On FROSTY THE SNOWMAN

February 4th

On FROSTY THE SNOWMAN

Chet was a little bit embarrassed to be over at Marianne Goldstein's house. He had a bunch of acne, for one thing, which was something he didn't think about too much except when he was at a girl's house. Of course, since the beginning of Grade Seven, Marianne had braces, so they were sort of in the same boat. Marianne and Chet had become sort-of friends lately, mostly united in a new found sense of sarcasm. They had both become outsiders this year, commenting snarkily on the soap-operatic goings on of the more popular kids in their school.
In that ironical vein, Marianne had invited Chet over to watch a marathon of Christmas specials, Mystery Science Theatre 3000 styles, anticipating many sarcastic jokes at the expense of Frosty the Snowman, Charlie Brown, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (who, really, had it bad enough already). So far, Frosty the Snowman hadn't really had his feelings hurt. Marianne and Chet had launched a volley of insults in the first twenty minutes, from "Yeah right, like that would ever happen," when Frosty magically came to life, to "Nice Hat!", offered four separate times by Chet. After a while they both seemed to realize they were trying a little too hard, and for a while didn't say anything at all. This was especially weird, as it became apparent that they were now watching Frosty the Snowman on its own merits.
Marianne's basement had been redone in the late eighties, and had hundreds of knicknacks and pictures of the Goldstein family in different vacation spots, often in costume. The focus of the room was an L-shaped brown couch that Marianne was lounging on in her pyjamas, which she declared to be 'the most comfortable couch in the world'. Chet was relaxing, at a comfortable distance, in a lime green armchair.
Right about the time when the policeman hollered 'Stop!', Mrs. Goldstein entered the basement and announced that she was driving Marianne's younger sister to karate practice. For some reason Chet felt like he had to justify his presence there. Mrs. Goldstein had not been around when Marianne had taken him down to the basement via the side door.
"Hi, Mrs. Goldstein," said Chet, attempting to sound cheerful and carefree.
"Hello Chet," smiled Mrs. Goldstein. Chet wasn't sure if Mrs. Goldstein thought this was a romantic date or not. As dates went, it was pretty lame, but all the same you can never tell, when a girl and a boy were in the same place at the same time, alone together. Chet thought about announcing the lack of romantic intention in this encounter, but correctly surmised that that would have brought the awkwardness of the situation right out into the open.
Mrs. Goldstein left, and it occurred to Chet that he and Marianne were now truly alone. It hit him with an intense panic that if he wanted to do anything of a romantic nature, now was the time to do it. Worse, if Marianne was expecting him to do anything of a romantic nature, if there was any ulterior motive whatsoever in her invitation, no was the time she would be expecting him to make some kind of move. He wasn't even sure himself of he was interested in that sort of thing with Marianne. If so, what would he do?
Chet looked over at Marianne, who was curled up with her bum facing him, watching the screen intently with a look of bored interest on her face. She was wearing her glasses, which she never did in school. She was comfortable. Chet could even see her pink undies creeping up over the top of her pyjama pants. Never would she be so bold if she wasn't completely secure in the idea that he was completely harmless. Chet decided to do nothing.
"The long arm of the law," Chet proclaimed, sort of sarcastically, referring to the policeman who was stopping Frosty's march. "The long arm of the law."