Stranger Things

I was eating Chinese food while out the other day.

The food is very good here, by the way.

A restaurant in a semi mall, a shopping center.

People were shopping, getting ready for winter.

Several people were having lunch there too.

As they left no one came in. Why? I haven’t a clue.

Soon, I was the last customer there.

I looked out. There were no people anywhere.

There were cars in the parking lot.

This seems rather strange, I thought.

I finished up and asked the waiter;

“Where is everyone?” He shrugged. “See you later.”

I got up to go, but stopped at the door.

A person just left a nearby store.

As he stepped off the curb he disappeared.

I mean he just vanished. It was real weird.

I went back into the restaurant then.

I said: “Did you see what happened just then?”

The waiter said :”Yes.” His eyes were big.

It is a good thing he wasn’t wearing a wig.

“What the hell just happened?” I asked.

“I don’t know” “Not sure I should ask.”

He was scared and so was I.

Other employees were informed. What a surprise.

They were almost petrified with fear.

I said “We need to get out of here.”

“No, we don’t know what is going on.”

“Do you think it’s an apocalypse? Day Of The Dawn?”

“Now do you really think that is what is going on?”

“An alien invasion then. Or, mass hallucinations.”

“I’ll say this. You’re making quite a creation.”

“There is no explanation that will do right now.”

“But, we have to find the answer somehow.”

Just then a customer walked in & said “Hello.”

“What’s going on out there? Do you know?”

“What are you talking about?”

I told him & he said “You don’t have to shout.”

“I think you all should go back to bed.”

“Either that, or you are all out of your head.”

With that he went out the door.

We watched him, our faces a horror.

He stepped off the curb & walked to his car.

He drove away leaving us all with a mental scar.

Things were back to normal again.

No one mentioned a thing about ‘then’.

It never occurred again, as far as we know.

But, the waiters get nervous when business is slow.

————————————————R.W. Johnson—–(2019)