"Was it this street? Maybe it was on Elm? Damn, I'm lost! The bus leaves in like 15 minutes. What am I gonna do?"
"Hey... hey you!" Just ahead of me sitting on the street was an older drunken bum.
"Hell, maybe he knows where the fuck I am and where the bus line is."
The bum glanced up at me with a distorted glare which I could barely see through his unclean glasses. Layers and layers of muck covered his body. The aged bottle of wine he was holding looked like it too had come from the dumpster I saw sitting in the alley not more than 25 feet away.
"What'cha want?" He inquired in slurred English. His body swayed when he looked up at me. It made my stomach feel sick.
I approached with caution. This didn't seem like such a nice neighborhood and I was alone. It wasn't safe for a female to travel alone these days. I adjusted the backpack which was riding low on my back and looked around.
The streets were littered with beer cans and bottles. There was trash of all sorts everywhere and dirt. Swirls of it swept across the street, the sidewalks and into the alleys when the wind blew. Across the street from him was a topless bar. I realized, by the look of it, that it had been deserted for a long time. The paint peeled from the building in long uneven strips and swayed in the breeze. Behind him was an old movie theater. From what was left of the awning I realized the last movie shown in its uninhabited halls had been back in the late 50s.
Old model T cars lined the street on one side. All of them were missing something. One didn't have a fender, another was missing its wheels, and yet another didn't have any seats. Some were rusted out with holes in their sides.
That seemed strange as those would all be collectible, vintage, autos. Why were they left along the side of this forgotten street?
I approached the drunk mostly because he seemed to be the only resident in the area on the street.
"I seem to be lost," I said. "I need to find Elm Street."
Overhead, the cloudless sky turned stormy and the wind picked up making me gasp as it hit me.
"This here is Elm Street," he replied and took another drink from his bottle.
"What?" I looked around in total disbelief. "This couldn't be Elm Street."
"Where's the Post Office?" I asked as I quickly looked around. I'd never meet the bus on time. I felt panic rise up inside of me.
"This here's Elm Street." The bum assured me again in a sharper annoyed tone. He tapped his dirty pointer finger on the sidewalk beside him indicating that he was referring to this street.
Droplets of rain began to spit down from the sky and I retreated towards the old theater's awning. At least it didn't have any rips in the cloth. As long as the wind didn't blow too hard I'd stay dry.
The bum got up to join me under the awning. His slow staggered steps worried me. One moment he was heading straight for me and the next he was walking back into the street. If there were any cars on the roadway he'd have been dead, I assured myself.
I watched as he once again stepped out into the road and then traced his steps back to me. Finally, he arrived and plopped himself down so that he could lean against the wall. It lead to the main doors of the theater. His breath came in quick bursts and I feared he might pass out before he could be of any help to me at all.
The wind changed again and grew in strength. All the trash lining the streets began to come towards us. I put my hands up over my face to protect it. I heard bottles smashing against the walls around me and bits and pieces of it tried to attach themselves to my clothing and skin. I turned so that my skin was protected by the wall and only my back was exposed to the assaulting trash around us.
"Inside!" yelled the dirty man. I felt his hands pushing at my body. I resisted.
"You have to go inside! Otherwise, we'll be killed!"
More glass shattered nearby and I allowed him to push me along the wall towards the entrance. Each step felt as though it'd be my last.
"Is it open?"
"It's never closed!" he yelled back almost sounding sober. and we busted inside. The creaking old door closed behind us with a loud slam!
As the dust settled, I looked around. The room was dark and the fading wallpaper peeled away from the walls in places I felt were unexpected.
Layers of it dripped from the ceiling suggesting it had been wallpapered many times over in the years of its life. In this area I noticed there was a leak. The steady drip, drip, drip from the leaky spot drew my attention to the floor.
A big puddle of water was accumulating and spreading down one of the hallways. It reminded me of a trail. It had to lead somewhere. I glanced around trying to find the useless individual who'd saved my life. He was nowhere to be seen. I glanced towards the door.
Perhaps, he'd gone back outside. Then I saw his head pop up from behind the concession stand.
"I can't believe they still have any!" He smiled at me and held-up an old looking Pepsi bottle. It appeared never to have been opened.
I glared at it. Those types of bottles had been popular when I had been a teenager. They were only made today as novelty items. The long neck, which was narrow, had been one of its positive features. The bottle cap was the type you have to pull off using a special tool which I saw he had in his other hand.
The dripping increased from the ceiling and the trail of water flowed faster.
"Excuse me," I whispered as I trailed along after it. Now I was fully interested in where it might lead me.
The floor was covered in more trash and broken bottles. I shoved them aside as I trailed along after the running water. The stream grew narrower and narrower as it moved down the hall. I squinted because the light was failing. I stopped walking. What was wrong with me? What was I doing?
I started to glance around. Where might I find more light? It was stupid of me to travel down this hallway without a light, I scolded myself. How stupid am I?
I start walking back towards the entrance totally ignoring the water trail. People with sound minds wouldn't be walking around in a deserted building following a stream of water with a drunk as their only guide. I decided to go back up to the main windows and wait for a break in the storm to escape. I dropped my backpack on the floor beside the door and glanced out the window.
"yea wanna see something really cool?" The drunk asked me. I noticed the bottle of Pepsi he'd been so excited about was now abandoned on the floor. Its contents surrounded it like a puddle of overripe pudding.
"It's gone bad!" he remarked and made faces indicating that the drink tasted bad.
"Cool?" I replied for want of any other thing to say. Hadn't I already seen lots of cool things today? Apart from missing my bus and getting lost this was the coolest place I'd ever been that I hadn't wanted to go. The place was all fucked up!
I looked at him and frowned.
"Yea got nothing better to do," he remarked and pointed at the door leading outside.
The storm had turned dark and the wind howled like a wolf. Outside wasn't a place anyone wanted to be. I brushed my long blonde hair out of my eyes and looked back at the drunk.
"Okay."I replied impatiently, "what's interesting in this place?" I needed get out of here and onto that bus. Which, I was sure had long since departed to places unknown by now.
My eyes traveled back to the stream of water and its path which now had separated into two streams going down two different faded and darkened hallways. What had made that happen, I wondered?
"It's over here in this here hallway," he remarked and started walking handing me a lit candle as he passed me by. Funny, how his walk and his language had improved since we entered the building. He no longer appeared drunk.
I followed along behind him, as he'd pointed out; I had nothing else to do.
