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“No way. Louis was adamant that they
were cowardly little backstabbers who would never stand and fight. He
said as long as there were other people around, we were safe.” She
looked steadily at Edna for a while. “Why are you helping them?”
“I'm not helping them! They just showed
up at my house and they won't go away. I can't figure out how to get rid
of them.” Edna looked past Alice's left shoulder at two tiny people
asking one of the store employees for help. The employee listened, bending
down to hear them and then straightened up, looking around.
Alice wasn't looking at Edna. She
was playing absently with her empty coffee cup. “When you first spoke
to me I had the strangest feeling of relief. I thought it was finally
over. The only thing I could think of was that I didn't want to die in
a bathroom. Here I am babbling away, thinking ‘I wish she would just
do it and get it over with’. This waiting is terrible. I don't want
to run any more.”
The store employee had spotted the
back of Alice's head and recognized her. He was pointing to her and speaking
to the small couple. They looked confused, and finally the employee began
walking towards Edna and Alice, still pointing. The two shoppers followed.
They looked like a pair of elderly, timid gentlemen, leaning on each other
and keeping their heads bowed.
Alice noticed that Edna was staring
at something behind her. When next their eyes met, they looked at each
other for a long silent while. Alice's face went rigid with fear. Edna
got up and walked away. When she was well clear of the shop she turned
and looked back. Alice had not moved. The three people approaching her
had stopped and the couple appeared to be thanking the store employee,
who then turned and left.
Edna got her cart. She walked to where
there was a round security mirror suspended overhead. In it she watched
the tiny distorted figures of Alice and the two visitors. Both little
people had leaned towards her, apparently talking. Alice shook her head
violently, then waited, and then shook her head again. She raised her
right hand and covered her eyes. One of the little people reached his
hand out towards the back of her neck. As he did so, his companion turned
slightly and seemed to be listening. He kept his eyes down, swinging his
head from side to side in the direction of the mirror.
Edna looked away quickly, pushing
her cart down the closest aisle and mingling with the traffic. She wiped
her eyes as she walked. For almost twenty minutes she went up and down
the aisles. She went through a long line at checkout. She pushed her cart
at the same speed as all the other hundreds of shoppers, out to her car.
Suddenly, there seemed to be tiny people everywhere, loitering in the
corners, leaning against the front of the store.
When she had almost finished putting
her stuff in the car, she heard sirens. An ambulance and the police arrived.
They had great difficulty getting the stretcher in through the automatic
doors because the exiting shoppers would not yield. When they disappeared
into the store, Edna watched for a while as the stream of entering and
exiting people merged behind them. There was no sign of excitement.
 nstead of going
home, Edna drove up in the mountains on the Parkway that ran through the
National Forest. She parked in the first scenic overlook she found that
was empty of cars. Getting out, she climbed over the granite blocks edging
the pavement and sat with her back to the stone, looking at the view.
It was extravagantly beautiful. The sky was smooth and creamy like a swimming
pool, with little wispy clouds seeming to melt in and out of reality.
Below, the landscape was hazy with summer humidity. Everything looked
insubstantial, like a memory.
She closed her eyes and felt the wind
on her face and didn't think about anything at all. After a while she
did think about how Alice's face had looked when she left her. Had she
thought Edna had been a Judas? The only other human in the world that
she could talk to had also been and enemy. Edna shivered.
Strange little people, strange big
people; she imagined them all pushing their shopping carts up and down
the aisles in an endless ant-like stream. Old Edna didn't feel like being
an ant any more. Well, dream on honey-pie, she thought. Go out in the
woods and see how long you last. Then she thought about her groceries
going bad in the back seat of the hot car. She opened her eyes and stood
up. The distant forest below her was unreachable.
cont. on page twenty
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