Window Shopping By John Ritchie
Christopher Robinson had almost walked past the shop before he registered it was there. For a moment part of his mind tried to tell him it had come into existence in response to his presence, but he knew that was stupid.
An entire shop doesn’t suddenly manifest just because you happen to be walking past.
Yet he could have sworn it wasn’t there yesterday, or was it?
He had a memory of it. A new memory, but a memory nonetheless, of him standing outside this shop the day before in almost exactly this position thinking, ‘I don’t remember this shop being here’.
Is this déjà vu? Or can it be he is losing his marbles?
Robinson suddenly leaps back across the pavement, his eyes bulging in terror. In the window is a display of glass marbles with the slogan
‘Rediscover your youth’.
On the other side of the display is a boy about eight years old looking at him curiously. Robinson whimpers. The boy is himself, twenty-five years ago. What’s happening? The boy picks a marble from the display and holds it out. The marble and the hand
come closer and closer, through the window, across the pavement and…
His eyes snap open.
The window has gone, completely disappeared. The shop has vanished. Robinson stares. He must be going crazy. One minute there is a shop window and his eight year-old self is offering him a marble and now there is just a blank wall and he is flat on his back on the ground.
He rolls over and pushes himself up.
Something is wrong. In his confused state it takes him a moment to realise what it is. The pavement is soft and slightly springy like thick rubber.
Robinson tries to tell himself that it is his disorientated state that is producing this effect, but he is not convinced.
Then his mother appears with a teapot and a plate of biscuits, his father rides by on a bicycle and Robinson starts to cry....
Concealed behind a fold in time a creature, more thought than substance systematically dissects its catch.
Held In a specimen tank of his own memories Christopher Robinson gives up without thought or understanding his innermost soul.
The alien takes what it wants of Robinson's life force then resets the trap with its newly psychotic bait.
Now, as a young woman approaches, the shop window has a naked window-dresser.....
Copyright John Ritchie 2011
http://www.feedbooks.com/userbook/23808/window-shopping to download free to kindle /iPhone etc
An entire shop doesn’t suddenly manifest just because you happen to be walking past.
Yet he could have sworn it wasn’t there yesterday, or was it?
He had a memory of it. A new memory, but a memory nonetheless, of him standing outside this shop the day before in almost exactly this position thinking, ‘I don’t remember this shop being here’.
Is this déjà vu? Or can it be he is losing his marbles?
Robinson suddenly leaps back across the pavement, his eyes bulging in terror. In the window is a display of glass marbles with the slogan
‘Rediscover your youth’.
On the other side of the display is a boy about eight years old looking at him curiously. Robinson whimpers. The boy is himself, twenty-five years ago. What’s happening? The boy picks a marble from the display and holds it out. The marble and the hand
come closer and closer, through the window, across the pavement and…
His eyes snap open.
The window has gone, completely disappeared. The shop has vanished. Robinson stares. He must be going crazy. One minute there is a shop window and his eight year-old self is offering him a marble and now there is just a blank wall and he is flat on his back on the ground.
He rolls over and pushes himself up.
Something is wrong. In his confused state it takes him a moment to realise what it is. The pavement is soft and slightly springy like thick rubber.
Robinson tries to tell himself that it is his disorientated state that is producing this effect, but he is not convinced.
Then his mother appears with a teapot and a plate of biscuits, his father rides by on a bicycle and Robinson starts to cry....
Concealed behind a fold in time a creature, more thought than substance systematically dissects its catch.
Held In a specimen tank of his own memories Christopher Robinson gives up without thought or understanding his innermost soul.
The alien takes what it wants of Robinson's life force then resets the trap with its newly psychotic bait.
Now, as a young woman approaches, the shop window has a naked window-dresser.....
Copyright John Ritchie 2011
http://www.feedbooks.com/userbook/23808/window-shopping to download free to kindle /iPhone etc