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“The three big beauties are all happening in the middle of the month,” he said. “The Draconids, Taurids, and Orionids—not to mention the Northern Lights. Big John’s almost there with the scope, but he doesn’t understand infrared radiation.”
“Well, why doesn’t he come to you?” Eliza tried to picture her brother’s online conspiracy theorist friends. A mobile of failed human experiments circled her imagination.
“You don’t understand, Lizard. Big John’s under federal surveillance by the FBI. He can only go as far as the Aisle 6 of the Pick and Save in downtown Lovington. He goes any further east, he’s toast.”
On her last day in Indianapolis, Eliza was supposed to finish packing up her life, run a dozen errands. Instead, she spent the morning pacing around the city, popping in and out of James’s old haunts. The comic book store on Warren Avenue, the basketball court behind the Glendale Dairy Queen. Athena’s, the diner where he used to work. Eventually, against all logic, she called the Lovington Pick n’ Save. A young woman picked up the phone in the deli.
“Hello?”
Eliza asked her how many aisles there were in the store, and the deli girl released a world-weary sigh. “Listen, Frida, I don’t have time for this shit. I got twelve pounds of pastrami to slice before 11.”
“No, no—wait.” She grasped for a reason to keep her on the line. “I’m with Pick n’ Save Corporate. We’re doing an annual audit of all our stores’ square footage.” Eliza bit down hard on her lip and heard the girl cover the receiver with her hand.
She came back on a moment later, forcing a bit more cheer. “Shit, I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m new, so I haven’t, you know, explored the whole place, but Rambo says we got seven aisles here.”
“Hello?” Suddenly another voice came on the line, a young male. “This is Wendel Sanderson III. I’m the deli manager.”
“Rambo?”
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