followed

by corinne delmonico

jojo and beebee were best friends. even though jojo was one of the saved and beebee was one of the damned. members of the saved tribe had blue circles painted on their foreheads and members of the damned tribe had red crosses painted on theirs. one day jojo and beebee decided to go to the big department store downtown and shop for handkerchiefs. jojo wanted wanted a buy a lace handkerchief and beebee wanted to buy a cambric handkerchief. when they entered the store , one of the assistant managers , colonel rochester-st james, immediately began following beebee. jojo saw this and protested. i am sorry, sir, jojo told colonel rochester-st james, but i insist that if you follow my friend, that you follow me also. is that so? in that case i will let you speak to the store’s manager, ms syracuse. colonel rochester-st james took out his phone, punched a digit and a neatly uniformed member of the store’s security force appeared and escorted jojo and beebee to the manager’s office in the basement of the building. beebee was told to take a seat in a small waiting area while jojo was interviewed by ms syracuse. ms syracuse heard jojo’s tale. i am afraid, she said, when jojo was finished, that such an attitude can not be countenanced. she pressed a button on her desk and a door opened behind her and another member of the security force, much larger than the first one, appeared. the burly security person beckoned to jojo, and jojo followed him through the door he had appeared from, and down a long corridor to an elevator. where are you taking me? jojo asked as the elevator descended. you have been sentenced to work in the laundry department, until the term of your sentence has expired. but how long is that? jojo persisted. your sentence is indefinite. but how long is that? days? weeks? decades? what part of the word indefinite do you not understand? the security person replied with the beginning of a menacing frown. jojo lapsed into silence and the elevator continued to descend. up in the basement, a member of the maintenance force escorted beebee to a processing room. beebee was placed in a machine which, when switched on, reduced the inhabitant or inhabitants to their molecules. the molecules were then reassembled into useful items, which filled the shelves and counters of the stores. the incident caused colonel rochester-st james a few moments of mlld unease, but that evening, when he dined with ms syracuse at their favorite restaurant, he refrained from mentioning it.