The force of his sudden peeling sends a faint breeze through the room.

Singing and singing to keep out the smell, we all have to get a good look at him.

Our voices grow tired but the mess is still there, no different than it was an hour ago, only a little more blue.

One pop and following scream from somewhere in the building - then maybe twenty minutes later; another set from the street, muffled - why is no one in here closing their mouths?

Hard not to think of us as ships in the night, each pop and following scream another dinghy of sudden traumatic phenomena, so weighted by our whys that we don_t seem to care that we are almost crashing.

I am the only one left in here, but not for long - Soon I too will skip down the hall, hoping to trigger some endorphins before the shock really, I mean really sets in.

Funny to think that everybody came into that room looking for companionship, same as me, and I heard about it from a friend, same as you so stop asking.

Finally we just get the chance to talk about it and you just nod when I tell you I was surprised to see you there - but we can ignore it for now because its pretty urgent that we talk about what happened to that guy.

You spend an hour doing nothing but smoking, and then we splash cold water behind your ears to help you keep dinner down and you say goodnight, but I know I_m going to have to leave town soon.