"Episode 13- When We Were Very Young"
by Mike F

     The sun was beginning to set over the skies at Springfield.  Jake had
been sitting in his dorm room, thinking about the events of the past week. 
School life had been considerably slow.  His teachers, for some reason or
another, weren't giving the usual amount of daily homework.  This gave Jake
the spare time he was so desperately needing for other projects and to
spend time with his friends.  Unfortunately, everyone else seemed to be
busy.  Jenny was swamped with a chemistry assignment, Tony was spending
extra time with Sam, and nobody else seemed to be around.  That was
typical.  All the free time in the world and nothing to do with it, and
nobody to spend it with.  Next week, he'll be bombarded by homework and
everyone else will wonder why he can't manage his time.  But that's the way
it was with everyone.  Too much or too little.  Someday, he'll get that
worked out, he thought.  Mr. Corey, his philosophy teacher, had beat the
"three aspects of life" concept into his students minds.  According to
Corey, everyone needed a balance of love, friendship, and a comfortable
work situation.  Friendship was never a problem.  School, even in its
hectic moments, was for the most part manageable.  Love, well... what
is love anyway?  After writing fifty-three love songs, Jake thought he
would have gotten it all down pat.  But even after fifty-three love songs,
he still couldn't figure love out.  But Jake knew not to worry so much
about the motives that his better half was contemplating, but rather to
focus on the good times, and the simple fact that they ended up together. 
He still couldn't get over that.
     A little over a year ago, Jake had signed a record deal with a major
label.  The deal allowed him a couple of months to gather ideas and to get
in touch with his artistic side.  After he had broken up with Tiffiani,
Jake had felt the torment of a bleeding heart.  He didn't see much of the
gang and since most of his days were stressful, he had grown accustomed to
taking long walks in the evenings to relax.  Sometimes, he would go to a
nearby coffee shop called "Stacey's" and grab a cup of iced mocha.  One
time, he decided to walk down the street where the Garrison's used to live. 
It was a balmy summer night, and the sun had just set leaving the sky with
a hazy dark blue color.  The Garrison's lived in a small, quiet
neighborhood in the valley.  Jake found himself wandering down the roads
of that place.  He was in awe when he started to realized where he was
at.  It has been a while since he had been there, so it took him some time
to locate the Garrison's old house.  Funny thing was, there was a large
factory that seemed to loom over the houses on the south side of that
street.  He looked at the factory hiding behind the spaces of the houses
and it bothered him that he couldn't remember it ever being there.  It
was too big to have been built recently, but these days, anything is
possible.  Maybe it was symbolic, he thought.  There was something really
important here, and he had never noticed it before. 
     But it didn't matter anyway.  At first, he had gotten chills walking
down the sidewalk and seeing her house for the first time in ages.  He
almost felt out of place, like he didn't belong there.  For a moment, he
expected her to come out of her old house.  But she didn't, of course.  The
feeling of the place seemed to fade away then, leaving an empty emotion in
his heart.  There was something there once, but not anymore.  It was like
hearing an old song that reminds you of a time you once had, but once
it's over, that's it.  You're thrown back into reality, sometimes
painfully.  Jake took one last glance at the old Garrison home, then walked
away.  The hum from the factory became faint, then that faded away as well. 
Life moved on.
     But now, things were a lot different.  He was in Illinois, and in love
with someone he thought he would never see again.  He had heard stories
about things like that.  One time, when he was working at a flower shop
after being mislead by an instructor, a customer had told him a story about
his wife, whom he was buying the flowers for.  The man had gotten married
to someone else a long time ago, but his former wife had left him.  He had
spent some time traveling around the country afterwards.  In Cleveland, he
met his old high school sweetheart at an Indians game.  She had also
married at one time, but she had divorced recently.  The man ended up
marrying her.  He said the flowers he was buying were for their twelve
wedding anniversary.  
     But marriage was far from Jake's mind right now.  In fact, the older
he got the farther marriage seemed to be from his life.  In fact, it almost
seemed impossible how people could have the time to meet and get married. 
But no matter, there were more important issues to take care of.  Like the
dorm room.  It had not been cleaned for at least seventeen weeks and making
your way from the front door to the bathroom became somewhat of an
adventure even Indiana Jones would have been wary of taking on.  Of
course, had Jake decided not to leave his Indiana Jones lunchbox at home,
he might be more inspired to make his way through the mess more often. 
Little sentimental items like that had a way with Jake, but at this point
nothing could really motivate him.  Jenny had called a few hours ago,
asking him if he wanted to see "The English Patient" again.  Of course he
said sure.  But why he was willing to go again was beyond even his rational
thoughts.  The movie was okay, but it was so long!  The only thought that
ran through his mind the first time they saw it was that if the lead
character had just gone ahead and died in the beginning of the movie, he
would have saved a lot of people a lot of trouble.  But the movie meant
something to Jenny, and that was important.  Besides, if he stayed home
he would have to clean the dorm, and he was starting to get accustomed
to Tony's stories about how the underwear on the floor came to life at
night and attacked his head when he would fall asleep.  Jake felt that Tony
either had an overactive imagination, or dreamt about things that were
better off not being talked about.  
     The phone rang in Jake's dorm.  Jake stumbled out of bed, banged his
head on the top bunk, and picked up the receiver.
     "Hello?"  Jake mumbled.
     "Hi Jake!"
     Jake recognized the voice then sighed to himself.  "Oh, hi Sly."
     Sly immediately took over the conversation from there.  Things back in
California were all right.  Lorena was still dating him, which didn't make
much sense to Jake at all.  Sly talked about his cousin, the band, girls in
bikinis, the works.  Jake began to notice how he barely ever mentioned
Tiffiani, showing at least some tact on his part.  Sly knew that Tiffiani
was still a real tender subject with Jake, after they had broken up for the
second time.  Both of them claimed that there was no hard feelings for each
other, but Sly noticed that both of them rarely ever spoke and when they
did the conversation seemed spotty and usually about trivial matters.   But
they had managed to get along, which was for right now just fine.  Sly
eventually finally arrived at the point of his phone call to Jake, which
didn't seem to go over very well.
     "Are you goofy?"  Were Jake's exact words.
     "No!"  Sly bounced back.  "Lorena and I want a bigger role in the band
out here.  We're tired of being stupid managers.  We want more!"
     Obviously, Sly had the memory of a waffle iron.  Jake still cringed
thinking about Lornea's attempt at becoming the band's lead singer.  Lorena
and Sly were good people, but were definitely not musicians.  Jake tried to
make this point across, but as usual, Sly wouldn't listen.
     "Trust me," Sly stated.  "Lornea is going to be in the band, but we're
starting her off slow.  She'll be the tambourine player."
     "Great, what about you?"
     "I'm going to be the band's Brian Eno!"
     Jake paused.  "You're going to be the band's lying emu?"
     Sly laughed in his usual annoying "uh HA," then continued.  "No
stupid, Brian Eno.  You know, he's the guy who helped innovate U2 by
bringing their music into the electronic age, and I plan on doing the same
for the Dreams!"
     Jake rolled his eyes.  "And I assume you've done hours of research on
music theory, digital mixing systems, and all that?"
     Sly paused for a second.  "Well, sort of.  I spent five minutes in a
Radio Shack a week ago, you know, to get the feel of the whole
electronic... music... scenario... thing."
     "I see, well a word of advice, you know those small plates on the wall
with the pair of two vertical slits.  Those are for electric plugs, not
your fingers."
     Sly was annoyed.  "Funny, so it's okay with you then?"
     "It's not my decision really, ask your band."
     "Okay, I'd better get going now.  Gotta meet with Lorena.  You still
seeing Jenny?"
     "Of course."
     "Cool.  Take care of yourself.  Later!"  Sly hit the end button on his
cellular and continued to walk through the winding paths of his campus
grounds.
     Jake got out of bed after hanging up the phone, and prepared for his
date.  While doing the usual prep work for an evening out with Jenny, Tony
came barging in.  Tony was complaining about Sam and how she was getting
too serious or something or another.  Jake told him that he shouldn't worry
so much and tried to give him the best advice he could.  Although Tony did
point out at one point that it was hard to take him seriously, since Jake
was pacing around in his boxer shorts.  After having Tony smell several
different shirts that were lying on the floor, Jake got dressed and made
his way to Jenny's dorm, assuring Tony that everything would be okay and
presented him with several ways of dealing with his situation.  Halfway
through the trip he started to wonder if any of his advice had steered Tony
in he right direction.


     "The English Patient" ended the same way it did before.  Wow.  Hooray. 
Jake had almost fallen asleep twice, but was at least awake for the
heartbreaking ending.  Not that he was paying any attention to the movie,
but more to Jenny's facial expressions.  She had become so lost in the
film, that when the story had taken a turn for the worst, her eyes grew
larger than her head, and had that glossy- teary eyed shine to them.  She
looked liked one of those Japanese animation cartoon guys that you see on
the sci-fi cable stations.  The two of them left the theatre together as
the ending credits rolled by on the screen.  Jake still felt mediocre about
the flick, but to see Jenny with such emotion made his heart race.  It had
been a while since she had cut loose with her feelings, even though they
were directed toward a mythical World War II pilot and his tragic downfall. 
It made him wonder about her.  She had not been acting the same for a
while.  It almost seemed like she was trying to avoid becoming too close to
him.  Although he couldn't pick a specific incident, he knew there was
something wrong.  The couple made their way into the lobby, when Jenny
seemed to perk up again.  She saw someone in that lobby she recognized.
     "Hi Jenny!"
     It was a guy named Richard.  Richard was a male model that had some
following on the campus.  Jake had seen him posing around the buildings at
times.  Jake hated any guy that he could picture looking at himself in the
mirror in awe for hours at a time.  Jake then realized that he didn't like
Sly that much after all.  But for right now, Richard had the center stage. 
Jenny kept tripping over her words while attempting to speak to him.  She
was conversing with Rich, forgetting that Jake was even there.  It took
Jake three badly faked coughs to get Jenny's attention, in which she
regathered her thoughts and introduced the two men together.
     "Uh, Richard... this is my.... this is Jake."
     "Oh, hi Jake."
     "Hi Dick!"
     Richard gave Jake a look, "I prefer Richard."
     Jake smiled.  "I'm sure you do."
     Jennifer began to sense the tension between the two, so he decided to
shift the conversation to other topics.  Jake found out that this Richard
character was in Jenny's Chemistry class, and from what he could guess,
they were lab partners.  This started to irritate him a bit.  She had never
mentioned this guy to him before, like as if she was hiding something
important from him.  She would always tell him everything.  Everything that
was happening with her life, not depending on how influential it was.  She
had once talked for an hour about her obsession for her collection of
stuffed animals when she was in junior high school.  But this was
different.  This was haunting.
     Sometimes things happen for a reason.  This is what Corey would say. 
Years ago, when the '94 quake hit Los Angeles, one of the subdivisions was
badly damaged, leaving many of the causalities of that day from people in
that area.  This always stuck in Jake's mind, like a milepost in a picket
fence of his life.  He had felt so sorry for those people in that
community.  Then one day, someone had mentioned to him, in an unrelated
conversation with one of the waiters at Sharkey's, that that particular
community was very racist, and did some things to provoke minorities in
that region.  He remembered how devastated he felt.  Here was something
sacred, something he felt that there was no moral question over.  People
had died in what was thought to be a nice community.  But it was forever
tainted now.  He no longer felt any strong emotion for that place, and it
left him wondering why there was nothing that was completely right or wrong
in the world anymore.  It was more like which is the lesser of two evils. 
And Corey said that sometimes things had happened for a reason, which meant
that maybe sometimes things happened for no reason.
     Jake tried to stop thinking about it.  He knew he was starting to
drift off a bit.  Maybe it was his mind trying to relax himself, take his
anger away for a moment, so he could gather his thoughts and act
rationally.  But this was no time for being rational.  It was time to act
fast.  It was time to.... to.... to....
     Jake felt a severe cramp in his stomach.  Knowing exactly what it
meant, he ran to the nearest bathroom and had a chance to see his dinner
again.  Afterwards, he slowly hobbled his way to the mirror.  Looking at
the smeared reflection, he began to feel very self conscious.  His chance
to act, to impress Jenny, and he got sick.  Not exactly the most impressive
maneuver of his life, but before he could get too caught up in his own self
pity, he heard a tapping on the restroom door.
     "Jake, are you all right?"
     It was Jenny.  Well, Jake thought, at least that got her attention.
     "Uh..... I'm okay.  I think I got a flu bug or something."  He moaned.
     Jenny cracked open the door.  "Maybe I should take you home."
     "Okay."  He felt too sick to argue.

     Jenny had just gotten back to her dorm room.  She picked up a note
from Sam explaining how she wouldn't be in until later that night.  She put
the note back on the desk and thought about Jake.  Jake didn't say much on
the way home from the theatre.  But then again, she knew how embarrassed he
was.  Jake may have had a tough guy attitude, but he was such a softy on
the inside.  She had known this about him when she first started dating him
back in high school.  Those days seemed like such a long time ago.  It
was almost like another world.  Their relationship didn't have much of a
chance back then.  Just when they were starting to become close, she was
off to Italy to peruse her music career.  She had a hard time adjusting to
her new surroundings, and she had felt like her old friends back in LA had
forgotten all about her.  She remembered throwing her half of Tiffani's
friendship necklace into Lake Garda in Brescia when she found out that
Tiffani was dating Jake.  She felt betrayed, angry, but those feelings
became annulled.  Eventually, life had marched on, relentlessly.  She had
become involved with her music, and had forgotten about the Dreams and her
life back in the states.  This became easier when her family moved out of
LA and Matt stopped writing about everyone back at home.
     Then there was those Italian guys she dated.  She was burned by love
more than once overseas.  She began to trust nobody.  It seemed like men
would purposely date her just so they can smash her heart like how Gallager
smashes a watermelon at the end of one of his comedy shows.  (In fact, he
performed in Italy once and Jenny's roommate had tickets to go see him. 
During the famous sledge-o-matic sketch, Jenny seemed bothered by it.  Her
friend had asked her why she got upset, but Jenny shrugged it off and said
that is was a shame to waste food like that.)  Italy.  Jennifer knew that
those years in her life were very hard.  She loved the scenery and the
culture, but she wondered if she was really ready to leave home so early. 
But that was the past.  There was nothing to do about that now.  There was
Jake.  And then there was Richard.
     She had begun to wonder about her relationship with Jake.  He was
always so kind to her, and yet, at times she felt like he treated her like
a best friend more than a girlfriend.  He was crazy about her, she knew
that.  But she had also started to wonder about her feelings toward him. 
She couldn't tell if she was really either in love with him, or was just
very comfortable.  Not that comfort was something to be shrugged off. 
She had learned the value of comfort from her ex-boyfriends in Italy.  She
had also learned how to never trust anyone one hundred percent either.  But
this was Jake.  She had feelings for him once before, which in the end also
brought her questions.  She had become close friends with an girl in Italy
who was a few years older than her.  Mia was a wonderful singer, and
probably could have gotten a job with any major recording label of her
choice.  Unfortunately, Mia had a terrible case of stage fright, so her
career never had the chance to really take off.  During a cold evening in
December, Mia talked about an old flame of hers.  She said that you should
never go out with a person that you once dated and still had fond memories
of because you'll put way to much expectation on the relationship.  She
said that you'll think so much about how wonderful it would be, and when it
happens, you find out that it's just like any other relationship and then
it usually falls apart from there.
     But this wasn't the Jake that she knew so many years ago.  Jake had
changed.  She could tell that after his record deal failed, he had grown up
from his experience.  Jake's tough guy persona had increased tremendously,
as if to help protect himself from the evils of the world around him.  But
on the inside, he had become even more sensitive, as if he gained a real
sense of his emotions.  But at the same time, he always had to be Mr. Big
Shot, which in the long run left most people viewing him as rather moody. 
But that was Jake.  And Jake wouldn't do anything to hurt her.
     But then there was Richard.  Richard was exciting.  Although he wasn't
exactly what Jennifer had in mind for a boyfriend, he definitely had
charisma.  A couple of weeks ago, Richard had invited her to see one of his
photo shoots.  She went, but never told Jake about it.  Not that she was
hiding anything from him, but she knew how upset he would get over the
whole situation.  But then she realized that she was hiding something from
Jake. She knew she was having feelings for Richard, and this made her
conscious turn on herself.  She didn't know what to do anymore.  She wanted
to know what was the right thing to do, and what was wrong, but she
couldn't tell what was right and wrong anymore.  She wondered how her life
had turned into the movie she just saw, and she wondered if Jake ever
thought about things like this.  She laid down on her bed and slowly
fell asleep, her mind racing the whole time.  

     Jake was barely able to get out of bed the next morning.  His body
hurt all over.  Maybe he did get that flu that was going around, he
thought.  Five people had missed his drawing class last Thursday, and most
of the student body was feeling a bit under the weather.  Jake fell back
into bed and thought about what had happened last night.  While
contemplating on the events that had occurred, he started to think about
a dream he just had, which was beginning to come back to him.  In his
dream, he remembered he was sitting in his dorm room, playing a computer
game that was somewhat related to making your own village.  The dream faded
in and out and he then found himself walking through the little town he had
just created.  It was a small town, like the ones he saw around the campus. 
He remembered walking into a tavern and actually seeing himself sitting
there.  The Jake that he saw seemed to be living a separate life, because
he was very successful and wealthy.  The two Jakes discussed their lives
and both of them decided that it didn't matter how successful he would turn
out to be, he would be all right and happy no matter where his life took
him.  However, both of them also stated how they missed some things
in high school that he wish he had taken up upon.  Nothing in particular,
just things.
     The dream then bounced around again with Jake seeing friends of his in
different places.  It wasn't until the end of the dream, when he saw Jenny. 
She was in a crowd of people, the village had become very populated at that
time.  She walked into one building, he walked into another, without saying
a word.  And then the dream had ended.  What he remembered most about
seeing Jenny was that everyone else in the crowd had no faces or
personality.  They were just shadows.  He tired to think about what all
of this meant but he ended up falling back to sleep. 

     Jenny was walking the campus early Saturday morning.  Most of the
student population was swarming around the football stadium for today's
showdown with Eastern.  She thought is was funny, the activity on
Saturdays.  It gave the parents that would come in very false impressions
of college life.  Only on Saturdays were people ever perky before noon. 
Sunday mornings were downright creepy.  Jenny was never much of a party
girl, so she was usually up early on Sundays, along with eleven other
people on the campus.  What was so strange about Sunday mornings was that
you could sense everyone there, but they were all hiding in their dorms,
either exhausted from homework, partying, or in some cases hung over.  But
that was college life.  Actually, thinking about how the school actually
functioned and seeing the mandatory alert whistle that every girl had to
carry on her key chain made her wonder about American society all together. 
This was a bad morning, or at least, not starting off right.  She thought
about Jake and Richard and she came to a conclusion.  Once she finished her
morning errands, she decided that she should act on her decision.

     It was getting around noon, and Jake was still in bed.  He had gotten
drowsy and almost feel asleep when Sam came barging in demanding to know
what he had told Tony last evening.  Obviously, things didn't go over very
well with them.  Jake assured her that Tony was very much in love with her
and that she shouldn't worry so much about their relationship.  He said
that if Tony didn't care about her, he wouldn't get so worked up all of the
time.  He then talked about the problems that he was having with Jenny. 
Sam asked who this Richard guy was and told Jake that she would send Tony
and Julian after him.  An hour after she left the dorm, Tony and Julian
came in, laughing themselves to death.  Jake didn't remember much about the
details on what they did to Richard, but he vaguely remembered something
about toilet paper, shaving cream, and a box of crayons.  Julian videotaped
the whole incident and left the VHS tape on Jake's desk.  He figured he'd
look at it later, when he felt better.   
     At 12:01 pm, the phone rang, Jake stumbled to answer it.  The voice on
the other end was from someone he hadn't expected.
     "Hello?  Jake?"
     It was Tiffani.  Jake's stomach cramped suddenly, like when you first
hear some very bad news.  He always reacted that way when he ever saw or
heard from Tiffani.  Someday, he hoped to get over it. 
     Jake answered her back.  "Hi, uh.... why are you calling?"
     "Why did you tell Sly and Lorena that they could join our band?  And
for some strange reason, he won't speak to us unless we address him as Mr.
Eno?"
     Jake was confused.  "What?  Uno who?  I never said anything!"
     Tiffani obviously didn't believe him.  "Oh yeah, well whatever you
told him he's decided to plug in ALL of our equipment and wait a sec.......
oh great!  He just plugged in Lorena's tambourine.  We've now got an
electric tambourine!  What are we supposed to do with an electronic
tambourine!?!?!"
     "Uh, ask your manager."
     Over the receiver, Jake heard a small zap and Lorena shouting out a
loud "OW!"  
     Jake figured it was time to get this straightened out.  "Get Winkle on
the phone."
     "Which one?  Mark's all tangled up in extension cords."  Tiffani
questioned.
     "The evil one."
     "Hold on."  Tiff when screaming for Sly.  A few moments later, he
picked up the phone.
     "Yes?" he answered.
     "What kind of moron are you?"
     Sly did not seem phased by the insult.  "First of all, how many
different kinds of morons are there?  And second, call me Mr. Eno."
     Jake lectured Sly for about fifteen minutes on how he was acting
irresponsibly and what kind of a mess he was getting himself into. 
Unfortunately, the phone conversation was ended short when something in the
background shorted out and gave Sly a good shock.  Matt Garrison called an
hour later and assured Jake that Sly was fine, he just couldn't eat any
solid foods for a while.  Jake was too tired to figure out if Matt was
joking or not.  After he had hung up the phone, his body was too ill and
tired to do much else.  He feel asleep again.

     Tony let Jenny into the dorm room a little after two in the afternoon. 
Tony was on his way to work, but gave Jenny permission to stick around for
as long as she wanted.  After he left, Jenny sat in one of the wooden desk
chairs and watched Jake sleep.  She felt so bad.  After thinking about it,
she realized that her true feelings were for Jake, although she still
couldn't tell if they were there because she truly loved Jake, or because
she felt safe around him.  Life was so confusing now.  There seemed to be
nothing in her life that was completely good or bad anymore.  It was more
like a game of percentages.  Some things were more right than others, but
that was it.  She thought about her problems, and how they compared to the
rest of the world.  There were starving people in the streets, there was
racism, hatred, wars, disease, aids, and who knows what else.  In that
respect, her problems seemed so trivial.  But her problems were hers, and
no one else's.  At this point she felt like she did at times during her
stay in Italy.  Sad, lonely, confused.  To keep her mind occupied, she
stood up and tried to clean up Jake's dorm.  She threw the cloths on the
floor in the closets and stuffed some in the drawers.  She threw away the
garbage that was scattered about, especially the pile of pop cans that
encircled the trash bin.  Afterwards, she straightened out the books on
Jake's dresser.  Looking through them, she arrived at a book that looked
like a diary.  She opened it up, and began to read.  The stories inside
were written by Jake sometime ago.  She flipped through the pages some
more, and then saw her name.  She began to read the story.  It was all
about her, the time he walked by her house, the way he felt about her going
away, the times he wanted to write to her, but couldn't.  She became lost
in the words he had written, and was so moved that someone could be in love
with her that much.  Jake awoke for a moment, he looked up and saw Jenny
sitting down, reading his book.  She looked up from the pages,
and said....
     "I'm sorry."
     Jake smiled and fell back asleep.  She waited there for a moment.  It
was then that she felt that to keep on seeing him was the right thing to
do.  She wasn't sure why she had questioned their relationship.  Maybe it
was the ebbs and flows of dating.  She didn't know.  She just wanted to
clear her mind of questions.  Life was so short, but the days seemed so
long, she thought.  But tomorrow was another day.  She sat next to Jake in
bed, and ended up falling asleep on his shoulder, thinking about her
life when she was very young, so long ago.   
       
     The end.
      

Copyrighted 1997.  All rights reserved.  Based on Characters created by
Brett Dewey and Ronald Solomon.