The Falcon's Forum

The Falcon’s Forum headquarters stood tall and wide in the financial district. Eric always thought it was a hotel when he drove past. He had heard whispers of the club before, it had a long history in this town. Aiden’s grandfather was a member, supposedly, but Aiden had only recently joined. When Eric thought of groups like the Falcon’s Forum, his imagination always spurned images of tall men in black hoods that shrouded their faces, they all chant, as each of them take turns drinking from a chalice carved from bone. Whatever they drank drove them to insanity, and they would begin screaming in agony until…

“-About 45 minutes”

Eric was brought back to the present, glass door of the lobby with gold handles peering back at them. Through the glass he could see a black and white tile floor and a glossy, walnut front desk.

“What?’

Aiden laughed “I said let’s stop admiring and go inside, the lecture will start in about 45 minutes, and I want time for some drinks. Ready?”

“What exactly do I need to get ready for? Am I about to see a goat’s head get chopped off”

Aiden shook his head, laughing, “Would you just relax for once? You really haven’t changed since high school”

Eric stiffened, disappointed that he had failed to hide his nervousness, “I am relaxed, I was just joking.”

They pushed against the handles and the double lobby doors opened.

Past the desk they had seen from the outside was a seating area separated into six sections, each with a table, a couch, and four arm chairs. At the very back of the room were leather upholstered double doors, also with gold handles, that led to another room. To the West side of the sitting area was a carpeted staircase, which was roped off. As they began walking on the checkered tile floor, Eric thought of walking through the hospital as a child, ensuring he stepped in one tile at a time. His stride was much too big for that now.

Aiden led them to the section at the back of the room, and beckoned for Eric to sit in an armchair.

“So, this is essentially a book club right? This is all pretty nice for a book club”

“Well, we’re actually more of a research organization. We preserve American history and American values, and some of us even write, conduct our own research. You could call us a book club. Few of us are actual historians, so anyone can join. A lot of people are legacy members though, like me.”

He pointed to the desk, now far behind them, “The membership book is up there if you want to join”

Eric laughed, “slow down there, I don’t even know what you guys do.”

Aiden nodded, “after tonight, you’ll have a better idea.”

Aiden didn’t strike him as the type of person that would be involved in this type of thing, even if his grandfather had been a member. Aiden never took anything seriously in his life that Eric could remember. In the 10 years since they graduated high school, Aiden must have really grown up. Eric had always been the serious one, the studious one. Now Eric, who had gotten laid off from the paper he was a staff writer for 6 months ago, was Aiden’s plus one to a luxurious and exclusive event.

Eric noticed a stack of cardstock flyers on the table, next to an ashtray.

Tonight’s Lecture

Speaker: Dr. Louis Pratt

REPEAL THE 19th -

How the 19th amendment led to the total degradation of American society

Eric furrowed his eyebrows. He definitely learned about the 19th amendment in school, but he couldn’t remember exactly what it was.

A hum of men’s voices became audible around them. All the seats were filled, and the spaces between were filled with people standing. Three men were embroiled in a tense conversation on the couch across from them.

Eric looked around the room, he saw men of all ages, but they were mostly young. Suddenly, Eric noticed Aiden had something in his pocket. It was long and bulky, like a small umbrella. Eric opened his mouth to ask him about it, then he was suddenly startled to see a woman in a deep purple dress, almost the color of wine standing right in front of him. She had dark brown hair that sat at her hips. Her face was luminous, almost translucent. He thought she looked like the moon. Her dark eyes looked dreamlike and vacant. On her slender hands balanced a silver platter, with two whiskey glasses. Aiden grabbed one off the plate and glanced at the woman. Eric grabbed his glass, “thank you” he said to the waitress. Her face visibly flushed. She bowed her head and stepped away from the table.

A tall man in a dark green suit descended from the stairs to the West. A woman unclapsed the rope fence for him, then reattached it after he set foot on the tile floor. He began walking up to the different groups that had formed and shaking everyone’s hands.

“That’s Dr. Pratt, he’ll be the one speaking tonight.”

Eric felt the strength of his presence. Everyone fell quiet as he got close to their table, like a rain storm coming to a sudden stop. And every time this hush got closer to them, he felt inexplicably nervous. At the paper, he had an extremely uptight, authoritarian boss. This was ultimately why he got fired. One day he just couldn’t take it anymore and…

At last, Dr. Pratt was standing before them.

He turned his interest directly to Eric. It stunned him, like he had fallen asleep and someone was pointing a flashlight at his face.

“You must be Mr. Doherty. What do you think of the Forum so far?”

“It’s all … very nice”

Very nice? He thought, that’s all you can come up with? What the hell is wrong with you?

“You are a writer for the Carslile, are you not?

“Well I uh… I got laid off in March, so I’ve just been taking care of things around the house.”

Dr. Pratt sharpened his gaze, “Certainly not the best use of your talents”

Eric laughed nervously, “Well my wife would agree, she was always better at cooking.”

Dr. Pratt held his gaze, he did not laugh.

The hum of the room sounded less like individual voices, and more like wasps around his head. At any moment, he could say the wrong thing and they would sting at Dr. Pratt’s command.

Aiden cleared his throat. Eric nervously scratched his cocktail glass.

“It’s just temporary, while I’m looking for work.”

“Well, you’ll find you have a place here”

“Really? That’s… outstanding, Dr. Pratt, thank you.. I just have no experience in history or research or anything. That’s … not the kind of writing I did.”

Dr. Pratt nodded, as if he expected this exact answer. “I’m aware, Mr. Doherty, I’ve read your work. Aiden told me about you”

Eric laughed nervously, Aiden hadn’t ever been the type to do people favors, especially not Eric. He always suspected Aiden was jealous of him. He never thought he’d live to see the day that Aiden got him a job.

“You have the drive and the talent, and that’s enough for me”

Eric nodded, he felt flattered at these words of respect, but didn’t want to seem too eager.

“We would pay you enough to provide for your whole family, you would need to pay a membership fee of course, but that comes with all sorts of benefits”

“Thank you for your consideration Dr. Pratt. I’ll think about it.”

Dr. Pratt nodded firmly, “I’m sure you will.” He turned his attention to the men on the couch, the storm clouds of Dr. Pratt’s presence rolling away.

A different waitress approached them and replaced their empty glasses with full ones. Eric didn’t say thank you this time, he didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable. He glanced quickly around the room, but didn’t see the woman in the wine colored dress anywhere.

Aiden nudged Eric, “You made a really great impression on Dr. Pratt since he offered you membership so soon. It takes most guys weeks of meetings”

“Really?” Well I’ll think about” He hadn’t had any luck finding a job in his field. He had gotten an interview to be a bus boy at a restaurant, but he thought of him coming home to his wife in a dirty apron, smelling like sweat and dishwater embarrassed him, and he never showed up.

Eric looked around the room again, he found her. She was standing next to one of the couches, holding her plate delicately, like it was a nest of baby birds. He wanted to call out to her, to ask her for her name, to tell her she looked like the moon, but even more beautiful.

He thought, This was supposed to be a different kind of Gentlemen’s Club, now I'm going to get in trouble with my wife.

He laughed out loud to himself.

Aiden turned to him, raising one eyebrow, “Are you doing alright?”

“Yeah man, sorry, I haven’t been drunk in a long time”

Aiden rolled his eyes, “Drunk? You’ve had two glasses of whiskey for fuck’s sake. You were always such a lightweight.”

They sipped their drinks.

“So working here is like being a member of the Falcon’s Forum? It’s the same thing?”

Aiden nodded “Everyone you’ve seen tonight is a member of the club.”

“Even the waitresses?” He thought of the way she had bowed her head so she wouldn’t meet his eyes. His face flushed at the memory.

“No, I told you it’s a men’s only club”

“So where do the waitresses come from? They’re not guests, obviously.”

Aiden furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, “I don’t know, who the fuck cares?”

Eric’s face flushed, he had said too much, “I was just wondering, because this place seems exclusive”

Aiden leaned close to him and spoke quietly, "Well, it is exclusive, and you’re lucky to be here”

“But … if this is such an exclusive place, how come I-”

“Don’t overthink it Eric, I know you love to overthink things. You need this opportunity for your family. That’s why I brought you here.”

Eric nodded, it was true, he needed a job. He was reluctant to take something handed to him, but no one else needed to know.

“Hey, I need to go to the restroom before the lecture” Aiden laughed

“I’ll come with you, lightweight.”

After getting up from the chair, Eric realized how intoxicated he was. He was grateful Aiden was driving them home. As they walked, he looked around for the wine dress woman, but she was gone.

—

After Eric washed his hands, he stumbled and gave Aiden a flat tire. Eric lost his balance and grabbed onto Aiden’s belt loop for support. They both began to fall.

“Jesus Christ Eric sit down” Aiden tried pulling them up, but it was too late, Eric was on the ground, and the bulky, umbrella looking thing had slipped from Aiden’s pants pocket and fell to the floor with a thud. It was actually a thick magazine. Eric was drunk and Aiden was pretty much sober, a strong feeling of distrust came over Eric, most likely amplified by the alcohol. He snatched the magazine with a force and stood up, facing away from Aiden. He flipped to a random page.

There were diagrams and flow charts with text. Aiden turned towards the bathroom mirror, wiping sweat off his forehead.

“You made a really great impression on Dr. Pratt since he offered you membership so soon. It takes most guys weeks of meeting”

His neck hairs bristled

“we’re actually a research organization. Just a bunch of history nerds really, we preserve American history and some of us even write, conduct our own research. You could call us a book club. Few of us are actual historians, so anyone can join”

“Aiden, what the hell is this?”

Aiden reached for him “Give me that shit”

Eric held the papers firm in his hand and backed away from him. The realization sobered him. He was certain of it now, Aiden had been carrying around a script that told him exactly what to say the entire time they had reconnected. All to get him here, and for what? It was exactly the type of thing Aiden would do. He hadn’t changed since high school at all, he was the same shady jackass he’d always been.

“What the hell is this place? The whole time I’ve been talking to you, you’ve been reading off a fucking script?”

Aiden looked at Eric sharply

“You need to calm down, you’re drunk”

“No, I don’t need to calm down, you need to tell me what the fuck is going on”

Eric’s nostrils flared. He noticed his hand that held the magazine was shaking. Aiden glanced at Eric’s hand and looked at him with irritation. Aiden had always been stronger. He socked him in the face once for thinking Eric had been flirting with his ex-girlfriend. Eric would if he had to, but he did not want to fight him.

Aiden put his hands on Eric’s shoulders and whispered in his ear, “Just calm down, before someone hears you”

Eric glanced at the exit door to the lobby. Aiden snatched his script back and put it in his pocket, he looked at it angrily, like a feisty animal that had escaped from its cage.

Aiden pressed his fingers to his forehead for a moment, then met Eric’s eyes, “Look, I’m sorry about the script. I swear, I didn’t use it all the time, but I… He glanced at the door, “I have to use it sometimes in case someone from the club hears. Dr. Pratt and the others are real… officious you could say. Please, you have to believe me.”

Eric felt sick to his stomach. He felt the same unease he felt when Dr. Pratt approached his table.

“Aiden, we should go,”

Aiden scrunched his face in confusion, “What? No. We can’t do that, man”

“Why the hell not?”

“Just go to the lecture. It’s about to start. If you walk out now, everyone is going to freak out”

Eric’s eyes narrowed, “What do you mean freak out?

They stared at eachother, Eric thought about Dr. Pratt’s offer. The one he’d be stupid not to take. “Just trust me.”

Eric sighed heavily. He felt that deep down, he could trust Aiden. The discovery of the script was a shock, but a lot of places had scripts for people to follow, such as call centers. Besides, there were things Aiden had said to him that were unique to their friendship, that just couldn’t be scripted. Eric nodded.

They left the bathroom together and headed past the dining area of the lobby, the crowd had bottlenecked at the leather upholstered double doors of the auditorium. They found seats and waited. The hush that had fallen over the room was less like a storm that had suddenly stopped, and more like the calm before a storm that was about to break. Everyone in the room was waiting for Dr. Pratt to speak.

In the dining area, the waitresses quietly picked up cocktail glasses, discarded toothpicks, and cigarette butts. Working in a rhythm that only comes from repetition, they polished the tables and chairs, mopped the floor, then filed upstairs. The woman in the wine colored dress was the last to ascend, clasping the rope fence shut behind them. The light was now dim on the stairs, the world outside was just barely grasping on to daylight. She glanced out the window at the outside world. Soon, it will be night, she thought and clutched the banister of the stairs tightly. Her dress had darkened to the color of ink. From the lobby doors, if someone caught a glimpse of her, they may have thought they had seen a ghost. She turned away from the glass, none of them made a sound as they ascended the stairs. Her long hair swayed along her waist as she ascended, disappearing with the other women into the dark.

—-

Eric felt invigorated, and they all felt the same feeling as they stood up in unison. Dr. Pratt had already left his podium on the stage, and stood by the auditorium doors. As members and guests were leaving, they shook his hand and smiled. The lecture was over, but he still had the same command over the room that he always had. Eric found he deeply admired him. They shook hands, Dr. Pratt nodded at him. Eric didn’t have to say anything, they both knew what had just happened, and what would happen next. They stepped into the lobby, the men’s shoes making a rhythm on the newly polished tiled floor.. Without saying a word to one another, Aiden and Eric both went to the membership desk. No one had to explain anything, they knew what was going to happen, they knew it was inevitable as soon as Eric had entered the room two hours earlier.

The man at the desk flipped open the large, leather bound book and handed him a ballpoint pen. The ballpoint pen was engorged with ink like the finger of a decaying corpse pointing to the page, directing Eric to sign his name.

Eric knew this place would be a great opportunity for him. He could start writing again. He could provide for his family again, and this time, no one was going to take it away from him. He used his left hand to hold the book flat, and he signed his name, Eric Doherty, on the bone colored paper.