Thomas Lee McCulloch | Белбог (bornebybliss) wrote in paxletalelogs, @ 2017-06-26 09:25:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | belobog, chernobog |
ain't no stoppin' us now
Who: Matt and Thomas
What: What better place for a reunion than at a museum celebrating the diversity of the planet’s wonders…?
Where: Natural History Museum, L.A.
When: June 11th, mid-afternoon
Thomas couldn’t possibly be more excited than he was right now, could he? He had practically flown through his preparations for this day, delighted at the chance to spend the afternoon with his old friend. Why, he was sure they could easily catch up and things would pick back up right where they had left off! And wouldn’t it be nice to hang out in person again, instead of waiting on emails and online messages--although Thomas had to admit to himself that he could no longer justify mailing Matt gift packages now that they lived in the same building.
He breezed through the drive to the Natural History Museum, not minding the occasional traffic jam and loud honking from other cars. Nothing whatsoever was going to ruin this day.
Ticket and map of the museum in hand, he waited happily near the front desks for Matt, dressed as he always had been--wearing an old plaid button up shirt and faded blue jeans. Matt couldn’t possibly miss him in the crowd, and Thomas felt confident that the reverse would be the same.
Despite the handful of years since Matt and Thomas had seen one another, the plucky fellow was right, Matt spotted his old friend through the crowd, recognizing him from a distance immediately, and couldn’t help but grin.
It had been a great change to settle in southern California and lose what little social network he had in Baltimore. He had growing pains, as his mother put it, but he couldn’t quite share the extent of those pains. The job he had taken he believed in, but discovering those he worked on were his apartment mates shook his morals. Still, he did his work, researched what he had, and stayed under the radar while battling the sense of guilt.
At least Tom hadn’t ended up in front of him. At least not on the table, because he was glad Tom was in front of him now. “Long time no see,” Matt said with a smile and a finger pushing his glasses further up his nose.
“Well I’ll be damned,” he practically hooted, grinning widely from ear to ear when Matt approached him. “Look what the cat dragged in!” Thomas pulled his friend into a quick embrace, ducking back and slapping his museum map against one palm for emphasis. “Ya sure haven’t changed much. In fact, ya look as happy as a hog in mud!” Nodding in approval, he gestured widely to the museum which stretched out before them, hallways leading to a multitude of exhibits with a slew of curious crowds meandering through them.
“I reckon we’ve got a lot to see today, so we best get goin’.” Unfolding his map, he closed his eyes for a second and jabbed his finger at a random spot on it. “They've got a dinosaur hall, look at that! Why don't we just mosey on over there and in the meantime, I need to know what's been floatin’ your boat in the golden state!”
Matt couldn’t help but smile at his friend. Tom was always a ray of sunshine, sometimes painfully so, but Matthew couldn’t help but readily eat up his friend’s joy. He didn’t realize how badly he had needed it until it was presented to him.
“And you need to tell me all about how you got out here,” Matthew replied, patting Tom on the shoulder as they began to walk in the direction of the dinosaurs. He didn’t really care about the sights of the museum, although he readily supported the place, he was simply happy to see his friend. “I mean, not just out here but to the same apartment as me and everything. It was perfect timing too, what were you, a month behind me in moving in? I can’t believe it.”
“I can't hardly explain it myself, just took a likin’ to the idea of California when ya mentioned it offhand, and well, here I am!” Thomas laughed with delight, the suddenness of their respective cross-country moves not bothering him in the least. How could it possibly be odd that they'd both be interested in what California had to offer? Sure, living in the same complex might almost be a real coincidence, but it wasn't as if Matt had kept his address a secret. Otherwise, how would he have been able to receive the fantastic assortment of wayward gifts from Thomas?
“I saw that openin’ on the 9th floor and thought why not? ‘Cause let me tell ya, Matt, that beachfront view is just about the bee’s knees. I couldn't have chosen a better place.” He smiled with nothing more than pure satisfaction, happy with his current circumstances and in no position to argue otherwise. “And the drive to work sure ain't half bad, either. I got an interview from the ENC in town and snatched up a job right away.”
They neared the dinosaur exhibits, bones assembled in animalistic shapes, some of them nigh stretching to meet the high ceiling. Small children flocked around the floor, giggling with merriment--as if they too had not a care in the world.
“‘Course, I had a fallin’ out a few years ago with my fiance, so I moved here alone, but that sure hasn't stopped me from livin’ life.” Thomas gave Matt a sidelong glance, eyebrows raised in curiosity. “Now I reckon ya oughta tell me a thing or two.”
Matt frowned. “Sorry about your fiance,” he murmured but took in a deep breath as his eyes made their way up the long neck of a constructed dinosaur. “Well, I was living in Baltimore at a research facility for cancer treatment. I kept trying to do my own studies, you know how I question the mind and existence of souls and all of that. That spark. My employers didn’t like it. Then I was offered this job opportunity out here where I could focus a little more on that subject--the idea of the mind or the soul or if they’re one and the same--and I took it.
“I can’t say much about the job because I signed some papers in regard to all that,” Matt added with a frown and a glance at his friend, suspecting Tom would never push too hard on the matter. “But it’s a job. Not quite what I thought it would be but I’m here. I kind of miss Baltimore, though.” His frown remained in place for a moment until he forced himself to smile and shared an honest confession, “But I’m glad you’re here. It’ll make the transition a little bit smoother, I think.”
Although Thomas was trying his best to appreciate a skeletal bird ancestor and listen to his friend's tale, his attention snapped fully back to Matt at the reticent man's moment of truth.
“Well, it just dills my pickle to hear ya say that,” he responded warmly. “‘Course, I feel about the same, seein’ as how this state is bigger than a breadbox.” Then followed a careful attempt on his part to not question Matthew about the details of his new employment, despite the burning curiosity which threatened to take over the more rational portion of Thomas’ mind.
He lost to the curiosity in the end, a short delay of only a few minutes before he let it happen, halting himself in a careful assessment of a plaque describing the life and times of a certain deceased avian ancestor. Thomas lowered his voice, trying in vain to suppress his own excitement--asking a now age old question of his friend, and hoping he’d finally get a solid answer.
“Did ya find it yet?” Thomas asked Matthew in an attempt at being casual, although his hazel eyes were wide with anticipation. “Ya know, the meanin’ of life, but the real meanin’? Why we’re here at all on this here planet, doin’ whatever it is we need to do to make our lives great?” The details and technical nuances of Matthew’s job were safe from Thomas’ prying questions; after all, he chose to concern himself with the more important matters.
Matthew’s cheeks colored slightly and he looked down as he shook his head. “No, I haven’t found the real meaning yet or any of that.” He thought of the dead man on the table and his neighbors whom he had come across since the month had ended and sighed. “I have found that people are more corrupt than they seem. Or maybe it’s better to say society is more corrupt. And I have come to believe that more is possible. Like, stuff we’ve brushed off as impossible… maybe it’s not. We need to be more open minded.”
Like the flowers appearing, the song from the man’s throat, the fangs in a mouth. There were wonders that he had not yet fully grasped the hold of. Matthew looked back at his friend and forced a smile, his hand finding Thomas’s back and giving his shoulder a pat. “So tell me, what are you doing now? Are you done with your meandering days through Africa and the rest of the world?”
Matt would have been hard pressed to not take note of Thomas’ sigh of disappointment. His face fell for a moment, curiosity decidedly less than sated.
“Open-minded I can do, but corruption ain't my cup of tea,” he said quietly, determined to not dwell on the unsavory aspects of humanity which Matthew was no doubt in contact with on a frequent basis. Better to leave the darker aspects of life to those who knew how to understand them. Thomas, meanwhile, much more preferred to believe that goodness could be highly prevalent in society, regardless of how hopeless life sometimes seemed.
Knowing that bringing up his argument would begin an old debate of theories and hypothetical propositions which suited a coffee house rather than a museum, Thomas brightened at Matthew's question, wandering towards the next set of exhibits with his friend.
“I don't reckon I'll ever be finished seein’ what this planet has to share with us,” he freely admitted. “But there's not a drop of harm in settlin' down for a spell or two, hence my arrival here.” Thomas took in the newest display of restructured bones while he spoke to Matthew. “I found my way into a naturalist job at the ENC in town, and it's just about the best part of my day puttin’ together teachin’ plans for the kids, and handlin’ the tours and the like. ‘Course, it's nothin’ like being elsewhere, but I don't hardly mind.”
“It’ll be good to have you here and hey, maybe we can fly back to Pennsylvania together for the holidays, eh? Go see both our families and their high expectations of us?” Matt nudged Tom’s side lightly and smiled. With his childhood friend, his introverted mentality was at ease. With Tom, Matt actually displayed who he was behind the introversion, something very few people had the ability to see. “Have you been back there at all? I visited my mother before flying out here but otherwise…” Matthew gave a shrug.
Matthew's suggestion brought forth a peal of laughter, Thomas not bothering to hide it whatsoever. He wiped a small gathering of tears from the corner of his eyes, shaking his head a firm no. “That'll be the day,” Thomas conceded at last. “Nah, I have half a mind not to go back for awhile, seein’ as how my Pa wouldn't take kindly to it. ‘Course, that could always change.” He mirrored Matthew's shrug, giving him a sympathetic look at the mention of his mother. “Until I renounce my heathen ways, I’m not invited to visit. But I reckon Ma saves a place for me at the table all the same. Likewise she'd be happy to see ya, as long as ya don't start talkin' about the afterlife.”
“I promise I won’t,” Matthew said, raising his hands to show his innocence. “Well, maybe you can come home for the holidays with me and stay at my place. Then you can play it by ear. Better yet, we can invite your parents over and have a sit down discussion to decide what really are heathen practices.” He grinned at his friend, no stranger to being called a heathen. He had left behind his Catholic upbringing when his father died and while his mother still dragged him to midnight mass every Christmas Eve, she didn’t shun him for his lack of belief.
“I don’t expect it’ll be an easy dinner,” Thomas admitted with an equally amused grin. “But you’ve always been much better at treadin’ difficult waters than me; maybe they’ll take a likin’ to your interpretations of what constitutes heathenism instead.” Either that, or they’d both be booted from the dinner table, unless Matthew’s mother took pity on them. Thomas had a minor inkling that she’d be more sympathetic than his parents, in particular his father.
“Come on, Matt, let’s see what this flyin’ beast got up to in its lifetime,” he suggested, clapping his friend on the shoulder and moved eagerly towards the next display. Thomas’ main delight of the day was seeing Matthew again, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t learn a thing or two in the meantime. Besides, maybe there were mysteries to discover in the bones of these long-deceased animals--secrets that could aid mankind in avoiding such a fate.