She came here every night. You could count on her being in the falling-apart building promptly at eight. When she came, she'd take a seat on one of the many benches in front of the washing machines. She would stay there until ten, then she would move over to the driers with the windows. They were equally as thrilling for her.
Here I was, sitting behind the table by the front door. I exchanged money for tokens so the different machines would work. When she came in, she gave me ten dollars and I gave her the proper amount of tokens. All forty of them. I can't remember ever seeing her use these tokens. she's definitely never used all of those tokens-- her pockets always jingled, harmonizing with the bell over the door.
The bell rang now. I looked up at the clock on the wall (8:00pm, on the dot) and then looked over at the door where the girl was, just like normal. She was digging in her pockets and she pulled out two fives. She walked over to me. I had taken out the forty tokens in anticipation of what she would ask for. She smiled at me and scraped them all off the table and into her pockets. She went to the machine nearest the window and sat down on the bench cross-legged.
Her eyes were already fixated upon the glass window of the washing machine. They followed the brightest article of clothing in the machine-- a red shirt with Mikey Mouse on it. At first glance, it looked a lot like something you would see in the Exorcist or some other paranormal movie, with Mickey's face spinning in circles, squished up into something unrecognizable by the creases in the shirt. But still she kept looking.
I found myself moving closer to her and eventually sitting next to her on the bench.
"You like to watch too?" she asked me.
"Sometimes," I said. And I wasn't lying. I understood some of the joy of watching the spinning motions of the washing machines.
"I'm glad," she said. "So you know?"
"Know what?" I asked her, confused.
She smiled at me now; like she knew something I didn't, which was probably the case. She probably knew a lot of things I didn't know.
"So you're not one of them," she said, her smile fading.
"I don't know what you mean," I confessed.
"Oh... you're just normal," she said, sounding disappointed. "Well, you've helped me out enough, any way. It's all right."
"Helped you enough with what?"
"You've helped me collect enough pieces to get home. I am forever in your debt," she said.
"Umm... you know you can't use these on the bus, right? They're just useless pieces of metal outside of the laundromat," I explained.
"Of course you can't," she said, giving me a look that said quite plainly, 'No shit, Sherlock.' "But where I come from, these will get you anywhere. And right now, that's especially important. I've been here too long. They promised."
"I don't fully understand... what do you mean 'where you come from?'" I asked her.
"Can you keep a secret?" she asked.
Finally, she was beginning to trust me!
"Yeah, of course."
"I have dual citizenship," she said. That's all she said.
"You lost me..."
"I'm human-- my parents are from earth. They're astronauts working for NASA. Mom had no idea that she was pregnant... not until it was too late any way. They landed on Mars and they had to operate. I was born on a spaceship on Mars," said the girl. "They've been contacting me since I was a small child. They told me that they were going to come for me. It would be a few years, but they would come for me. Tonight is the night. It has to be."
The girl reached into her pockets and began shoveling out handfuls of tokens onto the bench.
"I've been collecting for ten years. This isn't all of them. The rest are at my parents' house. That's where they're going to pick me up," said the girl.
"How do you know?" I asked.
"I just do..."
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Author's Note: I don't know why, but several weeks ago whilst sitting through French class, I began to think about laundromats. I haven't had to go to one in several years, but it's still fun to watch everything go around in colorful circles. I don't know how the alien part came in. Maybe they're possessing me... ;) Any way, excuse the horrible cliff-hanger. This might turn into a one-act that's going to be apart of a compilation that I'm hoping to call "The Ups and Downs of Living Life." Even the original concept of that has changed.
