Amy Dillon

Free Write 5/20/17

The Hall

Is where I used to hang out, during school and after, with people that I knew and didn’t (hardly) know.  I know it is customary to think of it as a place of passing, of getting from one place to another, but often times when I walk through one I feel like I should freeze myself, freeze time, and appreciate what is going on at that exact moment.  I have had many times when I was “looking for a friend,” when I was with a friend, or a boy/guy/man that I would like to spend much of my free time with, in the hallways, along with girls that I consider friends, and/or best friends, or total strangers.  Halls are a place where anything possible can go down, where almost anything is allowed to go down, whether that be on the floor, by a locker, up against the wall, or on the ceiling (for those that consider themselves angels, or bats).  Hallways are a place where, for kids/high school students/college students, often times those occupying halls can do whatever they want, as long as they are able to get from one point to another, meaning as long as they are able to walk, to carry themselves, and their books/belongings to a place on land where there is some other means of habitation, whether that be a classroom, another hallway, or the entry way to some other dimension where those that you once saw clearly, now, you don’t see, clearly.  Not so much.

Sometimes hallways are packed with people, to the point where movement is limited and people walk like slaves that don’t know what’s ahead except for class/work/ meetings/ and basketball games that are in the gymnasium to the left of the right, according to the map nailed to the wall like a crucifix that demands to be looked at, demands the attention of those that don’t know the creed of those grounds well enough to walk through it blindly, as to say, without faith. 

Sometimes when the hours of the school day come to a certain point, when classes are in session, someone walking  through the hallways can see people/students doing stuff “by their lockers,” like gathering books and whatnot, just to arrive late to class, or to return after asking to leave to obtain something/things from a locker (such as a maroon locker, across from the classroom where I saw the black haired freshman who rode the activities bus that one day, that day that I want to remember everything about, but I don’t want to  feel the pain in my stomach that comes with knowing that that was my first time doing something like that).  I remember the day I saw Landon, when he walked up to me and then walked away, after turning his back to me, and then getting to another point, down the hall that eventually formed an intersection like a letter "T" or "t."  He took another black-haired girl I knows hands and shouted, “Jenna!” to her, in greeting, while I was watching, from the end of the hall opposite of his.  I don’t remember if I felt heartbroken or not, I don’t remember him knowing that I was watching him, but it was one of those times where I think he did know that I was watching him- flirting with another girl.  He left my place in the hall in exchange for another.  Has this happened before? More than once?  Sometimes I don’t know.  Sometimes I can’t remember what happened before a big memory took place; I can’t remember what Landon did, how he walked, what he said, if anything, while he was getting from one point/place to the next, from my locker, to that place in the hallway near/at the intersection, where I will never be.