Page 36 of Drink Up, Darling
“Oh, cool! Siouxsie and the Banshees!” Athens dove over to the pictures, dropping to his knees immediately and pulling the frame out with both hands to admire, dusting it off. Godwin walked over behind him with a small gruff of a chuckle, hands back on his hips.
“Ah, yes. I told you I was quite a fan of that stuff once. Late seventies, early eighties… I used to allow myself some joys,” he said.
Athens turned to him, looking up with pleading, puppy dog eyes, not allowing Godwin to dwell. “You need to show me your collection, right now.”
Dariel decided to step over to join them, otherwise he would very quickly begin to feel left out. He watched as Godwin opened the cabinets to reveal boxes and boxes filled with 12-inch records, pulling out the closest one and dusting the decades of dust from the lid before opening it.
Athens sneezed into his elbow then began rummaging eagerly.
Dariel swallowed. He was much more of a nineties man, never cared for eighties music as much as he would have liked, despite spending most of that decade in America, surrounded by the stuff. He spent most of the early nineties, before his career really kicked off, dancing from club-to-club with dance anthem after dance anthem, bouncing around until the drink knocked him out, or he simply ran out of breath. Quite a time to remember.
He hadn’t noticed Godwin had turned to face him. “What sort of music do you like, Dariel?” he asked, green eyes glinting.
Athens’ head was deep inside the cupboard.
“Oh, well. A bit of everything, I suppose. I lost a lot of time for music once my work took over.”
“A shame. We have both been robbed of our joys then,” Godwin asserted, which Dariel knew was intended as a joke, but it still struck him as odd. Both of them had plenty of free rein over whether they chose to listen to music or not. Dariel couldn’t find the time, Godwin didn’twantto.
“A classic!” Athens broke the moment by pulling out a plastic-coated LP and holding it up like the body of Christ in Communion.
Dariel didn’t recognise the gold cover. Godwin took a moment to take it in before his face changed. “Oh, my. A throwback indeed, if only I had a working player. The radio truly does disappoint these days.”
Athens smirked. “Oh, my dear Godwin, let me introduce you to the iPod. Give me a second…” he carefully replaced the LP then ran out of the door. Dariel heard the distant heavy stomps of his feet hurry down the stairs. He breathed out into the sudden silence, losing his voice momentarily.
“He’s a sprightly fellow now, isn’t he?” Godwin stood, shaking his head. Then he looked head on at Dariel. “Must be nice looking at everyone your real age knowing you’ll never grow old. I’ve not been able to run that fast in donkey’s years.”
Dariel kept his face blank. “Growing old is natural,” he said.
“You’re right, but still,” Godwin stepped closer, “it must be freeing.”
“Maybe sometimes. It’s not as magical as it sounds though. I worry…” Dariel swallowed, “I worry one day I will begin to forget my earliest memories, like a child can’t remember learning to walk, but instead I’ll forget I was ever human at all. The time will come when this will be all I know.”
Before Godwin could respond, Athens ran back into the room holding the latest MP3 with earphones, wheezing. “Here… look…” he said, unwinding the wires from the device.
“I… I do know what an iPod is, I’m not a true hermit. I have the internet.” Godwin sounded mildly offended, but kept his tone light. He briefly glanced at Dariel, acknowledgement from their unfinished conversation in his eyes, before looking down at the player in Athens’ hands.
“Ahh, you don’t own one though, do you? You do not understand the excitement of being able to download 80GB of songs… Do you know how many songs that could be? All within the push of a button? It’s truly ingenious. Here… I have the perfect song.” Athens reached over to Godwin with one earbud in hand, the other already in his own ear. Dariel took a step back. Neither of them looked at him now, at least not while he took inthe sight of them both beginning to smile and nod their heads to the beat of the tune. One Dariel couldn’t hear.
Perhaps this was truly where his own evening should end. He should call a cab home, or at least ask to retire to one of the bedrooms alone. Athens seemed perfectly capable of handling the rest of the evening without him, had even expressed so… it would be fine if he just…
“Here, Dariel, listen. You can’tnotenjoy this song!” Athens had pulled out his own earbud and was dangling the wire in Dariel’s direction.
Oh.
He accepted, stepping over and taking Athens’ place, turning to Godwin as the music commenced.
Oh.
“Good, no? The sound quality is insane.” Athens was beaming, black-lined eyes wide as he nodded along to the tune he couldn’t even hear anymore.
‘You can borrow it whenever you like.’
Dariel sharply turned his head to Athens, the bud falling out and dangling on the wire. His brow tensed.
‘You…’
Athens folded his arms; Godwin retrieved the other bud and enjoyed the music to the fullest.
