Insomniac Café by SM Reine

Author:SM Reine
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Red Iris Books

Empty hallways throughout Bronwenn Mesa formed a labyrinth. Gale had them mapped in her mind. She did not need to remember the specific routes when she had noted an algorithm—a sense of logic—that dictated when one T-shaped juncture should lead to a series of hallways intersecting and curving like the letter B, or how an O of halls around a small room typically sat across from a V. Gale remembered them as an alphabet, which was no more difficult than remembering that it was three teaspoons into one tablespoon, four tablespoons into a quarter cup, or that sixteen quarter-cups was a quart. If Gale’s wrist could recall the exact whisking motions to turn aquafaba into vegan meringue then she could remember the ways that the Mesa folded in on itself seemingly randomly yet entirely rationally to create a school.

“We’re lost,” said Vinnie. He wasn’t sure how long he had been driving the golf cart along paths Gale dictated, but they all looked the same to him.

“I’m not lost,” Gale insisted. She directed Vinnie down the paths with progressively falser confidence. “I know this place like the back of my hand.”

But the Os were not opposite the Vs, suddenly. The T and the B were nowhere near each other. And after several pointless Zs leading into a P and then a W, which Gale had never even see before, she had to admit—quietly, to herself—that she might not know where they were. Which was impossible. She’d been at Bronwenn for years.

She couldn’t admit that she might have only ever reached the breezeways because the Mesa permitted it.

“Are you getting thirsty?” asked Vinnie.

“We just passed one the kitchens. I’ll get us drinks,” said Gale, feigning an upbeat mood.

She approached one of the many nondescript brown doors with confidence.

This brown door was flimsy and hollow. It had a chip missing from the bottom, near her toe. The fake-brass handle was loose in its setting. Not unlike the door that led to the kitchens on the floor where Gale lived. Not unlike every other door on the floor where Gale lived.

It yielded to her hand when she opened the door.

On the other side, there was a nondescript hallway. Its walls were yellow wallpaper. The floor was yellow carpet. Fluorescent lights, like in an office building, ran parallel down the hallway, buzzing loudly, and flickering only slightly.

“Wrong door,” said Gale.

She walked ahead of the golf cart a few feet to try another door. She opened it.

On the other side, there was a nondescript yellow hallway with buzzing fluorescent lights.

“Hey Gale, I found a way we haven’t gone yet,” said Vinnie. He had stepped out of the golf cart to look at a corner on the opposite wall. He crouched down, closed one eye, peered at the corner closely. “There’s a crack here. And there’s something on the other side.”

He straightened, turned sideways, sucked in his breath, and slipped through to the other side of the wall.

Vinnie had disappeared.

Gone to the other side.

“Vinnie! We can’t leave the golf cart!” Gale only took two steps toward the crack.

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