Jupiter and Pyro

During my early and mid-teenage years, fantasy became very popular again. Practically the fantasy books, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, as they were made into films and that led to a huge love of the fantasy genre throughout the whole world. I was addicted to the theme of fantasy since I was a kid. Really, I was. When I was eight years old, my dad and my uncle Joe introduced me to those role playing books with a fantasy theme to it. I was immediately hooked onto them and started to collect them. Since then I felt that I was connected to the world of fantasy. I even read all of these books way before they became a film, that’s how hard-core I was.

By the way, let me introduce myself, the name is Matt Brown. Matthew Andrew Martin Brown for my full title. The best way to describe myself would be that I’m a heavy bookworm and a real good actor. I know I’m a good actor, and that I believed could have been the downfall of my future career as a film actor. I’m a tall, broad, friendly face guy, built like a rugby player really with a child’s face. This friendly face of mine has earned a lot of friends throughout my whole life and I’m a very popular guy. Problem with this face is that it’s friendly, yet not a face you could fall in love with though. Never could understand how I can make a lot of friends, but not one single lover. Bit of a mystery if you ask me. I have short brown hair and deep pools of blue for eyes. I’m also equipped with a huge nose and a slightly big chin. I could grow a beard if I wanted to, but I find that it doesn’t suit me. I’m also a little immature. Actually, I’m very childish, which actually answers why I can’t seem to attract a girl. But I can be quite charismatic and charming if I want to be.

Now to really begin this story, this is my story of how I got my dream of being in fantasy. Now, you’re wondering how a modern guy from the early twenty-first century like me can wonder into a Lord of the Rings theme? Well, this is the tale I’m going to tell you. Be prepared for some frequent violence and accessional cursing.

To start my story, I was eighteen at the time. I was in a performing arts college studying singing, dancing and acting. It was my dream and ambition to become a world renowned actor of the ages. I was popular and achieving great grades. So, basically, life was going great for me at this point.

There was only two weeks until I finished my two years on the course. My class was preparing for our last show we were going to perform ever again together, The Little Shop of Horrors. Because we were a performing arts college we performed a lot of musicals. This was our final major project, our last performance exam to determine what we could do on stage.

The stage was all set and I sat in the auditorium with my three best friends, Jake Brett, Danny Stokes and Danny Garton. Jake was the guy I knew the longest and he was just so laid back it was unbelievable. The smallest and youngest of the group and he had a friendlier face than me. Dark hair with blonde streaks blended into his hair. Brown eyes and a beard so crazy it’s funny to look at. In everyone’s opinion, he looked like a chimpanzee that had been strategically shaved. Danny Stokes was the funniest guy anyone could meet. He’s a great comedian and a wiz at break dancing. He’s got brown hair and blue eyes and is extremely skinny. He looked like Jack Skeleton from the Nightmare before Christmas that had a flesh coloured condom pulled over him. Danny Garton (or D as he is better known) is a really cool guy. He’s very stylish and he knows a lot of rock music. He has longish black hair with the one blonde streak in it, grey eyes and a thin physique.

We were part of a small gang, in fact, it was just us four. We called ourselves The Turbos. We had been the Turbos since it was cool to be in a gang and since teenage-hood we hadn’t really shook of the childish phase. Danny was the leader and was titled Relic. D was the second leader and was given the name Checkers. Jake was the lower guy and was nicknamed Nitro. I was the brawler of the gang and was named Jupiter. We all had leather jackets and dog tags with our nicknames on them. So there we were just chilling out after just putting the set up to the stage and we were left knackered. Danny was drinking his daily dosage of Dr Pepper, D and Jake was playing slaps and I was just listening to my MP3 player. I was a heavy rocker and loved the old school rock groups like Kiss, Van Halen and Guns ‘n’ Roses, the sort of music you could listen to with your dad.

“Hey, Jupiter. Lend us a piece”, Danny said. I gave him an earplug and we listened to the Dreams by Van Halen, my favourite rock song in history. An overwhelming thought came over me. We were growing up and soon we’d be leaving to head off to different parts of the country for university. These were going to be the last few moments I would spend with my friends who were practically my brothers. The Turbos would soon be over.

Maybe I should just jump on further ahead, because the rest is not relevant to the story.

So, on the last night of the production and we had just finished the first act of the show. We were all sharing one dressing room behind the stage. It was a big dressing room, it could easily fit fifteen people inside and have room for dancing facilities.

I was reading my copy of Steven King’s The Dark Tower, another fantasy favourite of mine, and everyone else was hurrying up for the second act. I didn’t have a very big part, so I spent a lot of the time backstage reading my fantasy books. Marc Nykolzysn rushed over to me. Marc is playing Seymour in the show and he is a really smart guy. A small guy with black hair a light eyes and a very young looking face. He’s also a homosexual, which never bothered me as I wasn’t homophobic.

“Hey, Matt. Can I just borrow your gel please?” Marc asked. I smiled at him and passed him my tube of Brylcream. I forgot to mention that I also have developed the fashion of spiking my hair into pointy tips on my head. I was going through a punk rock phase of my life. He passed it back and thanked me and headed off to the stage. The Narrators were all getting changed into their dresses. There was Becky and Danielle, two girls who I had an enormous crush on at the time, Hannah and Lizzy, who was D’s girlfriend, Kayleigh, Kim, and Sally. I was pretty used to watching the same eight girls getting half naked in front of me. That was the beauty part of the last two years to be fairly honest.

Anyway, the second act had begun and I was left alone with Danny, who played the Dentist and wasn’t needed again after he died in the show. He was listening to some heavy trance music on his MP3 player and I continued to read my book. I could hear the performance on stage where I was sitting and I gently relaxed myself into my chair. I was already changed for the last scene and all I had to do was wait for it. Plenty of time to kill I thought. I was enjoying reading about Roland the Gunslinger fighting off crab monsters. I was just getting into the story when I heard a gentle whisper.

“Jupiter”, it said softly. At first, I thought it was Danny but he was too warped into his music and his voice couldn’t sound that feminine even if he wanted to. So, I continued to read until I heard the voice again. I looked up and no one was there except for Danny, who was in a world of his own and had his back to me.

“Relic, did you call me, mate?” I cried out but he couldn’t hear me. I assumed that if he couldn’t hear me, he couldn’t hear that voice. This time I heard it again, but it came from the door outside leading to the stage. I got up and advanced swiftly to the voice. No one was there. I thought I was losing the plot and needed therapy. I turned away and heard the voice even louder than ever. It came from down the corridor further into the college. I advanced without hesitation.

“Who’s there!?” I called out. I didn’t know what to feel. Scared, annoyed or exited. Too many emotions for my liking. I walked slowly to the computer room where I did all my coursework. That’s where the voice seemed to be coming from, but there was no one there. I walked into the room and looked around, only one computer was turned on but there was no sign of life. I looked at the computer screen and there was a word document up with writing on the page. I walked to it and read:

Jupiter.

You feel that you are not worthy for this world and you are right.

The end of this life you have now is coming very soon and the life you want and deserve is approaching.

Destiny is on to you.

And then the computer shut down on me. I may be brave, but even that message freaked me out. I walked away slowly back to the changing rooms and thought about the message I had just seen. I knew it couldn’t be one of the Turbos, but they were the only guys that referred to me as Jupiter. And what did it say something about ’the life you want and deserve is approaching. ‘Destiny is on to you’.

What the hell was that all about? I just sat down and pondered about things. I had always wanted to live in a life that seemed impossible to believe in this modern world. But I’m not one to believe in destiny though. I tried to ignore it, but that message did seem weird. The computer shutting down by itself was no shock to me. Technology and I do not get along. I once breathed on a computer and it shut down on me. But the weird voice and the message got me troubled. Something was heading my way, good or bad I could not tell at the time. I sensed that it was going to help me and that I was going to help someone. I’ll just wait, I thought, I’ll just wait and let destiny, if it exists, come to me.

The show ended with a blast and was followed with a huge celebration. Champagne and sweets were given to all the actors. It was quite emotional because, as I said before, this was the last time we would perform a show all together. The Turbos group hugged and we continued our congratulations with everyone else. Hugging and kissing went everywhere. The sweets were nice, the champagne was horrid. The show was gone and I packed up all my costume and took it to mum and dad and sister.

They always come to my last showing of my performances. My family were very supportive with what I did and supported me every step of the way. I lived in a working class family, so I had to work hard at everything I did. I loved my family and they loved me back just the same. I hadn’t seen them in days due to all the rehearsals I had to do for the show.

“What a way to go, Matt. Well done, son, I’m very proud of you”, my dad said. My mum just grabbed me and gave me a huge hug. I couldn’t breathe for a while, I would have demanded an artificial respirator if I could talk.

“I take it you’re going down to the pub, now”, my mum said.

“You bet. Don’t worry, I won’t stay out too long and I won’t drink too much”, I said to comfort her. Truth is that I stay out until about two o’clock in the morning and I would drink that pub dry. But I was a heavy drinker. At my eighteenth birthday party I had about fourteen pints of lager and quite a few number of spirits and I could still walk in a straight line. It was tradition to always go to the pub after a show had been completed. Everyone goes to the pub after.

“Have one on me, bro”, my sister, Beth, said. She was three years younger than me.

“Did you enjoy it?” I asked them.

“It couldn’t have gone better”, mum said.

“Hey Matt, you coming to the pub?” Nick said. Nick was also a member of BTEC and a good guy to have around.

“Yeah, I’ll be right over”, I said to him. “I’ve gotta go now, have a drink at home”, I said to the oldies.

“You go on ahead, enjoy yourself”, dad said. I smiled and hugged them again before I left.

Well, what can I say, that was a great night for celebrating. Drinking, socializing, dancing, playing darts and playing pool were all that night consisted of. I totally forgot about the message I read on the computer earlier on. I even got my hand burnt by a cigarette and it didn’t leave me feeling down because it didn’t leave a mark.

Now, I consider myself a genetic freak, because I have never been burnt by an open flame. For some strange reason, I have never suffered a burn in my life. I managed to set fire to my sweater when I was six years old and the only victim was the sweater and I remained untouched by the fire. It is a very eerie gift I have, but I’m glad I have it. What person wouldn’t want fireproof skin? I could make a really good fire-fighter if I wanted. The doctors are baffled. The Turbos make me do freak shows to scare everyone who doesn’t know about my freaky condition, like holding a lit lighter to my wrist and see how nothing is scorched or blistered. It doesn’t hurt at all. I enjoy it while I can.

The last day at college was a day I never wanted to forget in a hurry. The Turbos decided that we had outgrown our gang and it was time to grow up and we disbanded the gang, and we went back to our actual names. It was a bit sad to do this, but we felt it had to be done. We started the day with a gigantic water fight. I got absolutely drenched, sod’s law really. Fire can’t harm me, but I attract water like a magnet. But I got my own back on the idiot that decided it was funny to throw a bucket of water over me. D and Danny helped me drown him. By the way ‘him’ is Mr Ashton, one of the Drama teachers in the college. He was a young teacher and felt like one of us.

After the water fight, me and another friend of mine, Joff, played on the PS2 on Star Wars games. Joff’s real name was Jonathan Norman, but he got the nickname from his younger cousin who cannot pronounce ‘John’ but it comes out ‘Joff’ so everyone called him Joff from then on. He’s a big Star Wars geek, and not afraid to show it. We all had a big party after the games and a buffet. Our favourite songs were all put onto one CD and played throughout the party. I was with all the others eating in the biggest of the drama studios relaxing to the music. A favourite song of mine came on, The Wind of Change by the Scorpions. I was about the only one in this room at the time to have ever heard of this song as my music taste is somewhat out of date. The day ended very quickly with a small party. It was a very tearful event, even I cried a bit.

As everyone was leaving, Danny, his girlfriend Jenny and I headed to the costume cupboard to do some stealing. If I was leaving college forever after this day, I wanted to take something for the memories of the past two years. I took a black leather wristband I wore for a show of West Side Story a year ago. I fastened it onto my wrist and wore it with pride. After leaving the college I admired the countryside and the pure blue sky and the amazing weather in front of me. This was going to be one amazing night.

I enjoy walking along the countryside paths in summer. I loved it even more this summer. This was after about two months after I finished college. Try and put yourself in my shoes for a moment. You’ve finished college with fantastic grades, you’re going to a great university, you’ve got plenty of friends who will always stick by you and you’re life is going uphill from now on.

That is the feeling I felt as I strolled through the countryside. Nothing but green fields and farm animals just grazing and not a soul in sight was the atmosphere ahead of me. This is a great place to get some time to yourself. The sun was shining hard on my head. I didn’t spike my hair that day, so I just wore my New York Yankees navy blue baseball cap back-to-front. I also wore a red t-shirt that really showed my physique. I don’t know why I wore that t-shirt, I wasn’t planning to meet anyone that day. I also wore a pair of very dark blue jeans with the fashionable tares in the legs, along with a pair of red Converse trainers. I also kept my Turbos dog tags on show and the wristband was equipped too.

I wanted a break after about an hour just walking in the country, so I sat on the grass and ate a melted chocolate bar. It was all I had to eat, okay. After the snack, I collapsed on the grass and looked at the clouds. I love making pictures out of the clouds, some really distorted ones in particular. This is the life for me, I always had it planned out. In the future, when I’m old and retired, I’m going to live in the country side and just be a hermit. I’m too laid back for this world. The clouds were forming into the shape of bolts of lightning. I gazed really hard at the clouds and wondered why they had formed shapes like that. It was very weird. They also spiralled around each other, like water flowing down a plughole. I leaned up and became hypnotized by it all. The sky grew dark blue, then grey, then black. Was a storm coming? Then, very suddenly, a real bolt of lightning struck from the spiral. The lightning wasn’t white, blue or yellow, but red and of all the places in the world, it decides to hit at me. The lightning struck through my whole skeleton and for a moment I went blind. I believed at the time that lightning was supposed to fry a person, that’s why the USA still use electric chairs, but this lighting was a strange, tickling sensation. Almost pleasant actually. Was this the actual moment of dying? Was I going to heaven? Am I dead?