Chapter 10 chapter Ten

I don't have Jenny's address, just a post office box number, but I do have the name of where her band plays.That place is called "He Daddy's Club".I tried to walk there from the train station, but got lost again and again, and finally, I called a taxi.It was afternoon and the club was empty except for two drunks and a half-bottle of beer left on the floor from the night before.But, the guy behind the bar said Jenny and the others would be there around nine o'clock.I asked if I could wait for her, and the guy said, "Okay," and I sat there for five or six hours, giving my feet a good rest.

Closer to home, the place was getting full.Most of the guests were young men who looked like college students, but they were dressed like freaks in sideshows.Everyone wore dirty blue jeans and T-shirts, all the boys had beards and glasses, and all the girls had hair like a bird could fly out at any moment.After a while, the orchestra came on stage and arranged the instruments.There were three or four guys in all, and they had one of those giant electric things that they plugged in all over the place.This is very different from the one we play in the university student union.Also, I didn't see Jenny's shadow.

After they installed those electronic gadgets, they started playing.I'm telling you, friend: that thing is loud!All kinds of colored lights began to flash, and the music they performed was like the sound of jets taking off.But the audience loved it, and when they were done, everyone was cheering and shouting.Then a light fell on the stage, and there she was—Jenny! She was different from the one I knew.One, she has her hair down to her buttocks, and she wears sunglasses indoors, at night!She was wearing jeans and a blouse with lots of metal plates hanging like telephone wiring trays.The orchestra started playing again, and Jenny began to sing.Clutching the microphone, she danced around the stage, bouncing and hopping, flailing her arms and tossing her hair.I tried my best to understand the content of the lyrics, but the music played by the orchestra was too loud, beating the drums, banging the piano, and strumming the electric guitar, rumbling, the ceiling seemed to be collapsing.I thought to myself, what the hell is this?

After singing for a while, they took a break, so I got up and wanted to go through the door leading to the backstage.But, there was a guy standing at the door, and he said I can't go in.As I returned to my seat, I noticed that everyone was staring at my Army uniform. "Your outfit is so different!" someone said, and another said, "Get out!" Another said, "Is he real?" I was starting to feel like a narcissist again, so I went straight outside, thinking maybe I could take a walk and figure it out.I walked for about half an hour, and when I got back there, there was a long queue outside waiting to go in.I went to the front and tried to explain to the guy that my stuff was in there, but he told me to wait at the end of the line.I think I stood outside for an hour or so, listening to the music coming from inside.To be honest, the music is more pleasant to hear from outside.

Anyway, after waiting for a while, I got bored and went around the back of the club along an alley.There were a few little steps up there, and I just sat and watched the rats chase each other through the rubbish.I had my harmonica in my pocket, so; to pass the time, I took it out and played it.I could still hear the music from Jenny's band, and after a while I found that I could match them;I don't know how long it took, but it didn't take long for me to be able to play it on my own, and I could float to C major, and surprisingly, the piece wasn't that bad to play by myself - as long as I didn't have to listen to it at the same time.

Suddenly, the door behind me slammed open and Jenny stood there.I figured they had a break again, but I didn't care and kept blowing mine. "Who's out there?" she asked. "It's me," I said, but the alley was dark, and she poked her head out the back door, and said, "Who's playing the harmonica?" I got up, a little embarrassed because I was wearing an Army uniform, but, I said, "It's me. Forrest." "Who is it?" she said. "Forrest Gump." "Forrest Gump? Forrest Gump!" Suddenly she rushed out the door and threw herself into my arms.

Jenny and I, we sat backstage and caught up until she had to go on stage again.She wasn't quite a dropout, she was dropped out because, one night, they found her in a boys room.Back then, this kind of violation of school rules would result in expulsion from school.The banjo player refused to join the army and fled to Canada, and the band fell apart.Jenny went to live in California for a while, and put flowers in her hair, but she said those people were a bunch of monsters, they were drunk all day with drugs, and then she met this guy and came to Boston with him.They did some peaceful demonstrations and all, but it turned out he was gay so she broke up with him and then followed a real demonstrator who made bombs and all, blowing up buildings.That relationship didn't work out either, and then she met a guy who taught at Harvard, but he turned out to be married.Afterwards, she turned in a guy who seemed really nice, and it was only one day that he got arrested for stealing and she decided it was time to pull herself together.

She joined the Cracked Eggs, and they played a new kind of music, and it was getting quite popular around Boston, and next week they were even going to New York to record for a record.She says she's seeing a guy from Harvard right now who's a philosophy student, but I can go and live with them after the show tonight.I was very disappointed that she had a boyfriend, but I had nowhere else to go, so I did it. Her boyfriend's name is Rudolph.He was a small man, weighing about a hundred pounds, with rubber mop hair and beads around his neck, and when we arrived at the apartment, he was sitting on the floor, meditating like an Indian guru.

"Rudolph," Jenny said, "this is Forrest Gump. He's an old friend from my country, and he'll be staying with us for a while." Rudolph didn't say a word, just waved his hands, as if the leader was blessing something. Jenny had only one bed, but she made me a bunk on the floor, and I slept there.It's no worse than many places I've slept in the military, and far better than some. When I got up the next morning, Rudolph was still sitting in the middle of the room, meditating.Jenny made me some breakfast, and then we sat Rudolph there while she showed me around Cambridge.She started off saying I'd have to get a new suit, because people around here don't know what's going on and think I'm trying to fool them.So we went to a thrift store and I bought a jumpsuit and a jacket and changed there and put the military uniform in a paper bag.

We were hanging out at Harvard, and Jenny unexpectedly ran into this married professor she used to date.She's still friendly to him, even if she calls him a "mean bastard" in private.His name is Dr. Quackenbusch. Anyway, he was very excited because next week he was going to have a new class, a class he had come up with alone.The class is called "The Idiot's Character in World Literature." I said it sounded like an interesting class, and he was like, "Well, Gump, why don't you drop in? Maybe you'd like it." Jenny looked at us both a little funny, but she didn't say anything.When we got back to the apartment, Rudolph was still sitting on the floor by himself.We went into the kitchen, and I asked her very quietly if Rudolph would talk, and she said yes, sooner or later.

That afternoon Jenny took me to meet the rest of the band, and she told them I was such a good harmonica player, why don't you let me play with them tonight.One of the guys asked me what I like to play the most, and I said "Dixie" (that's American Southern music, or jazz), and he said he didn't seem to hear me, and Jenny cut in right away, "That doesn't matter, wait until he Once you get used to our stuff, you will be able to keep up." So, I performed with the orchestra that night, and everyone said I made a great contribution.It was a joy to sit there and watch Jenny sing and fly all over the stage. On Monday, I decided to drop in on Dr. Quackenbusch's class, "The Idiot's Character in World Literature."The name is enough to make me feel a little bit special. "Today," Dr. Quackenbusch said to the class, "we have a guest who will drop in on this class from time to time. Please welcome Mr. Forrest 'Gump." All turned to me, and I waved a little .Classes have started. "Idiots," said Dr. Quackenbusch, "have played an important part in history and literature over the years. I think you've all heard of the old country idiots, who were usually some kind of imbecile who lived in the country. He was often the object of ridicule and contempt. Later, it became a custom among the royal family to keep a jester in front of him and do things to please the royal family. In many cases, this person is actually an idiot or imbecile Well, in other instances he's just a buffoon or a buffoon." He kept talking like that, and it dawned on me that idiots weren't just useless people, they were born for a purpose, sort of like what Dan said, and that purpose was to make people laugh.At least it's a credit. "Writers put a fool in a book in order," says Dr. Quackenbusch, "to use the tactic of punning so that they can make a fool of the fool while letting the reader see the deeper meaning of stupidity. Occasionally, like Shakespeare A great writer like Biya would let a fool make a fool of one of his protagonists, thus providing a twist to enlighten the reader." Hearing this, I was a little confused.However, this is normal.Anyway, Mr. Quackenbusch said, to illustrate what he meant, we're going to do a scene from "King Lear," where there's a fool, a madman in disguise, and a king who's really mad.He wanted a man named Emer.The Harrington III guy played Mad Tom Oberlin and asked a girl named Lucille to play the fool.Another guy named Hollis played the crazy Lord Lear.Then he said, "Forrest, why don't you play the part of the Earl of Gloucester?" Mr. Quackenbusch said he would borrow a few stage props from the drama department, but he wanted us to prepare our own costumes so that the acting would be more "real".I was thinking, how did I get into this?I really don't know. At the same time, our band "Cracked Egg" has developed a bit.A guy flew in from New York and heard us play and said he was going to put us in the studio and make a tape of our music.Everyone was excited, including Jenny; and me, of course.The guy from New York was named Mr. Faberstein.He said if all goes well, we'll be the biggest hit since nighttime baseball was invented.Mr. Feiberstein said, we just need to sign a piece of paper and start making money. Our keyboard player, George, has been teaching me a little bit how to play the piano, and Moses, the drummer, has let me play his drums occasionally.Learning to play these instruments was a lot of fun, as was my harmonica.I do some practice every day, and the band plays every night at the Ho's Club. One day when I came home from get out of class, Jenny was sitting on the couch by herself.I asked her where Rudolph was, and she said "fuck off". I asked her why, and she said, "Because he's just as bad as everybody else," so I said, "Why don't we go out to dinner and talk about it?" Naturally, most of the words were said by her, but they were actually a bunch of complaints against men.She called us men "lazy, irresponsible, selfish, despicable, and liars." After complaining like this for a long time, she burst into tears.I said, "Oh, Jenny, come on. It's nothing. That Rudolph doesn't look like the right guy for you, sitting there all the time or something." She said, "Yeah, Gump, maybe you say That's right. I want to go home now." And so we went. When she got home, Jenny began to undress.She took off only her panties, and I sat on the sofa trying not to notice, but she came and stood in front of me, and she said, "Forrest Gump, I want you to be nice to me." Now you can knock me out with a feather!I just sat there, staring at her dumbfounded.So she stood next to me and fiddled with my pants, and the next thing I knew she'd taken off my shirt and was hugging me and kissing me or something.At first it just felt a little weird because it was her initiative.Of course I've been dreaming about this moment, but it's not what I expected.But then, uh, I guess something went to my head, and my expectations didn't matter, because we were rolling on the couch, almost undressed, and then Jenny took off my panties, and suddenly her clothes Eyes wide open, she said, "Wow—look at that thing of yours!" And she grabbed me, just like Miss Frenchie did that day, but Jenny never told me to close my eyes, so I did too. I didn't close my eyes. Well, we did all sorts of things that afternoon that I never dreamed possible.The shit that Jenny taught me would never have come up with my own brain.We rolled all over the living room and into the kitchen—breaking through furniture, knocking things over, pulling down curtains, messing up the rug, and accidentally turning on the TV.Turned out to be doing errands in the sink, but don't ask me how.After it was over, Jenny just lay there, looked at me for a long time, and said, "Damn, Forrest Gump, where have you been all my life?" "I'm next to you," I said. nature.Things were a little different between Jenny and me after that.We started sleeping together, which I also thought was weird at first, but I definitely got used to it.During the performance of "He Daddy", Jenny would pass by me from time to time, rubbing my hair, or scratching the back of my neck with her fingers.My world suddenly changed - it was like my life had just begun and I was the happiest guy alive.