Infinity Continues
Sheepishly I sat there, not knowing if the speaker had heard me ranting about chicken wing consumption or if was pure coincidence but as he continued to speak, the overhead projector went off - the infinity sign on the screen behind him faded to black.
4 random people that were seated close to the aisles in the theater drew black out curtains and there was only buzzing and flickering of florescent lights that continued to light the room.
“You’re not here by accident or bribe”, the speaker continued, while I was pretty sure that I was…
You see, on campus, there are dozens of meetings like this per month. You sign up, wait for an email, complete some random survey and then show up to sell shAmway or some other random pyramid scam. Though most of these are enticed with a coupon or a cup of coffee, this was the only one with a real ‘meat on the bone’ offer of free food, however, I began to believe that this offer was akin to the “Hansel and Gretel”, offering.
Nope…there wasn’t a large oven in the room and the speaker wasn’t a haggard old witch, but with curtains drawn, protector off…there was a bit of an ominous feel.
“You’ve never seen me eat chicken wings”, I threw out, to see if I could lighten the mood up a bit, if not only to test the coincidental reply.
“We Have”, was responded by a grizzly voice behind me.
Welp, fuck…
I could feel that prickly feeling in my armpits, realizing that the reply wasn’t through the rear speakers from the auditorium sound system and was directly from somebody in the near proximity, behind me.
Here’s where shit got a lot more crazy.
As I turned around to view the reply from behind, the entire theater went black. I’m not just talking a little dark but with the projector off, blinds closed, when the lights went out, they went out HARD - Hard Darkness.
“What do you see?”, were the words that broke this quiet blackness.
“Zilch, that’s what I can see”, I thought to myself…but it was strange. While normally not refined by social conformity, in this setting where everything that was normal now seems wrong, with exception to my sandwich, I was left without the ability to actually speak these words out-loud.
Most of the online student volunteer events held on campus were Sociology Projects or straight up scams, they were always fairly similar in their initiation or introductory phases.
An indoor/outdoor table with a sign on front…a couple of freshmen standing there flagging you in, should you have mistakenly made eye contact…a questionnaire that requested your email address and a day or 2 later an invite to one of the halls or theaters for an evening sales pitch.
Infinity was a little different in that it was the first one with a little more in depth questions based on previous and overall health, family history and required a blood sample…but it was also a little different in the magnitude of the payoff, FREE FOOD!
And while there version of initiation, outdoor table, 2 random dudes at the sign up table seemed normal…there weren’t as many students enticed by this offer.
It was only when I was thrust into pitch blackness and trying to swallow a bready sandwich, which now seemingly was made from cotton balls, that I actually remembered the details surrounding my sign up.
“Had all the standard freeloaders been through this already”, I pondered?
“Were there just a lot of students who rejected a pin-prick on signup for free food”?
“What do you see?”, the speaker queried again…which after another moment of pause came their own reply from an otherwise dead quiet room…”Being able to see, doesn’t make you exceptional, when you are in darkness”.
Where do we go next?
Infinity?
The man who talks to bugs?
The beginning?
If you find yourself lost in what you’ve just read…maybe you missed the beginning. You can check it out:
Still hooked. A nice break from current reality. I hate to even bring this up unless you really wanted proofreading help (the bain of us all); The next paragraph after FREE FOOD, there needs to be exchanged for their.
Keep going. I love your writing style.
First is much better better! But, keep going!