If it was anything  it was an arachnid dream   wickedly angular

cutting space into shards and paines with varied thicknesses of line 

lying everywhere it could  convincingly
disorienting 

squinting

myopic

Can I help you

he didnt think so                                                                                                              

but he also didnt want to be abrupt and have her fling herself from her web onto his face

she appeared pliant   very patient

spiderly patient                                                                                                                      

but then standing there or working she was still drawing pay   he was her customer

she could effectively fall back on The customers always right  if her Manager tried to put the screws to her later

he was the one holding things up now

forcing the line behind him to grow long and longer    and longer

however  a long line behind him didnt agitate him  make him anxious  or encourage him to cut short his transaction

the people behind him could have been in front of him if they arrived before he did

but they didnt

and as he bided his time in line  they could wait theirs

he didnt create the line

Corporate did  

                        People can wait their turn    no matter long it takes

he was one away from the front of the line  

and had stood listening to the exchanges of the fat white cashier   eminently taking her sweet time  sagely assuaging spewing warm homilies  rectifying with Christ all the seemingly troubled and bereft customers who had gone through

the line ahead of him  and who seemed oddly comforted by her attention

Can I help you glided in behind her  disappearing behind her girth and folded up her sharp batwings

Chubby  apparently  was overdue for her break and she had been sent in to relieve her

Help stole away the pent-up relief he was sorely anticipating sharing with the windbag

disenfranchising him in the nano-moment Youll-excuse-me without the benefit of it being tendered as a question 

but rather a hasty departure  a door unable to crack her soundly on her massive ass as she left  

he reeled in the suddenness of its denial

yet he couldnt  --  as badly as he wanted to  --  bring himself to embattle or blame Help 

he had to suffer the black oily bile at the back of his throat

suffer the now-absence of the Day-Glo White Marshmallow of Gaaaad-inspiration

Oh the piece of mind he wanted to share

now to fester   and spoil

Help  couldnt take that on the chin

she hadnt fomented it

Funny how things are erected and enlarged in ones mind as theyre forced to endure a doggerel line     

a Modern Times Rite of Passage(hed rather kill a lion in the bush or snatch an eagles feather from its eyrie)

Rites of Passage had long ago expired  and for their lack he had to assemble some kind of Herculean or Gargantuan task to dissuade himself from smearing Help with Chubbys ample share of sourcream frosted hotblooded ooze

and ire(a double helping goes unsaid)

he had a tickling  an inkling of one 

perhaps as mythic  and worthwhile

every day  on big-screen monitors at the gym  four screen  droning on and on  three of the screens dedicated to FOX(adherents taxed him calling it FOX News  the best he could muster was FOX  or tripe(to retain the scarcest modicum of civility) and he was terribly sorry he denigrated or desecrated tripe)     

the remaining monitor was programmed to any Sports that happened to be airing at the moment  billiards  auto racing  Texas Hold’em poker

every time he sought to have one of the three concurrent FOX programs changed he was denied  the Desk informing that the community  the members of the Health Club strongly preferred FOX News(he had to suffer the black oily bile at the back of his throat)

and as the fantasy metastasized as he stood in line  he found himself looking down the line for Dorothy of Oz

then looking down at everyones feet because she was older now and perhaps he was unable recognise her face

and perhaps she was wearing the ruby red slippers

hed chase her out of her shoes

on FOX its resident panel of pure whitey people offered their suppositions if they were black how they would feel about Rachel Dolezal assuming her transracial transformation and what it meant to the black community

. . . if they were black

. . . and having chased Dorothy out of her ruby red slippers hed borrow them for the moment

and ride again a Kansas tornado to drop a house on the blowhards heads

squash FOXs panel of eidgets(a bungalow ought to be plenty)

Can I help you

she stood across the counter from him squinting at him with dull eyes 

it appeared she forgot her glasses somewhere but come hell or high water despite her infirmity  and minimized

she was going to help her level-best

she had sharp cheekbones  a long pointed chin  her head topped with short matte brown hair  like fur

pointy ears higher on her head than he was accustomed seeing

--   Help   he said                                                           

I dont think so 

the fantasy inside his skull was evaporating and congealing at its convex ceiling like chilled condensation

or gathering tears     

Chubby was breaked

even why he was in line in the first place had removed itself

there was something in his hands he was returning  seeking reimbursement  but he couldnt see it

he was caught up in webs

  

spun without

and within

and if he acted now without clarity  he couldnt be sure he provided himself justice or her

Doing a line
                            had been seriously altered   from what he knew it to be

1623,  Twosday,  16  6. 15

1242,  Thursday,  18  6. 15