Outside it is sleeting. The sky is a rusty orange color, city lights reflect off the low clouds. The cement is slick and streaks from streetlights and passing cars glint off it.
I head into the large white building behind the house. There is fluorescent light streaming from the door. A girl stands in the entrance, half illuminated half shadow, and smiles invitingly as I pass. I smile back.
Inside it is warm; it is the warmth of hundreds of bodies gyrating together like a single organism. The creature breathes and sighs as one. Its motion is fluid and spiraling. Only upon entering the organism do I once again remember it is a crowd of individuals having a good time.
And with the warmth their bodies generate there is also a smell. It is the smell of sweat, of bodies in motion, of girls and boys, of perfumes and colognes. It is not foul. It is natural and oddly comforting. It floats heavily through the air and settles on everything like a blanket and stirs old memories long forgotten to the fogs of time.
The ceiling is high above us. The walls of the building are undecorated metal painted white. Well, I figure it is white. It is hard to tell in the colored lights. The structure has the feeling of a small hangar or warehouse.
The lights are low. The crowd is in the dark. The doorway has the fluorescent light. A stage against the far wall is bathed in red light. Lasers with intricate designs dance on the walls. I wonder if they are secretly spelling out any subliminal messages like, “Drink Coke” or “Vote Republican.” My eyes can only pick out star and triangular shapes, and those only fleetingly.
My ears start to hurt. The music is so loud it transcends the mere auditory sense to become a truly physical experience. Each drum beat races through my body. The guitars saturate my ears and overflow into my mouth. They taste of metal and spice.
Once I can no longer hear I figure it is a good time to step outside for a second and recuperate. I hope that girl is still in the entrance and will smile at me one more time. And we will attempt to talk, though both deaf. I will get her number and we will have many wild adventures together throughout the years…
Who knows, why not?
