eat discord

Y. had pulled some strings so that i could get the medical test that afternoon. X. would go too & do all the hand-holding. Z. had agreed to drive.

In preparation, i watched television. Normally, i would watch an episode or two of the old Twighlight zone, but this day my nerves demanded something a bit more extreme. I flipped uselessly thru the channels. Nothing managed to tickle my fancy.

Then I heard Z.'s voice coming up thru the vent. He was complaining again. As I started down the steps the words became clearer: SHE ALWAYS NEEDS SOMETHING. I CAN NEVER GIVE ENOUGH. THERE'S ALWAYS SOMETHING ELSE. I WISH SHE'D JUST DIE ALREADY.

Furious inside, I confronted him calmly. He was folding clothes in the small side room. Y. watched and listened as X. came in behind me.

"What do you mean," I asked? "I have a crazy medical test this afternoon! You don't have to be there. Someone else will take me."

Z. responded that it was not the test per se, rather everything. He started listing all the things that he had done for me during the past year. I stopped him, and began to air my own dirty laundry.

He couldn't take it. He screeched like a goat. Denial. Denial. Denial.

Y. stepped up to add, "It's a rough day for her. Have some understanding."

A still storming Z. stomped out of the scene.

X. & I went to the hospital. They immediately lead me from the mauve waiting area into a sterile green and white changing room. I met my technician. He explained that it was a long and painful test, but that I'd have the results immediately. We shook hands, and I noticed several nervous pregnant woman piled into the chairs.

After I put on the gown, slippers, & cap, I was shown thru a doorway into a coffeehouse.

The place was clean and airy, full of light wood and furniture of Scandinavian design. X. and Y. were with me, and we moved to sit at the corner of the bar. Just as I reached to pull myself onto the stool, someone snatched it. So I stood as X. & Y. sat.

As we looked over the menu, the guy on the other side of me started inching his elbow out toward me on the bar & scooting his seat closer. I realized that he was trying to push me out of the table space, so i pushed back into him and stared over.

It was an aged hipster-- balding, curly red hair, beard, & chunky plastic glasses. He leaned over the bar, opened his mouth & started spewing coffee onto it. The coffee spread over onto my gown.

I leaped up, & demanded that he apologize. He insisted that I was in his space. I said that there was more than enough for both of us. He pointed out that I didn't even have a chair.

I grabbed the first waiter who passed-- another bearded hipster guy, but younger & thinner... more hippy than nerdy. As I voiced my complaint, the waiter smugly responded, "This guy is our guest--a regular. You aren't. He gets the bar space. Case closed."

I demanded to see a manager, who appeared in the form of the young Mary Tyler Moore. She was quite sympathetic, and said that she would do something as soon as the performance had completed. Suddenly, the rude hipster was playing music with a skinny latino guy. The latino guy had toy instruments-- and a big black speaker covered in dyed blue cheese cloth. He kept sticking it in my face-- it made an ear puncturing sound. But I acted as if it didn't bother me.

I pressed my eyes against the cloth & could see him looking at me thru the opposite side. He grinned. I reached back to the bar and took a handful of grits & smeared them all along the cloth. I worked my greasy fingers into the thing, and started worming thru, getting grits inside.

The man kept watching me, smiling. Finally, the music ended, and the whole coffee shop applauded.

He put the speaker down & grabbed some CAT IN THE HAT music books to show me. They were in english & braille. I brushed them aside.

"He is a creep." I pointed to the hipster. "And you are a child."

The speaker guy laughed, and the pair of them left the cafe. I looked around, and discovered that I was all alone in there. I wondered about Chanel & my medical test. There was a balcony that stood over a lower level. I looked down & didn't see anyone there either.

I awoke.