Issue #20 (2011) PDF - myweb - Long Island University

―I‘m fucking going to bed,‖ responds Lissa, throwing her towel over her shoulder.
―Yeah, man,‖ Marshall looks at Jim and L, ―let‘s get some sleep for tomorrow.‖
―But,‖ Jim stammers, ―but I wanted to see the movie…Lissa, the movie…Marshall…L…the
movie!‖
The glass doors to the sauna, which is still on, are densely fogged. The guard sits on his
stool, his eyes dart here and there, but he never looks up.
―Oh fine, Jamey, let‘s stay up for the movie…when does it start‖
Jim startles L, dazed watching the guard, as he lifts L‘s wrist to look at his watch.
―Three hours.‖
―Forget it, dudes,‖ Marshall looks at Lissa, ―I‘m goin‘ ‗a sleep.‖
―Fine Jamey, you win.‖ Lissa starts to walk away, then turns around. ―Come on, boys, let‘s
go back to the room and let Marshall sleep while we wait for the movie.‖
Marshall lies down while the other three stand in the cramped quarters to drink left-over coffee and
swigs from L‘s flask to stay awake. They leave him back in the dark room, arriving at the makeshift
lobby thirty minutes before the one am starting time, long after everything else has shuttered and
closed. The few people still walking around look scared, and all seem to avoid contact as Jim, Lissa,
and L pass by. They wait in the lobby for forty minutes while hearing another movie play in another
room, until Jim finds someone to ask about their movie. A man, in a red vest, doesn‘t quite know
what Jim talks about until he suddenly pops straight and uses both hands to grab his open vest.
―We was thinking to cancel that one, it is so late, you know.‖
―Oh my God man,‖ Jim pleads. ―Please let us watch this movie – we‘ve stayed up much
longer than we wanted just to see this movie, please for the love of God, let us watch this movie.‖
The man moves away from Jim, then comes back and says yes, they will be showing the
movie after all. They enter a small, unlit room and are the only ones there, making themselves
comfortable in the fold-up chairs. The movie starts with a couple of clicks, and the red vested
employee yawns as he sits behind the projector at the back of the room. The screen is roughly ten
foot by ten, and the image slips on and off its edges as it waves to the ship‘s movement. The movie,
V for Vendetta, is full of post-American anarchy, and with all the chaos and the violence and the
waving screen they watch the flag of happy destruction, of zealous vengeance, of beating against the
system.
Well after three they finish the movie and make their way back to the dark, cramped room
with Marshall snoring. Lissa and L lie on their respective bunks, and Jim suits up with a coat and his
music. He tells the other two quietly he‘s going to fight the night for a while. Lissa kisses him
goodbye, and he‘s gone.
―Hey, Lissa‖
―Marshall‘s asleep, L. What is it‖
―Nothing, really. ‗Night.‖
L lies in the dark, hearing Marshall beneath him, staring at the darkness of the close quarters,
hearing each beat, breath, each motion of the other two. The room gets brighter and brighter, and L
sees everything in the darkness, staring at the ceiling, staring and trying to close his eyes without
success.
―What is it‖ L can hear voices asking, different pitches and inflections, over and over.
―What is it Fear, or laziness What is it for you‖
―What is it‖
―They don‘t like you…‖
―What stops you‖
―They never like you…‖
―…Fear of harm, laziness in comfort, fear of loss, laziness in stability…‖
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