The Wandering Rocks: Blazes Boylan side story

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…May I say a word to your telephone, missy? he asked roguishly…

The blond girl dropped the Spanish jasmine flower1 she was grasping and took the docket and pencil and wrote down her number.

Blazes Boylan placed the blonde girl’s number in his trousers’ pocket.

With a boyish grin, he departed. He swung himself forward and walked along the road.

He reached for ivory horn2 door handles, flung open the doors, and entered Starbucks.

Amidst the dull murmur of conversation, drone of the coffee grinder, and drip** of the espresso machine, Buck Mulligan continued speaking to a preoccupied Haines.

He could on no account be a poet—he was not pure. He had been transformed, an Alpheus3 hunter. The fixed idea of hell had conformationally* altered him; his sense of vengeance, justice, providence and beauty were marked, changed forevermore. He could not see true beauty; Célimène4 beauty, not diminished by character or age, did not exist.

Upon finishing his drink, Buck Mulligan walked to the counter, behind Boylan, leaving Haines to ponder what he had just said. Buck was craving something more than just real Irish cream.

Blazes Boylan placed his order with the barista, a beautiful girl with a delicate figure. Her presence was empyreal5. She had flowing flaxen hair, and lustrous, blue eyes—she was Freya6. She did not belong there; she was a salmon** in the Sonoran7.

Blazes Boylan immediately began to spout** his grandiose stories, in an attempt to strike conversation.

Haines listened in from his seat next to the bathroom. The persistent trickle of water8** was exasperating. Buck, standing in line, observed that Blazes Boylan was the Basilisco knight9.

Blazes Boylan needed to urinate**. He fought off the feeling, and ran his routines, his stories, but with the exigent matter at hand, he was not able to wholly focus on what he was saying. He could not win her. She was uninterested.

With no name-tag visible above her left breast, he asked for her name. Emma Bovary10 said she. The blond girl fended off his next attempts. He thought of redoubling his efforts, but the overwhelming pressure below forced him otherwise**. This was his Actium11**. He was defeated.

With the sting of his loss, Blazes Boylan thought of just ordering his drink, but instead gave in to the urge to micturate12, and walked off without another word. Adad13** was victorious.

He ambled to the bathroom. He glanced back, but the fleeting desire to talk to her again was immediately extinguished by his immediate discomfort***.

Haines noted that Starbucks was not simply a coffee shop, but a culture of its own. It was a rush of images melded together, flowing** through his mind; the transient assemblies of people never gathered for more than a moment. He was unable to focus.***

Monster truck14.

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1. Spanish jasmine flower: symbolizes lust--flower symbolism
2. Horns attributed to Pan and the satyr, a symbol for lust. (Roman mythology)
3. Alpheus hunter pursuing Arethusa is turned into a river. (Greek mythology)
4. Célimène beauty not diminished by character or age. (French. Drama: The Misanthrope)
5. Empyreal: of or relating to the heavens.
6. Freya is the goddess of love, beauty, and fecundity; she is beautiful, blue-eyed, and blonde. (Norse myth)
7. Sonoran: North American desert
8. **: Water theme: trout, Alpheus (turned into a river), persistent trickle of the water, Actium: Octavian’s naval defeat of Antony, bathroom references, use of “spout” and “flowing”—referring to the treacherous water passage
9. Basilisco knight: renowned for foolish bragging. (British Literature: Solomon and Persida)
10. Bovary, Emma housewife suffers from ennui. (French Literature: Madame Bovary)
11. Actium: Octavian’s naval defeat of Antony and Cleopatra (31 B.C.--Rom. History)
12. Micturate: to pass water; urinate
13. Adad: the storm god; helped cause the Flood, according to Babylonian mythology.
14. Monster truck: An automobile, typically styled after pickup trucks, modified or purposely built with extremely large wheels and suspension
* I can make up my own words too
*** The “Wandering Rocks” of The Odyssey were boulders that shifted position in the mist and could capsize a ship. The “Wandering Rocks” in my episode is represented by the overwhelming desire to urinate/multiple references to water, which ultimately “capsizes” Blazes Boylan from reaching his goal, attaining Emma.