Bright light shined through my pupils but the conscience would not return to my body. I heard voices around me, one getting closer as it spoke unintelligent babble.
I tried moving, my arms weren't responding I couldn’t feel my limbs.
With chills down my spine a scream forming in my throat I moved my mouth… and there I was, in a hotel room alone.
Aside for the stirred white sheets in the room everything was clean. As if no one had been in this room but myself. Where was Jessica? How did I get here? Springing to my feet, glad that I could now feel my limbs I jumped off the bed, running for the hallway where red carpet and dim lights hung on the wall-papered walls.
No sign of Jessica.
Maybe she’d gone down to the lobby and would come back later. I hoped.
Unable to find the room key I decided against leaving the room for fear that I would neither find Jessica nor get back in the room.
How strange that a room key would not be on the nightstand.
For the first time I noticed an unusually small window for a hotel at the far side of the room. Instinctively I walked towards it, the morning sun was high on the sky and the air was stale. Looking down there laid a fenced-in dirt parking lot, but held no cars only indistinguishable grey matter on the floor. Could it be a dump?
What a strange hotel, to have one of the rooms facing a dump.
A man walked behind the white fence pushing a Popsicle kart with a high colorful beach umbrella protecting him form the sun.
Jessica still wasn’t back and the ray of the sun began to give me a migraine. I looked back into the room in hopes for a phone. Across the restroom door, next to the empty closet sat the phone.
I picked up the phone and put it on my ear frantically dialing what I thought was Jessica's number, listening in silence for a moment a tone couldn't be heard. I banged it against the table in despair, leaving scuff marks on the polished wood.
This day could not get any stranger. Where the hell was I and how the hell did I get here?
Tired of waiting for someone to give me the answer to these questions I walked out to hallway in search of them, the door slamming shut behind me.
No one poked their head out of other rooms as I expected, to try and find the source of the noise in the room next to them.
No one was in the hallway except the utterly hideous ring of the old light bulbs exerting their energy.
In search of an elevator I came upon a communal restroom. Green stalls lined the back wall and there was a long faded mirror on the other.
Quiet sobbing came from under one of the stalls and hurriedly tried to muffle its own sound. I dashed for the last stall, the only one that I could not see beneath the door to.
I kicked the door in. Afraid of what stood behind it.
But there was nothing except a tiny rectangular window high on a wall.
Determined to see through it I stood on the toilet and stood on my toes to add some height. There laid only the same view I had in the room. The bright orange morning sun and the grey covered dirt.
I heard some footsteps approaching accompanied by heavy breathing, the sand began to lift drifting into the restroom window. Trying to keep my eyes clean I squinted, refusing to close them.
The movement stopped right above the window. As if looking for something, I heard it shuffle a bag it must have been carrying. Inside the bag the sound of clay stones banging against each other was quickly muffled. Whoever it was making the noise must have wanted to go unnoticed and I was at the worst position to challenge that.
The clay noise began again, this time accompanied by a thud. A brown sack appeared at the corner of my eyes, something stretching out its walls.
A black hand reached into the bag and pulled out a large wooden cross with a few phrases written in the middle.
The cross was moved away from the view of the small window, leaving me unable to recognize what the words said and what would be done with it.
Quick, hard thuds and ruffling of the dust followed. The cross was being posted in the parking lot.
After a few minutes a long weeping sound was heard, the person walked away leaving it's back behind.
Curious of what had just happened and what the cross said I jumped off the toilet I stood on, and headed towards the door.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Juy 10, 2011
The birds were chirping. The wood of the kiosk was bright white and painful to look at in the bright light of the sun.
Looking around nothing was familiar. Where did we go before this? How did we get here?
I noticed Jessica standing next to me. Wincing my eyes at the sun I attempted to get her attention, "I always dreamt of getting married in a kiosk, with a handsome gentleman in a soldier uniform" I smiled at my failed attempt to get the confused look off her face. She stared blankly. Maybe I'm not the only one with memory loss.
"Jess, Jess" I tried to shake her but she only looked at me with a glaze over her eyes with her face paler than I had ever seen it.
A few feet away a small boy leaned over a lake, depositing a model boat into the water. He stepped back taking a look at his success and pulled on a string attached to the boat, he ran towards the other side of the lake. His presence added a sense of serenity, when was the last time I had seen a boy playing with a boat? I would've thought he'd be playing with a virtual boat indoors somewhere.
Virtual! Turning away I remembered my phone, maybe I could GPS my location. I patted my pockets, nothing, what the?
"Jess I don't have my phone, do you have yours" I waited for a response, why isn't she answering? "Jess" I raised my voice and looked at her again.
Her wordless mouth opened as she turned to look at me, the glaze in her eye faintly disappearing.
"We did it" she said, "We did it". Her monotone voice had a horrific-underlying tone.
"Jess what is going on?" I demanded. Her blank stare was discomforting; she looked at me and past me all at once.
"What did we do jess?" I cried out. She only turned her face as she stuttered for words.
The shuffle of feet in the grass startled me. I turned towards the direction Jess faced and saw a man dressed in a white business shirt and black pants walking towards us, he lugged a rolling suitcase with him.
The formal looking man walked towards the kiosk. Curious I stood there, awaiting his arrival. Maybe I should've ran.
He looked at the both of us with a stern face. Unemotional as if unwilling to deal with anything that was not business. Opening the suitcase I caught a glimpse of an olive toned arm.
"what the hell is that?!" I accidentally squealed, attempting to shut myself up.
The mystery man went on, undisturbed. Out of his suitcase he pulled out manikins, exact replicas of us. They wore the clothing we wore yesterday, stained. Mud, grass on my jeans.
"What did we do Jessica, what is going on!?" My attempt at being quiet was no longer under my control.
I yelled at her, forgetting where we were. Forgetting? For goodness sakes I don't even know where we were standing. No one was saying anything.
Frustrated at not getting any answers I looked at the guy. What was he doing with the mannequins?
This guy had a strange sense of familiarity, who is he? I tried to think back but was distracted by what he began to do next.
He laid out the replicas as if a murder had occurred. Jessica's replica laid under the table, facing the ground in a puddle of blood, "you drowned in your blood" he said. His voice was firm. Maybe he was joking? The optimist in me thought. But there was no hint of even a smile on his lops.
He looked at me and thought for a second, he stared into my eyes, his eyes were dark, deep and strange. Who in the world is he? I wondered. Trying to look away, i felt my heart sink. I couldn't move my glance.
He spoke up. "You were hit on the neck with a gun, breaking your spine, you died instantly." He looked away.
"WOW be a little more gruesome!" I joked, neither turned around.
"Geez. tough crowd." I mumbled, the somberness in the air driving me nuts.
"I have to go. Stay out of sight." He ordered us. Handing over a white slip of paper with scribbles on it, hesitantly I took it from his hand. I looked at the writing of what seemed like an address.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
July 9, 2011
"Let's get a beer" I shouted at Jess.
She nodded and we headed to the bar. Finally her phone lit up and so did my eyes, unsurprisingly. She glanced at her phone and read her message, as she slid it back in her pocket my heart sank; I didn't want to seem eager by asking so I pretended not to notice the message, or the sender.
Hoping she would eventually leak out some information I sucked up my feelings and gulped my beer.
This is not a tendency of mine, to go boy crazy or stutter around a hot guy. Maybe It's that we have known each other since middle school. He knows my nerdy days and my embarrassing days. More importantly he knows the things I try to hide from guys I meet.
"hablas espanol" I felt a tap on my shoulder, slowly turning around mortified for not knowing how to dance Spanish music I smiled, agreeing to a conversation that would distract me from his grand arrival for at least a few minutes. Geez, I thought girls were supposed to leave the guys in suspense.
I fumbled through a few apologies for not being cultural enough to dance cumbia, was it culture or my two left feet? I had yet to figure out the answer to that bad boy.
I looked around for Jess to save me from my idle conversation to a guy who was obviously only interested in offering me open drinks his friend handed him, all the while judging me for my brittle Spanish. Nowhere to be found I saw her sister standing a few feet away next to her husband. She pointed to the cute guy standing next to me who I was attempting to escape from and gave me a mocking look, I smiled and turned back to the guy asking about my music preference. Trying to remember the proper Spanish translation to house, I was distracted by a nudge on my arm.
My heart pumped. I turned around, It was so unexpected. Oh my.
It was only my uncle's nephew. Well at least he was a get-away from Mr. Chloroform over here, I grabbed his hand and walked towards the dance floor and attempted my best at whatever it was that was playing. Maybe if he saw me dancing with another guy he would get a bit jealous; I hoped, half laughing at myself for being so silly.
By the end of the third song, tired of getting my feet stepped on and not letting him get too close for fear that maybe we were related in some strange way like a three quarters of Mexicans tend to be, I told him to keep in touch and walked towards where I last saw jess's sister standing.
Arriving to Dina, I asked her where Jess had disappeared to, "she's dancing with Jacob's friend" she replied. Had I just heard that right? Putting up my best poker face I nodded. Trying to suppress my supposed memories of thinking I had seen him dancing and walking towards the back of the bar. I couldn't get angry, he's not my boyfriend after all I repeated to myself trying to convince myself to cut my losses and let him go
"Hola chica, wanna dance?" I turned around to a guy about five feet tall trying to touch my hand. What the what?
"No thanks" I told him. I turned towards Dina who started dancing to some house remix they had begun to play trying to kick myself out of my mini depression, I followed her lead.
"You don't want to teach me to dance?" I heard the same voice again. "I said no" I replied and moved away from him. "But what's so hard about teaching me how to dance?" He followed, "Oh you don't want to talk to me? Its ok I'm going to stay here until you do" I was beginning to get annoyed. Ready to tell the little dude off I turned around, when I caught a glance of the stairs. There he was. In a cowboy hat and flannel shirt, just like I last saw him.
"Hey" he smiled and gave me a hug. Ah I thought I was about to melt. But I had to keep my cool. "I didn't think you were coming today" I whispered in his ear. "I was looking for you but I couldn't find you" he replied. "Want to dance?"
Did i? Was he being sarcastic?
"Sure" I replied attempting my best at being subtle about it.
No longer having my feet stepped on I tried my best to keep up with his moves, genre after genre, small conversations and a few moments of trying to play it cool the night passed away. Too fast for my liking, as luck would have it Jess wasn't done partying, and who better than Jacobs cousin to convince him to go somewhere after.
Walking towards the car with his hands around me, I lost track of the conversation. Upon reaching the car he did what I had not asked him to but what is a major deal breaker in a guy; he opened the car door. I was amazed. Another sign I was in no way lowering my standards. After picking up the others from the door and joking all the way to his house I tried my best to not get my hopes up for much to come after, after all not much could happen when I was tongue tied around him.
Finally after what seemed like forever we arrived at his house, it was in a new community still being developed but surrounded by the most beautiful view of a gorgeous lake in his backyard and a thick curtain of trees surrounding the neighborhood from the highway.
Once inside someone had the bright idea of playing an old action movie, cheesy stunts being the main feature of each scene. Jess and Jacob's friend lounged on a futon on one wall, with Jacob sitting next to me asking about my choice to become a vegetarian as I tried my best to hold my end of the conversation, this was a form of getting to know each other right? Why was I suddenly clueless?
Eventually the lights went down and the movie ended, everyone was falling asleep, was I sleeping on a chair? Maybe I should call a ride; I pulled out my phone, simultaneously opening a text message. "psst…" it read from Jacob. "Yes" I replied, "maybe you should come over here" his response read; now while I was seriously considering playing hard to get and hope I do not get judged by my following action by future me I attempted to respond, but I didn't, I went over.
For a few awkward moments I laid in his arm as we joked around about Jess and his friend falling asleep so fast, then as sneakily as either of us planned it, we kissed, now he is certainly not the best kisser I've had but I was willing to look past that, laughing at myself for being so experienced I replied to his kiss as his hand slithered down my back.
I touched his face, running my fingers down his jaw while leaning in for a light kiss, which inclined to not wanting to let him go, and we laid there in the dark unwilling to go any further.
Receiving chills down my spine every time he touched my neck. His body pressed against mine, I ran my hand down the side of his body, and he began to giggle. Apparently I touched a ticklish spot. We both began laughing hysterically, after finally regaining control and a few moments of giggles we continued with our attempt at getting to know each other, eventually content in his arms, and hoping he felt the same, I fell asleep.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)