The avenue was packed. The scene was surrealistic. Drunk pony-tailed college students were everywhere; on the corners, on the curbs, attempting to cross Campus Drive avenue, a very busy road. The drivers on that road were none too sober either. A car cruised down "the strip" with some half-naked drunk blue painted face asshole hanging out the window screaming "Better living through chemistry!!! Lets get wasted!"

On weekends they put barricades across sections of the road and rerouted traffic around the poor defenseless drunks during the peak partying hours between twelve and two. The sidewalks weren't much safer. Nothing could be assumed; life was a series of reactions to random actions.

Everyone walking down that sidewalk was lost in the ozone; beautiful women with empty eyes, freaks and fakers, clown-like hippies, gypsies and beautiful losers of all types. There was a guy sitting on the curb playing guitar, while a senior citizen soft shoed to his enchanting finger picking. There were other forms of music drifting in and out, someone would open a barroom door and the live rock 'n roll music would escape the confines of the room for a moment. Occasionally one could hear the booming base from a vehicle cruising down the strip.

Among green neon martini glasses, and Florissant beer barrels, the Dairy Freeze shone big and bright like a lighthouse in that sea of fools. Each window had a line a dozen drunks deep. Behind that the stood clock tower of Markham hall, where one could gaze up at between bars to see how long before last call. Trotting down the street, head held high, tongue wagging' out of one side of his head, was his friend the bar dog.

Burke headed for The Foamy Head a favorite bar of the Elm Street Boys, and sure enough found TJ holding up the bar.

"TJ, do you have a party going on at the house?"

"Wow man, are they still there? I came over here for a beer hours ago."

"Yeah there's about ten people wandering around over there."

"Is there any Tequila left?"

"I don't know TJ, I didn't stick around to find out."

"Hey man, don't go into the bathroom here." He leaned over and dramatically looking left and right whispered in Burke's ear: "Someone crapped in the urinal."

"Someone crapped in the urinal?"

"Shh! Check it out man, it's bad news in there"

"I'll take your word for it." His face broke into a smile of realization, a bizarre image played in his imagination. "Hey wait a minute, did you do it TJ?"

TJ grinned but quickly turned away trying hard not to let it show; it didn't take much pressure to crack him. "You know me don-cha? You nailed me man...all the stalls were full and it couldn't wait. Hey my brother, when the enchilada says it's time, IT'S TIME. That is a natural force that you don't want to be messin' with." It was true. TJ's internal chemistry seemed to work on principles that differed from the rest of the universe.

"No shit?--Man that is the worst thing I've ever heard of, what in the world were you thinking of? What did you wipe with-wait-wait hold it---never mind I don't want to know." Burke turned to look back at the washrooms, sure enough there was a line of both men and women lined up at the woman's washroom. The guy's Jon was condemned.

"Hey look at this way." TJ chipped in "Now it's my personal bathroom-I think I'll go try it out."

"TJ you're something else."

TJ stumbled toward the back. He was so messed up he looked as if he was sleepwalking. That guy had no class whatsoever. Burke remembered a time not long ago when TJ had set his face on fire by drinking a flaming shot. In response to that somebody had thrown him to the floor and three guys began stomping his head trying to put him out. Maybe this was his revenge, or maybe the enchilada spoke.

Next door to the Foamy Head was The Club, and Burke could hear the sweet riffs of Nack Redding's wailing guitar, ringing through the walls. The song: Did you ever see a one eye'd woman cry? "It's so sad-tears come out but one eye." Now that was the blues. I'll bet General Marchbank is over there, Burke thought to himself. But as Burke started to head for the door he heard the song they play when they were about to take a break.

He wasn't about to pay a buck only to wait twenty minutes for Nack to cool down in someone's air conditioned car. He got a beer to go and headed back to the Elm Street House. When he returned, the party was gone. All the lights were on in the house and the stereo was blasting but the house was empty—except for the lone guy sitting at the bar near William the goat. Burke sat on the stool next to him.

Burke tried to make polite conversation.

"Having a good time?" He asked him.

The drunk turned to look at Burke, his eyes were two slits, bloodshot, and crossed-he smelled, but didn't say a word.

"You look like you could use a beer" Burke said, trying to resume communication. But that asshole just sat and starred at Burke. When he finally spoke, it was profound. "I got to piss" he slurred sloppily.

"You see that parking lot across the street?" Burke asked him. "Many people like to piss there." The wasted guy got up with much difficulty and meandered out the door to the parking lot. It could have gone a lot worse. At least he didn't pee his pants. Burke locked the door behind him and turned the stereo off.

He needed some peace, and some head space. For a moment he considered lying down with his head in the pyramid but figured that he would probably fall asleep and be late for work.

There was a knock on the door. It was Sunni. "Hey partner, where did ya go?" She inquired. "Did ya meet someone special?" Burke felt insulted, first she ditched him and then had the audacity to suggest that he lost her to find someone special. He already was with someone special.

"Na.. just some drunken derelict that I sent across the street to take a leak. Where did you go?" was his reply.

"I just ran into a friend that I knew from class."

Burke looked at her but decided not to reveal her lie.

"He turned out to be a real jerk though," she said, "it seems that the only type of people that are attracted to me are jerks."

"Aren't we all?" Burke replied. Sunni smiled and changed the subject. Who's around? She asked.

"No one," Burke replied.

Burke was glad that she had returned, and was safe and relatively unhurt. "Wanna throw the I Ching for your love life?"

Burke asked. Most women that Burke knew liked that sort of thing, astrology, stars, divinity, a glimpse into the future. "What do I have to do? She asked. Nodda, I'll do it all. Burke proceeded to collect his yarrow sticks, incense, and of course, the oracle, called the I Ching, or book of change. The process was rather involved, consisting of dividing a group of yarrow stalks into piles and mathematically eliminating all but several odd ones. The process was repeated. Each time Burke went through it represented a line on what was called a hexagram, or six figured drawing. Each line of the drawing represented certain symbolic stages of her life-what was, is, and will be.

Sunni watched Burke with great interest. It was his show now-not Bumpity's. She sat so close to him that the next move for her would be sitting on his lap. Burke was in heaven for the moment. All was forgiven for ditching him and breaking his heart.

When the process was completed, her hexagram represented Ts'ui or Gathering Together. She drew a changing line. A line that would cross over from yin to yang, from whole to divided. There was a special message for her:

Letting oneself be drawn brings good fortune and remains blameless

In the time of GATHERING TOGETHER, we should make no arbitrary choice on the way.

There are secret forces at work, leading together those who belong together.

We must yield to this attraction; then we make no mistakes.

Where inner relationships exist, no great preparations and formalities are necessary.

People understand one another forthwith, just as the Divinity graciously accepts a small offering if it comes from the heart.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Sunni asked Burke.

"Beats me," Burke said, but he had a hint that he would not divulge. It was better that way.

"Just as well, it's getting late, maybe I'll see you around tomorrow." She winked and walked out the door. Burke stood to watch her walk down the sidewalk, head bowed, perhaps a bit defeated. She looked so frail.