Tales from Beyond Frick Park IV: One Bottle After Another
No one noticed the first bottle.
It appeared on Jenna’s desk in studio sometime between 2:14 AM, when she first sat down, and 5:37, when she finally looked away from her Rhino model to rest her eyes for a minute. A slightly crinkled 20 oz Dasani bottle, half full, faintly warm, light yellow, she assumed it was hers, though she didn’t remember drinking anything much: just three Rockstars, the same as every morning.
By the time the sunrise brilliantly illuminated the CFA roof, setting flames dancing across the aluminum roof and ornate railing, there were three. They showed up quietly, tucked between rockite models and drafting paper. No one claimed them, but no one threw them away either. Every student was too busy slaving away at their final projects.
As studio crit approached, it was just one bottle after another. Three became five. Five became twelve. Twelve became too many for anyone to have time to count. Their amber contents seemed to deepen in color and, though no one actually mustered the courage to check, it seemed as though the bottles remained perpetually warm.
By doomsday, the day before final projects were to be critiqued, studio was impassable. The air seemed thick and humid, though the bottles remained sealed and, indeed, the room was no more moist than before. Review was harsh, as always. Eight students would not be returning the next year, including Jenna. Afterwards, desks were cleared for the summer, the bottles intentionally ignored. Facilities Management Services came through and cleared everything remaining.
When the remaining students returned in August, studio looked exactly as it always had. A new cohort of first-years occupied the section, unaware of the horrors that had occurred there all too recently, and the prior class was on the opposite side of the room. The events were collectively rationalized until, like the entirety of the architecture program, it almost made sense, almost seemed humane; it was perhaps not normal but certainly not that abnormal. And this is the only way they’re able to persevere.