On Sunday morning, Francine turns a corner inside Purgatory to find a free table and almost collides with someone coming from the other direction. Miraculously, her coffee doesn't spill from the sudden stop. After looking up from her cup, she finds herself face to face with Louis Carson Fir, the man who fired her from the Poorpeople for President campaign. "Well," Lou says, elongating the word until it sounds like the death cry of an otter being eaten by an alligator, "If it isn't the local conspiracy theorist. How are you, Dear? You know I kind of regret letting you go. You should see the church basement ninnies I've been having to work with since. Of course, Poorpeople has enough troubles that I couldn't have him linked to a controversial blogger, I'm sure you understand. Judging from your blog, it's a wonder you hadn't quit before I even arrived. Or were you running some sort of undercover blogging expose? Believe me, there's nothing beyond what Poorpeople says. His mind is like a dentist's waiting room: Well-lit but mostly empty."
Francine just looks at Lou and tries to step around him, but he steps back in front of her, "Oh, c'mon. You're not still mad, are you? It's crowded in here. I'll share my table with you, and maybe even share some insider campaign gossip."
"Shouldn't you be working on the campaign instead of hanging out at the local coffeehouse? Isn't there an election coming up in two weeks?" Francine says, pointing at a calendar at the wall.
"Probably, but it doesn't matter. Contributions are down so much, I think we're going to lose. We even have Poorpeople flying coach instead of in his own private plane. It saves money, and plays up his 'man of the people' touch. Now if we could just stop him from ordering things out of the damn SkyMall catalog, and loan some of his own money to the campaign instead of buying high tech toilet seats, we might be able to squeak a win out here. But regardless of where the campaign's at, I still have a personal life and I'm very fond of the barista here."
"Lilith?"
"You know her, don't you? Maybe you can put in a good word for me."
"I can put in some words for you, but none will be good."
"Oh, you're still holding a grudge. I fired you ages ago. I'm sure you've been fired from lots of jobs since then."
"It was a month ago."
"Well, time's speeding up, don't you know? It's called the quickening, so in nonlinear time that was ages ago. As we approach the singularity, time collapses and we'll all be able to download our souls into new cloned bodies. So since we'll live forever and robots will do all of our work, time will be meaningless."
"I'll tell you what's meaningless, this conversation," Francine says, turning back towards the counter, "Lilith, I need this to go instead."
"Lilith, me too," Lou says, following Francine.
Having finished ringing up another customer, Lilith says, "You two know each other?"
Francine says no, and Lou says yes.
"OK," Lilith says, looking at them strangely and pouring Francine's coffee into a go cup.
"On second thought, I'll finish mine here," Lou says to Lilith, then turning to Francine, "Sorry you're in such a hurry, Dear. It was nice seeing you again. Maybe next time, you'll be able to slow down and we can have a nice talk."
He turns to Lilith, "Maybe we can have a nice talk instead."
As Francine speedwalks out the door, Lilith tells Lou, "Sure, and you can start by telling me how you pissed off Francine."
Lou looks at his watch, "Oh, time goes by so fast these days. I'll have to take my coffee to go after all."
Blog Love Omega Glee is a novel by Wred Fright about two bloggers who fall in love while the world falls apart, which is being serialized on his blog. To start reading from the beginning or read another installment, please visit Blog Love Omega Glee Central on WredFright.Com. If you like what you've read, or you've read all of Blog Love Omega Glee and want more Fright, then please read his first novel, which is available in print and as an ebook.
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