Saving Elijah

up another stack and began the same process. And another. Until the wastebasket was full.

    *    *    *

    The Merry Playmakers opened Oedipus Rex in February, with Allison announcing before each performance that the production was dedicated to Jay. After the final curtain the cast went to a bar on M Street, with a blaring jukebox and a roomful of boisterous, drunken students. I invited Julie along. No one seemed to mind having her except Seth, who wouldn't look at either of us. All evening long, whenever someone mentioned Jay it would spark a round of remembrances, toasts, tears, then back to less emotional topics until somebody else said, "Let's drink to Jay."
    "Lucien is very sexy, isn't he?" Gabby said when Seth headed off to buy the next round of beers. "But then, so are you, Di-nah." She said it directly to me, but loud enough for everyone to hear.
    Everyone at the table started to laugh except Julie. I studied her pale freckled face. She was a butterfly in that brood of scorpions, holding a mirror up to my face.
    Rich, who was very drunk, began to pound his empty beer glass on the table. "Sex-Y, Sex-Y!" The others joined in. "Sex-Y! Sex-Y! Sex-Y!"
    People in the bar turned to look, but not for long. There was too much noise in the place for anyone to concentrate on us. Seth returned to the chorus of chants. "What's this?" Rich stopped banging. "Gabby says she thinks you're sexy." "She does, does she?" Seth put the beer steins down on the table, leaned over, and kissed Gabby on the lips. It was a long, sexual kiss, their mouths open, tongues exploring while the others yelped encouragement. It seemed to go on forever. "Go, go, go!" Rich shouted. "Instant replay. Hamlet!"
    What was he talking about? I wanted to slink away and take Julie with me.
    Then Seth was back in his chair. "Seize on my heart, sweet fever of love," he said, inflecting Goethe's words with sarcasm so heavy the couplet sounded nasty. Gabby made a show of wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
    "Don't mind Lucien, Gabby," Rich said, "He's obsessed with his Faust."
    "If he were that obsessed," said Tom, "he'd be done with it already."
    "I'm getting there, Mein Direktor," Seth said. "Right, Dinah?"
    I hated him.
    "What I've seen is very strong," Tom said, "but two acts do not a Faust make."
    "Well, I think we should do something else, anyway," Gabby said. "We could do Lysistrata. That would bring the audience in. What we need is lots of sex."
    "I agree," Allison said. "This is the 1970s, no one cares about the Devil anymore. Except Seth, of course. What's all that moaning about knowledge and fallen women?"
    "We could do Lear," Rich suggested. "People love a good crazy."
    "We did do really well with all Shakespeare last year," Allison said.
    "Lysistrata. Sex beats madness any day," Gabby said. "Shit."
    "Gabby," Tom said, "sex is all you ever think about."
    "Well, you're all a bunch of assholes." Seth stood up. "When you read my Faust, you'll see. It has lots of sex. I'm working on a seduction scene that'll kill you. Can you picture it?" He spread his arms out dramatically, hovering over us, as he did when he took the floor, which was often. "Gretchen's virgin bed. We dress her in white, Faust gives her jewels, offers her immortality." He sat back down, laughing. "Then he fucks the shit out of her. Balls her till she screams for mercy."
    I was squirming in my seat. I couldn't look at Julie.
    "Lucien," Rich said, "people don't care about virginity anymore."
    "You're an asshole, Rich," Seth said. "Virginity is practically an archetype."
    "I agree with Seth," Patty said. "For sure, every girl remembers her first."
    "Every girl except Gabby." Seth was laughing again. "Because she can't remember back that far."
    "Oh, I remember," Gabby said, fixing him with a narrow-eyed stare. "You don't forget fucking a viper."
    I realized then that Seth had bedded Gabby, and probably Patty, and maybe Allison, too. There was a chorus of "Oooooh's," and "Now that's hitting below the belt."
    Seth was laughing, too. "Don't forget, Gabby, vipers eat insects. For snacks. They're attracted by the smell." He made a leering face and did something disgusting with his tongue.
    Everyone stared at him for a minute and then at Gabby, who turned to me.
    "Watch out, Dinah. You might get a disease."
    Seth leaned over close to me. "Why don't we just ask our Gretchen whether she'd rather do Faust or Lysistrata?"
    I just stared at him. He could as easily humiliate me as he had