Marylin strained against the wrought iron door, fighting the bitter winds of winter just outside. It finally clicked into place and she slumped against it, breathing heavily. The
mostly
abandoned tenement building was more or less how she remembered it, wide open rooms with high ceilings that had been cleared out long ago.
For the better half of a year she had been trying to make
something
work. She had no interest in settling down just yet, but a serious relationship was something that she wanted quite a bit. She'd met people at work, on campus, on social outings with friends...hell, when all else failed, she had even joined a dating site, though it didn't make her proud. He had been nice enough, and she didn't even mind that he'd wanted to take things slow. But it
was
frustrating when he'd gotten cold feet and broken up with her within a week.
She had kind of just wanted to get
laid
already. A deep, psychological and emotional connection with another human being would be
wonderful
, of course, but since that didn't seem like an option...
There was a place, out in the city, where people came when they wanted to be a little more...
adventurous
. Being out here alone wasn't exactly the safest thing in the world, but honestly, the slight crawl of dread in the pit of her stomach just made her all the more excited. And
yes
, Marylin would be the first to admit she was a bit strange. But then again, who wasn't these days?
(Up on the third floor there was a wall.)
She climbed the stairs now, anticipation building palpably with each step.
(A very
thin
wall.)
She tried to breathe evenly, telling herself that she'd be fine, that she'd done this before.
(And behind that wall was a curiously small room, made even more curious by the fact that it had only one way in. Through a padlocked trap door.)
Sweat broke out on her forehead, and her winter clothes now felt oppressively hot. She didn't take them off though.
(There was a hole in that wall, down near the floor. A clean cut circle, only a couple of inches across.)
And then she opened the door at the top of the stairs. The claustrophobic corridor stretched out before her, the threshold to
that
room at the end of it. She took a few shaky, hesitant steps...and then sprinted the rest of the way because the suspense could go fuck itself.
Upon throwing open that last door, most of her greater fears dissolved. Though there
appeared
to be no one inside, the calming, ambient noise of men chatting about their days confirmed a significant human presence. They discussed various '
the games
' (as in, did you catch 'the game' last night man, it was pretty intense): your footballs, your basketballs; there was even brief mention of someone's favorite hockey team. They talked about morning commutes, about vacation plans; nieces, nephews, and of
course
children were brought up.
And wives.
Marylin tried not to judge them. This technically
wasn't
cheating, since
true
unfaithfulness was just as much
emotional
as it was physical. And here there were
literal
walls between you. Sometimes you just needed to escape. She could understand that.
She cleared her throat. "Um...
hello
?" She couldn't quite tell how many there were, although the volume they had produced collectively gave her some impression...which only became more pronounced as they quieted down to greet the newcomer.
"Uh...hey," One of them said.
"How's...it going?" An awkward second added.
"
Fine
, thank you," She replied courteously. "And yourselves?"
"...It must have been
hell
coming out in this," A man with a slightly raspy voice said.
She laughed politely. "Yeah,
well
, I only live a block or two down, so it wasn't that big of a deal. And it's not like I didn't come prepared." She clapped her ridiculously insulated jacket with faux pride, only to remember half a second later that no one could see her.
Another man spoke then, sounding younger and slightly more energetic: "You know it's supposed to snow all the way through to
Monday
, right?"
"So much for going home for the weekend, I guess," The first man replied.
"And we're gonna be getting about
three
feet before it's all over."
"
Holy fucking shit!
Three feet? And
we
all came out here to get
blowjobs
."
Everyone laughed enthusiastically then, including Marylin. It felt slightly better now that someone had acknowledged it.
"Then again, we aren't
really
gonna get hit until tomorrow night, so we should be fine for the time being." There was a general consensus that this was a good thing.
"So you said you live in the area, right?" A new voice this time, his was low-pitched and charismatic. Perfect for radio, she thought.
"Yeah. I didn't grow up here, but I go to Penn State as a grad student."
"
Really
? My little sister goes to Penn. What's your focus?"
"Psychology. It's real interesting stuff. Not sure if I'm gonna
do
anything with it, but I wouldn't want to study anything else, to be honest...what's your sister's name? Maybe I know her."
"Samantha?"
"
Samantha
..."
"Garcia."
"...I think she's in my Tuesday morning. How
about
that? She's not a close friend or anything, but I've definitely talked with her a few times."
"She tells me she likes it there. Good people...good teachers.
I
should think about going back to school one of these days. I kinda miss it."
Following this, the room was quiet. Most of them probably trying to come up with a topic of conversation. Perhaps there were some, like the ones who hadn't spoken yet, who were merely impatient—if they were even there at all—but she wanted to believe they were a minority. It seemed
most
of them wanted—she certainly did—to keep talking a little longer, to keep things civil.
She remembered the first time she had been here, when she was only sixteen. Or, at least, she had
attempted
to get in. It had been snowing
then
too.
Her best friend in High School had told her all about this place that even
she
had only heard of secondhand. From college kids that she knew, and from older cousins. And, of course, being a curious and hormonal young girl, Marylin had gone to discover it on her own—to try to find out what it was like to be an adult.
When she had arrived at those intimidating, double iron doors, the first thing she noticed—well, aside from the doors—was an unusually tall woman sitting on the ground in front of them, knees drawn up to her torso. And Marylin could
tell
that she was tall, because even sitting she was almost staring her right in the eyes. Which were open by the way, although they didn't seem to be looking at anything in particular. Instead they just stared straight ahead, as if she wasn't aware of the girl's presence.
The woman had long lustrous brown hair that fell down around her thick frame, her skin lightly tanned. Around her neck she wore a lengthy, fiery crimson tie that fell to her...
sizable
chest. This was contrasted heavily by a fine business suit and slacks of the darkest fabric she had even seen. She had told herself that the
clothing
was black, but inexplicably, the borders of the material were somehow
lost
to her, somewhere
outside
the visible spectrum. It was like she was dressed in shadows.
As her younger self approached, she was nervously running through what she was going to say. Just as she opened her mouth to speak though, the woman's head snapped around and greeted her with cold brown eyes.
"You aren't old enough," Was all that she'd said, to which the young Marylin hadn't known
quite
how to respond to, needless to say. Flustered, she'd managed to stutter out an indignant rebuttal.
"Ex-
CUSE
me?! Are you discriminating against me because of my
height
? I'm a
lot
older than I look, and I
don't
think it's very professional of you to be turning away potential clients looking to—"
"
You aren't old enough
."
The woman had stood then, reaching her full height and towering above her, white powder falling in clumps from her shifting form. And something about the look in her eyes, about the tone of her
voice
, had made Marylin back away slowly, legs reduced to quavering mush. She
walked
all the way home that day, staring straight ahead.
...Of course, that didn't stop her from defiantly returning two years later. That time the woman had let her in—without a word between them—and Marylin had climbed
all
three flights of stairs to find no one there. She had been back since though, several times throughout her twenties, when there were lulls in her love life. Each time encountering a different, often interesting group of people.
And she was here again now. She breathed in heavily and released the air in an irregular exhalation. Her cheeks burned red. Her thighs were wet. She would never be comfortable with this part, no matter how many times she did it. And she was eternally grateful for that.
"...
So