Oliver Benjamin
around my waist from behind, and from the lack of jewelry and
polish that would otherwise mar such graceful, perfectly-shaped
hands, I guessed that it was Charly.
“Hi Jake.”
“Hi Charly. Enjoying yourself?”
“No. Everyone’s saying exactly the same things. It’s like they all
got a hold of the same movie script or something.” She tightened her
grip on my growling stomach. “Let’s get out of here, go get a bottle of
that awful port wine you like so much and go check out the full moon
from the observatory.”
“I’ll take you, but you know I can’t drink anything.” I said
dutifully.
“All right, then I’ll drink your half. Let’s make like the wind and
blow this taco stand!”
I knew Charly had to be pretty buzzed to resort to such awful
cliché, but I wasn’t about to say anything. Plus, I was driving her car
so it didn’t matter so much to me if she puked or not.
We bought the wine and drove up to Griffith Park Observatory.
It was late and there were only a few people scattered on the large,
moon-lit lawn outside. We found a deserted patch of grass and sat
down.
“This is where the last scene of ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ was
filmed,” said Charly, looking at the front of the observatory building.
She didn’t see me nod. She seemed lost in a thought. After a few
moments she said, “You know Jake, I think you’re kind of like that.”
“Don’t you mean ‘Rebel Without a Clue?”
“No. And not exactly without a cause either. I just don’t think
you know what your cause is yet.”
I said nothing. Until meeting Charly I had never had a cause.
She moved next to me and took my hand. “And…I wanted to
thank you.”
That surprised me. I said, “For what?”
“For teaching me something.”
That surprised me. I had never thought of myself as Charly
Witherspoon’s teacher. What could I possibly show her? I was her
pupil. She taught me to begin to care. “What did I teach you Charly?”
I stared at the observatory, trying to think of some silly thing I might
have said or done that could have influenced the exalted Charlene
Alexandra Witherspoon.
Then she did it. She touched my cheek and turned my head to
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