Spaniards, the Folk and Strange Locations - Halloween: Day 2

The day after, Anti-Rocks and Paw along with others (The Cheerful Healer, Manna the Calm, Indifferent Duc and The Free-spirited Zoologist) congregated at the Pink Room (La Sala Rosa) for the degustation of food from the Spaniards and the celebrating of Paw’s birth. Unfortunately, the Tall Economist was unable to attend due to illness. During the degustation, the congregation made a point of embarrassing Paw by singing the traditional birth song. The food was well liked by all – it consisted of a curried pumpkin and coconut soup, various types of Paella (rice dishes), tortillas (but here they are essentially omelets), a steak, melt-in-your-mouth salmon and finally Flan for all. What was particularly premium about this Flan was the fact that it did not have the consistency of silken tofu throughout. It had certain firmness on the surface and the inside was nice and melty. In addition, the caramel infiltrated the structure well, making for the best Flan they have ever tried (or at least for some of them).

After they ended their food adventure, Anti-Rocks and the Free-Spirited Zoologist had another adventure to set out on. They left the Pink room wearing Green hair and a one eared Fox headdress. Their mission: to go to a secluded music hall (that they were invited to) and amuse the cousin of the Free-Spirited Zoologist: The Torontonian Manager (the person who invited them). The music hall is in an area of the village known to the villagers for its unsafeness due to roaming gremlins, abandoned buildings and lack of light. However, this did not seem to phase the brave travelers. Hopefully the Fox would scare off any gremlins. Upon arrival to the transfer station, they boarded the bus. To ensure their proper arrival, the Free-Spirited Zoologist asked the bus driver to inform us of the stop. He replied affirmatively – saying that the stop is less than 5 minutes away and is before the tunnels. He also said that he hopes we are not scared of the dark. This slightly worried Anti-Rocks, for she had never ventured into the area and certainly not at night. However, they arrived safely at their destination. Anti-Rocks’ first impression was that it was generally badly vegetated – mostly barren land. She had not noticed the Music Hall until the Zoologist pointed it out.

They entered and noticed two somewhat laid-back money guardians (which we later found out were musicians as well). The Free-spirited one inquired as to whether her dear cousin was there and they invited us to search for ourselves. As they entered the room where music was to be played, they were noticed by a familiar musician – The Wandering Spirit. He greeted them warmly and asked of their news, past and present. It appears however, much to their dismay that the Torontonian Manager was not there. It seems that the creator of the event must say they are attending even if they are not. And so, their mission to amuse the cousin was no more. And so, they sat down as the first act was to start (there were to be three). The general tone of the evening was warm and folky. Anti-Rocks had brought sweet provisions with her in the form of chocolate covered marzipan and little mars bars. So, they ate them (with the exception of 2 mars bars).

At one point, Anti-Rocks had a damn tea moment. In fact, she had had it during the journey to the secluded music hall, but was not able to do anything about it prior to the intermission following the first act. So, after paying for the show, she made her way to the women’s outhouse. Much to her dismay it was locked. So she waited. And waited. And waited. She then caught a look of the men’s outhouse and noticed stalls (unless her eyes betrayed her) and wondered “If there are stalls in the washroom, why would the door be locked?” This slightly angered her, for she had damn tea and also wanted to get rid of her gum. She decided to explain her case to the Zoologist who accompanied her to investigate the situation. Naturally, once Anti-Rocks brought her to the scene, the door was unlocked. With glee, she sped to the door of the washroom. At that point, the Wandering Spirit inquired if there was an outhouse party. Anti-rocks tried to explain, but was generally incoherent:

“Well, I went to the outhouse and the door was locked and I didn’t understand why…”.
”Well, sometimes it appears locked, but is just slightly jammed”
”I tried really hard, and it wouldn’t open and yeah…eeee” And Anti-Rocks dashed in while the Zoologist, the Wandering Spirit and the guardians of money chuckled. Following that, Anti-Rocks made her way back to her table in time for the next act, which was the Wandering Spirit. He arrived on stage (with his other band mates) with a truly terrifying mask (like a sinister yoda with lots of gray hair and a beard). However, this was extremely amusing as the voice behind the terrifying mask was singing very sweetly – which doesn’t match very well. The crowd was greatly amused and could not contain their laughter. As such, the Wandering Spirit gave up and threw the mask off because he could not concentrate. After that song, he asked why no one was dressed up for Halloween, except for Anti-Rocks who had green hair. The crowd answered that it was yesterday. He concurred, but still believed that the spirit of Halloween should continue.

In between the 2nd and 3rd act, Anti-Rocks and the Free-Sprited Zoologist, now infused with lots of sucrose, decided to play a game known as Table Hockey with the beer coasters. They did this with much glee, spouting random phrases in Spanish (possibly inspired by their previous meal) and cheering for their goals. Sometimes the coasters flew off the table and in some occasions flew into fellow music listeners. They were generally amused though and did not protest. Anti-Rocks’ incoherency continued, as the first musician asked what we were doing, and she replied “Hockey Table!...coasters…”. It seems that he got the general idea. The final act was also nice, but generally more subdued and somewhat sleepy. The concert ended and The Free-Spirited Zoologist decided to greet a friend she randomly encountered there – a violinist who was playing that night. As Anti-Rocks and the Zoologist were incapable of consuming more sucrose infused provisions, Anti-Rocks offered a Mars bar (yes, Mars indeed made of chocolate) to her. She was quite pleased. The remaining planetary treat would go to the Wandering Spirit. So, we found him and informed him of our incoming departure. As usual, he embraced us warmly. Anti-Rocks then presented him with the candy. He thanked her, but then professed that he felt ill the night before. The Zoologist inquired as to whether it was candy related and he confirmed. As such, Anti-Rocks with the most serious face she could muster said “Well, if you don’t want it, you can always give it back” and held her right arm out. She smiled shortly after to indicate her sarcasm. The Wandering Spirit chuckled and said “No! I’ll eat it right away” and then he wished the brave travelers a safe trip home (he had gotten lost earlier that evening).

So, they set out. The Free-Spirited one had an idea – let us walk back to the transportation station known as Place St-Henri rather than take the bus! (Even though it was 11:35 pm. Naturally, they are not scared of the dark). Under normal circumstances Anti-Rocks would not have done this, but she figured “I suppose we are two. So it’s not so bad and you’re a fox and I have green hair. Clearly mutants of some sort”. She had drawn a make-shift map earlier in the evening in the event that she would have to walk. So she was confident that they’d find their way. However, it seems that the Halloween Spirits had different plans for them. They arrived at the cross section of St Remi and Notre Dame as indicated on the map. They then walked forward on Notre Dame and continued on for some time. Anti-Rocks was a little worried and thought maybe they missed the street they were supposed to turn on (Ste Marguerite). So, they reasoned that if they were indeed going in the right direction, if they continued, they would end up at the next transport station: Lionel-Groulx. So onward they went – on small side walks, under underpasses…until they found themselves on the side road of the highway 20 – there is not much there: mostly industries and barren land. They found out at that time that they had turned in the wrong direction on Notre Dame. Now, it is not unusual (rather frequent) that the Free-Spirited Zoologist loses her way. This doesn’t usually happen to Anti-Rocks though. They figured though, that they’ll find their way somehow. They continued walking leisurely while Anti-Rocks told the Zoologist about a sad film she had seen not long ago with the Cheerful Healer. In the midst of her story though, a loud noise was heard – something akin to a creature (man or beast) being slammed against a metal door. Anti-Rocks was startled and let out a little scream, while the Zoologist ran off. Anti-Rocks followed soon after attempting to catch up. They ran for about 2 minutes and determined that they had escaped peril. In the distance, they spotted a bus stop and decided to see what time it would arrive. Luckily, they only had 8 minutes to wait. The hid themselves in the bus shelter and awaited the vehicle. It arrived as predicted at 12:08 am. On board was a strange looking driver and two people – apart from that, entirely empty. Anti-Rocks determined that it must be a ghost bus. The bus arrived at Place St-Henri but did not stop. However, fear not, the travelers were not kidnapped. Instead the bus brought them to Lionel-Groulx, which proved convenient for the Free-Spirited Zoologist. Following their arrival to the transportation station, they made their way home safely and unharmed – at least for now.