Page 2 of Exit Party

“I thought the curfew would last forever,” someone was saying, as Ari poured red wine for herself and Gloria.

“Here,” Ari said to Gloria, who was looking a little strained.

“I mean, I just never wanted to be a part of history,” someone else said, quite near to Ari.

“Thanks.” Gloria accepted the glass. “I’m going to go out to the terrace.”

“Where’s the terrace?” But Gloria was gone. “Hi, I’m Ari,” she said to the man who didn’t want to be a part of history.

“James,” he said.

“So,” a woman near her right elbow said. “How’s the collapse of the country going for you?”

“Oh, you know,” Ari said. “Could’ve been worse.”

“Sounds about right,” the woman said, and launched into a story about the morning she realized the country was really breaking apart, that one strange day when Texas seceded in the morning and Arizona followed in the afternoon, the day her sister called to say she’d pulled her children out of school and maybe there was going to be a war, then the woman went to fill up her car and the gas line extended around the corner, and that was how she knew it was real. It was a boring story that Ari had already heard in a dozen variations.

“What about you?” the woman asked finally. “When did you know it was real?”

“I don’t think about the past at all,” Ari said.

“That’s it,” James said approvingly. “Face the future head-on, right?”

“Only way to live,” Ari said.

“I’m just trying to connect,” the woman said, and it looked to Ari like she was about to cry, so she relented.

“Okay,” Ari said, “I was living with a few other people, and then one night I woke up and someone was listening to the radio.”

“See, I’m a Taurus, so I can’t live with other people,” a man said. “You had a lot of roommates?”

“Yeah,” Ari said. “A lot of roommates.” She’d been drifting in and out of sleep that night, because her cellmate was listening to a radio tuned low in the lower bunk, but then she woke up and caught the words. Troops, militias, secession, shots fired. What Ari remembered of that night was lying unblinking in the darkness and thinking, At least this is finally something new. Her life had been unchanging for so long. When had she last felt any excitement or any dread at all, about anything? The murmured radio voices followed her into sleep and became dreams of dark streets and faceless soldiers.

“The problem is we didn’t know anything,” the woman said, “like how does a person prepare for something like that? But I’m a Virgo, so, you know, logic, so I just went to the gas station and filled my car, then went to the bank and withdrew most of my chequing account and went home.” Ari nodded. She was trying to look interested. James was standing by her side. He wasn’t paying attention to her, just looking at his phone, but she was extremely aware of his presence, the warmth of his body so near to hers. When the woman stopped talking, he leaned in close.

“You know what I didn’t expect about living in a dramatic historic moment?” He was speaking softly, hot gin breath in her ear. “How unbelievably boring it is, because everyone around you lived through the exact same thing and they all need to process their complicated feelings.”

Ari smiled. “You read my mind.”

“Where were you living with all those roommates?” he asked. “DP camp?”

“No,” Ari said. “Do you know where the terrace is?”

“Right this way. I could use some air myself.” The party was so crowded now. Ari was trying to remember when she’d last been in a room with so many other people. No, it wasn’t that, she’d been in crowds in the recent past, but what was dazzling was the way everyone in this crowd wore different colours, fabrics of different textures, instead of a sea of prison-issue beige. There was a pretty woman with soft lips in a silver dress like tinfoil, a thousand tiny pleats; Ari admired the effect as she brushed past. She would have liked to kiss the woman.

The terrace was a balcony on the side of the building, with a view of a hillside, trees, distant glimmering lights. A handwritten sign forbade smoking. There were a few people out here, Gloria and Kareem among them. “Okay,” Gloria was saying, “yeah, that was crazy, but you remember that night with the double graduation parties?” and Ari knew they were talking about the long-closed West Hollywood restaurant where Kareem and Gloria had met as servers.

“How do you know Kareem?” Ari asked James. “Same restaurant?”

“We lived in the same dorm in college, believe it or not,” James said. “And now we’re roommates again.”

“You live here too?”

“Yeah, I crash in the living room. The sofa folds out.”

“Is Kareem a good roommate?”

“Much better than he used to be. He’s much better than he used to be.”