An unused plane ticket rests on the nightstand. Suitcases hide in the corner of the room; one is opened, spewing clothes. A cup had been placed over it, leaving a wet circle and smudging out her name. She sits upright in her bed, her legs beneath the covers. She coughs, chokes on snot, and tries to breathe.
Voices scratch at the door and pour in through the keyhole. They hover about her, and she cowers in her bed. The doorknob turns. Familiar voices make mummers around her. She is weak with hardly the courage to leave her room, but she does.
The hallway is empty. It’s long and narrow, and she stares into the emptiness. A yellow light flickers on the wall at the end of the hall, flowing over everything with an ugly, snot-colored film. Her heart beats fast and her stomach turns. She wants to vomit.
She turns to go back to her room; more voices leak out from another closed door. She opens it and sees. A young girl is lying in bed with her boyfriend, her head on his stomach. The young girl looks down at his pants, and she’s thinking about it.
You haven’t gone anywhere, she wants to say to the young girl, but she gags and closes the door.
She hears crying in the next room, and she opens the door and sees. The room is dark except for a string of blue lights strangling various pipes in the room, pipes that were painted to match the walls as if they would be hidden. In the dim light a girl cries, dripping tears onto an open book, smearing the words.
She’s angry at the crying girl and shuts the door, leaving her, hoping that she’ll drown in her tears.
She hears coughing and choking in the next room. She opens the door and sees. A woman is squatting before the toilet. She vomits while an infant cries at her feet. The sick woman turns her head and says, “I tried.”
She shuts the door and runs to the end of the hall to the door beneath the sick, yellow light. She enters the room and sees. She sees a woman crying in her bed, cowering beneath the covers. An unused plane ticket rests on the nightstand. Suitcases hide in the corner of the room; one is opened, spewing clothes.
