You will find short stories on this site. Most are autobiographical. Some are fiction.

THE NIGHT OF THE ALPHA PHI PARTY

The Alpha Phi sorority was, in my opinion, one of the best sororities on the University of Oregon campus. The Beta house, where I lived, was across the millrace from the Alpha Phis. The Betas were known as a party house, with few serious students. A few years after I left the Beta house, it was shut down, banned by the University for the bad behavior of its members. It was an ironic juxtaposition of these two Oregon’s “Greeks”, so close geographically and so far apart academically. One would think that the girls of Alpha Phi would have had nothing to do with the Betas.

I was in my junior year. It was Winter term. I had switched my major from psychology to architecture. The demands of the architecture program, together with my two jobs, left me little time for socializing. That didn’t keep me from appreciating women. There were several coeds, I had met on campus, who I thought were especially attractive. I never had the time, nerve or cash sufficient to ask one out. Jackie LeDoux, an Alpha Phi, was one of my most admired women.

One of the big social events of the year was the Alpha Phi house party and dance. A few of my fraternity brothers, who dated Alpha Phi girls, had received invitations. These were a coveted prize. Then, much to my astonishment, an invitation came to me. It was an invitation to the Alpha Phi party. It was from Jackie. I couldn’t believe it. I was elated. I didn’t think that she knew I existed and yet here it was, she was inviting me to be her date at her sorority party.

A fraternity brother and long-time friend, Tom, was also invited. He planned a pre-party dinner at his family’s gracious home. Tom’s dinner was first class, featuring a lovely meal with ample wine followed with brandy. I felt that Jackie and I were getting along fine despite the fact that I was a bit awe struck by my being with her. After dinner, we rode with Tom back to the sorority. When we arrived, Jackie excused herself to go up to her room to “freshen up”. I went into the party room. A small band was playing. Couples were dancing or sitting at small tables, as in a cabaret. I found a couch at the back of the room and waited. Eventually, one of Jackie’s sorority sisters came to tell me that Jackie was not feeling well and needed to rest. I was feeling a little inebriated and presumed that she was also. I continued to wait hoping she would recover and join me. I don’t remember doing it, but, it wasn’t long afterwards, that I went to the sororitie’s men’s room.

When I woke, or rather regained consciousness, I was sitting in a toilet stall, in total darkness. In the distance, I could hear the angelic sound of women’s voices singing and laughing. Where was I?. Had I died? Were those angles singing? Then I realized where I was. I was sitting on a toilet in in the Alpha Phi Sorority. Someone had turned out the lights. It had to have been one of the Jackie’s sorority sisters. If she had checked the toilet stalls, I would have been discovered with my pants around my ankles and vomit on the floor in front of me. I pulled up my pants and carefully stepped out of the stall. A faint light from a distant street lamp, found its way in through the ivy covered window. It was enough light for me to find the light switch for the room. I went to the stall and saw the mess I had made. I panicked. I was in a sorority after closing. I had defiled their guest toilet. ‘I have to get out of here.’ I thought. and yet ‘I can’t leave their room like this.’ Using toilet paper and paper towels I cleaned it up. I turned off the light and stepped out of the powder room. The party was over. The main floor of the sorority was dark. My wonderful date with Jackie had evaporated. It was like the experience of waking from a wonderful dream and realizing that it didn’t happen. I found the front door and snuck out, undetected. I walked over the bridge to the Beta house and went to bed.

The following morning at breakfast, some of my fraternity brothers were talking about their panty raid on the Alpha Phi house which had occurred the previous night, after the girls had gone to their sleeping porches. My brothers laughed that their elaborate scheme to gain entry into the locked sorority through a second story window, was unnecessary because the front door was miraculously left unlocked. One of them mused, “It was as if they wanted us to come back. Haha”. I said nothing.

Jackie would not have known of my spending the party passed out on the powder room toilet. Nor would she have known that I was responsible for the front door being unlocked. Or at least that is what I wanted to believe. Now, thinking back, I realize that I should have called her. I didn’t. I was not sure whether she had left because she was drunk or because she was bored with her date. I was embarrassed for both of us. If I had seen her again, she probably would have asked about what I did when she disappeared. I didn’t want to explain to her that I had spent the night of her Alpha Phi party passed out in her powder room.