that the entire population of the world has been annihilated except
for you. He chuckled briefly at the thought, and dropped himself
down on a bench facing the motel parking lot. To be the last person
alive.
That
would be liberating, now wouldn’t it? All your guilt, your
troubles, just vaporized into the air like the dust whirling around the
empty parking lot in front of him. This lot, all his.
The daydream was enough to yank him briefly out of the
doldrums. First giggling softly, he then drew his head back and burst
out in a hollow, selfish, liberating eruption. It had been forever since
he laughed so hard, so he luxuriated in it for a good minute or so,
shuddering and jiggling there, alone, on the bench by the parking lot.
In the empty parking lot. In the totally empty parking lot where he
had previously parked his Buick, which was no longer there.
The tears of laughter turned to pillars of salt. They tumbled and
crashed down around his eyes.
CHAPTER 4
Wade returned to the table with three lousy beers, which was all they
could afford, since the three of them had no jobs, no savings and
virtually no chance of establishing credit anywhere in the free world.
The little money they amassed had been pilfered from the spare
change dish in Bob’s mother’s kitchen, which is why Wade had paid
for the watery grog with nickels and pennies, much to the dismay of
the bartender. As he sat down next to Bob and Leonard, the change
in his pocket made a loud jingle.
Jingle
was an appropriate sound, as
it was then late Christmas evening in old town Pasadena and the
festivities seemed to be reaching a crescendo. Not only was every
schlep in the neighborhood without a family to go home to there to
drown their sorrows, but a raucous birthday party was going on at
the next table. Altogether the place was almost deafening. Bob,
Leonard and Wade huddled together and screamed at each other in
order to be heard.
“Hey, man! Bars are cool!” screamed Bob. “We should have
gotten fake IDs a long time ago!”
“Shut up, you moron! You want us to get caught?” hollered
Wade.
“Sorry, man. I keep forgetting. Hey, isn’t this place awesome? It’s
like going to a heavy metal show, except you can’t smoke dope and
H O L Y S H I T !
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