Star Matters: Enlightenment of the Fifth Kind by David John West

Author:David John West
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2018-04-04T00:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

Saturday 11th February was Daniel’s birthday. He was already a popular figure at Jesus, remarkably cool and easy-going for a fresher where so many of his peers were seeking to establish their identity outside their school and family lives for the first time. He was both a raconteur and good listener with a stream of anecdotes way in advance of his apparent years. Beyond that his athletic prowess was a welcome upgrade to the soccer and rowing clubs seeking to replace the talents that had graduated and left Jesus College the previous summer. The rugby club were scouting for him to join them too but he only had so much time. Very early starts midweek for rowing training on the Cam downstream from Magdalene Bridge could be accommodated with football training and league games on weekend afternoons but a third team sport would not have fitted in. Medics were famous for their busy work and social lives; it served them well for their future career demands.

Daniel had been persuaded to join in with the football club captain and two other friends to celebrate their birthdays that all fell in the same two-week period in February. The football club captain was in his third year and had the contacts to book the medieval hall in college for the party; sharing the costs four ways softened the financial blow to their student budgets. They had hired the standard Jesus College disco company and arranged for the college to run the bar so there was no charge for staffing that. Starting the party at nine o’clock was the final touch; no need to provide food as guests would already have eaten and would arrive already in good spirits. Partygoers would pay for their own drinks.

Daniel and the other three hosts had helped clear the room from an earlier dinner and installed the disco on the raised dais at one end. The bar was set up on linen-covered trestles at the opposite corner close to the entrance doors. Tilted kegs of beer attended by black-suited college staff awaited their drinkers at one end with wine and spirits for sale at the other. In truth, the hall, with panelled walls rising through white plaster, portraits and stained-glass windows up to arches and vaulted roof in black, did not feel much like a party venue to begin with but, once installed, the disco light show did a great job raking the white walls and chandeliers with vivid colour and the black roof high above leant an airy aspect like a night sky soaring over the joyful celebration.

Daniel and his three fellow hosts deserved a drink as they bustled round the hall making preparations. Fortunately, one of the bar staff was on hand to serve out pints of golden Green King ale in traditional mugs to the deserving workers so they were in good humour when all was done for the nine o’clock start time. Just a few people arrived early and there was that deflating hiatus

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