The Rise and Fall Of

And the Spiders From Mars

For the past couple of days Duncan had locked himself up in his room. He only came out to go to the University Library or to get a glass of warm milk.

I wasn’t worried of his behaviour because this usually meant he was writing a song. Although, it did trouble me that after a certain conversation we had he refused to come out of his room.

I stood in front of his bedroom door with a tray. The Tray held two glasses of warm milk and a silver pitcher full of warm milk. My hands shook as I stood in front of the door; I was worried that Duncan’s sudden (but very common) seclusion was my fault. I recapped out last conversation six days earlier.

Duncan and I were eating Ramen noodles after coming back from Chamberlain Park. We discussed the future and what we planned to do with the allotted time we had with our lives.

“What’s the point of even going back to university, Dunk?” I asked, “It’ll take us four years to get our degrees and a year to use the degree then it’s all over. If you ask me that’s a real waste of thousands of dollars.”

“The world is not ending,” Duncan said forcefully.

This had been the first time he had even mentioned this alarming news, “You saw the news! You know that the earth is dying, probably because of our wasteful ways,” I crossed my arms and sulked.

“The world is not going to end.”

“And how do know this?” I demanded, “What is somebody going to save us all?”

“If you wont take my word for it then I will just have to prove it to you,” with that Duncan stormed off from the table and began his somewhat unusual behaviour.

I knocked on Duncan’s door, “Dunk, it’s me, Aurelia . . .can I come in. . . .I have milk—the way you like it—warm.” The bedroom door slightly opened. I walked inside, “I’m sorry I haven’t apologized sooner, I just don’t know what I’ve done to offend you. I mean this is the first time I haven’t been able to read your mind and know what’s up.” I looked at Duncan who wasn’t even paying attention to me. “Duncan!”

Duncan glanced at me then returned to his paper. For the first time I took notice of his usually clean room and saw it was a disaster. There were books and drawings everywhere. There were so many drawings of the planets in different alignments. I picked up a book from the ground.

“Duncan, what is this?” I threw the book on the ground in front of where he was sitting.

Duncan only stared at me, “I’m not done,” was all he said.

“You haven’t bathed for days! You look atrocious! If you’re trying to prove a point, forget it! There is nothing you can do to prove to me that the world is not going to end in four years eleven months and three weeks!” I put the tray of milk on his computer desk, and walked out of Duncan’s room in anger.

As I walked down the stairs tears covered my face. What was Duncan doing to himself? My thoughts were disrupted when the telephone rang. I ran into the kitchen and grabbed the phone, “hello?”

“Hey girl, how’s it going?” Tina’s rambunctious voice rang.

“Oh hi Tina.”

“Are you crying?”

I didn’t answer her.

“Look I’m coming over okay!?”

“When?”

“Right now I’m at your front door.” My doorbell rang.

I hung up the phone and answered the door to see petite Tina smiling. She invited herself in and went straight into the living room. She sat down on the couch and patted a seat next to her, “sit, and tell me what’s wrong.”

I sat down next to her, “well, Duncan is acting weird.” I blurted.

Tina looked at me as if there was more to the equation. “And...”

“He won’t talk to me or anything.”

“I see,” Tina said thoughtfully. “Well there’s nothing I can do.”

I sighed, “You’re so much help. It’s just that he won’t leave his room over such a petty argument. And I’m so worried.”

“Have you kissed yet?”

I nearly choked, “excuse me!?”

“So you guys haven’t kissed yet?”

“No! We’re just friends.”

“With benefits,” Tina added with a smirk.

“Uh yeah those benefits haven’t even happened yet. Look, we are sort of together but we’re taking it slowly.” I stood up and walked towards a mirror hanging near by and tried to fix my hair.

“Too slow for my taste, anyways, I came by to see if you wanted to come party with me?”

I sighed, “That’s okay, I’m not feeling well anyways.”

Tina stood up, “that’s too bad, well I’ll be going, later!” and Tina ran out of my house. Tina was always so quick I got used to it after a while. I followed behind her to lock the front door. Before I was able to lock the door I thought I heard a song in the air. For some reason it felt as if the song was telling me something that I couldn’t quite hear. I tried listening closely but only heard distorted whispers.

I tried to push the thought away but there was something . . .something about what I had heard that made me feel reassured. This was probably the feeling Duncan had, that the world wasn’t going to end. How could he just go on that feeling? That’s stupid.

I finally closed the front door and went back upstairs into my own room. I listened to the walls at Duncan’s silence. I was started to get worried now. There was a loud stomping coming from Duncan’s room. In mere seconds he was in my room yelling incoherently.

I grabbed his flailing arms and put them at his side, “Duncan, what’s going on?”

He grabbed my wrist, “come with me.”

He pulled me out of my room and into his room briskly. When we reached his room he threw me on his office chair. He swung me so I was facing a giant chart all over his wall.

“The world is not going to end, know why?”

“Why?” I asked confused. Duncan looked as if he hadn’t slept for as long as he hadn’t showered. His hair started to look really greasy, his hands were covered in pen marks and he just looked so anxious.

“The day we found out the world was going to end I had a dream Aurelia!”

I stared at him confused, “that’s nice, I think.”

“I dreamt that an Alien Messiah was on his way to save the world from disaster! I know, it sounds farfetched but listen!” Duncan ran to his covered walls. He was pointing and speaking so quickly I couldn’t understand what he was saying. “He’s coming to save us, Aurelia! And he’s chosen me to help him!”

“Whose he?” I asked.

“He is a combination of religion, romance, sexual freedom, rebellion and passion! And he’s on his way to save us! He’s going to come in a somewhat human form! When Mars is in centigrade he will be here!”

“But who is he?” I asked.

“Our saviour!”

I stared at Duncan, “have you been doing drugs?”

“I’m not on drugs Aurelia.”

“Meth, ex, crack, dust, coke, block, crystal?” I suggested.

“You still don’t believe me do you? Just you wait he’ll be here in a mater of days and when he’s here things are going to be alright.”

“Oh yeah?” I countered, “and what exactly is he going to do when he gets here?”

“Spread the word.”

I stared at Duncan in disgust, “are you in some sort of a cult?” I walked out of his room in anger.

“Aurelia, it’s all true. You know that song you’ve been hearing telling you it’s going to be alright, that’s him!”

How did Duncan know about the song? I turned around giving Duncan my full attention.

“Aurelia, it may sound silly, or that I’m crazy, but I promise you, I’m not crazy.” Duncan grabbed my hand.

I took my hand away, “I don’t know what to think right now. Just . . .please stop all of this.” I referred to the mess in his room. “I want you to get rid of all of this and go back to normal. You’re scaring me.”

Duncan stared at the ground for a second, “if I get rid of all this, will you believe me?”

I stared at the picture of the planetary alignment that Duncan had on his wall, “I believe that you believe.”

Duncan ran his hands through his hair, “I guess that’s good enough.” Duncan walked past me out of his room to the bathroom I assumed.

Our friendship was becoming so strained, how could he expect us to survive as a couple if we couldn’t survive as friends?

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