The Happenings of the Halls

The Happenings of the Halls

The blue haired man was trolling the halls looking for something to consume –

becoming more and more drawn towards the humming glow of displayed calories,

proteins, and fats wrapped in multi-colored disguises of trickery, drawing him in closer

as they hung weirdly untouched yet in reach only by the use of command of the item

number punch board. As he becomes uncontrollably sold on shoving his abnormally

small hands deep into his overly chained and zippered pants moving and digging

frantically through the collage of receipts, pennies, dimes and pocket-lint that has

collected throughout the week, trying to beat the class bell for the day, as this was all

taking place, I found myself strangely engrossed with the outcome of this guy's junk-

fuel selection. I turned my head in hopes of my body following, putting me out of this

odd Twilight-Zone T.V. show moment. I walked around the corner, never seeing what

he selected and finding myself noticing the walls holding up photographs of other

students' interests and are, walls lined with multiple electric outlets and people almost

like they were attached to these walls with their music players, laptops, and chargers

eating up electricity as if they were livestock consuming fields of grass. I saw couples

strolling throughout the halls and people with their flailing fingers texting, and faces of

every sort of expression communicating without even opening their mouths. Even the

water boxes hung on the walls seemed to be a bit expressive as they also consumed

electricity and then, with the students consuming the water, it seemed, just for a bit, to

be a theme or cycle. Electricity producing something tangible only to be sucked out or

selected by these unaware students of everything around them, the flowing pens and

paper being filled up their their works and thoughts, the glowing EXIT lights, and the

refraction of gray light through the semi-transparent glass blocks making up parts of

the walls, protecting us from the outer elements of this building. Then I turned another

corner of the building, noticing with all the happenings of the halls that no one has

noticed the humming of the worn out cooling motors in the vending machines, and the

obnoxious shredding of whatever material passes through the teeth of a three foot

multi-volt paper shredder that is eating up paper faster than you could rip them out of

your notebook. As it devours, it almost seems like it wants to rip away from the wall

and change its diet in a twisted, Stephen King kind of way. They I turn one more

corner, finding myself safely returning to class and thinking for a moment of everything

I noticed in just the simplest square of a building and its halls.