xmt

i was at this amusement park for cool kids. there was an ampitheatre and rides and aquariums. extreme sports and bands and such...lots of girls. it was kinda like if suicidegirls had it's own hullabalooza festival. i don't know where it was or what it was called.
i had been there all day and was exhausted but having the time of my life. as the sun began to set, people began to migrate in one direction like they were going to some main event.
i asked some kid on a skateboard where they were going and he said they were leaving. i couldn't understand why and he said "21/61" . he skated around a bit and then told me that he was going to stick around for awhile, if i wanted to hang out. he liked the company.
i did for a little while, but as the minutes passed and it got darker, i began to feel a bit uncomfortable. the kid seemed detacted and vacant, and i looked for the company of others. i started following the winding footpaths heading towards the tall wooden gate i had come in. i walked with two girls whose faces i couldn't see, but wanted to know. they seemed in a near panick and walked hurriedly toward a way out of the park. i realized that the air tasted sticky sweet and it made me feel sick. it felt like something wicked, but it was the girls that made me afraid, but i didn't know why. the kid on the skateboard was never far behind, but completely unaffected by the dread the girls and i were feeling . clouds were massing and the crowds were gone, the last filing out of the gates. the girls were in tears now, and frantic for the gate, but would never run . there were still a few individuals behind us and on the peripheral. they all seemed to be the same age and all had the same detacted and oblivious quality the kid on the skateboard had as he carved his lazy lines on pavement, going through the motions as they all had for years.
as we rounded the last corridor i watched the heavy gate close and heard the bolts fall into place. my guts twisted and the girls cried loud holding each other. i jumped up and tried to pull myself up over the high walls. i could feel the girls shrieks in my skin and i looked back to them. i saw them in front of a massive mirror, wailing and tearing at their clothes. i clenched my eyes shut, and i understood... this wasn't the first time they'd tried to get out.
each day the crowds would come again, but they were always late to leave.
at 21, they had the next 40 years to try again each day.
the others had resigned themselves to each day like their last.
i pulled myself up on the wall and looked outside of the park. there were labrynths of shanties piled up against the walls, and for as far as i could see into the horizon and the red sky.