Max Vasquez, 3/17/09 12:47 PM

Following Christian outside I pause to prop the back door open with a large rock I’ve used just for that purpose before. I turn to watch Johnny as he paces back towards the counter his phone pressed to his ear. Crazy gringo’s so paranoid; I bet this whole thing is nothing.

I turn towards Christian who has already opened up the power box and started shifting things around. I walk over to stand behind him and peer over his shoulder, I have to stand high almost on my toes to see what’s going on.

It’s just a bunch of wires and switches. I know nothing about this sort of thing, so I roll back on my heals and relax looking off to the side for a moment then back towards Christian.

“Hey man, I know nothing about this sort of thing, do you?” I ask genuinely curious as to whether or not he knows anything about this stuff.

He doesn’t even look back, too absorbed in what he’s doing, “Yeah, I know a few things about wiring, it’s no where near my specialty, but I’ve dealt with stuff like this so far everything seems…” He trails off and leans in closer to the box like he’s found something, I lean into once again on my toes to try and get a better look at everything. He seems to be looking at a small object screwed in under the wires, it’s black and about the size of a button and has a tiny red light on it that is glowing steady.

He stands up suddenly and steps back almost knocking me to the ground in the process, he seems suddenly very serious looking back and forth at both ends of the alley.

“What is it dude? What was that thing?” I lean back in closer to the power box to look at the small object. Christian’s hand seizes my shoulder and he pulls me away.

“It’s a bug, a powerful one,” his tone is hushed and he keeps checking both ends of the alley as if he is expecting someone to show up.

“A bug? You mean like spies an shit?” I raise my eyebrow to emphasize my skepticism.

“Yes, a listening device, someone wants to know what’s going on in that shop, and probably your place too if the same guy was at your apartments.

Suddenly the back door is slammed open and Johnny bust through he looks around for a moment but upon spotting us begins storming out way letting the door swing shut behind him.

“I FUCKING knew it! That guy was full of shit Entergy hasn’t had ANYONE in this area. Did you guys find anything?” He walks over to us and looks back towards the open power box.


“Christain say’s it’s a bug.” I offer with a shrug.

Johnny looks towards the box then back towards us, then back at the box. The color drains from his face and he slowly backs away from the box as if it were a snake ready to strike. “A bug? They are after me… I got to get out of town. Out of the fucking country!” He starts to turn and walk towards the back door of the store.

“Wait who is after you? Why?” Christian calls out and Johnny stops and slowly turns to face us, he looks at me for a moment then Christian.

“I don’t know who exactly, I think it’s the government, I was followed yesterday, and that sniffing guy was at our apartment,” he pauses and looks at me again as if asking if he should carry on, I really have no idea what he means so I shrug.

“He was at my place too,” Christian seems to say to himself more than anyone else and then turns back to Johnny, “but why is anyone, let alone the government, after you?”

Johnny sighs and his shoulders drop slightly defeated, “It’s going to sound crazy, but they are after me because I can move things with my mind. Telekinesis.” He then turns and walks towards the door, “But, I don’t care if you believe me or not, because now I need to get out of here!”

“I’ve seen him do it,” I offer and Christian looks down at me and I shrug again.

Christian starts to say something else to Johnny when the back door opens and a kid with greasy hair and acne sticks his head out from the shop, and looks towards Johnny.

“Uh hey man I wanted to buy these…” He holds up a few comics and a pack of cards, which Johnny promptly snatches from the kid’s hands and looks through them.

“No.” Johnny shoves the items back into the boys hands and pushes past him into the store, Christian and I both follow.

The kid looks at the products in his hands confused and then looks up at Johnny, “No? b-but I wan to buy these.”

Johnny walks over towards the front of the store and flips the sign from opened to close as he speaks, “No, you really don’t everything you have there is mainstream shit and utter garbage. I refuse to sell you that crap until you learn to like something better than what you’re told to like by the media.”

He turns and walks back towards the stunned patron and yanks the books and cards from the kids hands and sets them on the counter. I do my best not to laugh. Johnny disappears around the counter and stoops down and I can hear him scooping his prescriptions into his back pack.

The kid picks the stuff up again, “Look dude are you thick? I want to pay for these and buy them, I don’t give a fuck if you like em or not.”

Johnny’s head slowly reemerges from behind the counter, his eyes flooded with anger.

“Listen punk, all the stuff you want to pay for is shit and I refuse to sell it to you. In fact I’m refusing to sell you anything because your taste is so bad that if you left here an showed someone all the bullshit your wanting to buy no one else would come here because they would think this place fucking sucks, so no you can’t buy this stuff, we are closed. Leave.” He ducks back under the counter and goes back to whatever it is he was doing down there.

The kid is completely shocked and shoves all the books over the counter edge so they fall to the ground and then storms towards the door shouting, “Fuck you!” as the bell jingles announcing his exit.

Johnny’s hand raises above the counter his middle finger proudly extended. The other two patrons in the shop aside from Christian and I slowly make their way to the exit as well.

After a few moments and some more rummageing Johnny stands up with his back pack over one shoulder and laptop over the other.

“I’m leaving town, and I think you guys may want to as well.”