November 27, 2009

 
So no more red dots yesterday. Actually, no more of anything yesterday. After putting you down, I fell into an uninterrupted pitch black sleep until this morning. Yes...that was almost twenty hours of sleep. But hey, I'm not complaining. I feel way better. Cold be gone!

I said I'd get to the Safeway woman story soon, so I best to to it.

It was a Wednesday. I remember it clearly because Stevie and I were picking up groceries for dinner before band practice, and we have band rehearsal every Wednesday night.

We were standing in the checkout line when I noticed a bright red dot next to the headline "Bat Boy Hoax Exposed!" on The Globe. It was the same red dot I found in my journal two days before.

"Hey Stevie," I said. "Check out The Globe."

"What about it?" He replied in his high pitch whine.

"Do you see a red dot?"

"All Globes have a red dot. It's their logo."

"No...not the logo. The one next to the Bat Boy story."

"There's no dot there. You must be seeing things dude," he said curtly.

I let it go, but picked up The Globe. Something wasn't completely right about it, but I couldn't place it. I got stuck in a loop of contemplation about the dot.

"Dude! Check out the woman staring at you." Stevie interrupted my concentration. I startled and knocked over the candy rack behind me. A loud metallic clank echoed between the cascading Orbit, Snickers, and M&Ms. "Fuck man! Don't do that!" I threw The Globe on top of my groceries. My face flushed, and I spun around to clean up my mess.

"Sorry," I said to the cashier without looking at her. "I'm picking it up."

Stevie leaned in close and said, "Dude, no really. Check out the chick staring at you. She's there at Customer Service."

I grabbed some peppermint Trident, a few Butterfingers, and two packages of Skittles and put them back on the rack. As I leaned down to grab more spilled candy, I glanced over at Customer Service. There she was: extraordinarily tall, slender not skinny, evenly cut black hair stretching to her waist, bright green wide eyes circled with black liquid eyeliner giving them a hard edge, wiry long fingers tapping the counter impatiently. Her back was to me; her head unnaturally angled was looking directly at me. She rarely blinked.

"Do you know her?" Stevie asked.

"Excuse me gentlemen," the cashier interjected, "but you're holding up the line."

"Sorry. Sorry. My apologies. Just trying to clean up the mess I made."

"I've already rung you up. Do you have a Club Card?"

"Oh...yes...where is it?" I reached for my wallet, opened the leather two-fold, and looked behind my driver's license. It wasn't there. "Where is it?" I muttered to myself.

"What's your number?"

"Number," I asked.

"Yes. Telephone number," the cashier pressed.

"Oh...THAT number."

I had to think really hard about what number I put on my application for the Club Card. I never gave a current one, fearing telemarketers, so that meant it could have been any of about 20 different ones. As I sat there thinking about it, my eyes turned towards the tall woman. She was still staring at me. Now, her body was turned fully in my direction, and I saw she was wearing a long-sleeved black t-shirt with a giant red dot on it.

"Hurry the hell up," someone screamed from the back of the line. "We're all trying to get out of here."

"Stevie?" I said.

"Yes."

"Can you please give her your card? I need to get out of here." I handed him $40. "I'll meet you outside."

"Uh...okay," Stevie said.

"Don't forget that Globe," I emphasized as I walked away from the checkout line.

"Whatever," he replied.

I had to pass Customer Service to leave the store. I could have sworn I heard her say, "Don't ignore the dots," as I walked past her. Her eyes, not her head, followed me as I exited the automatic doors. I was officially creeped out.

The cool crisp fog-laden air greeted me and snapped me back to some semblance of reality. I tried to forget about her, instead wanting to focus on band practice that night. But every time I tried to think about something else, I found a way of relating it to her.

Stevie joined me outside a few moments later. He was carrying our groceries. The Globe was missing.

"Damn it Stevie. I told you to get The Globe." I said brusquely.

I ran back into Safeway past Customer Service paying attention to nothing other than getting that Globe. The line was gone, the candy picked up, and The Globe was back on the rack.

"Forget something," the cashier said.

"Yup. Needed to get this Globe. I've been following the Bat Boy story for years." I grinned and handed her a $10 bill.

"Club Card?"

"Forget it," I retorted.

She gave me my change, and I headed out of Safeway. The woman wasn't standing at Customer Service any more. In fact, she wasn't anywhere in the store. It was almost like I imagined her, but I know I didn't because Stevie was the one that pointed her out to me.

I met Stevie outside. He was kind of annoyed with me, but didn't say anything. We headed to band rehearsal.

And that's the end of the story.

I know there isn't much to it. I am still trying to work out the pieces. Who knows when that will happen.

Well...I'm done for now. See you tomorrow or in a couple of days. Ciao.

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