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The Curse

The Curse: Part 1

According to legend it was secretly handed down from fraternity brother to fraternity brother, every three or four years over the span of 25 years. Contained in a small jar that was sealed within a slightly larger jar, and finally sealed within yet a larger jar, at some point, early on in its history it came to be known as The Curse. Over the years some rags and layers of plastic wrap and a garbage bag of two were applied so as to better contain any leakage of the awful contents of the inner most jar. The plastic also seemed to deaden the foul odor.

Such was the prize that I was awarded.

It was in a quite moment, a secret exchange between a departing brother and a successor deemed worthy.

“As bearer or The Curse, you are sworn to secrecy. Even though you are the little brother of my little brother, you must never tell Brad that I conferred this onto you. He does not know of The Curse. No one does except for the unbroken line of bearers. Only one brother may bear it and when he departs becomes an Eta Beta (Honored Brother), The Curse must be passed on to another worthy successor.”

“Why me?”

“From all reports, you deserve The Curse.”

“Well I don’t see how that is possible.”

“Who else is would have done it?”

“Done it?”

“I am not stupid. You had the means and apparently a motive. You had a falling out with Cooker and the others.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Well I am.”

“I’m a senior. Shouldn’t someone with a little more time left…?”

“You are the bearer. I have made my choice.”

“And if I don’t want it?”

“No one refuses The Curse,” he countered in a commanding voice. It wasn’t that I feared him so much as I respected him. He had been Brad’s big brother and a time or two he had stood up in chapter to defend my candidacy for this or that. The fact that he made it imperative bound me to his decision. Besides, what could it hurt, really?

“You must choose your successor before the end of this school year,” he continued, “You will not break the chain.”

Ten after a brief pause he told me the story of the origins.

As he explained it to me The Curse began in the early 1950's. A particular fraternity brother named Oscar had a recurring affection for limburger cheese that no other brother at that time and perhaps the no other in all mankind shared. Whenever he cared to satisfy his odd penchant for the malodorous byproduct of purposely cultured milk, he was avoided as surely as if he had the plague. Even his roommate Fred complained about having to keep the cheese in their room in their shared refrigerator. Fred decided to take matters into his own hands and sealed the jar containing the limburger inside a slightly larger jar. Apparently this was enough at the time to successfully contain the smell.

When Oscar the limburger lover finally graduated and departed the fraternity to take a stab at life in the real world, his underclassman roommate inherited the refrigerator that has been unplugged all summer long. Unfortunately there were a few things left inside the refrigerator. Fred readily disposed of the spoiled milk, the moldy bread, and even the rank and rotten apples. For some strange and perhaps sentimental reason he did not have the heart to part with the contents of the jar within a jar. Of course, alternatively he may have been afraid of contaminating the environment or endangering his personal health even by opening the jar.

Legend has it that there was one brother name Ted that was a notorious sort, prone to practical jokes as well as not being very regular with doing his laundry. He had amassed the largest pile by far in all the fraternity and perhaps even the entire campus. In consideration of his character and the generally disgusting side of human nature that he represented, the jar within a jar was originally passed onto him, unannounced, and hidden at the bottom of the pile of laundry where it was certain to not be found for some time. Unbeknownst to him, Ted was now the original bearer.

Upon the rare occasion when Ted finally did his once-a-semester, weekend-long ceremonial chore that rehabilitated at least half of the pile of laundry, he found the strange jar that up close smelled even worse than his three-month-old, crusty gym socks. Throwing caution to the wind and without any regard for the environment or any remaining wildlife in the vicinity, he took the jar out into the woods and buried it at the base of a birch tree, leaving it and fully intended to forget about it forever.

Then it happened. There was a change in Ted that that correlated with the springtime and his seeking the attentions of a very pretty lady that was on one of his classes. She had merely said hello to him and that was all that he needed to be immediately smitten.

As a result he cleaned up, washed all of his laundry and began to wear pressed and starched shirts and creased pants with wing tip shoes. He asked her for a date and after saying no the first few times his persistence was finally rewarded. It began as a single date, going to watch a movie and have some burgers and malteds afterwards. Over the next few weeks it evolved into a friendship and then finally a more serious relationship. At the peak of their relationship each day Ted and Sandra were inseparable until at night when curfew did them part. Sometimes all of that togetherness can also strain a relationship and so they began to argue a bit and after a while it took longer and longer for them to make up afterwards.

They did not really break up as much as over time they simply ceased to be a couple. They still went out together though not as frequently. At least he still held out hope that sooner or later the ember of their relationship would erupt anew and thaw the chill that was between them.

It was during their period of partial yet growing separation that Frank, one of his fraternity brothers asked Sandra out on a date and she accepted. It struck Ted as well as other members of the brotherhood as something that was at least rude and quite possibly disrespectful of the fraternal bonds. If permission been asked out of courtesy to Ted, as a gentleman he might have been okay with Frank having one date. The way that it had happened, Ted wanted to get even with Frank. As one date became several dates he felt as if an opportunistic brother had forced him out of Sandra’s life completely.

Ted had a dream about burying something in the woods and when he awakened he took that as a sign that maybe the gods intended for him to possess the putrid smelling contents of the jar within a jar. At least he saw the opportunity to put it to some use. He went out into the woods and after a few probes, dug it up. Over the winter months, and into the late spring it had only become more putrid. It was perfect for what he envisioned.

At some point along the planning, Ted, a former Catholic choir boy with a rebellious streak started referring to the contents of the inner most jar as The Pope's Curse, then later having thought better about involving the Pope in anything so nasty smelling, he decided to refer to it simply as The Curse.

The plan that Ted was formulating relied heavily on one fact: Frank never locked his car doors. It was the 1950's in the Midwest on a college campus where that was not all that unusual. Still, Frank always boasted a threat that if anyone ever bothered his car he would have his relatives from back east fix things. Ted understood what Frank was implying. At least some portion of Frank’s family was in the business of creating missing persons.

Frank's hubris was all the more reason for righteous punishment. In Ted’s estimation his arrogant fraternity brother needed to be taken down a notch. Still no one else seemed inclined to do the deed. Perhaps they believed Frank’s empty threat. More likely they simply ignored it as unimportant. As obnoxious as everyone else found Frank, he was a brother and a legacy. His father had been a brother before him. His father was one of the heaviest contributors to the building fund that would one day establish a new fraternity house on the other side of the campus. What Ted felt compelled to do he had to do alone and never let on to anyone that he knew anything about it. He had to keep the secret forever, trusting no one.

Obviously Ted trusted someone eventually; else I would not know the story. But that is getting a little ahead of things as this was to be only the first of four times that Ted would exercise the power of The Curse but it was an important first as it was the only time that he would apply the power against a brother, establishing a long standing precedent that only for obnoxious, discourteous or self-serving behavior could The Curse ever be used against a brother.

In the wee hours of the morning, Ted donned a backpack containing The Curse and braved the chill of a dew drenched grasses to crawl from shadow to shadow out, in and out of the view of any street light and over to Frank's car.

Just that night Frank had boasted that he was driving Sandra up to Chicago for the weekend. He had already made arrangements, withdrawing most of his cash reserve from the bank as he was going to shoot the works to impress her. He had already booked a room in a hotel for the weekend and fully intended not to be coming back until Monday morning.

Frank’s promises had served only to underscore the urgency of Ted’s mission. He was doing this for Sandra’s sake. She could not possibly know what an ass Frank was or what he intended for their trip to Chicago. She was not that kind of girl. Somehow Frank must have fooled her.

Slowly and quietly Ted reached up and opened the car door. The car was perfectly parked in a place that would conceal his handiwork from not only Frank’s window but also the view of any other brother. He sat up and removed the backpack from his shoulders, untied the flap and opened it. Immediately a waft of stench lifted from the jar within. Ted carefully opened the jar. Even though he was holding his breath he nearly retched a time or two from the foul smell that seemed to lock a hold on his nose. With a flat screw driver he pried the upholstered door panel and on the back side of it he applied a liberal amount of what was once semi-edible limburger long since turned into a black fetid goop so nasty that he needed to be careful so as to not risk touching it.

When he was finished he returned the panel to its position and quietly shut the door and ensured that it was closed tight. He then returned the seals on The Curse, returning it to it almost air tight confinement and placed it back in his backpack. He slithered back into the shadowy cover of the bushes and then scurried back into the fraternity house, making certain that no one saw him go back to his room.

At breakfast the next morning Frank was still boasting about his plans for after school. He had thought of everything. It was going to be the perfect weekend.

To Ted’s amazement Frank even got into his car and drove to class. His heart sank with the thought that The Curse was just too old or the door panel was too thick for the malodorous aroma to penetrate.

Later while he was in class, had even thought of telling Sandra about Frank’s plans but then thought better of it. How would that look to her? Was he that petty? She would not believe him, anyway. Regardless how much they had built trust into there relationship at one time it was over between them.

Ted was pretty-much depressed on the long walk back to the fraternity house from campus. He felt so powerless. He had failed.

As he walked up the driveway he saw Frank frantically searching under the seats of his car. Out of the corner of his eye, Frank saw Ted and called out to him. As he approached Frank’s car, Ted’s heart leaped into his throat with the fear of having been discovered as the culprit.

“Something crawled into this car and died,” Frank said. “Can you help me lift up the back seat? I have checked everywhere else.”

“What do you think it is?” Ted asked innocently while knowing exactly where the stench was coming from.

“I don’t know. This ruins everything I had planned for this weekend.”

“Maybe you can borrow someone else’s car.”

“There is no time. Besides it’s not the same, Ted. I had great plans and now I have to call my father and mother.”

“Why’s that?”

“They were coming to Chicago to meet Sandra.”

“Oh?”

“I even booked rooms for them.”

“Can they come here instead?”

“I don’t know. Still it is not the same, Ted. You know how it is. I had the perfect weekend planned: dinners and shows, going shopping tomorrow morning.”

Suddenly, Ted didn’t feel so well. Wasn’t it Frank’s fault though? He had been boasting all along without bothering to mention that his parents were going to be in the hotel with them. “Maybe your dad can come down and pick you up?” Ted offered.

“Maybe we’ll just have to ride the train up there,” Frank said. “It's too late to get a plane. I hate this. Why of all days did something have to pick today to crawl up into my car and die?”

Ted shrugged. There was no answer that he could offer. As Frank resigned to the inevitability he shut the car doors. “I’ll try to catch my folks before they leave home. I hadn’t planned on two train tickets but, well I have enough in pocket to cover it. I’ll just have to discretely borrow some money from dad to cover the dinners.”

“I’ll give you a ride over to Lafayette if you like, that is if you don’t mind riding in Kurt’s clunker,” Ted offered. “He let’s me use it as long as I put gas in it.”




("The Curse" is a three part story. This is the end of part one.)

E

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posted by Unknown @ 1:10 PM