DAVIS 6

davis 6

benjamin willen

Decades night in Davis 6.

Naturally, it was the ‘60s. All the kids danced with owers in their hair, bathed in the tie-dye light as the band played on.

Well, almost all of them. is girl from 2, in a apper dress, was at on her back in the corner. is boy from 9, in a annel and chucks, was waving his arms and tripping hard.

Joel and I laughed. We jumped up and down, cracked our cups, and sang along.

Davis 6 looks no di erent from Davis 1 to 5, and 7 to 11. Two stories tall, weird marks on the windows, weathered brick walls. But it’s the real party dorm on a block full of them.

Joel helped me move in at the end of paper week, before he went o to Amsterdam. AJ and Rob gave me a tour a er break, so the whole block would know his room was my room now. at night, over tacos and bong hits, they showed me pictures of parties

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past.

Don’t match Joel, B—, they said. Do him better. Our reputation is at stake.

Are you sure? I said.

What? they said. You don’t know? ey went on and on about hard it was. Being the party master, for all of Davis, and not just 6. I pulled out my phone.

Was it really that hard? I texted Joel.

He was stoned on a bench by some canal. But his brain was still on New York time.

You have no idea, he said. But you can do it.

My rst task? Decades night, revisited. And it wasn’t hard at all.

A decade for each dorm on the block. As long as we had the right out ts, we could move from one decade to the next, and feel welcome anywhere we went. e apper and the grunge kid came back. I thought about kicking them out, now that I could do that. But I didn’t. It sure looked like the brown acid was fun.

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Valentine’s Day wasn’t hard, either.

I pulled from my memories of Halloween. Make a pretty ballroom, instead of a spooky haunted house, although I’d rather have made a haunted house. And try not to let the cupids strike us down, instead of clowns with knives. A few cupids came in. ey put their bows on the oor and slow danced. e clowns were never that polite.

Also, our pre-spring break extravaganza. Wow, that was a breeze.

All black, so ashes, blinding light, all black again. Over and over as the beats owed and everybody danced. Like they were already in Florida, or the Bahamas, or wherever else they’d be going while I was stuck in the Hamptons. Way more fun than our pre-winter break extravaganza. In which case, I’d have had to respect all faiths. Yes, even the skunk cult.

Where could you go from there? What was I supposed to do on Friday nights when there was nothing to celebrate?

Well, rst, art night.

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We were pop art. Neon hair, pale makeup. Coke bottles and soup cans in hand.

Cubists came in from 3. ose nudes, they screamed with their animal mouths, straight out of Guernica itself. Dadaists came in from 5. A bride in glass, a plastic waterfall, a hand crushed by a urinal. But they didn’t stay long.

Next, science night.

We were DNA. A twisting chain of jumpsuits. Red, yellow, blue, green.

HIV came in from 8. ey wore our colors, a sickly purple poking out from underneath. Most of us didn’t notice. ose who did, didn’t want to break us apart. Until someone chased them away with a great big pack of condoms. en, war night.

We were Vietnam. Tiny boats on a lazy river through the napalm fog. e Civil War came in from 1. World War II from 4. Afghanistan from 10. e war on Christmas from 11. ey warned us, and we didn’t listen. We sailed on and choked while they took us out. Bullets. Bombs.

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Waterboards. Co ee cups. e horror, the horror.

Perhaps, I said, it had to be this way. Perhaps I did do Joel better. Perhaps I saved our reputation a er all.

I coughed. AJ and Rob took another hit.

You’re perhapsing it too hard, B—, AJ said. We really had nothing to save. We just had to prove we were still on top.

Guess you succeeded, Rob said. ey’re not coming cause they think we’re cool. ey’re coming cause they know they can’t compare.

But they’re trying, I said. ey’re really trying. It doesn’t matter where they go, or where they’re from. ey all just want to have fun. Don’t they?

Delivery arrived.

I didn’t want to be the life of Davis 6. I just wanted folks who made me feel welcome. Not once or twice a month. Every weekend. at was all I needed, really. And the rst decades night was the rst night I got that.

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Joel built that night around a question. How did people live? What did they do?

I took it further each time. e questions people asked. e discoveries they made. All the shit they chose to ignore.

Where do you go from there?

I don’t know.

I thought all this planning would be fun. More fun than choking on dactylic hexameter, at least. But no. It’s wearing me out, making them think I’m someone I’m not. Someone who perhapses himself and everyone around him to death.

I text Joel. I forget he’s under the red lights, all night long.

A knock on my door. Siena, from 7, and also my Latin class.

Hey there, she says, I just wanted to say—

You’re nding Ovid too confusing? I say.

Oh, no, she says. What I wanted to say is, I like your thinking.

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You do? I say. Really? It’s wearing me out.

I do, she says. Really, I do. It’s inspiring the whole block. Going back to the decades, but deeper and deeper, so we see both the great and terrible, until we’ve ended up… where?

I remember conspiracy night. We had been the gunmen on the grassy knoll. 7 came in, and they were Watergate. I don’t mention it. If Siena saw me then, she saw me passed out. When I woke up, my magic bullet lay inches from my brain.

But you don’t have to wear yourself out, she says. Or the rest of us.

I have an idea, I say. Don’t tell our neighbors.

I won’t, she says. It’s just parties this weekend. Nothing special. Just parties.

Fatalism night in Davis 6. e whole block comes over. ey don’t know what they’re about to see.

All black. So ashes. Blinding light. All black again.

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en, a party. Nothing special. Just a party.

It doesn’t matter where you go, I say, or where you’re from. We all want the same things.

Some leave. Most stay.

AJ and Rob wave from across the room. Siena and I wave back.

We sing along, crack our cups, jump up and down, and laugh.

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