“Sounds like you have this all thought out,” Spencer said about his fall calendar.
“You don’t realize how much you miss something until it’s gone.”
“I think it’s cool.”
Patrick lifted his head in surprise.
“You’ve given it a lot of thought,” Spencer said. “I don’t think about summer like that. I probably should because I love it so much. I get excited when the weather warms up, but that’s about it.”
“Fall is so fleeting. I just want to hold onto it as long as I can.”
“Same with summer.” Spencer gave him a lazy half-smile, but held his gaze for a second longer, a second that was just as fleeting. Patrick forgot they were in a crowded train car.
The train settled at the Chicago stop. Commuters filed out of the train, giving them breathing room. Two stops later, they were at State and Lake. Patrick acted as bodyguard once again, cut a line through the swath of people with Spencer’s crutch, fueled by the joyous laughter coming from his neighbor. This time, they didn’t go separate ways. Spencer rode the escalator with Patrick. It was just the two of them riding up, a glass dome above them giving them the first glimpses of downtown Chicago. To Patrick, it felt like a cocoon. Their eyes met in the silence, and Patrick gulped back a lump in his throat. Before he could think anything more of it, the escalator dropped them off on the street.
“So where’s your law firm?” Spencer asked.
“Lake and Randolph.”
“Okay. I’m Monroe and Randolph. I do marketing for SportsBeat.” Spencer held out his crutch, pointing them onto Randolph. “After you.”
“I’m supposed to be the one helping you,” Patrick said.
“I don’t need any help.” Spencer apparently had selective amnesia about the chaos of the train, but Patrick kept his factual opinion to himself. He forgot about what he was going to say completely when they walked past a Walgreen’s.
Patrick stopped cold and stared into the window, his body filling with hope.
“What?” Spencer asked. He looked in the window and shrugged.
Patrick bit his lip to hold back his excitement. “They’re setting up for Back to School.” He pointed at the Back to School sign two workers were hanging above a cleared-out aisle. “Soon, that aisle will be filled with school supplies!”
“Yeah, that tracks.”
“Back to School means fall is coming. A critical element of fall is the back to school feeling.” Even though he’d been out of school for years, Patrick still felt an unspoken calendar reset in September, the start of a new year that began right after Labor Day. “Soon, there will be school buses driving around, blowing fall leaves out of the street as they drive by.”
“Don’t people have rakes in your fall vision?”
“Just…” he pointed at the Back to School sign, a glimmer of hope in this wasteland of humidity. “Fall is coming!”
Patrick’s excitement was tamped when he glanced over at Spencer, who was not having the same religious experience. Patrick didn’t know why he felt comfortable spilling his autumnal guts to Spencer so easily. Again, no embarrassment.
Spencer cracked a smile, like a piece of string pulling up one side of his mouth. “Weirdo,” he said with what Patrick thought was a touch of tenderness.
They shared a laugh.
“Do they make a candle that smells like freshly sharpened pencil?” Spencer asked. “I think they should.”
Perhaps Patrick was getting through to him.
3
Spencer
“Zelda and Wednesday. Two o’clock,” Patrick whispered into Spencer’s ear two weeks later.
As they zipped through the North Side of Chicago, they shuffled closer to where Zelda and Wednesday were sitting on the El as nonchalantly as they could. They didn’t actually know their names. Zelda was the moniker Patrick gave her because her blonde waves reminded him of Zelda Fitzgerald, or more accurately Christina Ricci in a TV series about Zelda Fitzgerald. And Wednesday’s long, dark hair reminded him of Christina Ricci inAddams Family Values- a movie that takes place during the summer but inexplicably features an ode to Thanksgiving.
Getting on the red line at Fullerton meant you were already entering a packed train. Seats were a rarity until everyone, including the boys, got off at State and Lake. But Patrick had figured out that Zelda and Wednesday always rode the train together, always sat next to each other, and always got off at North and Clybourn, a good five stops from State and Lake. Because of this, Patrick made sure they got onto the same El car each morning and align closely with the ladies so they could quickly swoop in - unless there was an older person or pregnant lady nearby. They were gentlemen, after all.
