Welcome Day

--1996, San Francisco State University, Mary Park Dormitory--

A light breeze touches the Fall leaves of a tree just enough to scatter them onto a concrete path that leads to a long, rectangular hand drawn sign which reads, "Welcome Fall '96 Students!"

The bland color of the dormitories gives off an old, but not yet ancient impression of simple architecture from decades past. Behind the dorms is the shore to the Pacific Ocean, a walking distance to the west under the fading sunlight, where a thick overcast sweeps across a crowd of eager students anticipating the start of a new semester.

Three floors above Mary Park's lobby, a Tupac song, "Changes," blares from a window in attempt to liven the campus' mood marred only by the comments of disapproving parents claiming, "That's not music."

Gamers, without delay, unhesitatingly furnish their dorm room with the latest in video game entertainment: a Super Nintendo console. Inside the lobby, a small crowd gathers in front of a bulletin board searching for their room assignments.

Two young girls struggling to carry a bed-sized home gym to the next floor go unnoticed by the many incoming residents. Yet, a different pair seem to attract more attention with their 48 inch television screen.

There is a streching line of homesick students waiting to use one of four phone booths aligned side-by-side against the lobby wall.

It is there that we turn our attention to the second booth from the left, where a young girl is casually seated. She is dressed in a black business outfit. Her straight black hair, just touching her shoulders, is softly pressed against the phone's speaker where her ear is slightly covered. Her exotic eyes conceal many untold stories of a faraway place where many claim they know well through television, but few have ever visited. She exhibits motions that are more mature and sophisticated as compared to the other girls her age; every moment of her laughter is conservatively covered by her free hand. From behind the clear booth door, her conversation is inaudible.

For now, her presence is insignificant. However, without anyone's awareness, her being has sparked an emotion of interest from across the lobby.

The body language of her soft giggle, supplemented with the calm joy in her almond shaped eyes, naturally ignite the dormant senses of an individual exhibiting a familiar, unchanged and boyish character who is now more physically mature than we last recall.

If we carefully tune into his head with a cautious adjustment of a television's antennae, we would be entertained to notice how the world around him has gradually slowed down. Every sound is mute except the beating of his heart that pulsates like a wild bird.

In his mind, at the moment his eyes gaze upon her, the blaring rap music above transforms into a forgotten recording of, "There She Goes," by the La's.

Suddenly, an abrupt echo of his father's voice disrupts the moment like an old record player scratching across the middle of the song.

"I did NOT send you to school to gawk at girls! You are here to study! No dating! NO looking!"

Placing his index finger at the center of his round large glasses, the young man slides his frame closer to his eyes as if to regain his focus. He brings to attention the girl's high class attire as compared to his worn jeans and old t-shirt with the phrase "Baseball is Life" printed in color shifting material on the front. It's a style straight from an 1980s fashion line.

His logic, conditioned from the relationship between him and an older sibling whose ego is more fragile than the narcissism of a bad boss, reminds him of the advice he received from him while entering high school as a freshman.

"You will never be worthy of any girl...EVER.

If I can't be happy, then so can't YOU!."

The young man walks away, his presence still unnoticed by the girl; neither of them realizing how the their chapters of fate will overlap in the future.

Approaching his new room, the last one to the right at the end of the all-boys floor just before the emergency exit, he notices, from the corner of his eye, his new neighbors residing from across. They are all huddled around a big television screen, congratulating one another with high fives as they complete another level of "Super Mario Kart."

Entering his room, he meets his new roommate, Daniel, a much older student from Taiwan. He introduces himself to El as one who has paid his way to University by working as a palm reader in the streets of Taipei.

"By the way," Daniel says pointing to the empty bed on the right. "I'm giving you this side of our room. Hope you don't mind. Your side gives off negative vibes."

"No worries," El replies, holding back feelings of cynicism.

El convinces himself, after listening to Daniel's psychic introduction, "It's going to be one entertaining school year."

He decorates the corner of his desk with Windcharger, the Transformers action figure he received on his eleventh birthday, and the only childhood toy he was able to save after his entire collection of Transformers and G.I. Joe figures was sold by a close "friend," Jules, who kept all the profits.

Above his bed, on the empty spaces on the wall, El carefully tacks a comic book, "Web of Spider-Man," issue number 31. He repeatedly cleans and centers the comic in order to achieve a satisfying alignment that complements both his senses, and the laws of symmetry and balance according to the Universe.

Outside the building, rental vans begin slowly dispersing. The atmosphere suggests the conclusion of a rather active day; families and students exchange their final wishes for a successful semester before saying their "good-byes" to one another.

Unnoticed, a slight wind continues to scatter more dry leaves onto the ground.

A black bird perched within a tree branch stares from outside and into a window of a deliberately vacant room on the first floor of the all-boys floor, where a shadow of what appears to be a person stands idly.

The mysterious shadow, who has surveyed this "Welcome Day" since the start, inanimately continues standing behind the window as if time has no relevance to its questionable presence.

Coincidentally, just like El's room, this shadow is also on the first floor of the all-boys hall, just a few doors closer to the entrance of the hall.

Neither the shadow, nor El realize that the chapters of their fate will soon also...

overlap.