are you doing in here, why is this second disk plate off the belt, did you do that” he says “I thought that’s what you did if you wanted manual control over it” I said “No” He pulled the rubber disk belt and manual spun the vinyl, spinning all theee disks, hooked it on the mechanism underneath the plate, and manually reeled in the rest. We sat and repaired it for quite some time. Mostly in silence, there was a party upstairs, which I had planned on going to, and was eager to get out of this repair job.

Upstairs a pool party Helping an old man prep, with unraveling lights into the pool as the sun set. A giant room, Olympic size pool, but very shallow, stepped stadium style (pool material) steps run the perimeter. I can never swim strait, on my way out, bumped into a lot of people sitting on the edges. I want a beer or a shot or something. I don’t know any of these people, but they seem to be fond of me. After, I head to the bar. A tiny skinny little room at the corner. Like a traditional Japanese ramen bar or street vendor. No one seems interesting, but I really want to tell a story about me and Enzo going on a trip upstate flying a manual place to meet this guy and make some transaction for some rare item in some whitewashed hotel, I could properly remember the details so i made things up here and there, no one at the bar would really let me get thru the story. There was one kid Evan who did and was laughing, I followed him around for the rest of the night.

That old man pulled me aside in the morning on my way Sunday morning outing at some point to do more pool work on the outside pools, he must have heard I was trying to tell people stories and told me I’ve told enough now let me tell you some, and began singing in such a strong country accent I don’t even know what he was saying. That night was the other party, I was looking for my new friend Evan and found him, but he seemed off. A few drinks in we found some basement doors we wanted to explore but any time we would get near wooden crosses and staggered wooden beams would appear in front of us. We’ve both seen this before. A curse of some sort, Evan’s got it now. I wonder if it had to do with the story I told him, giving him too many details I probably shouldn’t have, knowing who we went to see. We try other corners of this basement, 3 out of the 4 were blocked. I went first on the 4th and the door opened, him close behind.

A glowing light, carpeted stairs, Victorian patterning, like Enzo’s room, led down to a basement of what seemed to be an old Victorian Mansion. Sunlight pours in thru windows that seem to lead nowhere. A round old wooden table with toys, porcelain dolls, wooden stair railing and table settings, I was looking for something to fight with, the wooden pieces broke in my hand. “Find something to carry around” I said to evan We frantically searched, down more round stairs, a larger room, with crt tvs lining the center row of the room, rhe corners stacked with old pianos and heaps of Victorian junk, as if it had been thrown there. I grabbed one of these things that are always near the fireplace that I can never remember the name of. “You got something evan?” I cry out. No response. Oh no, I can’t loose him in here, where is he. I run around, there’s more stairs. “Evan!” I cry out again, with no response. Up the stairs I go, this place is endless. I break in the balcony above these steps. Is this place some Sort of stronghold? There he is, with others? Was this place real? A girl behind me grabs my arm and startles me. “So how did you find this place” she says and smiles. I laugh awkwardly and frantically try and walk away, but she holds my arm and follows. God everyone from this pool Party is down here now. I see him dead center of the longest hallway, a sharp white light flies through him in silence, leaving a hole in his chest. As I blink, my eyes open to being under the water at the pool. All the unfamiliar faces are there, back at the party, but I don’t see even, I couldn’t find him that night, and I didn’t have a cool Victorian mansion to show to any of these girls. So I went looking for it again, but all these doors were locked.


updated 05/09/24 – femi.fleming@gmail.com