
                            Unsatisfied Hunger
                   

     Dawn was coming.  
     They all knew it.  Sitting in Denny's at 5:30 am,
looking for their reflections in the glass window while night
pressed feverishly against it on the other side-- only they
couldn't see them.  The reflections, that is.  
     "The movie really wasn't all that good," Sara said, from her
place in between the window and Keith.
     "You guys are still talking about that?" Lana looked at Lee
and rolled her eyes.
     "Yeah, but it was still a little too close to home for me,"
Keith said.  "Too accurate."  
     Sara lit a cigarette and Keith glared at her.  "Those make
you weak."
     She shrugged.  "So does this food."
     "Then don't eat it."     
     "I didn't."
     The waiter approached the table for the third time.  "Can I
get you anything else?"
     "No, we're fine," Lee said, not looking up.
     "Who here hasn't eaten today?" He looked down at the table,
which had only two cokes, a coffee cup and a water.  The waiter
gave a friendly smileand Lee stifled the incredibly strong urge
to nod at him.  Instead, he looked at Keith across the table, who
took a sip of his water and grimaced.  "I'll be back," the waiter
said and hurriedly left.
     "I hate coming to these places," Lana said.  Sara nodded in
agreement.  "We're better off just staying home."
     "I had to get out. That movie has me really tense," Keith
said.
     "It was just a movie," Lana said.
     "It.." Sara looked up.  "It made me want again." 
     Lana looked up sharply.  "Want what?"
     Sara looked down.  "You know."
     "Yeah," Lana said, shrugging, "but you always want.  Even
before the movie.  God knows I did."
     "Not like this."
     Lee fiddled with the paper his straw had come in while no
one talked.  Out the window, a gas station sign winked on as it
opened up for business for the day.  The waiter came back with
two plates.  One had rolls and butter.  The other had a hardened,
yellowish collection of cheese sticks.  
     "Here," he said, setting them on the table.  "We were about
to throw this out anyway.  Don't tell anyone I'm being this nice
to you guys." He grinned again thinking about the tip we would
undoubtedly leave him.  As he walked away, Lana's eyes lingered
on him a little too long.
     "Don't," Keith warned her.  
     Lana closed her eyes in pain.  "I can't--"
     "You have to."
     Lana said nothing, but turned her eyes to the window and
stared outside.  The other three looked down at the food, then at
each other solemnly.  Sara picked up a roll and began tearing off
pieces and chewing on it.
     "I thought you said you weren't going to eat?" Keith said.
     "No I didn't.  I said I hadn't eaten, not that I wasn't
going to."  She nervously began tearing off pieces of the bread
and putting them in her mouth.
     "Do you think it could really happen like in that movie?"
Keith asked.
     Lana shook her head.  "It was just a movie dammit," she
repeated.
     "I know, but I..." He never finished.
     "The stars are about to leave again," Sara said, staring out
the window dreamily.  
     "They're not going to leave, we just can't see them," Lee
said, tonelessly.
     "Same thing.  If we can't see them, then they don't exist."
     Lee flicked the straw wrapper away.  "Whatever."
     "So who's going to eat this food?" Lana asked.
     "Not me," Lee answered.  No one else said anything.  
     "Well, I don't want to," Lana said.
     "Then don't."
     "But it will look funny if we don't eat it."
     "So?"
     Lana shrugged and watched Sara finish eating her bread.  
     "I hate sunlight," Sara said suddenly.
     Keith nodded.  "We'll leave soon."
     "Soon.  That's always yours answer.  Soon," Lana said,
bitterly.
     Keith glared at her, his pupils stabbing into hers.  "And
you have a problem with this?"
     "Why don't you be concrete for a change?" Lana said, but her
voice had lost conviction and she was squirming in the booth.
     "Because, dammit, I don't know everything.  I can't see the
future."
     "How many days will we have to wait, Keith?" Lana cried. 
"How many days until you'll tell us it's safe to--"
     "It's dangerous now.  The movie is too popular."
     "Who cares about a fucking movie?" Lana shrieked.
     "They know too much now.  Do you want to die?"
     Lana's cheek twitched in anger, but she stayed silent.
     "I didn't think so."
     Lee stood up.  "Let's get out of here."
     Keith nodded up at him and motioned for the girls to stand
up.  They did and Lee put on his leather jacket while Lana
scooted out of the seat.  Keith threw a couple of dollar bills on
the table.  The waiter approached them from the other side of the
room.     
     "Ah, come on, guys.  The sun will be up in a few minutes. 
You can wait that long, can't you?" he said, smiling.
     "No, we have to get back to our coffins," Lee said.  The
waiter laughed, but no one else did.  His eyes fell upon the
uneaten food and his smile faded.  Lee, Keith, Lana and Sara
moved past him to the cash register.  The four of them paid and
left the restaurant, their bodies still clamoring from an
unsatisfied
hunger.  


     The waiter watched out the window as the four of them got
into a black Baretta and the one in the black leather jacket
drove away.  Weird kids.  He shook his head and began to clear
the table as the first rays of pink sunlight began to filter
through the window.  He picked up the money on the table, getting
ready to pocket it, when something loose fell from in between the
bills.  He picked it up.  
     A ticket stub.  It read "Interview with."  The rest had been
ripped away. 
     The waiter shrugged, crumpled the movie ticket and put it in
his pocket.  "Good movie."




@ 1995 by Black Sunshine