Mike turned. It was Wally from over on the H Road.
" Waz up Wally? Had your sled out yet this winter?"
"Forget the sled, I wanna know why you spread lies like that meme is full of."
Immediately Mike realized a possible reason some folks post under a pseudonym. He stared at Wally:
"Damn Wally, what meme you talking 'bout? I ain't been on Facebook for awhile now."
"You know, the meme about the solar panels in space and how you claim they work just fine when you know damn well or should know it's too fuckin cold in space for them to work at all."
Mike was still struggling to remember the meme. He posted so many, it was impossible to remember one unless it was yesterday or maybe the day before. But to keep Wally happy, he put on his concerned contemplative look, stroked his beard like he was really trying to remember. He stopped mid stroke:
"No..... No. Wally, I just ain't remembering. Don't matter though. We're both grocery shopping here. I just want to get it done and head home. How about you? "
"Well, I ain't here to shop for groceries. I followed you in cuz I am just sick and tired of you Liberals trying to tear this country down and turn it Commie is all."
Mike stepped back and his eyes widened. Oh no, Wally slammed down the "Commie" card. "Here we go", he thought.
"You been chewing on this awhile ain't ya? ................ I don't mean no disrespect Wally, but Market Basket ain't really the place for this kind of conversation. Wouldn't you agree?"
Wally shifted his weight from one foot to the the other and looked at the floor. He clenched his fists a couple of times, took a big breath, then looked Mike in the eye.
"Don't matter where we are. You're a liar and I want you to admit it."
"I ain't admittin nothin you dumb fuckin redneck."
Mike was pissed now. He knew if Wally opened his mouth one more time, there were probably going to be police involved. He grabbed his cart and reversed direction.
Wally was having none of it. He quickly moved around Mike and jumped in front of the cart . Wally did not anticipate how hard Mike was pushing that cart. Wally went down hard and the cart fell over spilling and breaking the bottle of capers in the cart. Mike threw up his hands and looked ay Wally splayed out on the deck. He flipped Wally the bird, abandoned the cart, retreating in the other direction.
Walking down the aisle, he noticed several shoppers and one very surprised store employ watching him walk toward them. As he passed the guy in the apron, he said as calm as could be:
"Clean up on Aisle 9".
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Not sure now where this came from. I just wanted to to fiddle with some dialog fiction. It is certainly tied to the hard feelings floating around the various social media sites. America is angry, afraid, and totally off center. I imagine confrontations like this between friends, relatives, and strangers are unfolding every day somewhere in this country.
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I dubbed around taste testing various songs. Songs about the grocery store, songs about confrontation. I traveled through so many genres, my brain became addled and locked up. ......... I took a break, then hit the music from my collection of burned CD's. ...... Didn't help.
Out of the smoke came a song from my past, the first song I ever heard while standing behind the speaker stacks at a concert that I was working for. To say I was floating 10 feet in the air that day would indeed be an understatement. My first tour with SHOWCO was the last leg of the Who's, North American "By the Numbers "Tour. I would drive many miles and back my rig in at many venues for SHOWCO. But no tour had the impact on me like that first tour.
I wrote about the 2 day gig in Oakland here
Please enjoy the WHO and the song they opened with at every concert that tour. Here is "Won't Get Fooled Again". Sadly America has been fooled again. Hope for better days.
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