THE ATHENAEUM RENDEZVOUS THE ATHENAEUM RENDEZVOUS

As I got to school the next day , the Greek gang of five were down the hallway, two of the boys wore glasses, curiously enough the same kind: tiny, fuddy - duddy, with round steel rims.

The larger of the two was dark - haired with a coarse pale skin. He might have been handsome had his features been less set, or his eyes, behind his glasses, less expressionless and blank.

He wore dark English suits and carried an umbrella, and walked stiffly through the throngs of hippies and mavericks and preppies and ruffians with the self - conscious formality of an old ballerina, I'd heard he was "Henry Winter."

The smaller of the two,but not by much, was a sloppy blond boy, rosy-cheeked and gum-chewing, with a relentlessly cheery deportment and his fists thrust deep in the pockets of his trousers.

Bunny Corcoran was his name , being somehow short for Edmund. The third boy had a shrewd albino face, and a short, fiery mop of the reddest hair. I thought he dressed like Alfred Douglas, or the Comte de Montesquieu.

Francis Abernathy was his name. And then there was a pair, a boy and a girl. I saw them together, a great deal. They looked very much alike, with heavy dark blond hair and epicene faces , as clear, as cheerful as grave. Their names were Charles and Camilla Macaulay.

I really didn't know them well but somehow I knew. In a week there was a competition and Bunny, who was really poor at other languages, but usually put on a brave face, was chosen to represent the other four.

That afternoon as I was searching a shelf I suddenly heard some voices behind me .

"I don't know about that," Camilla was saying. "If the Greeks are sailing to Carthage, it should be accusative. Remember? Place either? That's the rule."

"Can't be." This was Bunny. His voice was nasal and prolix, W.C Fields with a bad case of Long Island lockjaw. "It's not a place either, it's a place to. I put my money on the ablative case."

There was a confused rattling of papers.

"Wait," said Charles. His voice was a lot like his sister's, hoarse, slightly Southern.

"Look at this. They are not just sailing to Carthage, they are sailing to attack it."

"You must be sick."

"No, they are. Look at the next sentence. We need a dative."

"Are you sure?"

More rustling of papers.

"Absolutely. Epi to karchidona."

"I don't see how," said Bunny. He sounded like Thurston Howell on Gilligan's Island." Ablative the ticket. The hard ones are always ablative."

A slight pause." Bunny," said Charles, "you're mixed up. The ablative is in Latin."

"Well, of course, I know that," said Bunny irritably, after a confused pause which seemed to indicate the contrary, "but you know what I mean. Aorist, ablative, all the same thing, really…"

"Look, Charles," said Camilla." This dative won't work."

"Yes it will. They are sailing to attack, aren't they?"

"Yes, but the Greeks sailed over the sea to Carthage."

"But I put that epi in front of it."

"Well we can attack and still use epi, but we have to use an accusative because of the first rules."

"Shouldn't we ask Henry?" said Bunny

"About?" asked Camilla

"This. Instead of arguing without an answer."

"We will find an answer," said Charles after a long pause.

I was still standing in front of them when Camilla suddenly shouted

"Oh, My God!!!"

"What now ?" said Charles after hearing Camilla's outburst.

"The answer!! It's right here!"

"Where?"

"Right in front of us! She is a genius."

"You mean her."

"Don't you think she can help us?"

"Absolutely not!!" said Bunny after listening carefully to what they were saying.

"Why don't we try, you might never know if she could help us, unless you try, uh."

"Go on," said Bunny.

Camilla leaned forward and said

"Miss Rachael, we need your help over here, do you think you can help us, please?"

I turned around and saw the three of them staring at me like I was some alien. Charles turned the paper to my side and I looked at it, Segregation.Self.Self-concept.

"I'm sorry, but would the locative case do?"

Nobody said anything for a long moment.

"Locative?" said Charles.

"Just add zde to karchido," I said. "I think it's zde. If you use that, you won't need a preposition, except the epi if they are going to war. It implies ' Carthage - ward,' so you won't have to worry about a case either.

Charles looked at the paper and then me. "Locative?" he said. "That's pretty enigmatic."

"Are you sure it exists for Carthage?" said Camilla.

"Maybe I'm, maybe I am not. But why did you ask me if you would tation me?"

"Oh ,hell, don't bother," said Bunny stridently. "If you don't have to decline it and don't need a preposition it sounds good to me." He reared back in his chair and looked up at me. "I'd like to shake your hand, stranger." I offered it to him; and he clasped and shook it firmly, almost knocking an ink bottle over with his elbow as he did so. " Jocund to meet you."

I was confused by this sudden glare of attention from them; it was as if the characters in a favorite novel, absorbed in their own playwright, had looked up from the book and spoken to me.

Charles, still fumbling with the lexicon, rose and offered his hand. "My name is Charles Macaulay. This is my sister Camilla and this is Bun, did you tell her your name already?"

"No,no, don't think so. You've saved my life. I never knew what I'd do if I didn't know the answer. We had ten more like this to do and five minutes to do them in. Edmund Corcoran's the name," said Bunny, grasping my hand again.

"You weren't gonna die, where you?" I was confused.

"Don't you understand, if I don't do this work Mr Williams might actually skin me alive."

"Ohh, yes."

As I was about to go Henry came in, and pretended not to see me.

"Hello," he said to them. "Are you finished?"

Bunny tossed his head at me.

" Look here, Henry, we've got someone to meet you." He said.

Henry glanced up . His expression didn't change. He shut his eyes and then reopened them, as if he found it extraordinary that someone such as myself could stand in his path of vision.

His reaction was understandable. I was a loner, and had never interacted with anyone, talkless of speaking with the most popular kids in school.

" Isn't she …Rachel?" He rubbed his eyes, to dispose of the invisible particles that caused him eye irritation.

His reaction was quite exaggerated. Even I couldn't even understand why I was speaking. Was it because yesterday was my birthday? Or , because I would be participating in the upcoming Greek competition with them, representing the school?