122 lines
6.0 KiB
Plaintext
122 lines
6.0 KiB
Plaintext
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_____________ _/_/ | | \ \ _/_/ _____________
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| ___________ _/_/ | | \ \ _/_/ ___________ |
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| | c o m m u n i c a t i o n s | |
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| |________________________________________________________________| |
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|____________________________________________________________________|
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...presents... At the Dining Hall
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by Tom Boutell
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>>> a cDc publication.......1994 <<<
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-cDc- CULT OF THE DEAD COW -cDc-
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____ _ ____ _ ____ _ ____ _ ____
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|____digital_media____digital_culture____digital_media____digital_culture____|
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The girl stands, her blond hair carefully tumbled, in the square between
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the footpath and the streets of campus. The dining hall is in front of her,
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black door handles solid and uncompromising.
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She has eaten her mother's meals for nineteen years, in her family's
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dining room, silent and clean. Fish on Fridays, though her parents had stopped
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going to church long ago.
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It was habit, safe and sound. Like her room at home on a cold December
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morning, when the snow falling outside made the warmth of the wool comforter
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palpable. She would lie curled to one side for hours on such Saturdays, a
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romance novel tucked between her hands.
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In high school she was well liked, and people took care of her.
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Her father had been ferociously protective until she met Jerry. Jerry was
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a tall, polite, athletic boy, and an excellent student. Just before he left
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for college they had breathlessly pledged their engagement, seated in his
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father's Oldsmobile, at the scandalous hour of eleven.
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But things got a bit racier after that.
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"It's OK," she thought, "I love him."
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"It's not very good," she thought, and hated herself for it: they were
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making love, this was their first time, how could she think so selfishly?
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"Oh, Jerry," she gasped, as she supposed she should, when he had removed
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himself. "That was so wonderful."
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And now she was here, alone, Jerry half a continent away, attending a
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different school and "seeing other people."
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She faced the blank doors again.
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She could skip dinner again, come back tomorrow with people from her
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floor.
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- x X x -
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A young woman swings into the square on crutches, her hair tied matter-of-
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factly back, her backpack bulging. She looks tired, and is. But she is also
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hungry.
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She does not think back on these things I am about to tell you, not
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because they disturb her but because she has a life to lead, thank you, but
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while she waits impatiently for her supper I will fill you in.
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Her parents work, have always worked, in a factory outside town, making
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aluminum boxes for a million purposes. They had no money when she was young,
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and medical care was expensive. When she caught polio, they kept her as best
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they could at home until her condition grew serious enough to bring her to the
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front of the line. By then it was too late for the strength in her legs, and
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she had been on crutches ever since.
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She poured herself into her schoolwork and had little patience with
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sympathy for her condition. She was a strong girl, of a proud family.
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Proud, not perfect. She came home to see empty bottles of beer littering
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the kitchen and cigarette butts on the table, her father sometimes adoring,
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sometimes terrifying. But most often, when he was home, he was asleep. His
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work as a foreman was exhausting and the body cannot be argued with.
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She was ready to take a job in a restaurant, become a dental assistant, do
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what she had to as her high school years came to an end. She had taken care of
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herself this long, and she could do it for the rest of her life. She did what
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she had to do.
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On her graduation night, her parents took her out for dinner and told her.
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Treasury bonds, coming due that year. Not enough to pay for everything,
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but enough that she could go. And she did.
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But I apologize for interrupting. I will let her eat her dinner, for
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which she has waited so long.
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She sweeps to the door and pulls it open, cursing good-naturedly as her
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left crutch clacks against the door, freeing it, taking the stairs with a will.
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"Damn, I'm hungry."
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And outside, in the square, the meticulous blonde watches and shakes
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herself. "I can't go in there alone, I don't know anybody, the food is awful,
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I don't know what to do but I'm so hungry."
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_______ __________________________________________________________________
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/ _ _ \|Demon Roach Undrgrnd.806/794-4362|Kingdom of Shit.....806/794-1842|
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((___)) |Cool Beans!..........415/648-PUNK|Polka AE {PW:KILL}..806/794-4362|
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[ x x ] |Metalland Southwest..713/579-2276|ATDT East...........617/350-STIF|
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\ / |The Works............617/861-8976|Ripco ][............312/528-5020|
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(' ') | Save yourself! Go outside! DO SOMETHING! |
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(U) |==================================================================|
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.ooM |Copyright (c) 1994 cDc communications and Tom Boutell. |
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\_______/|All Rights Reserved. 12/01/1994-#294|
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