Seven: Puzzling Arrival

The elderly Electra had an 8-track tape deck that played at varying speeds, sometimes too fast, other times too slow, occasionally just right. In the morning, as Nichelle started the car to warm it, she noticed one 8-track relic lying on the console and picked it up.

"Goose Creek Symphony," she said aloud, though very quietly, " 'Do Your Thing But Don't Touch Mine'."

She had never heard of this band, but decided to play the tape once everyone was in the car. Elmer had gotten up before her, but Jim and Tott had been difficult to wake. She understood why in Jim's case; he had stayed up with her throughout the drive and always had trouble falling asleep.

"How you feeling, Tott," she asked when he clambered out of the pod.

"Tired," he rasped, "It's skunky cold in there."

Nichelle rolled her eyes and corralled the three men into the immense vehicle. Jim was trying not to be cranky and Elmer was not trying not to harangue him. Nichelle loved Elmer and loved Jim, but they could be impossible together. They had known each other before Nichelle met either of them and she often felt mystified that a relationship so contentious could last as long as it obviously had.

For several years, Elmer and Jim worked at the same local television station. Elmer served as a news anchor and also hosted a high school knowledge competition for local high schools called "The Kumquat Show." Jim had been an all-purpose sort, a writer, production assistant, occasional camera operator. Just before the tangible hubris outbreak, Elmer had been fired and Jim had quit in protest. The latter never made a big deal about this, not even saying at first why he quit. Considering what happened to people associated with news shortly thereafter, it was possible the sacking of Elmer Treedweller had, in fact, saved his life. It was all very difficult for him, the resentment over his dismissal combined with something akin to survivor's guilt.

Since then, Elmer, who denied he was forty which meant he had to be, and Jim, who admitted he was in his late 30s, had reverted to college age mentalities, not quite as obnoxious, but irresponsible, idle, and cavalier. Nichelle knew that most adults, men in particular, still battled daily with an immature lunatic residing behind the facade of propriety, but these two had let the lunatic out. Though slightly younger than both, she had acted as a kind of mother hen and caretaker for some time. Tottchell Zizzzard's story was slightly different, but it always was.

They arrived at Goofy Ridge late in the morning. Though it was late in another desolate Midwestern winter, the town was in quite an attractive and bucolic spot, right off the shores of two sizable lakes. The Monolithic Chemical Company's headquarters sat at the intersection of Goose Lake and Buzzville Roads along Lake Chautauqua. Two smokestacks towered above, though neither of them produced any smoke. Three structures, by all appearances an office, a warehouse, and a cylindrical structure that might have been mistaken for a lighthouse, loomed before them but something didn't seem right. Despite the absence of any obvious disrepair or neglect, the place seemed abandoned, with a lone automobile lurking in a vast parking lot.

As Nichelle and her troop doubled the number of cars in the parking lot, they shared words on how strange the situation appeared to be. It was neither a weekend nor a holiday and there had been no indications the Monolithic Chemical Company had shut its doors.

"I realize there's not much news circulating these days," Nichelle said, "but there's still the Internet and word of mouth."

"Two impeccable sources," sneered Elmer.

"Oh, shut up," she snapped, "There's been nothing about this company at all. Obviously, a rumor mill can produce inaccuracies, but in this instance there's been no information whatsoever."

"So what do we do?" asked Jim, hollowly.

Nichelle shrugged. Tott's face was gaunt and questioning, Elmer's looked defiant, and Jim's eyes withheld a followup question.

"We go inside," she said at last.