The creature stared at the moving lights before it.
It stood alone in the booth it had been herded into. What was left of the reptilian brain stem reacted when pushed and shoved, and it had no chance to lash out at the people prodding it along, although it was ready to bite at any opportunity that presented itself. Bite and claw had worked so well in the past and it knew it would employ those natural weapons again. It wanted to employ them now as it looked down at the slick obstruction that stopped it's forward momentum, butting into the wide and raggedly covered belly that ballooned out over the top of it's pants as if filled with a massive wad of pus and infection.
It stared at the dancing lights and shapes at navel height, within reach of it's greedily clutching fingers. A dim and seldom used part of its rotten brain reacted instinctively to what it's squinting, pig-like eyes were seeing. One part of the brain reacted to the face it saw on it's left, another part reacted to the face it saw on the right. One was dark and triggered revulsion, instant, severe, a response it had learned throughout it's dark existance. The other image was lighter colored. It was safe, familiar. The creature leaned over the flat, glowing surface and squinted. A thread of drool exited the gaping mouth and landed on the plastic surface, slowly oozed down until it reached the edge and pooled along the horizontal lip of the strange device.
One hand gradually craned into the air. It hovered above the plastic surface, shaking to the left and right. A memory of red, white and blue filled it's mind and suddenly a new shape appeared on the plastic panel, like an echo of the thought in it's corrupted mind. The American flag had flashed briefly, subliminally, over the white shape on the right and the bleary eyes focused hard. Did it just imagine that or was it real? Then it knew, the white man WAS America, it had been told that so many times. The hand craned in that direction, then stopped. Why was it here? What was it supposed to do? It saw no food, nothing to rend and bite, nothing to attack. What was the purpose of its presence in this cold, lonely place?
An inarticulate noise escaped it's throat. Suddenly, from above, something landed with a plop on the surface of the pad. There, on the right, was a new object. Brightly colored, flashing with multicolored sparkles. The hand descended and picked up the mini-cupcake, pushing on the surface of the active area of the white man's face. The selection was logged.
The treat found its way into a mouth that was missing most of its teeth. The sweet taste of a freebie made the creature gurgle with delight and smile.
The light on the machine went out. Afraid again, the creature backed away. Outside of the curtained booth a smartly dressed man waited, and when the thing was out it gently touched its shoulder and guided it to the exit of the polling center. The near mindless beast stumbled into the light, still chewing, happy with the sweet taste and trying to remember if Dancing With The Stars was on tonight.
Another Fox News viewer had voted.
