Band of Misfits		Next
	Selling our Geekhood		Before

We find our protagonist Lo seated at a table in Midnight Grounds a once trendy coffee house before that craze died and they were returned to the people that once inhabited them. Lo sits perched before a faded notebook and writes, "I'm now done with that portion of my life and can continue onto better things. I leave my Star Trek cards, Star Wars figures and D and D books to GA for all the help they've given me in the past years. My collection of books that has taken the better part of my life to acquire I leave to..." he taps the pencil and swirls the espresso in the small cup before continuing, "Rather I shall be buried with them so that future generations can wonder who I was to be honored in that fashion. So ends the last will and testament of Menlo Graines may God have mercy on my soul." He stops and rereads what he has done and finally crosses out Menlo and rewrites Lo over it.
As he finishes with the last of the details the music skips and finally stops as it is hurriedly replaced, in that moment customers look at there neighbors and begin to introduce themselves but are quickly cut off as the ambient music cuts back in and again the atmosphere is restored.
"Nice day for a funeral, huh?" a voice out of Lo's past.
"I take what I can get," Lo replies without missing a beat.
"How long's it been, 3 years?"
"At least. I think I tried to look you up when I dropped out but you moved and the people there didn't know where and blah blah blah."
"At least you thought about me when you returned. I always figured I'd remember you when I saw your name in lights."
"Yeah well things get in the way."
Her name is Kelli, Lo knew her once. She was suppose to be a great artist but now works snapping photos for a department store and weekly shopper.
"Not even going to invite me to join you, same old Menlo," she says as the seat is dragged across the floor.
"It's Lo."
"What's Lo."
"No who."
"All right, who?"
"Me, I'm Lo. Not Menlo. I haven't been Menlo since graduation."
"Oh right I forgot you took that because Menlo was only fitting of a nerd or a birthplace. It was not right for someone who was to be great."
"Like you would know," he says under his breath.
"Right I'd know nothing of it. You leave to find greatness and come back some years later to the same old Point. The same old people doing the same old things and you think anything would be different?"
"No, I figured by returning here I could recover what I lost."
"What'd you lose?"
"My inspiration. Over Jessica's Body was it. After that I had nothing."
"Lo it was a book to a girl who died."
"It was more then that, it was what could never be said."
"I know you told me."
"I got someone though, where are you, snapping photos of babies and people shopping. Kelli that is nothing for your skills. You should be great you should..."
"Yeah I should be something and so should you."
"What happened. It seemed so easy."
"Reality I guess, that and not enough people die around you."
"If only..."
"Yeah if only."
They both look around at the grinning happy people. Those in relationships and the business men and the people gracing the place with their presence. Slowly the music and conversations grow louder and the thoughts grow softer. "It just comes down to one thing Lo, it sucks to be us." "Yeah," Lo though, "Sucks to be a disillusioned artist who has already reached his peak."

© Sal Ponce 2001