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Pendulum

Remember all those smells that I could not stand? The sweaty body, cheap perfumes, liquor and drugs cocktail?Well it seems that I cannot ignore them. They have been suffocating me and at some point I would hold my breath to have a break from those scents and I think I almost succeeded in asphyxiating myself.

Time of death: Unknown
Cause of death: Asphyxiation and suffocation from a cocktail of smells.

Maybe that's what the doctors would say about my death on arrival pronouncement. I am not a medic but I saw something like that on TV once.

Because everything in my vision seems like light trails; blurry light trails. Zippy is lost in her own world right now so I look up and try to knock this fuzzy feeling but the world is spinning.

Funny, I even giggle because I remember an Ariana Grande song where she says "I look up and the whole world's spinning".

“I knew your sprite had something,” I hear a voice next to me and I’m sure it’s Charles. I do not feel like talking right now since I have this spinning world to deal with, and God help me if he dares touch me without my consent.

Why won’t this world stand still!

Things are still blurry but I try and force myself out of the crowd and find the washroom. After what seemed like one of those dreams where you are really trying to run but your legs are so heavy and you seem to have a jogging on the spot motion, I finally broke out of the crowd. The thought of finding the washrooms was too agonizing so I dragged myself to the bar where I sat and rested my head on the counter.

I do not know how long I stayed there before I started feeling better and my bladder started demanding some attention. So I quickly stood up and felt another dizzy spell hit me. Wrong move, never get up too quickly after waking up or being in a sleeping position. I held onto the stool for support and once I gained my bearings I just started looking for the toilet again without asking yet I totally did not know where they were. The same attitude we have (most of us)  in the supermarket when we cannot find what we are looking for and we are also too stubborn to ask the attendants for help.

Well, I thought I could probably get the smell of a toilet and follow it. As if I’m a Marvel comic character or dog. Who finds toilets by their scent?

Me.

Funny enough I got the smell of a toilet from a couple who just passed me and I went the direction they came from. Do not ask me how I know, Lord knows how long they’ve been in the toilet for their bodies to be branded toilet smell.

I suddenly feel like laughing and the dizziness seems to be back as well as the urge to throw up because these toilets are really filthy and I do not think I can unsee certain things. It’s a shame some of us ladies can be so untidy and leave the toilets in certain states.

I even contemplate sneaking into the men’s washrooms and just as I am turning to go, men walk in looking at me weirdly and I also look at them weirdly because what do they want in the ladies? Maybe they are trans, such a pity Kenya does not have lavatory facilities for them. So I walk out, but my dress gets caught in the door when it shut behind me.

My heart literally skipped a beat and I hold my breath because this is a bodycon dress and my skin could have easily been the one between the door. A tragedy. I turn to carefully free my dress and guess what I see.

A men’s sign on the door.
Well, looking on the bright side... at least the ladies room was not the dirty one.

This time I make sure to check the sign on the door before going in. It still stinks, but is more decent. All it needs is for all the toilets to be flushed. Lucky enough, nobody is in so I flush every single toilet thrice and I wonder how much fun people are having that I can wait for the toilet cisterns to get filled twice. Or maybe it’s my lack of life.

Now that the toilets were not as stinky or filthy, I walked into one stall and almost sat on the seat because of how tired I was, but my name being shouted stopped me.

“In here,” I replied to the familiar voice while opening the stall door and everything went blank.