Part 2: A Streetcar Named Craig

There were four large red lights; one in each corner of the room. They shone dimly across the sparsely populated lounge giving the feeling of being in one of those dank darkrooms you see in terrible movies when the bad guy has a strange photography obsession that eventually will provide the damning evidence against him. Except in those movies the dark rooms would be empty save for the occasional mannequin, dead body or soon-to-be-dead body instead of a couple dozen party goers in costumes. Over the windows hung large, heavy looking drapes sealing the room off from the outside quite effectively even though it was night and there were no substantial sources of light near any of them this late. The mirrors in the room were also all covered with dark satin looking cloths, most stamped with Remington Art College and the school crest. The gathering was an end of summer party that allowed returning students to meet and mingle with some of the new ones. RAC was a well respected art school in the region, drawing students from all over because of its reputation for producing talented artists in most of the major fields and also because it offered a significant amount of traditional programs, providing a mixing of the cultures to some extent which some people enjoyed. There were conversely some of the more traditionalist artists who did not appreciate having to share their campus with what they saw as the next generation of "The Man".

At either end of the room stood two banquet tables, each with large punch bowls in their middles surrounded on all sides by the standard party snacks: crackers, cheeses, assorted vegetables, various meats. Not much effort was made to have the food match themes with the rest of the party. Not that the party itself was much capable of maintaining a singular theme. The initial intent being a spooky witch/warlock theme thus the red lights and cauldron type punch bowls, though the covered mirrors suggested someone was under the impression that warlocks were in some way associated with or similar to vampires. None of this took into account the fact that halfway through the planning process some of the people involved decided to alter the theme to more of a Harry Potter type witch/warlock party.

Craig had been one of those involved with the Harry Potter aspect of the plan. Involved is a less direct way of saying it was his wish from the start. His main argument was that there were more than a few fans of the series around, making costumes more readily available and easier to assemble. As well, he appreciated the irony of having a bunch of hipster, anti-establishment art students attend a semi-gothic themed party dressed as characters from one of the most profitable and highest profile pop culture phenomenons of all time. At least, that's what he said to a friend who later pointed it out to him.

A popular topic of conversation among some party goers whispering in small groups in dark corners of the room later that evening was Craig's choice of costume. The instructions were to dress as your favourite character from any of the novels, so he did as instructed and dressed as his favourite character, Hermione Granger. He had managed to locate a realistic looking wig, as well as skirt and boots that looked not only authentic but fit oddly well for the amount of time he'd had to locate them.

He was already seen as a sort of oddity around the campus. For the most part his artistic talent wasn't called into question by anyone other than those who saw themselves as being directly threatened by him. Some of those people went so far as to accuse him of sleeping with nearly half of the faculty within his first semester there. An accusation Craig always laughed off though curiously he'd also never denied it. Added to that is that he was a nationally competitive tennis player. Not one of his closest friends were aware he could play until 6 months previous when one of them accidentally stumbled upon him practicing while they were working a job at a local tennis club. Some people had seen him on highlights, in newspapers or magazines but since he used the name Saul Goode when competing they would just assume that two people happened to look similar and think nothing more of it. None of them were prepared to admit to themselves that their friend they've known so well and for so long could possibly be a tennis player. When this friend confronted him about it and asked him why he hadn't told anyone about his tennis playing Craig's only response was, "You like tennis?" After which he swore them to secrecy. Craig explained that he'd come out and tell everyone the truth about his tennis playing as soon as he felt comfortable with it.

In addition to being a closeted tennis player, Craig was also highly touted rugby player. He'd practiced with several high profile teams and was constantly being recruited by the most powerful rugby nations. Craig had declared to all of them the previous year he would only play for one country: Lebanon. In response England and France had a resolution passed through the United Nations effectively banning anyone in Lebanon from ever assembling or playing the sport at a competitive level. An even that was a first in the sports world and one that concerned many citizens of the nations involved as they wondered if that was really something their government should be spending time worrying about. RAC did have a small competitive sports program, though it was effectively destroy after he attended tryouts for the rugby team his freshman year and the entire athletics department folded a week later amid concerns of further sanctions from France and England. The entire situation contributed to Craig's nickname becoming The Lebanon Phenomenon. Strangely enough, not a single member of Craig's family can find any link to Lebanon in their genealogy going back nearly 10 generations, and it's not known if he's ever met a single person who's even been to Lebanon. That commonly held view of Craig as an oddball isn't exactly without reason.

The party went as most parties do at the campus. Nothing exciting occurred other than one Dumbledore who vomited out of a window, nearly directly onto a couple who were smoking outside. There was also a rumor of someone finding Professors Snape and McGonagall in a precarious position in one of the washrooms. For the most part though those who wanted to drink alcohol did so in copious amounts and gallivanted around the party as such, those who enjoyed the ganja found some enclosed spaces and then proceed sit and talk in low voices responding to questions they couldn't actually hear. Also there were those who did both, most of them ended up like Dumbledore worshiping at various porcelain altars by the end of the night.

After spending somewhere in the vicinity of an hour listening to a couple Harry's strum away on the guitar while an oddly blonde Ron Weasley sang old Tom Petty tunes Craig decided to find himself a change of scenery. The clock read nearly 2:00 am and he had thought about calling a stop to his evening but there was still a fair sized crowd so he couldn't bring himself to actually leave. He grabbed a few of the crackers that remained on one of the tables as he entered the lounge. As he scanned around looking for familiar faces he felt a hand brush his and knock the crackers out onto the floor. He spun to see who it was but only caught a glimpse of gold that disappeared into the darkness of the crowd. Annoyed he bent over to pick up the crackers. That's when he noticed the piece of paper mixed into the pile of crackers. Even more curious was that the paper had Craig written on the top, and an address below it. He knew the address, it was relatively close, but as far as he knew there was nothing special there, certainly not anyone or anything he remembered. Being a curious and adventurous person by nature he took this as enough of a reason to excuse himself from the festivities and began his trek to the mysterious destination written on what he would henceforth refer to as, "The Cracker Note." For an artist he was at times highly lacking in creativity.

The walk was only around a half hour from the campus. Craig spent most of the time trying to think of possibilities of who and why he could be summoned to such a random spot and this time of night. The night itself was fairly decent, with a little chill in the air from the approaching autumn. The streets were mostly empty but the occasional car appeared, with a couple beeping near him and one where the passenger leaned halfway out the window yelling something unintelligible. Craig thought it sounded like some sort of proposition but brushed it off turned downhill at the following intersection. He was only a few blocks away now and getting off the main road should allow him to avoid any more attention. At this point he noticed there was a buzzing in the air that he could not so much hear as feel. When he turned the corner his eyes became transfixed on a glowing object in the middle of the next intersection. He approached it slowly; unsure as to what reason someone would have for bringing him here. He heard a gasp come from his right and it was then that he noticed someone else was standing at the same intersection. It appeared to be a very oddly dressed stripper, looking at him with a mixture of fear and confusion. It was then that Craig realized the confusion and fear in her eyes more than likely was a result of him forgetting, in his haste to leave the party that he was still in full costume; wig, heels and all. He opened his mouth to try and say something to explain himself when a coughing drew them both to look to his left. Slumping against the wall was a third person who's apparent choice of dress made Craig feel just a little bit better about his own situation.