Clearly already grown desperate in her job search, Francine waits on a bench next to a clown statue at the local Mart Mart while an assistant manager reviews her application inside some office that Francine hasn't been invited into yet. In front of Francine is a panorama of the organized chaos of the Mart Mart experience: checkout lanes, cashiers, baggers, shoppers, carts stuffed with merchandise, flashing lights, stacks of impulse buys, children screaming, adults screaming, a bored security guard looking at a high school girl's ass, and two elderly women who have stopped in front of Francine and are now holding a conversation in the middle of the exit aisle. The awkward ways their shopping carts are oriented now have barricaded the entire aisle.
"Mildred! What are you doing here? I thought you left for Florida!" the first old woman, hunched over her shopping cart filled with bags, says.
"Usually we do," the second old woman says, swinging her cart to the side in order to allow some huffy shoppers past her, "But you know the world's going to end, so Harold and I decided to stay up here. You know, I like Florida, even though an alligator ate one of my cats once, but this is home. How are you doing? Doing some Christmas shopping?"
"Actually, I just got groceries today. I'm holding off on buying presents until I see whether or not the world ends. I figure if it ends, why not save some money?"
"Oh, go ahead and buy. That's what Harold and I are doing. We figure if the world's going to end we might as well have some fun. I've been blowing money out the wazoo. Let me show you some of the stuff I found today," she says, rooting around in the shopping bags.
She pulls out an electric guitar and says, "Look at this!"
"Oh, my! Is that a gift for one of the grandchildren?"
"Oh, no, it's for me."
"For you!?"
"Yes, I've always wanted to play guitar. Harold's nearly deaf anyway, so I can really crank it up and he won't mind."
"Oh, you got an amplifier, too?"
"A what, Helena?"
"An amplifier. That's what you plug the guitar into. It's like a big speaker."
"Oh, I didn't know about that. I guess I'll just have to come back and spend some more money."
"You better hurry up. There's only 26 more shopping days until Christmas."
"And only 22 until the apocalypse. I want to learn how to play 'Louie Louie' by then."
The women laugh and hug, and then wheel their carts out of the store together. Francine watches them go, and then hears the assistant manager call her name.
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.
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