Quiet on the Floor

It’s an orange mess. There’s trees and the ocean and the sun coming up behind some boats but it’s just a drab wall behind it all. It’s not even a projector screen. It’s just an empty cinder-block space that looks like someone splattered their breakfast all over it as much as sunrise on a beach. It drives me fucking nuts but it’s not like I can look away. They have us locked in here twelve hours a day and it smells like piss.

               “Where you think that is, Dale?”

               The tweaker next to me won’t shut up. We’re not supposed to talk so he’s always trying to whisper. He’s a fucking idiot so they always jump on his case.

               “Quiet on the floor.”

               “I think it’s Carolina, my mama used to take me to a place like that when we was little. She used to leave us with this guy and we’d go look at the boats.” His light went on, the yellow one. “We stayed for a month once and didn’t have to go to school.”

               I can’t get past the wall. There’s a spot on it that mixes with the rays of the sun. It makes the light look dirty somehow. It’s probably blood but I can’t figure how it’s so high up there. Somebody got their head smashed in I guess. Or it’s shit. My light went on, the red one.

               The next picture fades in. It’s a couple walking on the beach. The sun’s up but it’s still morning. They cast a long shadow. I don’t think it’s the same beach, there’s hills and rocks but no sand. The spot on the wall kinda looks like a cloud. My red light turns off. We do this all fucking day.

               “Now they’s walking from the pier. I bet they going to breakfast maybe. When I get outta here I’m gonna go to one a those diners and get an all you can eat.” His green light went on.  “We used to go behind this diner back home and get fucked up. Til they caught us tryna break in.”  Then it turned red.

               “Quiet on the floor.”

               “Sometimes I play like they in a story. All a these pictures. I just make it up cause I get bored. Like that lady and this guy are goin to breakfast cause they were walkin on the beach and got hungry.” His red light clicks off.

               Every time a new picture fades in, the room changes. All of the colors bounce off the wall and cover us. The orange sunrise makes us look like devils, the blue sky fades in and we’re livid like corpses.

               There’s a chip in the mortar right on the lady’s head. The picture’s already blurry but it makes her look like she doesn’t have a face. I look back at the shit/blood spot again. My red light comes back on.

               The next picture fades in and I’m already tired of it. It’s the inside of a café but no one’s really in focus. It’s lots of wood and brown and it makes it kinda look like the customers are sharing a coffee with a bunch of drooling slobs. It makes me laugh to think about them walking into a coffee place to find us all staring at them like this. They’re not hooked up to wires, though, so fuck ‘em.

               “Man I can smell that coffee.” It smells like piss.

               “Quiet on the floor.”

               If that asshole doesn’t shut up, then he’s gonna get us all fucked up. Rules say we gotta watch so we watch. They say we gotta sit still so they dope us up. It’s weak shit though. Doesn’t seem to work on the tweaker. They don’t like that shit. He won’t last long. It doesn’t matter anyways. He’s a lifer, he just don’t know it. Can’t even stare at a wall and shut the fuck up. My red light starts blinking on and off and the picture changes.

               “Now they finished breakfast and went to the zoo. My stepdad took us to the zoo once. Me and my little brother. He threw some candy in the zebra cage and got his ass beat when we got home. I just stood there and stared like I was watching the animals. I was waiting for my mama to help him but she didn’t. She just watched, too.”  His steady yellow met my strobing red and mixed in the pale blue from the projector. It was nauseating and made the worse by the giraffe happily splattered across the wall.

               The tweaker will yo-yo in and out his whole life, or until he dies. I’ll be surprised if I ever get out of here. I think about it and my yellow light fades in and out for a sec. A few other lights flicker around the room. After the zoo it’s the park, or the store, or the circus, or some other bullshit.  A new picture fades in and little lights go on and off like an arcade. Every once in a while, a red light strobes and then goes steady, then clicks off. I don’t know what they’re thinking. I don’t care. Then the tweaker has to speak up. They’re always watching us. They don’t like that.

               Every so often a fly gets in. Right now, it’s flying around what it must think is a bunch of corpses. He must think he’s the only living thing in the room. He lands on a guy in front of me then takes off. Now crawling across a smiling kid’s face. It looks like it’s the only living thing in the world. It’s kids at a birthday party and everyone is happy except for the fly. The tweaker’s red light is strobing. He doesn’t say anything.

               After that, the pictures get darker. The projector still smothers us with light, but there’s a dog getting kicked and the room lights up like Christmas – green and red. The tweaker I think is crying.  He’s solid yellow. The spot hovers over the dog like a thought bubble. Oh shit, I think he’s saying. Green.

               We see a picture of a car crash. There’s blood all over our shitty wall. There’s green lights that mix with the red splatters and turns everything pale.

               “My daddy owned a Plymouth Baracuda. Mama said she got pregnant with me in it. I never seen him though. I think that couple from the beach found that dog and tried to take him to the vet but the was going to fast and they crashed.” 

               “Quiet on the floor.”

               “And they died, too.” He chuckles in a pale green light.

               The scenes of mass graves are all black and white and the room goes dark. There’s a bulldozer over the spot and I can’t make it out.

               “And now they at they funeral!” My green light flickered and died.

               The last ones are always the worst.  This time it’s an abused kid, he’s been beaten pretty bad and it’s pictures from what looks like a doctors office. The room lights up again.  This time there’s a sound.  Little grumbles and the sound of bodies shifting in beds.

               “When I get out! When I get out I swear to God!” The tweaker screams while his red light strobes. “Lemme outta here! Lemme outta here you sonsabitches!”  All the other lights fizzle and go dark. His yellow light steadily pulses along with the steady strobe of red. “Lemme out! Lemme out!  Lemme out!” There’s a few quick flickers of green when they come in. 

               “Quiet on the floor!” 

               That asshole has finally got himself fucked up. They don’t like that, so they take him out. It’ll be bad for all of us. He screams the whole way. Then his place is dark, and it all goes quiet again. Another picture fades back in. I don’t know how many I’ve missed watching them drag him away. They’re back to showing the peaceful shit. It’s dull in here and it smells like piss. The moon is shining on the wall and reflecting on the still waters of a beach. It’s right over the bloodspot and it looks like craters. It looks real.  Like we’re all sitting on a beach somewhere underneath the stars and it flares with a tinge of yellow.