People Like Us

‘Have you ever seen someone have a seizure?’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘I have. My brother’s epileptic.’

‘Have we met before?’

‘At first, they’re fine. They act normal. They sit there and they talk to you. Everything’s normal and then suddenly they’re staring at you with this confused look on their face.’

‘…’

‘Then their face squeezes up and their teeth slam together. Then they start flopping around like some sort of like, dancing kid or something. You know how it is when kids dance?’

‘Yes.’

‘Right. So, they just start flopping around, and then you look in their eyes and you just know they’ve checked out. It’s just like that saying. What is it? You know that saying?’

‘Listen, I-’

‘Oh! ‘It’s like the lights are on and no one’s home’! Yes, that’s it. Do you know who said that?’

‘I don’t think that anyone-‘

‘I don’t think they can see us. I mean, they’re eyes are open, but I don’t think they can see us. That’s the whole ‘no one’s home’ thing.

‘Ahuh.’

‘You have to make sure that they don’t bite off their own tongue. And that they are on their side. They could die if you don’t. Choke and stuff. The doctors at the hospital told me that.’

‘…’

‘Everything let’s go. Everything. You know, they piss themselves and sometimes- well, everything decent and human let’s go. You’re left there shaking and stiff and wanting to die, but you won’t because there is someone out there beyond the pain that’s putting you on your side and telling you that it’s all going to be all right, but sometimes this person that’s saving you thinks that maybe it might be better just to let you lie on your back and bite down hard and clean, that it might be better for you to drown and choke on your own blood and bits of tongue than to let you twitch and drool like that one minute longer.’

‘…’

‘Well listen, it’s been real great talking to you, but I think a couple of my friends just showed up. What a great party! You know Theo, right?’

‘Yes.’

‘Oh cool! I just love Theo, don’t you love Theo? Well listen, like I said, it was really great talking to you. What’s your name again?’

‘Avi.’

` ‘Nice to meet you, Andy. My name’s Cynthia. Now listen, I think a couple of my friends just showed up so I gotta go.’

‘Yes. Nice meeting you, Cynthia.’

‘Bye, Arthur!’

Avi places his drink down on a nearby table and takes a deep breath. He watches as Cynthia goes skipping off into the crushing crowd of collegiate headaches. She accidently knocks a beer out of the hand of a big guy who’s wearing a red stripped polo shirt. She doesn’t notice. Red polo does, and he throws his now empty hands up in the air in a ‘What The Hell’ sort of way.

Avi scans the room quickly and notices that everyone seems to be having a very good time. A fresh couple is kissing in the corner. His hands are moving lower than she would like and she wriggles to get away. Avi picks his drink back up and polishes it off. The whiskey is too diluted with soda to burn.

A quick rainbow of movement catches Avi’s eye and he notices someone waving at him from across the room. It’s a girl he’s never seen before. He doesn’t wave back. Her face scrunches up a bit, and she waves again, this time it’s a bit more tentative and almost entirely finger based. He waves back. She smiles and motions him to come over. Avi feels slightly ill as he picks his way through the crowd. The man in the stripped polo steps on Avi’s foot. Avi winches and the polo shirt smiles and places a hand on Avi’s shoulder as if to say ‘Sorry.’ When he finally makes it over to the girl, he feels as if his clothes need a good burning.

‘Hey there, sorry if I caught you off guard or something.’

‘No, no it’s fine. It’s really fine. I just didn’t think that you were waving at me is all.’

She laughs. ‘Yes, well. I guess that’s understandable. This place is pretty packed.’

‘Yes. So, I’m Avi,’ he sticks out his hand.

‘Oh I know. We’ve met before.’ Avi withdraws his hand. His face turns pink.

‘Oh.’

‘It’s fine. Don’t be embarrassed. I’m not surprised. I mean, I’m not surprised that you don’t remember. We were pretty drunk when we met.’

‘Oh?’

‘Yes. At least, I was. We met at a party two weeks ago. Right here actually.’

‘Oh. You know Theo?’

‘Yes.’

‘Nice guy.’

‘Yeah.’

Avi scratches his neck and looks around the room as if he looking for something. He coughs.

‘So.’ He coughs again.

‘So?’

‘So. I don’t remember your name.’

‘Oh! I’m sorry. That was stupid of me. I mean, that was really stupid of me. I’m sorry.’

‘It’s fine.’

‘Muriel.’

‘What?’

‘That’s my name. My name’s Muriel.’

‘Oh. That’s an interesting name.’

‘So’s Avi.’

‘Yeah. Yeah I guess it is.’

The man in the red polo shirt is having an argument with another man who Avi thinks may somehow be related to Theo.

‘So listen, Avi. Do you like these things? I mean, do you like going to these things?’

He laughs. ‘They aren’t bad, I guess. You get free drinks a lot of the time. That’s nice. You meet some interesting people.’

‘Yeah. I guess you’re right.’

‘Why? Do you not like these things?’

She sighs and pushes her hair out of her face. ‘I mean, it isn’t as if I don’t like them, you know? I mean, I guess I’m supposed to like them. Right?’

‘I guess you aren’t supposed to like anything if you don’t want to.’

‘But I mean, I don’t think it’s like that.’

‘…’

‘I think I’m supposed to like this, right? Like this is what is good? I mean, this is what people like us are supposed to do?’

‘People like us?’

‘Yeah. People our age. Aren’t we supposed to go to college, sit in class sometimes, complain about teachers during the day and drink at night at things like this?’

‘You’re not supposed to do anything. You do it if you want to.’

‘What do you normally do at night, Avi?’

‘Depends.’

‘On what?’

‘The night. Some nights I stay inside and study. Other nights, I go out. So it depends on the night.’

‘All right. But do you like going out?’

‘Didn’t I all ready answer that?’

‘I guess you did. But what’s the point?... Of going out.’

‘Yeah. Listen, I think that you’re just thinking about all this too much. Just relax. Have fun. Get a drink. Meet someone. Get drunk. I dunno. Are you all right? You’re looking a bit pale.’

‘Yeah. I’m fine. Hey, listen. I’ve got to use the bathroom.’

‘All right. Hey, it was nice seeing you again.’

‘Yeah. Yeah it was really nice. See you later, maybe?’

‘Yeah, definitely.’

Muriel picked her way through the crowd and made her way towards where she remembered the bathroom being. There was a line of about three people waiting outside the door. The door opened and Muriel cut through the line and slipped inside. She heard someone yell at her. The door locked with a click. Muriel walked to the sink and gently knocked a beer can off its edge. It was mostly full and the cheap alcohol pooled around her feet. She turned on the hot water and plugged the drain with a wad of toilet paper. The sink began to fill up. Steam coated the mirror. Muriel began to cry. She turned off the water right before it began to overflow.