The Nocturne

Part One - Overture

   At this precise moment in time, I, Edgar Austen Rossini, was lying naked, face down, and semi-conscious on the university lawn, and blissfully unaware that the police were on their way.

"Mr Rossini"

A voice. An angry shout. A dog barking in the distance, the sound lost on the breeze.

"Mr Rossini"

     Looking back on that day now about a year later. I suspect that he had been calling out to me, calling out my name for a while. Although as I was so intoxicated I was oblivious to it. But looking back on that day, I realise that this was my denouement, my coda. The crescendo and conclusion to my cavalier career as chief mischief maker on campus. I would also pinpoint this exact moment, monumental to me, but a tiny fragment in the grand cosmic scheme of things, as my epoch moment. It marked the end of carefree frivolity and ushered in my new phase of quiet reflection.

     "Mr Rossini"

     I could hear a buzzing sound in the distance. I chose to ignore it. At present I was still flat-out, face-down drunk, still snoozing successfully in insentient slumber, on the damp dewy university lawn, but I was completely unaware of my scenic surroundings. In fact, I had no notion of where the hell I had ended up after that eventful night! And at present I did not care either. It had been what you might call 'quite a night' and so it was possible that in my drunken stupor I could not tell you who I was either. Perhaps, this is why the calling out of my name by the frankly furious principal of the university Mr Bulwark, did not connect with me at all.

     "Mr Rossini!" 

    Oh! It definitely had been some night, last night I can tell you!. Oh yes! Oh! Hell yes! So presently to conclude in my half-drunk, half-asleep state, I put my hands up and admit that I was supremely unaware that I was fully nude on the lawn, in the middle of the university quadrant and beginning to draw a crowd.

"Mr Rossini!"

     Another angry outburst, which breezed over my bare body. I brushed the sound aside. Still half insensible  I must have just ignored it, as I lay there without a care in the world. My mind was just so sozzled it was failing to process even basic information. I suddenly became aware of a buzzing sound in my ear. A sort of dissonance that was out of sync with its surroundings. I was vaguely aware that there was a voice calling out, something? Somewhere in the distance and I suppose even in depths of my consciousness, despite the frazzled fractious nature of my brain I registered the sound, if not the meaning of the words. I also registered that the tone was sounding increasingly impatient, but I was too weary to move from my current position.

    "Mr Rossini!"

     Although, as previously stated I had no earthly notion of where I had actually ended up after last night. Oh Lord! I thought, how or when was it that I had lost my trousers! How had I gotten here? This was anyone's guess, I suppose!  I honestly had, had no intention of wholly exposing myself, in this way! I can assure you that I do not make a habit of such things, and that this had not been part of my plan. I suppose I must have just assumed that I had made it back to my dormitory room, back to my own bed, the way I often had after a night in the student bar, when I woke up without any memory of how I got back there? I felt an odd tingling sensation in my feet and realised I was beginning to sober up a little, but I still felt strangely exhausted. I suspected in my new temporal state, that it may be the morning already And then as if on cue, the university clock tower bells chimed out their sombre song. That clock has bells that chime every fifteen minutes to signify the passing of time. Time was nothing to me back then I remember. But how quickly things can change. Only a year ago I could have cared less about losing time. Of obliterating my mind with excess alcohol and I thought nothing of wasting time. Hence my escapades last night.