Conversations Online

Conversations Online
(a chance reencounter with Cupid) 


Surprise, surprise, 
Cupid messaged me online.
A video chat .... 2:28 a.m..... 

And there he is 
- a little picture that pops up on my screen,
a request from  the profile picture of a semi naked, 
half feather ruffled, fully drunk fool that I am beginning to remember...

I debate accepting the message...

He instant messages me and says he needs to Face Time.
He says he needs to see me again,
Like back at that bar,  
He says, please, I'm his only friend.

I don't know if that is true, 
but I know that I've enjoyed his company,
however manic-depressive it appeared to be. 

.....I hit accept...

"Hey-hey, Cupid!", I tell him. "It's been a while! What's going on?"

"Oh, dude. Dude, Is that you?! Is that really you?"
He's leaning into the screen - peering at me with
one eye closed, one eye half open. 
And I can see all of his arrows, half cocked in his quiver, 
....pointing everywhere and nowhere altogether. 


"Yeah, Cupid, it's me from the bar,
you said I was the first mortal
that had paid attention to you in years."

Cupid's eyes widened and he jolted back in chair,
and countless arrows fell from his quiver without notice. 

"Woah, I knew it! Man, we had such a great talk!
But then I got so wasted that I totally forgot your info.
And then I saw you come up as a recommend friend,
and I was like, hey! that's that dude! I know that dude!"

I laugh. Because it's almost 3 am, and I can't help it. 
This witching hour  has this nostalgia running thick; 
his enthusiasm is a spectacle I remember, it's intoxicating. 
"Yeah, of course. So how have you been man?
I've been seeing you online a lot, but I've been
busy doing my thing, ya know..."

Cupid laughs. "Oh yeah! I'm all over the Internet now. 
I'm telling ya, I *love* social media. I wish I came up with that.
But that's all my cuz' Apollo's doing. I wish I had thought of it
and that smug bastard knows it. ....Don't even get me started." 

I smile, and remember why I enjoyed Cupid's company.
"For sure. So what has you on at near 3 in the morning?" 

"I can't stop browsing these websites! And then, like I said, I saw your profile come up,
and I was like, holy shit! That's the dude! That's the guy that gets me!"

"I'm pretty sure you were the one getting everyone that night." I say.

He laughs as he was taking a drink and spits on the screen.
"Haha. I woke up the next morning with an empty quiver! 
Haha. Dammit. Let me clean this up."

He returns with a towel and new bottle of wine. 

After he finishes wiping his screen, I say
"You said you needed to talk, tho. 
 That I was you're only friend?" 

He sits back and takes a big swig.
"Yea, right, I do, and yeah, you are!
Do you see what's trending right now?
Dude, I'm blowing up. People can't stop talking about me!"

I shake my head. "Yeah, man, and you're okay with all of that?
It's almost never ending drama, your name is thrown and drug
all across the muddy web. You're constantly being misrepresented.
I don't think that's a good thing at all."

"But it's all publicity, and no publicity is bad publicity, right?!" He laughs and takes another swig.
He wipes his mouth and looks at me as seriously as one can with a
half closed eyelid. "Seriously though, did you read about what happened
between Person-A and Person-B? 
That's some Cleopatra and Marc Anthony type shit!
And now, everyone is talking about me: Who loves who more? 
Who fell out of love first? Who did they love when they were together?
It's great. I love it." He toasts himself with another swig.

...I sigh, and remember why I left Cupid's company at the bar.
"You know, I wish things were different, Cupid. 
I miss the old you." 

Cupid grinned anyway and tapped his screen with his bottle,
"Yeah, yeah. I miss you too...but why wish things were different?
Things are fucking great now! I'm trending *all the damn time*." 
He takes another big swig.

Out of respect, I tip my screen with my can too.
"Yeah, but you're more out of control than you were at the bars,
or maybe you have always been this bad, and now Apollo has
just invented a tool that shows your true depth, 24/7.
....But I still believe in you, Cupid. I always will. 
I will always wish and push for the best of you."
Then I take a long drink from my can to swallow all of that down.

Cupid threw his head back and frowned. "What are you saying?
That I'm not doing great? Did you not just hear me when I said 
'trending all the damn time'?

"Yeah. I heard you...but what does this phantasmal popularity, 
the sharing, the thumbs ups, and the likes, what do they gain you in
anything other distorted and fleeting snapshots of your god-like power?" 

He soured. "More people have been talking about me than every before. 
You have no idea what you are talking about. Apollo, knows what I mean. 
I'm better than ever."

I feel the late hours digging in, and weighing on my mind and my shoulders.
"You know what, I don't know that Apollo would agree.
Sure, you're being talked about, so much so that you've become
a buzz word - a word that just buzzes in and out of the ears of so many people.
Your name may be back on the lips of the masses, and written all across the web,
but it is said in an unintelligible slur and written in an illiterate's scrawl."

Cupid sits there. Staring at me like some stranger just came up and slapped him out of the blue.

My cheeks are red. Partly from the drink, and partially because I feel bad for being so honest. 

Then he says. "Yeah. No. I get it. I appreciate the talk, buddy. Stay in touch." and he abruptly logs off. 

.......

I stare at the logged out and disconnected screen for a while. I think about waiting for him to log back on, so I can explain myself better.. But it's 3:way-too-late in the AM, and I can only reason with Cupid for so long...


 

12/26/15
M. L. Michael

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