There, in the shallow tide of the beach, stood a pole, seemingly several hundred feet high. Extending from the top of the pole was a long, taut rope, and at the end of this rope was a lithe woman. She swung around and around the pole, like a human tether ball, somehow managing to convert the movements of her body into massive boosts of momentum. Shooting out from the bottom of each arc, she would ascended high up into the air and hang for a moment on the opposite side of the pole, only to plummet down and repeat the process. Again and again she made fantastically effortless loops with varying degrees of steepness, all the while singing show tunes, to the delight of the crowd assembled below. Eventually she took a break.
Sensing only a vague connection to the athletic movements of the female swinger, Jack wandered into a somewhat decrepit movie store adjacent to the beach. He was looking at a fantasy movie with a recognizable actor on the cover when a young man approached.
"Is this 'The English...'?" he asked.
"No," said Jack.
Jack became increasingly uncomfortable as the young man continued to talk to Jack. Glancing around awkwardly, he noticed the rope from the pole leading into the bathroom in the back of the store.
Suddenly, her act began again. Since she was starting from the ground, she volunteered her husband to act as a counter balance. She handed him a second rope, and together they swung back and forth, higher and higher, until the woman had regained her former speed and altitude. Her husband, having played his role, fell with a splash into the water below. The woman made a joke, and the audience laughed appreciatively.
The day was late, the town and waterfront was abandoned. Jack again went into the shop, this time heading into the back to get in line for the bathroom. The man in front of him noticed a urinal standing just outside the door.
"Hey, well..." he said. Jack nodded in assent, and the man stood in front of the urinal. Sidestepping the man, he himself went through the door.
Inside there was a short hallway, first opening to the right into a broad, tiled room full of chairs and tables before terminating at the portal to yet another tiled room. A few people milled about.
"What are you looking for?" asked an officious looking woman.
"Uh, tomatoes, I guess."
"Ok, for a recipe, or something else?"
"Yeah..." replied Jack uncertainly. He could feel the conversation going in the wrong direction.
"Well, we've got a lot of good pie material..."
"Uh, can't I come in?" interrupted Jack.
"Oh, sure," said the woman.
Jack walked past the woman and toward the doorway to the next tiled room. There was a small lip on the floor at the threshold, and Jack looked beyond the couple standing there into the next room. It was large, theater-like space, complete with a sloping floor and a large white screen on the opposite wall. All the surfaces were tiled, and the room was bereft of furnishings except a cashier stand and a ledge down at the bottom of the slope. The floor was covered by patches of ice and looked very slippery.
"Be careful," warned the cashier, noticing Jack's gaze. "I've had people slip before."
"You ever think of getting floor mats?" Jack responded. The cashier flashed a snarky expression.
"Don't worry, I'm very steady," assured Jack. With that, he stepped over the lip and walked down the slope to the ledge. Here, too, people stood wandered about, examining the inventory.
At first, Jack was surprised at how little was for sale, but only for the few moments before he actually inspected the produce. There was an amazing variety of organic fruits and vegetables that Jack had never seen or heard about. He walked slowly past strange, pale eggplants and paused at a magnificent, iridescent blue plum. Briefly noticing a pile of normal tomatoes, he leaned down to pick up a small, fuzzy blue fruit. The sign next to it read "Snow Tomato, $1.29 ea." Jack thought this was a very reasonable price. He picked out one of the fruits, put it in a bag along with several of the regular tomatoes and walked back to the cashier.
"I'd like to buy these," he said.
