“Nice to meet you.” The trail we’re on slopes downward to pass six more cabins en route to a lit-up rectangular building labeled CLEANSE & SHOWER. “Have you explored this Cleanse and Shower building yet?” I smile at her.

She chuckles. “I have. I got here yesterday.”

“How’d the showers treatchya?” A mosquito lands on my arm as we close in on the building. I swat at it.

“As well as to be expected. Water pressure’s low. Floors are kinda gross. Hot water gets just below what you’d optimally want. Feels like college.” Thalia pulls ahead of me to the entrance. She wrenches open the metal door.

I follow her in. “Wouldn’t know what that’s like, never went.”

She looks over her shoulder. “Lucky you, that’s why I’m here.”

Inside, there are two paths. To the right are four shower stalls and two sinks. To the left are four toilets and four sinks. There’s a pale young woman with freckles and shoulder-length wet blond hair at a sink on the shower side. She’s working through it with one of those wet brushes.

Thalia streamlines past Freckles to the shower farthest from the door and yanks the curtain shut behind her. Someone’s already occupying the second shower and a cozy amount of steam mills about the room. I head over to the sinks.

“Hey hey hey! I’m Jamie!” I project my voice a bit so Freckles won’t have trouble hearing me over the running water.

Her eyes slide to mine in the mirror. “Kelly.”

“Why are you here, Kelly?” I shoot her a smile and wash my hands so I have something to do.

She rakes through a new section of hair before answering. “Things fell apart with my high school sweetheart.”

“Ah, a breakup, do tell!”

Kelly frowns at me through the mirror. “Is that why you’re here too?”

I push the lever down a couple of times on the hand towel dispenser. “Nah, I’m just quarter-life crisis-ing pretty hard.” I turn to look her in the eye. “What happened with you and high school boyfriend?”

Kelly grimaces before grabbing the shower caddy by her feet. She stalks around me toward the exit.

“Okay, well, nice to meet you,” I call. “See you tomorrow! Looking forward to hearing your story.” The door claps shut behind her.

I hum to myself cheerfully. Maybe I can camp out in here a bit post-shower and paint my nails, meet a couple more people, before going back to my cabin of nothing. Thalia was cool, maybe we can hang out.

I spin toward the showers, inspecting the neon chipped polish currently on my fingers. I’ve taken two steps toward the empty third stall when the plastic curtain to my right is thrown open and someone bulldozes into me.