Saving Elijah

music."
    Weekends, we went for long rides on his big motorcycle and hung out at the grungy little club where Death Trip had a gig. He played lead guitar without a shirt, holding his electric Fender in front of his groin, his hair hanging sweat-soaked and stringy in his eyes. Seth loved being up there, having all those adoring girls watching him. When we got home he was insatiable in bed, he wanted to do it all night.
    The afternoon of Halloween, Julie and I left our lit class on Shakespeare together. "What are you and Seth doing tonight?" she asked.
    "I'm not sure," I lied. Once, just after we met Seth, I'd invited her to hear his band. Everyone got stoned first; Julie refused because of her asthma, and Seth had been calling her Weezer Geezer Girl ever since. That night we were going to a costume party, and Seth had told me not to invite her, because she was a drag. My contact with Julie had dwindled to our two classes together, including poli-sci, which Seth was also taking, and my occasional trip back to the dorm for new clothes. I still loved Julie, but I was hooked on Seth.

thirteen
    The company was off-book, and the theater had been darkened for the rehearsal of the now familiar Oedipus Rex. I made my way down the creaky wooden floor to a front-row seat next to the aisle, stepping over Seth's dog, which as always was lying down quietly waiting. Seth, on stage with Rich Lipton doing a scene near the end, was saying his lines:

    For if you are what this man says you are,
No man living is more wretched than Oedipus.

    I was sitting there waiting for Seth to finish, when Jay Salisbury sat down next to me. He had a short break between his Creon scenes. He leaned over and whispered, "Lucien's good, don't you think?"
    I nodded. He was. Not so Rich, who in my opinion overacted. At the moment, he was overweeping:

    I, Oedipus,
Oedipus, damned in his birth, in his marriage damned,
Damned in the blood he shed with his own hand!

    As the chorus went into the Ode, Jay leaned over and whispered, "I like you, Dinah."
    "I like you too, Jay." I did, I liked him the best of the whole group.
    "I wasn't looking for a compliment," he said. "I just wanted to give you some advice. Be careful with Lucien. "
    "Why?"
    His eyes were kind, concerned. "Just be careful."
    "Hey, you can't say something like that and not tell me why."
    Jay sighed. "I know Seth Lucien about as well as anyone does. I'm not trying to ruin a good thing with you, if it is. Maybe you'll be good for him. It's just that he scares me sometimes, and if you know him well at all by now, he ought to scare you, too. He doesn't care, Dinah."
    "About me?" I picked at a rip in the red velvet fabric of the seat arm.
    "About anything."
    "But I think he does, Jay. Underneath."
    Jay folded his hands in front of his face, and gazed up at Seth. "No, Dinah. I don't think so." This mild-mannered boy with thinning chestnut-colored hair was very serious. "Can you honestly say he doesn't scare you? Ever?"
    I couldn't. "I think you're wrong about him, Jay," I said. "He's just troubled. He and his father don't get along so well."
    "Hey, my relationship with my old man isn't wonderful, either. That's no excuse."
    "He also lost his mother very young. Don't forget that."
    Jay shrugged. "Shit. He doesn't care about that."
    "See. That's where you're wrong." I knew Seth cared, I was certain of it.
    "You think you can rescue him. Love of a good woman?"
    "Rescue him? From what?"
    Jay's face was flushed. "Look, I've seen him do things that would really scare you, Dinah, all right. I mean it."
    "Like?"
    He wiped his palms on his pants, flicked a glance at Seth on stage, then looked back at me and took a deep breath. He leaned in closer, practically whispering now. "After Hamlet last year, we were out drinking, over on M Street, and he and I met this girl. The three of us got a little bombed, I'll give you that, but when we went back to Seth's place he started fooling around with his camera. At first the girl was into it, but then she got cold feet. She started to cry and beg and he wouldn't stop, he wouldn't stop—" Jay cut himself off, looked over at me. "Some people may be beyond rescuing, Dinah."
    My heart was thudding. I wanted to know the rest of it. "But he did stop. Right?"
    Jay sighed. "Only because I was there."
    "But he did."
    He nodded, and we went back to watching the scene on stage.
    "Hey, what do I know?" Jay said, after a few minutes. "I'm stoned all the time. He's stoned all the