Lead Me Where

It was late and the clock tower was edging toward midnight. The red-brick plaza that comprised the school’s center was still; illuminated only by the faint yellow glow that slipped out of the dorm windows that lined the plaza. The little college sat like a clean, sandstone bubble in the middle of the roaring city. All around the pristine campus, bars were getting busier, restaurants were getting louder, and taxis zipped haphazardly under rusty train overpasses.

As the clock tower chimed midnight and the yellow blobs of light shining into the plaza became fewer and fewer, a lone student entered the plaza. With one step, the young woman crossed from the buzzing downtown district into the silent plaza, and no one in either realm batted an eye. The girl crossed the neat, red bricks with long, quicks steps that could barely be heard, even in the utter calm of the plaza. Reaching the locked door that lead into the women’s lounge, Hilary snatched her ID out of her purse and hurriedly scanned the card. The latch clicked open and Hilary pushed through the heavy door.

Hilary stepped briskly past the long-deserted lounge and mounted the stairs to the second floor. She took the concrete steps two at a time, and the rhythmic stomping echoing through the empty stairwell. Arriving at the third floor, Hilary clicked open the door and slipped onto the flattened, blue carpet. The door closed behind her with a long, low squeak, and Hilary sped soundlessly to her room.

Once inside her room, Hilary dropped her purse on the floor and tossed her keys onto a cluttered wooden desk. As she was ascending the stairs, even before she had fled down the hall to her room, tears had begun to gather in her dark eyes. When she collapsed onto her bed and reached up to rub her burning eyes, she felt the little drops already rolling down her cheeks. Letting go of all abandon, Hilary surrendered to the emotion that had been building in her chest. She sobbed aloud; deep, wet, sobs that shook her body violently.

The lamp next to the messy desk remained off, and the dark room was occasionally filled with light from the cars, limos, taxis and buses zipping by on the busy street below. As they passed, their headlights shone into the room with authority, slipped rapidly over the crying form on the bed, and then receded out into the night, just as quick as they had come. The people outside never knew what was going on in that little room on the third floor, and the one inside did not even notice the urgent flashes of light that swept past her, so deep was her sadness.

After a long time, the sobs had subsided and Hilary was left breathing the stuttering gasps of one who has recently cleaned out their tear ducts extensively. The pillow under her head was wet, and her body felt stiff. Hilary struggled to sit up, and when she had, she realized how exhausted she was. She kicked off her shoes, clumsily pulled off her jeans, and slid between the covers.

~Natalia