Words on a Stick in the Fig Tree (Part 3) – Mad Chaos: April 15, 1999

Calling Lyssa From the Street

Throwing away the brunt of my hot chips as I was too shy to eat them I continued towards the City until I reached a phone. With the time being 1:15 p.m. I called Lyssa’s work but at the time she wasn’t at her desk. The need for this call was to find out if I was heading home straight away or if I would wait for Lyssa to finish work.

Ten minutes later I called Lyssa again and this time I got to talk with her. “Are you going home with Penelope today on the train” I asked her and as she thought a little about it she added, “If you want I can go home with you and tell Penelope to leave before me”. With our understanding that I would meet her at the front of her work when she finished we hung up the phone and I made my way to Hyde Park.

Quitting by Telling the Receptionist

Before my initial trek to Hyde park I decided to call the Receptionist at the place I was working to inform her that I wouldn’t be coming back. Bypassing the need to talk to Mandy I felt a little bit better and when calling the temping agency I hoped for the same result. Luckily I didn’t get Philippa and instead, I informed the Receptionist of the problem without detail and that was it.

When finally at Hyde Park I found that there was a couple sitting on the far end of the fig tree but that did not concern me. Sitting in the hollow where Jewell and I once sat over two years ago thoughts of my troubled day started to sprout.

Hunting for a Pen and Paper

The time was 2:30 p.m. when I finally began relaxing for the day, under the bask of the sun and on top of the seeds of grass and leaves. Deciding that I wanted to capitalize on my thoughts I jumped up after a couple of minutes to see if I could sucker some business into lending me a pen and paper, thus, my trek began…

Picking myself up from such a harbored haven I wandered off in search of a pen and paper. Each business that I walked past I made up some excuse not to bother them but this was just my lack of confidence speaking. Finally I walked up the same club entrance where Anders couldn’t get into on the weekend but they only had one pen to lend me and I didn’t want to rob them.

After twenty minutes of searching I started heading back and on the way I found the inconvenience store I always knew was around somewhere. Walking in I found the price for a pen and a notepad small enough to fit in my pocket to be cheap. This wasn’t the City prices that I knew…

Writing Beneath the Fig Tree

Heading back to the park with the new edition to the collaboration of my thoughts, I sat once again at the fig tree and began scribing holistic thought. Filling up at least one page worth of notation in this Diary I lay back for most of the time, adoring the women that walked past, wishing I had confidence to speak with them.

When thoughts did not reach paper the pen did scribe on a stick, notable worth to the lost years. It might have been a bit extravagant but I wrote the words ‘Jewell’ and ‘Sniper’ on that stick and then placed it in one of the deeper crevasses of the tree.

Noticing that there was a shard of green glass from a broken bottle I realized it had been there since the dawning of the fig tree. From as far back as when Jewell and I sat there, I can remember that green shard of glass as well as that bird with the big beak that came towards both of us. Still, there was writing engraved in the tree of who loves who and all that sort but something in black text caught my writing.

‘The key to immortality is a life worth remembering’ was the etchings on the fig tree where I leant. You consider it what you like but I consider this saying to be proverbial. That holds much truth to it and for myself to be immortal, I must press the equilibrium of my life to greatness.

Lyssa Stalls for Penelope

When the time reached 4:10 p.m. I picked myself up and headed to my rendezvous with Lyssa. Arriving a couple of minutes early I didn’t mind waiting out the front and enjoying the ladies passing by. Taking a glance back as I usually did to see if Lyssa was making her way out I noticed both her and Penelope stepping out.

With Penelope taking off in her usual storm upon seeing me I smiled at Lyssa. The commotion was heading down the street and Lyssa urged the both of us to wait as she lit a cigarette. Knowing that Lyssa was only prolonging our departure so that Penelope could be out of sight I gathered that Lyssa wanted to catch a later train. It seemed quite odd that Lyssa was dogging Penelope in a sense but I didn’t care.

A Quiet Train Home

When Lyssa finally finished her cigarette we made our way to St. James Station and to prolong some more time for her I quickly made my way to the toilets. In this time Lyssa bought herself a magazine and as we made our way down to the platform we couldn’t see Penelope anywhere. Keeping ourselves near the top end we jumped on as the train arrived, probably the same train as Penelope was jumping onto.

There wasn’t any hostility on the way home but there wasn’t too much conversation. Lyssa felt bad reading the magazine in front of me but I didn’t care, I let her. Topics though brief were appreciable as Lyssa told me of her going out for Saturday night. However, Lyssa wasn’t doing anything for Friday night but I knew not to even think of inviting her to my house. Despite the fact that I didn’t want to make another mistake upon myself I knew that Lyssa would probably say no anyway.

Lyssa is past me now, our last battle makes me agree to that statement and I believe that I am past Lyssa now. There is no more love, there isn’t even lust, just a nothing of emotion and feelings. Lyssa didn’t think to mention anything about our big argument or of the past but neither did I.

As Leumeah Station arrived Lyssa jumped up and said goodbye to me. There was no animosity between us, just good will and since then Lyssa and I haven’t spoken on the phone. I felt the need on Wednesday night but I didn’t follow through.