Chapter 20 - The First Chance

Underground Music

Oliver Fagin Thomas found himself within touching distance of Cassandra Calo on three occasions between first seeing her play Nancy in Oliver! and selecting her to be the first Persephone fourteen years later. Oliver was fully aware of Cassandra and her talents on each of these chance encounters, while she knew nothing about him. In fact, Cassandra has openly denied ever having been to the Blue Canoe Saloon, but there are at least two existing photographs that prove her wrong.

But the Blue Canoe Saloon was the third meeting, it is best to start with the first. The first time Oliver saw Cassandra in public he was twelve years old, and both of his attention spans were concentrating on other matters. He was in an airport, alone, as the cheapest flight to Moscow left during business hours at a time that was particularly busy for Oliver's father. John Thomas did as much as possible to make up for not being present at the moment of Oliver's actual departure. They had a raucous two-man party the night before, with take out Mexican food, a clip-reel of Oliver's favorite moments in the history of television, and a full glass of red wine for each of them. "Children drink wine in Europe," his father told him. "Russia has a history of not being able to decide if it is European or not, and just in case, you should try some so you'll know whether to say yes or not." Oliver enjoyed the wine, and would enjoy wine for the rest of his life.

Still, when the next day came, Oliver came to work with his father and sat in the lobby with his luggage until one of the studio's more responsible production assistants took Oliver and his bags to the airport.

Dan Krahulik, twenty years old at the time, was the Labrador retriever or young men. He was short, blond, had a bit of an underage beer gut and not really very intelligent but was extremely friendly. Oliver's happiness in seeing him temporarily overwhelmed his fear of the future and grief for the things he was leaving behind.

Dan hoisted the over-stuffed duffle bag onto his shoulder and it bumped against the back of his shins as he picked up the suitcase. Oliver carried his own knapsack and followed him into the large passenger van owned by the studio.

Riding in the front seat of the van, Oliver suddenly felt like he had grown older, this was one of the first times he had been in a vehicle without a real adult, Dan, certainly not a teenager, was not a real adult either. Perhaps part of the feeling came being higher than the other cars; mostly it was the music that Dan was playing. Oliver had been exposed to all kinds of music. He knew more about classical music than most adults and just as much about every top 40 popular song released since 1940. This music was neither, it was underground. Music imitating this stuff would be top 40 three years later but now it was undiscovered and raw. The 'fucks' were not bleeped out, but said with a recklessness that made them seem more honest than obscene. Oliver pretended to enjoy and understand this new form of cultural expression but in truth he was scared by how much it fascinated him.

This fascination, this newly discovered notion of the underground was still occupying Oliver's attentions in the airport. Certainly Oliver was experiencing many unpleasant emotional stresses at that time, fear of getting into a machine and flying over the ocean, terror of living in a new county, meeting his mother with whom he had never had a conversation in person, grief for leaving his father, but Oliver knew that he had just realized something very important; something that would change his life far more than this plane trip. Dr. Partee would probably say that this new idea seemed so attractive because it offered Oliver a chance to escape the horrible anxieties facing him, and that is an idea that must certainly contain some truth, but however psychologically complex the situation, a short ride in a white passenger van with no real adults, might have been one of the more important cultural events in the history of cultural events.

So, when Oliver found himself sitting directly across from Cassandra Calo in the airport waiting room, he took this as a sign that these new ideas he felt gestating in his mind's womb should cause him to rethink the entire play and the character of Persephone in particular. This is not to say that Oliver was superstitious, but instead that Oliver understood superstition. He had come to realize, perhaps prematurely that people need drama, and that if they want something to have meaning they will give meaning to something that is meaningless, they will find a mystery plot in the gasoline prices, a romance in the stock market, and a coincidence to be a sign from God. If Oliver was going to write the most popular play ever written, he was going to have to find the drama in its creation.

Oliver recognized Cassandra immediately; he knew that he was looking at the woman who would be his star actress twelve years in the future. He also knew that he had to pretend that she was only a stranger, because to make contact this early would ruin everything. So on this particular afternoon, Oliver could only watch Dan Krahulik flirt successfully with the future most famous woman in the world, while in his mind he started over from scratch.