Walkers in Groton, Beware: Town of Groton, Poquonnock River Boardwalk. Runs parallel to Depot Rd, off Long Hill Rd, across from Dept of Human Services. Male, about age 60, ave height, dressed in black or dark brown overcoat and hat. Seen around 1:00pm. I feel it is best to walk in pleasant weather when more people are around. It also seems best to me, to take this walk around 9 or 10a.m. Also best to park your car where you plan to walk. Let others know your whereabouts. When suspicious, there are several "exits," or side streets, leading off the boardwalk onto Depot Rd. Always look around you, walk quickly, but do not run and wear yourself out. Do not give false signals, such as a smile to a stranger. --DH
FIND ME SOMETHING TO WEAR. Debbie walked across the deserted clean sidewalks. She walked through the vast parking lot across the street from Denny's Salon. She entered the Mall. Pure white, it sparkled before her. She walked cautiously past the stores. She saw one that looked a little less trendy than the rest. She needed shorts. She picked up a pair of denim shorts with a sash printed with the sun.
"May I take those for you?" the sales girl drawled. She followed Debbie back to the dressing room.
"I have another outfit for you to try on!" she shouted in her friendly Southern accent. She returned with shorts, tops, more shorts, more tops, halters, bright colors, clingy pastels.
Debbie separated the piles. She had one hundred dollars in travelers checks in her pocketbook. She added up the pieces. She could only buy two brightly flowered clingy tops. Two pairs of shorts. The most flattering ones.
"Now, you come back and tell us if you get a job!" the salesgirl called after her.
Debbie had only a few dollars left to buy postcards. She found an Arizona souvenir shop, bought a select few postcards, and left. She walked down the wide, empty asphalt sidewalks for blocks. She saw the blue bank building. But she had gone too far. Carlotta's street was nowhere in sight. She turned back. There it was. Longmoor. She had found it, but her nose and forehead were beginning to burn. She ducked into shade. Where there was some shade to be found. Someone rode a bike. A driver jerked forward in her path, from a side street. "Sorry," he called out the window as he drove away.
Finally, there was Emelita in the impersonal stretch of apartment complexes, all non descript, with adobe style appearances and small windows. Signs announced, "$199 to move in." Or, "$149. Move in Special." Indian Springs. Fiesta Villas. Debbie wandered around the tan adobe apartments on the grass, through the parking lots. She couldn't find her apartment number. A young man on a bicycle, black-haired; pedalled slowly by her in the deserted parking lots. She announced angrily that she couldn't find her friend's apartment. He smelled of liquor.
"It's probably behind those apartments," he said. "Some of the apartments are in back."
Debbie followed his advice and was rewarded with the familiar sight of the pool, the black fence, the soda machine and laundry room, the permanent barbecue grills in the middle of the sidewalks. She dropped everything on the floor inside Carlotta's apartment. She carefully locked the door latch.
"Hey, I found this key in the door," Carlotta said when she came home at five or six o'clock.
"What! I was so careful to make sure the door was locked from the inside," Debbie said. She remembered how tired she was when she got back from the mall.
"You walked from the mall?" Carlotta said. "I could've picked you up."
"I know. I just had to try it out for myself. I won't do that again," Debbie said.
(The more things change, the more they remain the same.) {sic}
"Do you feel like you know your way around?" Carlotta said.
"Yeah...a little better," Debbie laughed.
There was a message on Carlotta's answering machine. Her friend Toni wanted to go out. The last of her at-home daycare kids would be leaving at 4:00. In the sunny parking lot, Toni stood outside by her car.
"Are you sure you want to move out here? There are bugs...they don't go away. It's warm all year out here."
"There's so much to do," Debbie crooned.
"I think this is the most boring place," Toni laughed.
UP NEXT: THE JOB INTERVIEW.
See you here next Tuesday.
