Time on Fire: My Comedy of Terrors by Evan Handler

Author:Evan Handler [Handler, Evan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780786754793
Publisher: Argo-Navis
Published: 2012-11-30T08:00:00+00:00

The lush dampness of summer in the Catskill Mountains was the perfect climate to plant the seeds for a new beginning. The adventure began with a cab ride up to Broadway and Sixty-eighth Street, where I was dropped onto the deserted sidewalk just after dawn. It was early in May, but the temperature had soared in the past few days, so I was dressed in cut-off denim shorts. The morning air still held a damp chill, but it was clearly temporary, destined to be burned off long before afternoon. A hot summer day passing itself off as another cold spring morning. The flashbacks to the days when my parents dropped me off for summer camp were strong and only got stronger as one, and then another, of the cast members straggled around a corner or flopped out of a taxi to wait for our ride to the country. We approached each other cautiously, with no way to be certain that we belonged to the same club, except for the fact that we were the only humans on the street so early, and that we were each dragging enormous trunks and duffel bags, stereo music boxes, and other identity-proclaiming accoutrements. We made hasty introductions, laughed about mutual friends and acquaintances, and piled ourselves into a van for the three-hour drive.

As we left the city and any concrete clues to our previous histories behind I was grabbed by the thought that I could simply invent a new one for myself and my unknowing companions. Nothing from the past would apply over the next six weeks, I naively thought. Crossing the George Washington Bridge and speeding up the Palisades Parkway, listening to the others tell tales of how they had arrived at this moment in their lives, I kept quiet in the front seat next to the driver. The questions and the banter being thrown around behind me felt oddly threatening to my imagined secret identity. The blandness of innocuous questions such as “What have you been up to lately?” now possessed the power to blow my cover completely. I hadn’t invented a story for myself before leaving home; indeed, I hadn’t even thought about withholding any information until we got into the tight quarters of the van. Only then did I recognize the quandary that would confront me over and over for the next six weeks.

Of course, I could just be open and honest with everyone. Let them all tell stories of their winter’s employment; explain the pain and sorrow of their latest love; bitch about the indignities of the business we shared. When it was my turn, I’d just turn around in my seat, smile, and say, “Oh, you know. I got leukemia back in late September. Been in the hospital since then. Got out a few weeks ago. They say I’ll almost certainly wind up back there before long. Then I’ll be dead soon after that. So I’m just trying to have as much fun as I can until then!”

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