a night out

There was a special city wide fireworks/laser light constellation show in the city where I lived. There were static images laid over the stars in the sky outlining the constellations and making up new ones. I was going to a special theater to see it all really well. It was on the top floor of a building. On the way in we bumped into some people we knew. One guy was laying on the steps next to the escalator. He was collecting himself, so we left him there.

There were two parts of this theater. We went to the back theater and looked for seats. The lights were still up and people were getting ready for the show. The theater was already pretty full. No one had saved me a seat. There was one seat next to my ex and his roommate. Though the view was better from there, I didn't want to sit near them. Moreover I wanted to refuse the seat he had offered me--as to say, "No I don't want/need/desire to be close to you anymore." I walked down the aisle and sat next to Alana Finkle. I went to grade school with her and haven't seen her since. She was arranging a blanket and a pillow in her oversized seat like it was a bed. I had a burgundy comforter from my childhood with me. I fixed the blanket in the chair so it would be more comfortable, then I sat down.

Everyone was in their seat waiting for the show to begin. People were chatting and eating snacks. Mike, the cute film guy I dated for a bit a couple years ago, walked in wearing a basketball jersey. We started to talk and everyone around us became a bit silent so they could hear what we were saying. He was telling me how college turned out to be much different than he expected. I was kind of uninterested in the conversation, but I enjoyed how I had captured everyone's attention.

Then I had to go to the bathroom to pour milk out of my sneaker. I had a sneaker full of milk. I wanted to drink the milk. I imagined how it would be refreshing--a bit sweet, thick and cool. The problem was that the sneaker had a bit of a foot smell and I knew people around me would find it strange that I was drinking the milk out of a stinky sneaker. I really wanted to drink the milk, but decided I would have to dispose of it. I went to the bathroom to pour it out.


When I got to the bathroom I took off all of my clothes. My body was all wet, like I had just finished taking a shower, so I took long pieces of brown paper towel to dry myself off. Just then, my old boss walked in. There I was completely nude, trying to cover my body with paper towels, and freaking out. I apologized and tried to have some kind of normal conversation like it was nothing. Meanwhile, she hardly noticed. She was too busy interrogating me. She wondered if I was in some kind of trouble because no one there was calling me by my real name. I explained that my students called me Teacher, some of my friends and people I knew through my artwork called me Koco, and that some of my Korean friends called me by my English name, Sally, though I don't feel that the name suits me.