Day: October 16, 2008

Frank James spent all of his day at work navigating Facebook looking for his ex-girlfriends.  He only had three to look for, but they never seemed to pop up.  Today he was looking for variations on Trudy or Trudelle or Trish, his first serious Girlfriend in High School.  They had dated right until Graduation, when she dumped him the day after Graduation, Frank had been crushed.  He had expected to Marry her during College and have kids before he turned 25.

Now Trudy and Frank were both in their 30s and unknown to Frank, Trudy was single and pining for him after years of failed relationships.  She didn’t use Facebook and rarely used a computer except when demanded by work and even then she left it to an assistant if possible.  Miles away, Frank toiled away at his keyboard, oblivious to the world, save Facebook.

CLICK

The Lights went out and Frank’s laptop dimmed, he tapped on, but when people started to move towards the exists, he started to get ready to leave.  The PA crackled and hissed then a voice came out:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Security Chief Mike Pendegrass, please remain in your offices and keep the stairs clear at this time.  I repeat please keep the stairs clear at this time.” The PA hissed a bit then everything was quiet.

““Aww, what the hell!?” Frank coughed in exasperation.  He plopped down in his chair and began to unplug his laptop from the wall, planning to pack up his crap except for his Laptop and leave as soon as the all clear came down.  The “official” downtime would give him a chance to catch up on his real work and since the power was down, so was the ‘net.  No reason to search.

Frank looked up when Janice from the next cube had rolled her chair down the aisle to the window and then got back to filling out spreadsheets and poking tracking information into different databases inside the building.  In about 20 minutes, he had finished his real work for the day when the light in the office came back on.  No, it hadn’t, it was brighter though.

“Oh My GOD!” someone yelled from the other side of the Office, “Holy Shit, Look outside!”

Frank looked out of the window and squinted, there, on the horizon above the buildings were two massive lights, two suns.  The Sky was yellow and there were two suns!  Frank snatched his camera from his carrier bag and snapped some pictures through the glass.  The lights dimmed and went orange as the suns began to sink towards the horizon.

Down in the street, people were panicking and running between the cars.  Frank could just make them out in the dimming lights.

Janice joined him at the window.

“Hey, did you know we were bombed”  she drank from a coffee cup, “like, today?”

Frank stepped back and looked at her, “what?  What?”

“Yeah, I got a call a little while back from a friend in Moorehead, he told me that Saint Paul was bombed, most of it is gone”

“You seem healthy for a bombing victim Janice.  You have to tell me your secret” Frank jibed, nervous.

“It’s this double sun, you know?  It does wonders for the wounds.  Fuck. This is fucked up.  What the hell is going on?” suddenly serious, Janice flopped back into her chair and looked around the office, people were gathering in groups and talking on their cell phones.

Frank took his cell phone from his pocket and called his mother, no answer. He called one of his friends in another office, no answer.  Then, no service.

All around the office people started getting angry, yelling about service.  Somewhere an argument had blossomed into a fight which was getting louder.

Frank grabbed his chair and wheeled it over next to Janice, they sat in silence and watched the suns set in the distance, noting for the first time that they were setting in the north.