Salt Pillars

Chapter 10

The line for the voting table began to crowd. It started as a single file line then blobbed out with groups of friends standing together to talk while they waited, until it resembled more of a marathon then a row. Impatience began to give way to intolerance for opposing opinions. They were experiencing their first taste for the polarizing effects of politics and it brought out the worst in their being. Heated arguments about which candidate is a better leader turned into personal attacks.

The combination of the tight space, hunger, and politics was proving to be very volatile, causing people to cut-in line and shove each other.

The lack of structure had become too much for Melanie to handle. She had been in shock since the pep rally four days ago; since she had gone from receiving the greatest news of her life — the only news that mattered — her victory in the science fair and therefore her victory over her future — to having the entire concept of her future be destroyed — going from absolute certainty to total uncertainty; Melanie did not handle uncertainty well. What about college? What about her parents? What was happening to the world? What the fuck was happening?

Furthermore, she had grown up in a very small and quiet Asian family. She wasn't used to being surrounded by so many people all the time: hearing them, seeing them, and smelling them. The bunker felt smaller and tighter with every hour, and she couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't think. She had to get out — now!

Her clothes felt tight on her neck. She pulled at the collar, but the air was too thin in here, too much CO2, everyone was using it up. They were going to die, or worse, suffocate slowly. She strained to breathe as she stumbled to her feet, wheezing deep chest breaths, and she pushed through the crowd of people waiting to cast their votes, toward the restrooms. She needed space; she needed air.

The restrooms didn't have doors. The semblance of privacy between male and female rooms was achieved with a partition and a bend that put the stalls out of view from people standing on the outside. Melanie came around the corner into the girl's section and fell to her knees. The restroom was trashed with toilet paper and hand towels. There were puddles of undefined liquid on the floor, one of which Melanie accidentally placed her hand into when she knelt down. She pulled her hand back with disgust and whiped it against her pants. The room to which she had come to get fresh air was currently flooded with the smell of cigarette smoke and urine. She gagged and dry heaved, crying hysterically.

Just then, Jen walked out of one of the stalls.

"Are you alright?" Jen asked.

Melanie looked up at her with her red eyes all swollen with tears.

"It's gone, it's all gone," she cried.

Jen didn't have a consoling answer; she simply knelt beside her and placed her arm around her.

"Wow lesbian action!" a familiar boys voice called out from behind them. She looked over to see Cole and his group entering the girl's restroom.

"Don't stop on my account."

He said, "I love this dike shit."

Jen stood up, "You're not supposed to be in here Cole."

"You hear that guys? We're not supposed to be in here," he mocked.

Two other boys followed in after him, one of which was Goofy. Jen looked to him, but he looked away in shame as Cole walked closer to the girls.

"I'm sorry. We'd better leave haven't we whore, but not before you give me back what you took," he said.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Jen argued, and then tried to walk past him, but he sidestepped her so that he remained an obstruction in her path. She shifted direction to the other side, and he mirrored her changes.