Supermarket - Bobby Hall Page 0,81

adrenaline wore off the exhaustion set in, and I dozed off to sleep for the rest of the drive.

Snow fell as Red, Mia, and I stood outside the supermarket entrance. I looked at my watch.

“Ten till,” I said.

“Almost midnight,” Red responded. I took off my costume and looked around.

“How do we get in there?” Red asked. Still looking around, I spotted a brick on the ground.

I picked it up and hurled it.

“No, Flynn!” Mia shouted, but it was too late.

The brick smashed through the glass of the automatic door like the comet that had wiped out the dinosaurs. Mia covered her face as shards went flying.

“Flynn, you idiot! I still work here!”

“So?” I said. Then she reached in her pocket . . . revealing keys to the store.

“So . . . I could have opened the fuckin’ door, dude!”

Embarrassed, I walked past her and into the store. “Sorry ’bout that,” I said.

The entire store was dimly lit. I could barely see ten feet in front of me.

“What now?” asked Mia, stepping around the glass so as not to slip.

“Frank’s here,” I said. “I can feel it.”

We were walking near the cash registers when . . . I felt something. I stopped, a confused look on my face.

“What’s wrong, Flynn?” Red asked.

“Flynn, are you okay?” said Mia, putting her hand on my arm.

“I’m okay, I just . . . listen. I have to go on alone.”

“I really don’t think this is the time for a Scooby-fuckin’-Doo moment, Flynn. We should stick together,” Mia replied.

“She’s right, boy,” agreed Red.

“Listen, okay?” I said, looking in their direction. “I can’t explain it, but I have to go on alone. You guys stay here.”

“What?!” said Mia. “Wait, what do you mean, you guys stay—”

“Look, Mia,” I said. “Just trust me, okay. I can’t explain it. Just stay here and I’ll be back in a few, okay?”

She looked worried, but she agreed.

“Okay, but hurry up. I’m . . . I’m scared, okay?”

“Don’t worry, son. I’ve got her,” Red said.

“Okay,” I said to him.

As I walked down the aisle, I started to feel like I was being guided by an invisible hand, toward some predetermined place.

I felt an energy as I kept walking, like lost memories trying to return. I hadn’t been here in more than two years. It was like visiting your childhood home as an adult.

I passed the produce section, where Frank had taken all his bananas. I passed the bakery, where I fell for Mia. I neared the break room and tried to enter. The door was closed.

To the left, there was a ladder and some maintenance equipment. I grabbed the door handle and began to slowly turn it. Pushing the door open, I expected to hear an ominous creak, but it was actually rather quiet.

The door swung open. The room was completely dark. I flicked the light switch. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust, and as they did, I began to walk, making my way to the long row of dark green lockers against the wall. My fingertips glided along their metallic surface, like a surfer reaching out to the wave he was riding. My hand stopped. It was my locker.

I knew there was something inside, and I knew it was something I had forgotten long ago. When I opened the locker, though, it was empty. Or so it appeared.

I realized this wasn’t just my locker; it was also Frank’s.

In that moment, I knew what he knew. I remembered. At the base of the locker, if pushed at the right angle, it would give. And underneath was another ten inches of space.

I reached my hand into the dark hiding place. My fingers met a freezing object. I lifted it from the darkness, where it had lain dormant for years. It was the snub-nose .357 Magnum revolver Frank had kept inside his locker.

I flashed back. It was the gun he said he would need “the day some disgruntled schizophrenic nutjob employee shows up and stalks the aisles with an AR-15. Pumping rounds into customers and employees. Or even himself.”

I pocketed the gun and stuck my hand back inside—to my surprise, there were a few more items. A pack of cigarettes and a silver Zippo lighter with the words Vanilla Sky engraved across it. I jumped when I heard a whisper.

“Flynn.”

I heard it again, but no one was around. “You can’t run,” the voice whispered.

It was Frank.

“He’s here!” I yelled out, making my way into the main part of the store.