Have a Seat
There was nothing special about her. There was nothing at all that set her apart from the other girls in the seaside hovel that glowed blue from the outside. Inside, they all thought too loudly to hear the warm rain pounding down on the corrugated metal roof.
There was nothing that set her apart from the other girls, all away from home for the first time, drinking the national beer. She was nothing special. All of the new girls felt the same way. They let the welcome stranger crawl into their skin for the evening as the beer started to fill their mouths with bitter drought and their minds with warm fog. The men looked on, sweaty. Their eyes played the trick that most men’s eyes do, that made all of the girls the same.
As she leaned up against the cement wall, she cocked out her left leg and propped herself up using her bare right foot. She had light skin and dark eyes. She was so light because she never really had a real reason to leave the kitchen when she was at home. It’s where everything happened where she came from. But she wasn’t at home right now, and there was a slow bubbling beginning in her stomach making its way to her prickly chest.
It felt like the way the pot of water started for the blue crab papa brought home. She always wanted to put them in right when it started. He never let her and she never would understand why. It was bubbling, boiling. How much hotter could it get?
She let the sleeve of her light pink top slide off her round shoulder. When she looked down, she felt different, like the minority. How many of these girls have been with men before? Chunks of hair slid in front of her nose and she wiped the gathered strands of hair to the side, inadvertantly brushing her sticky face with her greasy fingers. When she looked up, his eyes said that he would make her the same.
When she woke up in the morning, she was on a patch of half-dry sand as the tide pulled in more water and garbage to the shore. She remembered everything the stranger inside of her said. She remembered saying no, and then changing her mind. He didn’t force her and the sand pressed into her back. She remembered falling asleep in the crux of his arm, wondering what the point of it all was. Why two strangers would do such a thing while they were filled with other strangers. She pushed the worry away, the one that said she would be pregnant and he would run. She watched her stranger fade away and let it go happily. She was different now. ”Sleep, beautiful,” he said. And she did.