by Tom Germann
Lights Out
How many more people were going to come through tonight? Tracy turned and headed back for the aisle to continue the inventory. She was about a quarter of the way along and not really paying attention because Susie had already done this. Double-checking Susie’s work was stupid because Susie never made mistakes. Then there was movement and one of the soldiers was yelling. Something about the lights being off and that the trucks were missing?
Sam was walking toward the food counter to get something to eat. He was so intent on food and trying not to be noticed while he checked out the blond that he missed the sparks that flew between the doors as they closed behind him, and how the windows seemed to get darker until all the outside lights had disappeared.
Tracy started moving toward the doors where everyone stood around, even Susie, Sal and Richard.
Steven And Janice
The car was rolling along at just over the speed limit. The tires hummed on the road and the driver had the high beams on. This might have been a highway, but no one bothered putting street lights out here. The area was hilly with lots of trees. Man had not come and developed the area yet.
The driver kept his speed just over the limit, even though his partner kept pushing him to go faster. The thought of hitting some wild animal wandering across the road and sitting in a smoking wreck until someone came along was not that appealing to him.
The driver was tired and just wanted coffee and a break from both the driving and the nagging that had been going on all day. It was doubtful he would get either.
“Steven, there are no other cars on the road, you can go faster, you know? I don’t think there are any police in fifty miles. If you can’t handle going faster, pull over and I’ll drive already.”
“Dear, it’s been a long day. There are lots of woodland creatures that could just come out onto the road if startled. A squirrel goes splat if we hit it. If we hit a deer or moose or something big, then WE go splat. That plus the weather is going to get bad again. As soon as we hit a rest stop, I’ll grab a coffee and stretch. We’ll be home in less than three hours anyway. You should relax.”
The woman in the passenger seat glared at the him. She wasn’t old, but she was no longer young. Getting close to middle age, she was fighting it and had already planned for the first plastic surgery in a few years when it became necessary. She was still attractive with shoulder-length, dark brown hair and a minimalist application of makeup. She exercised by power walking, yoga, and swimming. All the things people do to delay the slow sag.
The man she was glaring at was a bit older and not holding up as well. He had a bit of a hangdog expression on his face and it would have been obvious to any passerby that he was almost the cartoon image of the harried husband.
He wasn’t as far gone as other men, though. He was fighting it by getting up earlier than anyone in the household and going for long walks while his wife practiced breathing and applied ‘treatments’ to fight wrinkles. The one thing she did approve of was the golfing. After all, it was important to be seen doing things like that in the business world.
They were both dressed fashionably, but the real proof that they were successful was the diamond earrings and the size of the diamonds on her rings and necklace. Rather, a sign of his success and her reward for being a good wife and flogging her husband on to greater success instead of settling.
Whatever the argument was really about didn’t matter. It was all part of the flogging.
“Steven, of course it matters. Can you skip stopping at least? I need to get home, or at least where I can get a decent signal so I can get to work. Did you hear Terry and her friends? I need to start organizing a bigger fundraiser NOW. I don’t believe the tricks and stunts they pulled!”
Steven just sighed and let his wife vent. Her latest competition was Terry and friends. Somehow, they had snubbed each other and now she was trying to out-produce her in the latest craze, which was fundraising.
When had everything gone wrong? He wished he knew. They had started out perfectly as a young couple in love, and he had a good job. It was likely the first big promotion that he had been up for. He hadn’t got it. It had been good old ‘Slick.’. The guy was so greasy that nothing that went wrong had ever stuck to him. He kissed up to the bosses and got the promotion. Steven hadn’t cared about the promotion, but then ‘Slick’s’ wife, Susie or Serene or whatever her name was, had been at the company party and rubbed Janice’s nose in it.
That had been the start of the arguing and fighting. He always had to do more and work more. Janice had almost danced in joy when Slick and his wife got divorced and then he moved out of the company.
Steven sighed again. It would be nice to just have some fun sex like they used to, not the timing that they followed these days for when things could happen.
At least their daughter Abigail had turned out all right and was off at college. She met that nice young guy who was going into teaching. He had to have a talk with Abi about aiming for happiness and not the top spot in the company. He didn’t want her turning out like her mother when something went wrong.
“Steven, are you even listening to me? I need the internet so I can get the ball rolling. I have less than a month to plan and get this running. This is going to be the next stepping stone for your promotion. I need you on this and supportive! Not like you usually are. So sort yourself out and let’s get home!”
He had had enough. “Janice, you need to relax now.” His voice was calm, but she missed the warning in that very calmness.
“Don’t tell me to relax! There is a lot to do! This is going to take weeks to organize as I have to get the different groups to coordinate together.”
“JANICE! All you are doing is stressing yourself out and adding more wrinkles.” There, that should shut her up and cause her to breathe.
“I support you in everything I do, but you may have noticed that I work over fifty hours a week at the office. You drag me off to all sorts of activities that I despise and I view as a waste of my time. I have no problems giving to charity, but I don’t want to go to all these events. So stop telling me how hard you have it. You are going to have to rearrange your yoga and other classes so that you can organize this. Either do it or don’t, but stop frothing at the mouth over Terry. She is actually a nice person who is doing this because she believes in it!”
There was silence in the car for a minute. Steven enjoyed that. He saw the sign indicating the rest stop up ahead. A chance to get out of the car and go for a walk.
Hmm, maybe he could cheerfully ask Abi to hook him up with some of her hot friends at her school? He wasn’t that old or bad looking. He almost laughed, but coughed instead. Any sense of humor that Janice had was dead and buried. So if he did, even jokingly, say that, then Janice couldn’t be there. He already knew what she would say. “Sure, Dad, better yet! Why don’t you trade Mom in for two twenties?”
God, he missed her.
Janice took a breath. The respite was over.
“Steven, I know you’re not really that lazy, you just want to hide at the office and ‘work’ and play a little golf. I married you and attached my success to you. You need to start working for us as a team. After twenty-four years, I know what goes through your mind.”
He really tried to stay focused on her talking, but being tired and after such a long day, he was losing it. He saw the exit ramp and the smaller building off to the side of the road. He signaled and swung off, aiming to be a bit further from the building as he could use some walking to get the blood flowing. It looked like they had a proper coffee shop attached. There were even other vehicles there, which was excellent. Trucks meant good food and a clean place.
“Now you are going to drag me into this truck stop and probably eat all that fatty food and expect me to eat with you. The washrooms in these places are always sties, and the girls working here are probably prostituting themselves
for extra money.”
He pulled to a stop, got out, and walked around the car while Janice kept talking to herself. He opened her door and held a hand out to help. She ignored it and got out, sniffing as if the parking lot smelled rancid.
Steven closed the car door and started walking toward the service centre while Janice kept going on and on. She just did not understand. Most of what she was really worrying about was useless. When he was on his death bed, Steven wanted to look back and realize that he had had fun and been a good person that had made great memories. Not see all the time that had been spent trying to climb the corporate ladder, which didn’t make him happy at all.
Abi was important, not work. Janice should be important too, but she just wouldn’t ever stop.
Steven held the door open for her so she didn’t have to get her hands dirty, and it was the right thing to do. He followed her into the rest stop. There were other people inside. Lots of staff, and even some soldiers. There were some truckers coming over from their vehicles out back too. Steven remembered seeing the news about a local exercise being run by military units from all over. It was supposed to be over now, though. They were probably driving back to their bases.
Over to the side was the coffee shop and there were all sorts of sandwiches and other food. Steven heard his stomach gurgling and realized that while he had eaten only a few hours ago, his stomach had needs. Maybe a sandwich?
“Steven, I am going to the washroom and then we can get a coffee. I think it’s better if I drive so that we get home faster. Then I can get to work.”
“If I drive, you can start sending emails and texts as soon as we get signal again, which is going to be soon. You can get that done in the car. OR you can wait till we get home and miss out on your sleep.”
She turned away and grumbled while walking to the washrooms. Steven sighed and went for a coffee and a sandwich.
Janice
Oh, the man could be so infuriating! Here I am planning everything that has to happen for us to succeed, and all he wants is to stuff food in his face and drink coffee. Janice knew he would want to go straight to bed when they got home instead of helping her brainstorm more ideas for the fundraiser.
She had married him twenty-four years ago, after they had gone out for a year. She had made him the slightly successful man that he was today. If only he was really motivated, he would be much higher up and in another company. She knew that there were other companies that had head offices in California, and that was where they should be.
Abigail was a delight and such a smart girl, even if she did have his stupid sense of humor.
He was right, though. If he drove home, it would take them longer but she could be done emailing and texting everyone for a quick meeting tomorrow after yoga and before her swimming so that they could get this event planned.
Maybe she should let him eat. At least if he was full when they finally got home, he would go to sleep and just lie there snoring instead of propositioning her. He knew that she needed her rest so that she was refreshed and able to do all her activities.
Janice knew if she didn’t, some young gold digger was going to come along and steal him away with a low cut top and see-through yoga pants.
Then she would be divorced and left in the ditch while he banged some young brainless thing that waited for him to have a heart attack during sex and die, leaving her everything.
He just couldn’t see it. She had slaved away and made him successful. She had gone through childbirth, which had done horrible things to her body. Then she had raised little Abigail to be the wonderful young woman that she was today. Then some young giggling thing was going to do all sorts of disgusting things with him so he would dump her. She had seen it before, and it happened all the time.
Janice took a deep breath and let it out, feeling the relaxation spread throughout her body.
She washed her hands quickly and reviewed how she looked in the mirror. She frowned. She was going to have to touch up her makeup and eyeliner and put her face on again. She was only forty-four, but could still pass for much younger.
It was so hard to tell what was going through Steven’s head. She wondered if he ever thought about anything other than policy and the numbers of the stupid company. Yes, they did some nice little parties, but they were so small.
She just wished she could get him on her side to see what was really important.
This charity fundraiser was important. She was going to get him promoted eventually and then he would see what was really important.
She finished her pep talk to herself and headed back out to the service centre. There were a lot of people there, including some truck drivers and military men.
Janice made sure to smile at them as she walked by. The military was popular right now and it was always good to let everyone know that you supported the troops.
Janice would just bet the little whore behind the counter with the coloured hair was ‘supporting’ them in the back earlier. She wished the young people today didn’t have such loose morals.
It made it harder for good, hard working people.
She had to look around because she didn’t see Steven. Did he go back to the car already without her?
No, there he was, sitting at one of the tables. She knew it. He was stuffing his face and drinking coffee.
Maybe he’d be more open to what was going on now. Of course he went with white bread and not whole wheat.
“Steven, do you feel better now with your sandwich?” He nodded. At least he wasn’t talking with his mouth full, which was always disgusting.
“Can we get going now?”
He swallowed and took a sip of his coffee. It did smell good, but she couldn’t think about that. If she had a cup, she would be up all night and she was supposed to be on all herbal teas along with a cleansing she was about to start.
“I just want to finish my sandwich and relax for a minute. We should have stayed overnight.”
“Nonsense, Steven. I have a class in the morning and Abigail should be calling me tomorrow morning after you leave so we can have some girl time.”
“Fine, Janice. Have a seat and I’ll be done in a second. Do you want a bite? It’s actually quite good.”
She carefully broke off a corner. It was good and she felt a grumbling in her stomach, but she couldn’t.
Janice sniffed. “It was alright, even if it was white bread.”
She heard one of the soldiers yelling, “Sarge, the lights are all off and the trucks are gone!”
11:58 PM 24 August 2015
Steven
Everyone gathered around the large front windows and looked outside. It was pitch black and no one could see anything. It was like someone had brought down black curtains over the windows. There hadn’t been a moon in the first place, but the open parking lot had been lit up by the service centre and the few streetlights. Now it was like nothing was outside. He should have been able to see his car sitting right there. He had looked out at it and seen the bushes and everything else just a few minutes ago.
He heard a voice from the bunch of army guys. “Maybe it’s a power outage?”
Then the younger trucker, “No way, how would we have power in here then? Unless there is a backup generator? But there was no break in power at all.”
The blonde girl called from behind the counter. “Sorry, mister, there is no backup generator, just some battery lights that go on automatically if power is interrupted. But if they were on, we would have lost the lights and only the two corner ones up there would have come back.” She was pointing to two battery-powered emergency lights up in the corners of the centre.
The girl was right; all the lights wouldn’t have stayed on. Steven could almost smell something. It was like ozone.
Then he heard a deeper voice, “I’ll go check on the trucks, Sergeant.” He saw one of the younger soldiers start
for the door and reach for the push-bar.
The older soldier started turning and was about to say something. Steven realized that they shouldn’t try to go outside, but before anyone could say anything, the young man touched the push-bar and then screamed like the damned. Everyone startled.
The young trucker responded the fastest, running at him and tackling him from the side. They both smashed into a display case and sent bags of jerky and gum flying.
It was like time had frozen for a second and then it started again with the two girls from the back running forward, while the dopey kid who hadn’t once stopped counting inventory looked over and then got back to work with a scowl on his face and his headphones playing loud music that everyone could still hear over the screams. The blonde whipped around and ran back to the cash register, pulling a first aid kit out from under the counter.
She yelled at her friend, “Tracy! Get on the landline and call 911!”
The goth girl ran to the counter where there was an actual landline on the wall.
The blonde ran for the young soldier, who was being held by two of the other soldiers and the young trucker. He was shivering but at least he had stopped screaming. Everyone else was gathered around, staring at him, when the older soldier started giving directions.
“Everyone, move back. Give them room to move. Sergeant, you’re current on your first aid, your lead. Corporal, you assist. Privates, you both stand by if they need assistance and stay out of their way. Sir.” He was talking to Steven. “Could you and your wife just stay off to the side, please? I do not know how long it will take an ambulance to get here, but I want us to keep the area clear as much as possible. The same with you gentlemen.” The truckers nodded and went to a seat. Steven sat down and Janice started complaining.