The Last Sapien | face of the last vote

The Face of The Last Vote Counted | On the western part of Pennsylvania, a town called Edgecliff where the highlight of the place is SS Chassis & Supply - a junk yard that collects old, unclaimed stolen cars and some totals as they call them, scattered bodies of vehicles that lost the smell of the lives once traveled in them. The Allegheny river is a few minutes drive away, still fighting to reclaim its fresh water, after years of steel and mercury thrown into it, making its banks a long trial of toxic waste. The spongy yellow foam still needs to be scraped inch by inch before the first bud is going to spring again to host the little fish. The large patch of green forest is confusing with its changing colors of the leaves, the light snow that falls. The chilling wind gusts that follow the river, catching speed from pool four just up the hill are a reminder of how bitter cold this place could be.

Gladys is standing by the stove top, frying bacon like every day, adding another layer of fat to the brown surface that used to be white fifteen years ago and counting, adding another layer of fat on her too. Like the river banks, all need to be cleaned off and shaved layer by layer. She was once the queen of her class, married the best looking guy in town, the power couple of Edgecliff. She was about to finish college realizing that she is pregnant with twins, where happiness is mixed with the notion of the end of the road, like Garvers Ferry road and Edgecliff road meet, there are no signs of joy - it is just one road leads to another leading to nothing. Trading her last brain muscles exercise to every other non thinker muscle in her body, shutting the doors of fairy tale land behind her, being welcomed by the gray reality. Like in her nana's old albums, where the photos detached from the pages that used to hold them, photos of her family that are getting shades of brown and the pages are turning yellow. Her once good looking husband has grayed out too, fracking mountains, brining home pennies and a mixed smell of sweat and alcohol. Sometimes he would bring a smell of a cheap ladies' perfume that reminded her that they have not had sex for the past couple years. The following day she is going to place her vote for the person she have seen on TV that promised her prosperity, a new and better life that is not stolen by the wealthy the foreign governments. If she votes for him she may become one of them wealthy people too, educate her sons and get them out of that small town Pennsylvania and see a better life. Maybe she will be able to save some money and go to a gym class and say hello to the many pounds she gained, maybe she will love herself again and be loved. Like the river banks, like the stove top how life could look so light and bright. The other day she saw the guy on TV in a near by town rally, promising to turn her life to be great again. Why should he make all the way here to lie to her, she thought? This was her last chance to bring back hope to her life. She could not realize that her vote would be the last vote counted and no one would ever know how does the face behind the last vote looks like. It is yet another one in a million ballots, just the last one... and the Winner is ?!