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"Will you still love me when I´m sixty-five?"
My imagination went on one of her trips to the future yesterday - actually she intended
to find out, if there ever would be such a thing as World Peace ...
But then she got side tracked by a sign in a mall
saying:
"HUGE SALE !!!
50% OFF ALL COMIC BOOKS AND FANTASY NOVELS"
And here is, what she claims, she saw just outside the bookstore:
PLACE: A mall somewhere
in France
TIME: Friday, the thirteenth of April, 2029 - late afternoon
An
elderly gentleman sat on a bench in this huge mall - smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer from the bottle.
He was medium
height and slim ... Had a full head of snow white hair and a pair of light weight glasses on his nose. He was wearing scuffed
booths, well worn jeans and a brown suede jacket - under which you could see a t-shirt with the words; "I´m a real coq-au-vin"
Above these letters on the t-shirt was a picture of a tipsy looking cartoon rooster raising his glass to the world and
waving a bottle around with the other wing.
The man looked at the people passing him and nodded to one or two. One elderly
lady in a long dark fur coat passed with her little dog under her arm and nodded gracefully at the man. And he in return bowed
to her from his seated position, and said: "Madame!"
A huge blond, blue eyed security guard passed by ... And when looking
at the man on the bench he clearly thought about throwing him out for smoking and drinking in the mall - neither of which
was allowed. But then the guard shook his head and passed on.
Two men looking like bums and more than half drunk passed
with a woman between them. Suddenly the woman stopped and greeting the man on the bench with a huge smile asked "Did you get
my poems in the post today - what do you think?"
The elderly man scratched his head and said: "Yes, Sophia. I did - but
I have only read them once ... And my wife is not back yet. When she has read them too, I´ll get back to you. But I like,
what I have read so far! Certainly!!"
The woman smiled even more at hearing this. But one of the men grumbled, that the
bar was open now. So she went off with them with an apologetic smile to her friend on the bench.
The old man let out a
small sigh of relief and took another swig of his bottle. Apparently he didn´t want to hurt the woman´s feeling by saying
something bad about her work and was happy that she had walked on.
The security guard passed the bench again going in the
other direction. And still not looking happy.
Two boys aged about nine and eleven came running up. And the younger one
started to jump up and down in one place and asked: "Have you got them!?! Have you!!?!! Have you!!!!!" The older boy looked
a bit embarrassed at his kid brother, but then couldn´t refrain from asking himself "Do you have them, Sir?"
The man smiled
at the boys and then said teasingly "No. You´ll never ever get those baseball cards" When he saw the boys´ smiles fade, the
man said hurriedly "Oh, yes, of course, you will! I was just teasing you - but what day did I tell you two little peanuts,
that they would be here?"
The boys discussed that question a bit among themselves, and the older ventured "Wednesday?"
"Yes, my boy. And what is it today?" the man smiled.
"Monday" the little one yelled.
Then looked embarrassed "Oh ..."
"Yes - "Oh" indeed. ... But they will come" the man promised. And the boys ran off happily
waving.
The security guard passed by again. Looking like he was debating something with himself. And the man looked at
him with a little curious smile - like thinking: "Come on. Say something!! There´s a construction yard just outside with plenty
of wood and bricks to use in a good old scrap. Just come on, pall!"
Some younger rebels though caught the security guard´s
attention, and he went off to try and stop them from using the long aisles of the mall for skate board practice.
"One
day he will throw you out off here on your old wrinkled behind" A young man in a expensive looking suit said passing by "You
are not allowed to either smoke or drink beer in here. And you know it"
"Yes, Sir" the man on the bench sighed.
Then
he giggled "But he will look pretty stupid if I then go ahead and tell him, I own one half of this mall and you the other"
The younger man smiled at this and said "But you want to keep that a secret, don´t you?"
"Fucking A, man" the old
man said still smiling
And then suddenly his lap got invaded by a gorgeous little lady looking to be four or five years
old.
"Maman!! Grandpa is swearing again!!!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.
"And you are telling" Her older dark
haired brother sat down beside the old man and continued "Look! We found your old movie on IDVD*! This time you will see it
with us, Grandpa, won´t you? Please?!?"
"Perhaps" The old man said, looking at the cover of the IDVD box "Sleepy Hollow?
Perhaps, kiddies, perhaps" he said.
And got to his feet when his beautiful daughter came up to them with the shopping
cart full of grocery. To her he said with a big loving smile "Let us go home and get some coffee, Lily Rose. I think,
I have seen people enough for today"
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* IDVD: Improved Digital Video Disc
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