The Halloween Parade 2019
You get your seats for the parade good and early this year. It’s a hot day, a little oppressive. Thunder, or the rumour of it, bunching your shoulders and making everyone hunker down a little. Or a little more. The churro guy has your order though. You catch up and wish him well. He gives you double, tells you you may need them.
This year the parade doesn’t just begin with the Director. Oh she’s there, gloved, suited, precision machine tooled heels that could sever a hydrogen atom if they so wanted. But this year she’s deep in animated conversation with a janitor. He has wild, flyaway hair, a big jaw, and an oddly graceful gait. It’s as though Doc Brown’s younger brother went into the service industry.
As they get closer, you realize what’s disturbing you. It’s not just that this woman who, over the years you’ve come to view as the part of an inhuman authority you’re allowed to comprehend, is talking to this man. It’s that she’s talking to him as a friend. An equal.
