Thursday, June 23, 2011

Sinks

Amanda walked into the unisex bathroom to brush her teeth. A strange concept, she thought, but very efficient; just stalls of toilets and showers and a long stretch of sinks dropped into a counter, the surface of which was inevitably wet making it a terrible place to set a bathroom bag.
"Honey do you have the toothpaste?"
"No you have it. I´m carrying the sunblock."
"Oh right. That´s so funny because last year I had the toothpaste and you were carrying the sunblock."
"Oh my god, how did we switch this time? You´ve always carried the sunblock."
"I know, it´s because you like the Nivea and I like the Aveeno and I read that article that the Nivea is cancer causing, and you were like `okay get the aveeno, honey´. So, I was the one who bought it and I packed it in my bathroom bag before we left."
Ugh gross, Amanda said to herself as she unintentionally listened to the canadian couple. They were on their seventh camino and seemed to make a project out of comparing and contrasting previous trips. Amanda hated them, not only because they each draped minature canadian flags from their backpacks in a perverted form of patriotism (that screamed I´m english speaking but NOT american), but mainly because they both took photos, together. Meg and Ted had matching point and shoot Canon Elphs, his black hers pink, and they would stand side by side taking photos of the same thing.
"Oh my!" Meg said taking notice of Amanda´s shoulders "Are those angel wings?"
"No they´re bird wings, a pair of Crow´s wings."
"Honey, look here, look at her Crow wings. Ted got a tatoo once, he had the bonehead idea of getting his initials on his chest, but luckily it´s the size of a Johnson´s and Johnson´s band-aid so I just cover it up when we´re at a pool or something."
"mmm, I see." Amanda said with a mouthful of toothpaste looking into the mirror.
The canadian couple turned their attention to themselves once again, attending to their evening rituals of eye care, mouth care, and foot care. Meg had dark hair and fair skin that burned easily, which was in lock step with Ted´s red hair and freckly complexion. They coated themselves in sunblock each day, and with the combination of sweat and summer sun took on a pickled look as the sunblock never quite assimilated into their skin as lotion does but instead remained a white haze of topological cream.
"Ted remember to wear your mouthguard tonight. I think I heard you grinding again last night."
Pete docked himself at the far end of the sinks with his freezer-size ziplock bag of toiletries, the inside corners filled with milky liquid. He took a gulp of water from straight from the tap and stood upright again, tilted his head back and gurgled loudly. Meg and Ted ceased their fierce toothbrushing for a moment and looked at eachother with wide eyes.

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