Kaiden had never been in a steam
room before, but his first experience was less luxurious than he expected it
would be. The room was essentially gray and white square tiles with a water
spigot in the corner and two white, plastic benches. Scalding hot pressurized
water exploded towards the corner. A thick layer of steam filled the room. The
stench gave in, an acrid odor of dirty assholes. The room had been built in the
80s, but care for it had fallen in recent years. Soon the fog filled the room
to the point that not any point was visible. Auburn hair hung down wet and limp
from Kaiden’s head, and sweat began to drip, stinging his eyes. He rubbed them
and pulled down his swimming goggles. The goggles added pressure to his eyes
and tinted the room to a darker shade, but he was able to see. Soon, the
goggles fogged up. He wiped them clean. They soon fogged again and he made
himself chuckle by wiping the lenses clean with one erect index finger each. He
made sure to imitate the squeegee sound that windshield wipers make for
authenticity sake. Kwee-kwoo.
At that
moment that Kaiden started slowly mimicking a catchy rhythm that was stuck in
his head. Boom, kshhh, boom, kshhhh, boom, kshhh. He was reminded of a music
video of a man in welder’s goggles delivering lyrics in a haughty tone and
sharply breathing in air. Kaiden tried mimicking the voice. As he passed
through the first verse, growing confident in his ability to sound like the
singer, he slapped his wrists together over his head, pretending they were tied
together and attached to the ceiling like in the music video. Inside him the
intensity built until he whipped his hair wildly and sang out the chorus without any inhibition, “I
wanna fuck you like an animal!”
Coincidentally,
this was the same moment the steel door opened, allowing a bright light in.
Kaiden, startled, turned to see exactly who was there, but his goggles were
thick with condensation. He wiped his goggles clear, choosing this time to
leave the sound effects out. In front of him, holding the steel door was a
woman wrapped in a towel from the waist down. Her burgundy swimsuit hid no
curvature of her torso, no matter how minute. As his eyes met hers, all he could see was wild hazel terror. Then a small voice came about, “Why is that man singing, in
that room mommy?” His eyes darted downward towards the woman's leg and he noticed little head poking out from
behind her towel covered thigh.
“Lets go
back upstairs sweetie,” the mom replied. The mother urged her little one on,
letting the steel door close behind her. Embarrassed, Kaiden whistled the melody notes, but it brought no sense of joy back to him. Hewas left to soak in
the dense, sweat-laden steam, falling into quiet invisibility.
