One Final Time

In the middle of nowhere, in the early days of June, Ruby perched herself in the dark recesses of a bar atop a stool, strumming her guitar, playing the chords, and singing the lyrics she had just written, hoping they would take, attract the listener, and help pay her way on the rest of this trip, wherever that led her. Still, the clientele of this little dive she'd landed in for the night didn't seem to be the type to go for her style of music, a blend of folk and pop not unlike that of Jewel. Her songs sang of heartbreak and loss, coupled with that of a young girl out to conquer the world and find herself in the process.

Far west of her, Les walked out of his classroom, his last final of his college days finished. In just over a week, he would walk the aisle towards the stage and accept his diploma marking his exit from the scholastic years and his entrance into the real world. A shiver went up his spine. The care-free days of his youth seemed to be ever slipping away. Last summer had been his last year at Crowshaven, he believed, a pang of sadness still felt fresh as he moved forward. This year he would take up an internship as apprentice at J.R Prentiss & Sons, a law office downtown. Les would then begin his life upwards in the career world. Upwards and away from who he once was, what his life had been like, he could already feel the change.

He tried his best to push those thoughts from his mind, the thoughts of his friends from Crowshaven, the thoughts of Ruby. He tried hard not to think of her, wondering where she was now, after that last time they'd seen each other in New York, on that cold December day when he hoped this was his final time. And, nothing. He'd wondered if she'd headed out to...somewhere, who knows and if she was really making it, somehow. He imagined her onstage, her soft voice crooning the words she'd written and he smiled. Walking across campus to the local pub, he pushed those thoughts far away from his mind. At the pub, he was meeting Monica, a beautiful blond girl he'd seen around campus, had met at a few parties, and finally started talking to in his criminology class this last term. His pace quickened as he approached the bar, this girl seemed just his type. Pretty, intelligent, with a sense of humor that matched his, open, and goal driven, she seemed the type of girl that could aid him in his climb to career-success as well as he could help her with that. He hoped she thought the same.

The pub door swung open before him and a few college jocks spilled out, intoxicated and headed out towards their dorm, joking and hitting each other as they went.

“Jocks!” thought Les sarcastically. He headed into the bar, heard the swirl of chatter and the submerged juke box in the corner, pouring forth a random collection of music selected by the bar patrons. He noticed Monica at a corner table, quietly drinking a glass of wine. She looked up and motioned him towards her. He headed quickly in her direction.

Sitting beside her in the booth, he noticed a bottle of red wine on the table, two glasses, one for Monica and one for him, he assumed.

“You want a glass?” she said, smiling up at him. He nodded and she poured some wine into the other glass, pushing the glass delicately over towards him. “So, how was it?”

“Excuse me,” he said confusedly.

“Your last final,” she answered, laughing.

“Oh, well, ugh, its done,” he laughed back. “Thankfully.”

“And, now we graduate!” She raised her glass and he toasted with her. “And, now we drink!”

They both took long gulps of their wine and placed the glasses back on the table. He looked over at her book on the table near her.

“Jane Eyre?” He asked, pronouncing the last name “Air-ee?”

She laughed and corrected him, then said, “Its one of my favorites.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she began. “I took the crim class because it fulfilled this last GE credit I didn't know I needed to graduate, but my major is English Lit.”

“Oh yeah,” he began. “What do you want to do with that?”

“Teach,” she smiled at him. “Preferably at the University level.”

“Oh yeah,” he said, inwardly happy with her choice of profession, as self-serving as it seemed, he realized this was a good match for his law dreams.

“Yeah, I took the GRE a few weeks ago and have been shopping around for a college to get my masters at,” She began. “Better keep up the momentum while you've got it.”

She raised her glass again, in recognition of that and he toasted along side her. He took a big sip of his wine and she looked at him, quizzically.

“So, what's next for you?”

“Oh, I've got an internship for the summer, then start prepping for law school next year,” he explained.

“Nice!” She smiled enthusiastically, and inwardly she was agreeing with herself that this was a good man to select in her self-serving interests. He was pretty cute too, a little nerdy and a little rugged. Probably a good selection to bring home to the parents. Not like her last boyfriend, the big creep, who slept around with anyone who was willing and was pretty open about it. “But enough business talk, tonight we party!”

He smiled at her and said, “Agreed!”

“Hey, you want to see if they have anything better than this crap on the jukebox?” She said, getting up and motioning towards the music box in the corner. He nodded and got up, following her to the other end of the bar.

They stood side by side, peering into the list of music selections below, their hands barely touching one another, the electric feeling of lust coursing through their bodies. Monica touched the button and flipped through the music genres, landing for a moment on folk. She got ready to press the button again after glancing through quickly. Les reached up and stopped her hand, “Wait!”

“Yeah?” she said, looking at him sideways.

His finger pointed down slowly to a selection of a singer named “Ruby Rhodes.”

“Ruby Rhodes?” Monica asked. “You heard of her?”

“I don't know,” Les shook her head. “Sounds familiar.”

“She's kind of like Jewel, only more folk and not as famous,” Monica explained. “A friend of mine had a cd she recorded, it was pretty good.”

Les looked at the title of the song, “One Final Time”, and a cringe of remembrance crept into his mind.

He shook his head and said,

“I just thought she might be...just a girl I used to know.”

“Really?” Monica exclaimed. “That's kind of cool. Should we listen to her song? Maybe you'll recognize...”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Les said, hoping to sound off-handed.

Monica inserted the money and pressed the number for the song. She looked a little hurt by his last comment.

“I'm sorry if I...” he began. She shook him off.

“How do you know this girl, Ruby?”

“Oh, I don't know if its the same one but...” he broke off there, not wanting to go on or remember. He was trying to move forward now.

“Yeah, but still?”

“Oh, I knew her way back when in high school,” was all he said. They headed back to the bar and finished their drinks. The rest of the night was spent discussing literature, books read and movies seen recently, chatting up their hopes and dreams for life after college. After the wine bottle had been finished and drunk, they both dared each other over several shots of tequila before paying their bills and heading into the night. Arm in arm, they walked, holding each other up, somewhat like the jocks who had left earlier yet more scholastically inclined.

As he left the bar, a familiar tune started playing on the jukebox. By the time, he was standing outside Monica's door, hoping for a kiss and to be let inside, a familiar voice was singing out the familiar words sung at a campfire so long ago, lyrics that had yet to be fully understood.

After the awkward and welcome kiss from Monica, he said good-night and headed home to his messy apartment. As he entered his dark living room, he saw the flashing light of his answering machine signalling that someone loved him. Before he could stumble over to press the button, the phone rang. He cursed and fumbled for a light or to find the phone, not in its carrier. He found it just as it was the answering machine clicked on.

“Hello?” he said slobbily into the phone, hoping he didn't sound too drunk.

“Um, hi,” came a familiar girl voice from the other end of the phone. “Do you remember me? Its Jewels.”

“Jewels? Eh, Ruby?” He said, his excitement rising and the feelings he had tried to squelch down came bubbling back up to the surface.

“Yeah,” she began.

“How are you? Where are you?”

“Missouri,” she began. “I'm glad I could reach you, that this is still your number?”

“Yeah, still is.”

“So, what have you been up to?” Ruby wanted to know.

“Um, you know, school, about to graduate actually,” he explained, brokenly.

“Nice,” she smiled into the phone. “Congratulations.”

“So, you, what have you been up to?” he wanted to know, hanging on the phone for the answer.

“Um, well, just traveling and singing,” she explained. “Its kind of late here, like almost midnight. Its what where you are, what time?”

“Almost ten,” he said, shortly. He hesitated a moment and said, “Hey, Jewels, I gotta know something and its probably because I'm really drunk but what happened between us, you know at camp, when we kissed or something?”

Ruby sucked in air and said, “I don't know, we were just kids, it wasn't the right time, I guess.” And, without knowing why, she found herself smiling at the memory, then feeling crushed at what had happened that fateful next day. “You were in a relationship or something at the time.”

“Oh yeah, with Jess,” was all he said. “So, how about now? You seeing anyone?”

Ruby looked out the window of her dingy hotel-room,the curtain slightly open, and peered into the dimly lit parking lot.

“Sort of,” she began, hoping not to sound too eager but still wanting to protect herself. “For like two years, I think, he's back in New York right now.”

“Oh, two years, I see,” Les took that in. “Sounds pretty serious.”

“Yeah, yeah, I guess it is,” she looked down at her bedspread, at the various dollar bills leading up to twenty laying before her, thinking of the mere sixty dollars in her checking account and the wopping zero in her savings. Tonight had not been a good night.

“So, how is everything else?” Les said, dejectedly and not knowing what else to say. “How's the traveling?”

“Um, good,” Ruby lied. Not only was it hard making ends meet but at times she had felt lonely. As tonight she had been unable to sleep from both the feelings of being so alone and the love-making from the couple in the room next door.

“Hey did you record a cd or something?” Les asked curiousity getting the best of him.

“Oh, yeah,” Ruby laughed. “With some friends in Chicago, nothing too fancy, why?”

“I was out tonight and I saw a song on the jukebox under the name “Ruby Rhodes,” and then he remembered he had not stayed long enough to hear it.

“Oh my god, really,” Ruby laughed. “That's cool.”

“Yeah, cool, my friend said she listened to the cd and it was really pretty good,” he explained.

“Oh, yeah, tell her I said thank you,” and then they both fell silent. After a brief moment, Ruby said,

“I should probably get some sleep, kind of a busy day tomorrow.”

“Yeah, nice talking to you, Jewels, keep in touch.”

They hung up. Ruby's hotel room became so much bigger, emptier, more silent. In his apartment in Los Angeles, Les felt the darkness creep over him, enveloping him in a long ago and forgotten longing. Would it ever be their time?

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