Caskin School - Blue Moon Yearbook (Haverford, PA)

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THE BLUE MSDN MAIN BUILDING TH E Forty

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THE BLUE MOON mother's eyes for him and the look of loathing in his. Oh, Van, it was ghastly, and when I ran after her he gripped my arm and laughed and laughed and laughed. That laughter seared into my heart, so that when I see him now all I can hear is that laughter. And when I asked him why he laughed, he said, 'My child, life is destruc- tion and those who destroy are the victors. Behold a victorl' And then he sobbed and sobbed, Van, dreadfully, but I stood and cursed him. But the most awful time was when we heard two weeks later that that very night he bade her leave she had killed herself. I thought for a while he would go mad. I wish to heaven I could have. But I couldn't feel a thing, Van, it meant no more to him than if a stranger, not my mother, had committed suicide. I seemed made of stone with but one weak spot, my hatred which was alive and burning like a red hot coal for him. Even the note she left for him, which proved the whole thing false and made a martyr of her, failed to move me. I just hated him, hated him. Well, there was just one thing left in life for me-my music. I studied and tried to forget the awfulness. It wouldn't have been so frightful, Van, if only she hadn't died. But her death seemed to make him so re- morseful and regretful that the whole thing was even more difficult to bear. While he became soft I became harder and more bitter, but the thought that some day perhaps I should sing, and sing to all the world, spurred me on. And then-then the last act of ironical fate-he became so ill. I know he did it on purpose, Van, I know. The only comfort, the only thing left, he snatched from me and left me nothing but an empty shell. Perhaps I could forgive a little if he hadn't robbed me of the ability to feel. That's why when I look at his face I see no scars, no sorrow, just hear his laughter of so long ago, and exult and pray that God or the devil may let him be so I can sing again. When I'm taking care of him or seeing that he has what he needs, such a tide arises in me that I would like to strike him and watch him die. Eve, Eve, ou don't know what ou're sa in , cried Van. There, there, dear, I'm Y Y , Y g glad to see that you can at least cry again. There was absolute silence and the angel's mind was whirling. She had been absolutely tense while Eve had told Van all the tragedy which had been her life. The tragedy which had made her mouth a scar, the reason for the coldness and emptiness of her long green eyes. And did I, thought the angel to herself, think that this place was one of beauty and love and merriment, this place of darkness, of agony, of horror, this place of sadness? For a while the angel lost herself from the world, a trait peculiar to angels alone, and floated in grey white clouds, but a sudden burst of drums recalled her and she saw that the lights were on and the shuffling of the feet had begun again. Everywhere was youth-on the surface-but the angel wondered how many of these boys and girls carried soul-eating burdens under their Benda-like masks. The scene was the same as when she had first entered, but now she understood, and oh, what a difference it made. Eve with her stiff petals swirling and her silver feet twinkling- Eve and the man lying buried under gold satin with his face whiter and more ter- rible than death itself. The angel had had enough. As she fled she heard a voice cry, Come on, Eve Livingston Pelt, do the Charleston for us like a good egg. VVhen the angel returned to Heaven it was with a new appreciation of what she was going back to. At the report of the committee meeting it was with some trepidation that the angel told of what she had seen. But, much to her surprise, she found that the experience had been the same in every angel's case as it had been in hers. From all ends of the earth sorrow, the same realization of the perpetual discontent, of the end- less dissatisfaction of either mortals or angels. Oh, my, sighed the angel when the business had been gotten over, where is my harp? That's one thing I missed most dreadfully when I was down on earth. Good- ness, but it seems good to be back. Tlzirtyfviine

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