Time To Go

After all the commotion over the beating in the street I thought it best to retire for the evening, but with all the unsavory types lurking about who could sleep. I had been keeping sleeping pills on me for just such an occasion where I found myself to terrified to slumber. I reached in my bag and took one. I then tried to arrange myself in such away that I would be curled around the massive stain that lie just below the thin sheets. It was a rather awkward and uncomfortable position, but that was the least of my concerns. My bunk lay at the base of very large window, which had been pushed wide open, in what I assume, was an attempt to air the stagnant stench out of the room. It wasn't drafty, on the other hand it was quite the pleasant night, but unfortunately there was a party taking place right outside on the patio below me. As I scanned the bunks around me, I was surprised to find nobody else in them, I suppose they must have been partaking in the festivities down below. It wasn't before long that the sleeping pill kicked in and my mind slowly eased and the loud screams coming from outside were drowned out by pleasant images of my travels.

I woke up early in the morning around 6:30AM thinking I would beet everyone to the only bathroom in this flop house of despair for a quick shower. To my surprise when I opened the door to my room I caught the tail end of the man who had all the bags attached to his waist entering the facilities. I figured he wouldn't be very long so I sat down on the a pair of steps that were adjacent to the restroom. I sat there impatiently tapping my foot and staring at the door. It wasn't before long that I began to hear bizarre unexplainable noise coming from within the room. Then I herd coughing and the toilet flush then walking around then the sink turn on, more walking around and then the toilet flushing again. What in the hell was going on in there? I tried to imagine different scenarios for what all those noises could be attached to in a morning bathroom routine, I even imagined the thoroughly unthinkable and disgusting, which might not have been to far from the truth judging from the types of people that were staying here. The toilet would flush several more times for a total of 8 flushes. I had been waiting for over 40 minutes and had grown thoroughly frustrated at this point. I began to think maybe the man had some sort of mental disorder or compulsion, so I stepped up and gently knocked on the door, and in a calm and collected voice asked "Hay....is everything alright in there?.......there's a line forming out here!" I figured the second half would encourage him to do what ever he was doing a little faster.

My words seemed to have worked because only a few moments passed before the man emerged with a rather red complexion in his face. We exchanged two uncomfortable and silent nods as I attempted to squeeze past his bags in the all to cumbersome hallway. If ever a bathroom was in more disrepair this was it. The floor tiles were cracked and coming up, the room lacked any sort of ventilation and a brownish-orange ooze seemed to drip from the ceiling adorning the walls with an interesting pattern. Through my travels it never occurred to me to pick up a pair of shower shoes, and if after this day I were to suddenly to catch a case of athletes foot, planters warts, or some sort of foot fungus, I would hold this bathroom solely responsible! The shower was so horrid I weighed the implications of taking one for a good amount of time.

I made quick haste in the devils bathroom and got the very few possessions I had brought in from my car together. I don't know whats worse; fearing someone is going to break into your car in the middle of the night and steal all your stuff, or fearing someone is just going to strait up rob you wile you sleep? As I made my way out, I passed back through the common area where the man with the bags was slumped over sitting in his his chair in the corner, and a new stranger was passed out drunk laying half on the nastiest couch ever created and half on the nastiest floor to ever walk on. Now does it really matter which half was on which surface?
I stopped and pondered all the events that had transpired in the past 24 hours and quietly made my way out.