With the evening getting late and the weekend approaching, Allen, who was working overtime, sat at his desk and made preparations for his habitual Friday night. He began making out his list of the items he needed from the store and the videos he would get from Blockbuster. Though Allen had VIP access to any club in LA because of his position at work, not to mention his friendship with William, he didn't exercise that privilege too often.
Allen didn't smoke nor did he drink. He often said he
didn't understand people who drank themselves into a coma, and he
couldn't see why people smoked. He always said that he wouldn't judge
those people who did those things, but he just didn't understand why
they did it. Allen finished making his grocery list and headed for the
market. While he drove he remembered cutting coupons out of the
Sunday paper and many of the items he cut out of the paper were on his
list.
Allen decided to stop by the house and get the coupons, and while
he was there he could change into his lounging clothes. When Allen
reached his townhome, he found police cars and a mangled truck
crowding the driveway, with a caucus of tenants and bystanders looking
on. Allen looked a little closer and saw that there was an electric pole
that had been knocked over, and the lights were out on the entire
property.
"Well so much for coupons and changing clothes," Allen said as he
drove past the wreckage.
Allen proceeded to the store without the coupons, and thought to wait
to use the coupons for game day. All the excitement at Allen's apartment
caused the street to be congested with traffic instead of the even flow
that had been the norm. Through all the traffic Allen finally reached the
market, and much to his surprise he found an almost empty parking lot.
Once he got in the store, he reached for a hand held basket but thought
maybe he should get a cart just in case he got more than he placed on
his initial list.
Allen decided that tonight, he would have a night of Zoo
Zoo's and television. He strolled throughout the aisles and put in his
basket all the junk food that made his mouth water. As he continued
shopping, he noticed that he had cookies, candy, ice cream, chips and
salsa with cream cheese, but he had nothing to drink. Allen walked
down the aisle that had the overhead sign marked sugar and grabbed a
five-pound bag of it. He then walked to the next aisle where he found
Kool-Aid. Allen stood and stared momentarily at all the different flavors
of Kool-Aid that now exist.
"Damn,"
Allen said aloud to himself,
"when I was a kid the only
flavors we had were grape, orange, lemonade, cherry and black cherry
and if you forgot the name of the flavor, all you had to do was say the
color."
"Yes,"
a soft agreeable voice spoke from behind Allen,
"I too remember
those days."