It used to be an upscale supermarket. Now, it was just the P-Sec food outlet. It had been very nice. Now, it was worn and actually dirty. The floors were not swept or mopped frequently enough, so that there was a depressing tawdriness in the aisles. The parking lot was empty of vehicles or anything at all, except for some bits of paper and drifts of dead grass. Nobody enjoyed shopping there any more.
While we were approaching, a dark green utility vehicle of
a known type drove into the parking lot and parked up front by the
entrance. Two heavy set guys in dark
green coveralls with patches on front and back stepped out of the van and
walked lazily up toward the door. The sign on the van and the patches on their
coveralls read PNW Sectional Authority. I couldn’t see weapons, but who knows
what they carry.
P-Sec goons.
****************************************************
Bubby moved up in front of us, staring at these two agents
of P-Sec. I was afraid he might speak to
them! God knows what he might say. He
didn’t. He watched, almost standing on
his toes. I wondered what would happen
if they headed toward us.
I grabbed Lou’s hand and pulled her close. The boys stood slightly in front.
They obviously eat well, but they don’t shop here, I
thought. Why are they here? It was never good when they showed up. P-Sec employed natural bullies who believed
in their own BS.
Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum strolled up and pushed the door
open and disappeared into the store. We
didn’t feel like following. You just
didn’t want to get too close to those guys.
There could be bother at the very least.
They were actually the only part of the reorganized government that most
of us ever encountered. They liked that
role. Official Fat Head.
Five minutes later they bustled back out of the store with
a small dark-haired girl between them, one on each of her arms, heading for the
van. She was like a rabbit in their
hands, small and weak. They were
arresting her!
Then things got very strange.
Everything stopped.
The goons stopped. Even Denise
stopped protesting. We stopped, but it
was only from shock in our case. They
were still, like they were cast in resin, perfect silent manifestations of
themselves.
An iridescent blueish sphere looking like mother of pearl,
about the size of a basketball, floated up to the frozen tableau and stopped
there at about head level, holding off from the group by about three feet. It rotated from left to right and back again,
as if looking around. The patterns on its surface moved around slowly. It emitted a faint blue light but made no
sound at all. The effect was like that
of a huge, disembodied eyeball! Minutes passed.
Then things began to move again. First Denise woke and walked as if sleep walking
back into the store. The two men began
to come out of it also, but slowly, looking confused and drowsy. Both of them reentered his side of the van, moving
like men in a dream. The engine started up and the van drove off of the parking
lot and out onto the highway and vanished slowly, heading north.
The sphere shot straight up at a startling rate of speed
and vanished from sight. We stood there
staring at the sky. Bubby said something
to himself, but I didn’t catch it, whatever it was. Maybe he was surprised too.
“Strange days indeed.”
H/t John Lennon. “Most peculiar….” I told you about the old records and
tapes, right?
We still needed to contact Denise. I wondered if she was ok enough to talk and
make sense. Since the fat boys were
gone, Doug decided that we should go ahead and do our shopping and try to find
Denise and talk to her about spreading the word about the new NO meeting place.
Once more into the dim and dreary aisles of the PNW
Sectional Authority Grocery Outlet, P-Sago.
It was mostly a game of seeing what they had in stock and comparing it
to what might be useful to us.
We stationed Bubby at the bus station outside the store and
told him or asked him to hang out there until we got back. He said “fine.”
In the store, we split up.
The guys went looking for meat and bread products. Lou and I looked for fruit and dairy. They
met back up with us by the produce dept. carrying two packages of wieners and
more brown bread. They also had some
real black tea and two pounds of brown sugar.
We had butter, more of those little apples, and since they had some milk,
two quart cartons of milk. The funny
money never went very far. Without a car
and walking so far, there was no use buying much anyhow.
Denise was at her check stand just like nothing had happened
at all. She was bright and smiley. I got into line ahead of the others. “Hey, hi.
How are you?” I began. She looked
up and smiled and said “oh fine! How are you?”
She did not seem to be traumatized at all!
Doug said “we have a question for you. I know that you meet everyone in town all the
time and you pretty well know them.” She
glanced up to see what he was getting at. He continued, “you know about the NO party,
right?”
She stopped her work and said “well yes, I do. I have been
to a meeting. I know the Wharf is gone
now.”
He continued, “what we were wondering is whether you would
be willing to drop a word into the right ears that we have a new place. First Monday of each month, at 7pm, we are
going to meet in the gym at the High School.
The side door is unlocked. We
need to discuss tactics.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, and looking around at the
store, and the few customers, and I imagine thinking about the last few years
of life, she looked at the four of us seriously and said “yes. I can do that. I think I know who to trust in Milltown. Yes.”
We paid for our shopping and went out to locate Bubby.
Bubby was not at the bus station.
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