The 5th Level of Hell

The Cashmere Vanilla candle flickered.
“I’ve had an epiphany.” she said, half laughing.
“Oh?” the uncaring response.
“Well it’s clear to me that the kind of people who would eat at Chick Fil A are the same kind of people who would go to a Chris Brown concert.”
“What?”
“I’m serious.”
“”You can’t be,” she sideyed her with a furrowed brow, “that’s stupid to even say out loud.”
“But it’s true. If you don’t care that the brand touts it’s exclusionary beliefs to its agreeable customer base, then you probably don’t mind that an artist considered at the top of his narrowly defined craft has assaulted other humans, specifically women. For some reason these kind of people think that gay folk equal soft folk and women obviously equal soft folk, and in their eyes soft folk aren’t really folk so who cares what happens to them. The chicken is fine. The songs are fine. Stands to reason.”
” The way your mind leaps all over the place,” She yawned, ” it would be endearing if it wasn’t diabolical.”
“I have evidence.”
“You couldn’t possibly.”
“I do, I went there one day for lunch with coworkers recently. we only had a short amount of time to grab something and it was the only spot around. I didn’t want to go there but I also couldn’t go back into the meeting with a growling stomach.”
“How loose your morals, friend.”
“So I decided if I have to eat here, I will do so, for science and biology.”
“Right, and only you get to do so surely but carry on…” She closed her eyes and listened.
“Anyway, we’re eating and small talking and one of the girls next to me starts talking about an upcoming concert she is attending. I start ear hustling and it sounds like a big show, lots of people, folk dressing up and turning out for it and I assumed it was Beyonce.”
“Just, the huge amount of judgments you are making every time you open your mouth without realizing it is truly astonishing but, continue…”
” Then another girl chimed in that she was going too but on a different date and couldn’t wait. I needed to know and asked- who are ya’ll going to see and when they said his name, I swear to Grodd I sunk down deep into the stool and..”
“Hold up, did you just swear to Grodd? The crazy gorilla from comics?!”
“It’s not his fault he was exposed to a meoterorite’s radiation! If they can believe in a sky dude with a white beard I can’t believe in a super intelligent gorilla?”
” I literally cannot with you.”
“Are you going to let me finish?”
“No, go, go I’m listening”.
She held her breath.
“Finally, whew, I was going to say that I wished I could have melted off into the floor. Mind you, a colleague with us did not step into the chicken joint, he saw it was the only option and went back hungry. I’m out here trying to bond with these fools and be cool and seem like a knowledgeable and fun intergenerational friend and these fools drag me to this place only to have to sit next to them, already uncomfortably, while they high five chicken tenders at each other, since they love this place, know the whole menu by heart and are super giddy to go see this artist that I personally didn’t understand why he hadn’t been jailed. I couldn’t take another bite. I didn’t say how horrified I was but after I left it dawned on me- wow. The kind of people who would do and enjoy one of these things, knowing what they know irrefutably, are ever so likely to enjoy and do the other thing, with the same empty headed abandon and I felt terrible that I was even there and now, I know even more it is a spot I will continue to avoid. That’s the epiphany. “
“Girl. sometimes that rocketship in your head is..”
She leaned in to hear and responded, “is what?”
The sigh was loud and low and long.
“But you were there too- no you didn’t want to be and you can bet there were other folk who simply wanted to survive that day, some of them even on staff, just doing what they need to do to make it, and not even able to stand back from the circus to comment on the peanut shells on the floor. Your little friend that didn’t eat could have had a whole ass big breakfast prepared by his rich ass doting wife that morning and realized he didn’t actually need to eat for a few hours anyway, especially since didn’t you say one time he was an actor, right, watching his weight? Fast food chicken just might not have been worth it, and it could be on another day and he would have been there too. So these young girls have found some community and camaraderie around music, duh, haven’t you?Just because you don’t see and hear all the horrors behind the music you enjoy because the artists are all so fucking old and predigital that none of that shit made it to the internet, which you yourself consistently say is the benefit of even being from that time- you did horrible shit and nobody got to watch it and you wear it like a badge of honor whilst expecting second chances for your own behavior because society at the time told you to keep your dirty laundry out of public view, but not how to wash your own damn clothes. Sure, that shit could have been literally true in that one instance that you experienced but you do realize you would need to go to every one of those stores, everywhere, every day and survey every worker and patron that passes through for a significant number of years to even remotely be able to draw that correlation, it’s just so, wild, the assertion, like okay and if those things were true and those people were that way, what does it mean, does it mean you are somehow better than them because you can afford to take the time to read books every now and again? Stop, just, wow, seriously.”
The vanilla smell filled the room and the glowing golden liquid shone like a ray of sunshine in a cup.
She held her hand out to hold.
It was held.
” Hate the belief, love the believer though, right?”
She smirked.
“Yeah, right.”