Something must break

Time crawls when you’re not having fun. I noticed this during March Break in Florida two years ago, and it’s happening now. It’s been a long week. School drags, since March break is about to start. My mother and father are going to Florida for Spring training, and whatever my mother does whenever my father is watching baseball games that don’t count and making endless notes about them. They leave on Sunday morning, and I’m left with Charles Wallace for the week.
Charles Wallace, for his part, has been reading aloud from April’s blog for me. I gather from his interpretive readings that I’m not supposed to be reading the blog firsthand.
“I’m not reading this, you’re reading it to me. What does Duncan have to complain about?” I said to my brother.
“You broke up with him. You’ve made him listen to that weird music with the whining guitar in it—he kept singing about walking after midnight, and having the lovesick blues, and that he’ll have to go.”
“Country. Damn.”
Zapata maneuvered Jeremy into giving her tickets for a show this week. We all went, since Zapata out-maneuvered herself and Jeremy came up with more comps. Then she kind of got him to go to 300 tonight, but Eldritch decided to go too so Zenobia and I went along. Zapata really got into the Persian soldier killing. She kept poking me and saying, “Look, he’s got purple lips! He’s got to go!”
“Shut up, Zapata,” Eldritch said. “I can’t hear the movie.”
“I’m supporting my friends, so live with it,” Zapata said.
I felt really worn out after the movie, but I had to go do karaoke at the Three Kronen. Zenobia, Zapata, Eldritch, and Jeremy came along. It was the same as usual: a lot of people doing inappropriate Abba songs, and Wilco getting giddy on carrot shooters. At the end of the evening Duncan turned up. Luckily Zenobia was in the washroom right then, and Zapata and Eldritch were doing the evening’s one non-Swedish song. As Zapata sang, “I Got You Babe,” Duncan started to argue with Jeremy. I was at the bar with Wilco. Jeremy was getting angry, Duncan was angry, and I had to hold Wilco back from doing his newest form of self-defense. Jeremy and Duncan went over to the broken cigarette machine, and Ivar came over to talk to me once they started arguing really loudly.
“I feel really bad about this, since you’re a nice girl, but I have to let you go. I can’t have this drama happening every week with karaoke—it scares the regulars." Right then Duncan yelled, "Stay away from my ex-girlfriend," and slipped on a beer puddle. Ivar sighed. "Your uncle had something, I’m not sure what…” Right then a voice behind us said,
“Magic, perhaps?” I smelled the distinctive odor of lighter fluid. Arne was back.