I remember that night well. I was about twelve and my brother was nine. It was a hot and humid night. My brother and I couldn’t sleep. The fan kept whirring on the ceiling, but to no avail. The party our parents were having was still going on. So we crept down the stairs.
We saw our parents at a couple of tables they referred to as beer pong tables. I always got confused with that. (Of course, it all got clear once I got into college). My parents were a bit of a mismatch. They were hippies in the late eighties. (Yes I know, strange. But parents always appear a bit bizarre to their own kids.)
So there we were, up past our bedtime, crouching at the stairs in semi-light, our parents and their friends at the beer pong tables. They were oblivious of us. It was then that I noticed her.
She was leaning near Mum, wearing a long dark dress. She wasn’t someone we had met or seen before. She did not move to the other side of the beer pong tables. She remained where Mum was standing. They were all laughing and talking. But she didn’t join in. Now that was a bit queer. Mum never really had quiet friends. They were all talkers. Even the beer on the beer pong tables couldn’t silence them. Quite the contrary actually…
We watched for a while. Then someone mentioned Lucy. They were saying something sad about her. I gathered this because everyone did a ‘tut, tut’ sound. That meant things were bad. If it were merely a frown, it meant they sympathized, but didn’t feel so bad on the whole.
The beer pong tables started getting crowded as everyone tried for the last game. The lady in the dark dress did not try even then. A sober friend, that was new. At some point, the lady placed a hand on Mum’s shoulder. She seemed to flinch a bit, but looked through her. Then she turned to look at us. I thought we were busted. My brother was already asleep at my knee. I had a knee-jerk reaction from me that woke him up. I looked up again at the beer pong tables. The lady was gone.
We went back to bed, the party was over and the beer pong tables were being swept clean. And by swept I mean Dad swept one hand, and they were clean. We woke up pretty late the next morning and missed school, which was OK. My parents were too tired to get us ready anyway. As Mum turned the newspaper page, I saw a picture I recognized.
‘Isn’t she your friend?’ I asked her.
‘Her? No darling. She’s Lucy from down the block. She passed away a couple of days back. Poor girl. Couldn’t take her mother’s death and kept badly ever since.’
My brother and I exchanged a look. There was no mistaking the picture and the lady we had seen last night. We both turned towards the beer pong tables, and automatically understood that we would forget what we saw.
Related posts:
- Stephan’s party
- A beer pong fight! Literally…
- I am not a baby-sitter!
- Brothers are such party-poopers
- In the dark
Tags: beer, beer pong, beer pong table, beer pong tables, party
Beer Pong Tables