Daniel walked up the lighted path towards the front door. ‘It’s a beautiful night,’ he thought to himself. Then again, prom night was supposed to be beautiful, was it not?
Daniel went inside. He walked down the hallway towards the Hall of Roses. He passed a few couples on the way. Some glanced in his general direction as he walked on by. But they didn’t say hi, or wave, or acknowledge him in any way. They simply stared through him like he wasn’t even there.
Daniel entered the Hall of Roses. It had been lavishly decorated, with no detail left out. The lights had been shaded so that they cast a deep, rose-colored hue out into the hall. Strips of white gossamer ribbon hung from the ceiling like a gaudy, Victorian spider web. Gold-painted spheres hung amidst the strips like glowing stars among pallid nebulae.
Daniel walked over to the table where he was to sit. The other three were already there. Daniel sat down and Jack reached across the table for his hand.
“Hey Danny,” he said. “Glad you could make it.”
Daniel shook Jack’s hand. “You know me,” he said. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
Benny reached out and shook Daniel’s hand too. Then Mina did the same.
“So, the gang’s all here,” Jack said.
“As it should be,” Mina said.
The other tables began to get up one by one and get their food. But Daniel’s table did not. They were not hungry. They were only here to watch.
“Look at all the people,” Jack said. “They’re like one big ol’ train.”
“Let’s not talk about trains,” Benny said. “I don’t like trains.”
“But Benny, that was back in junior high,” Daniel said. “Didn’t you beat that?”
“I did, I beat the thing,” Benny said. “But I still don’t like trains.”
“Okay man, sorry to bring it up,” Jack said. “But, however you want to say it, that is a lot of people.”
“They won’t talk to us,” Mina said. “But they still talk of us, as though we are not still here.”
“You get used to it,” Jack said, but there was a pang in his voice when he said it. No one had ever talked to him anyway.
They stopped talking for a while after that. Daniel looked at all the people. The boys in tuxes, just like him, sitting around, cracking jokes with each other. The girls in their beautiful dresses, chatting about who looked the nicest and who didn’t. It all painted a very surreal picture.
Then Daniel saw a familiar face in the crowd. “Hey Jack,” he said, nudging his friend. “Isn’t that Ms. Howe?”
Jack looked over. “Hey, it is!” he said. He stood up and waved to get her attention. She noticed them and walked over.
“Hi, Ms. Howe,” Daniel said. “Kind of surprised to see you here. I thought you left.”
“I had,” Ms. Howe said. “I decided to come back to see how everyone was doing. But I’m afraid I’ll be moving on again after this. You four really should too.”
“We cannot,” Mina said. “We still have things to do.”
“Besides,” Jack said. “We’ve got all the time in the world.”
Ms. Howe nodded. “Yes, I suppose you do,” she said. “Well, I hope you enjoy tonight. I must be going now.” She turned and walked away, fading into the crowd.
“Man, I miss her,” Benny said, “She taught us a lot.”
Jack nodded. “That she did,” he said.
They went back to watching. “Hey, Jack,” Benny said. “You had Mrs. Regent. Was what they said about her being easy true?”
“How do you mean?” Jack asked.
“Some of the guys always said somebody got lucky with her once,” Benny said.
“I heard that too,” Daniel said.
Jack shook his head. “Listen,” he said. “If she did, she had a reason. Lord knows she had one, with her husband and all.”
“But did it ever happen?” Benny asked.
Jack did not answer. Daniel looked at him. Jack was gazing at the table where Mrs. Regent was sitting. She wasn’t saying much at all, and she barely had a smile on her face. Her husband seemed to overpower her with his presence. Daniel thought he saw Jack’s eyes begin to tear up. He shook his head at Benny, an unsaid command. Benny nodded in understanding.
Just then somebody walked past. Daniel turned and looked after her. It was Shana Murphy. He’d been something with her once, about a year ago. Daniel made as if to get up and follow her.
“That will do you no good now,” Mina said to him. “She’s moved on. You are only something for her to remember.”
Daniel stopped. He knew that Mina was right, however much he hated to admit it when that happened. So he sat back down, but he watched her as she left. And so the hour passed and all the while the table watched. Then, just before the dancing started, a girl got up and stood at the front of the Hall of Roses. She took a microphone and began to speak.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” she said. “We hope you are enjoying your evening. We’ll start the dance in a moment, but we have a little something to show you first.”
A black screen was projected above her head. One by one pictures of Mina, Jack, Benny, and Daniel. Daniel looked around the room. Most of the girls were crying, a few were outright bawling. The guys shifted around uncomfortably, a few of them began to get moist-eyed. Then the pictures faded away and four words appeared in their place: Gone but Never Forgotten.
“This is how it must be,” Mina said. “We must be here to remind them. We must always be reminding them. They will never forget because we will not let them.”
Daniel stood. Benny had already left. Though he had stared death in the face once before, he still wasn’t used to the whole thing. Jack stood near Mrs. Regent. It almost seemed as though they made eye contact. Daniel felt a cold hand take his.
“Won’t you remind her?” Mina asked, her appearance now every bit that of the fourth-grader she had been when last she lived.
Daniel shook his head. Mina frowned, her lower lip jutting out in the pout so characteristic of young children. “You must remind her,” she said, “It is why you are here. It is your purpose.”
“That’s not true,” Daniel said, pulling away from Mina’s icy grip. “It’s not true at all, and you know it.”
“They must always remember us,” Mina said. “They must never forget the things that they did to us. Who will remind her if you will not? Who will never let her forget?”
Daniel looked around. He saw Shana sitting at her table. She wasn’t crying, but she was not doing much else either. For a moment Daniel considered going over to her, letting her catch just a glimpse. But he saw her smile, and he knew better.
“She’s doing a good job of that herself,” he said to Mina.
“There is no sorrow,” Mina said. “It is not good.”
“You’re still a kid,” Daniel said. “You still haven’t grown up. Let them go away and try to forget us. They won’t, even if we fade away, they’ll still remember us. But they’ll remember a lot more than just the horrible things they did to us. They’ll remember things worth remembering. And that’s how it should be.”
Daniel walked away from Mina, who now pouted alone. He looked at Shana and smiled. Then he turned back to the dance floor. After this he was going after Ms. Howe. She would be better company than those who could not forgive. But for now, there were memories to think about and dances to watch. For beauty is something even the dead appreciate.
