Lesley carefully sealed the pouch of dream sand back up. Unlike Morpheus, he only had a limited amount to work with, and he’d need to budget it in case another quake occurred. Putting the closed pouch back in whichever pocket he got it from, Lesley looked around once more before resuming his walk. With nothing much better to do, he decided to study the environment as best as he could…
The drones were still quite forgettable in appearance, and their movements still apparently without reason or purpose, but there were little things that did stand out. Some were carrying bags full of various sized and shaped boxes. Others were ‘shopping’ in the stores, taking boxes off shelves to what must have been sales counters to be bagged for them. ‘Money’ exchanged hands at these times, though Lesley could clearly see this ‘money’ was little more than a child’s rendition of money; colored rectangles of paper with a bunch of squiggles on them. The boxes being sold were similarly ignorable, glitter and shine without any solid images of what they contained. Lesley had even picked one up to look over, and after messing around with it for a time, couldn’t even find a way to open it.
Sighing, he set the box back on its shelf and left that store. Perhaps it was pure chance that he did so at that precise time, but given that this was all a dream, perhaps it wasn’t just chance.
Lesley came within a moment of crashing into one of the milling figures in the mall proper. He opened his mouth to instinctively apologize for the near-miss when the other spoke first. “Oh, excuse me.”
Lesley blinked. “Sorry, my fault.” The figure walked around him quickly, continuing down the mall. He’d spoken, with actual words, not word-like sounds. And, as Lesley watched, he noticed how the man’s appearance stayed in his memory, unlike the drones, and he wasn’t milling at all. The man walked with straight purpose, avoiding the drones smoothly but always going the same way.
Having found the one thing that didn’t quite match the surroundings, Lesley wasn’t about to let it walk out of sight. Tailing the man carefully, he followed. Eventually, the man turned and entered a shop, the boxes being ‘sold’ here possibly even more flashy and gaudy than in any of its neighbors. But, another important difference, the boxes all had a flap of cardboard covering their faces… Lesley saw the man peruse over some of the boxes, picking a few up to peer carefully under their flaps before setting them back on their shelf to look over others. Curious, Lesley entered the store himself, picked up a box and lifted the flap.
Under it, in the side of the box, was a keyhole…
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Mon Jan 03 22:54:46 2005
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