Chateau Grief 4

Narration(Xander): This fog bank of an island is my chosen exile. They caught up with me in college. UC Santa Cruz, class of 1969. My name is Vespasian Eugene Xander. History was dad's hobby.

Narration(Xander): I was infatuated with Elvis at the time, but so was everyone in those days. Mom was more worried about the rock-and-roll than she was about the FBI.

Narration(Xander):I'd been cheating at my freshman calculus class. Or maybe the agents had caught the time I'd walked on water for the Easter pageant...you dig?

Narration(Xander):They said it was my patriotic duty to serve my country.

Narration(Xander):I thought I could make a real difference in the world. Who doesn't think like that? I was eighteen and stupid. They were distracted by the Vietnam war at the time, or it would never have lasted as long as it did. But that was a long time ago.

Narration(Xander):Now, I'm sixty-three. And stupid seems like a real luxury.

Narration(Xander): None of my hopes mattered.

Narration(Xander):I still wound up tearing my entire life apart.

Narration(Xander):The best is the enemy of the good. And I'm the best. At everything.

Thought(Xander): ...aaand she's completely non-responsive

Thought(Xander): well that's no fun.

Author Notes:

Hello.

Episode Recap:

Xander starts narrating. He tells us that we’re on an island, he’s what they call a soixante-huitard, a person who came of age during the 1960’s age of American social upheaval, a baby boomer. He was a hippie, the FBI dragged him out of college and into the military. Apparently he doesn’t need to breathe underwater either. As he’s watching the struggling castaways he contemplates turning himself into a comical shark, then thinks better of it when he remembers how Grant would yell at him. So he settles for grabbing the woman’s ankle from underwater. Wouldn’t you? She panics, of course. Starts trying to beat off who knows what. I’m almost thinking the shark move would have been kinder. Xander grabs her thrashing hand and emerges dripping and scary from the abyss. But the woman (ok, that’s Kore, Xander can read minds he knows her name already, other dude is Shane) Kore is reacting on instinct and not particularly conscious, just focused on hanging on for survival. Xander is disappointed that his prank has not been fully appreciated. What a piece of work he is, eh?