In the Forgotten Corner

Saturday retail madness and I’m never in the mood. We went for the children, only the children. I had to pee. So, I left the group and walked to the restroom. I knew the place because I used to work there. I knew what aisles I wanted to take before I was to them. I went into the restroom as a man was exiting. The standup urinals, with small dividers were on the right wall of the small room. There were three of them. The first was a short kid-sized urinal, and the second, a regular height stall, was unoccupied as was the rest of the room. There I stood.

And there I stood. I dreamed into the dirty scuffed tile in front of me. I went in. I pissed, and there I stood. The dream was of beauty I’ve never known and a place I couldn’t scheme. I’ve never been as content in my life as I was at that moment. And then a small old man came into my place. My dream continued, and I vaguely noticed him. Naturally, he stopped at the urinal to my left, another standard height unit.

And there I stood. The old man hadn’t settled for even a second into the stall on my left, when he’d changed his mind and decided to use the kids stall on my right. His abrupt shift focused my lens and snapped me out of my day dream. And it was gone. It was gone.

I looked down and realized I’d been missing the urinal completely. I’d been pissing into the left corner of the wall and the divider. A large pool had collected on the floor and the divider was still dripping clear yellow drops, from my mindless aim. I could tell I had disgusted the old man, but he never said a word. And now embarrassed, I left as quickly as I could.