standing as if stopped on the sidewalk ahead, a figure in a black cape stared at the vacant storefront next to pickles & pies. walked closer and excitedly recognized olivia, my old friend and boss, under the cape. it wasn’t her. the caped woman stared at the storefront like she had travelled hours and made great sacrifices to arrive at this spot, where she had been told a person would be waiting to give her further instructions, and the person still hadn’t shown up. i thought ‘maybe ask her if she needs help,’ but continued walking. a few seconds later i heard a woman’s voice behind me. the voice sounded upset. i thought ‘it’s the caped woman, she called the person who never showed up.’ the further i walked, the louder and faster the voice sounded. heard ‘your lies’ and ‘another two-thousand years of this shit.’ turned and locked eyes with the caped woman, who looked like she’d been directing boundless ancient anger at my head since i’d passed. she was following me. people on the street (man in basketball shorts, old person with a walker, two or three others i think) watched us with blank expressions. i focused my eyes on the distance ahead as i walked, and thought ‘do people think i robbed her, she looks wealthy, do they think we’re related, who looks crazier: me or her? she’s yelling and wearing a cape: slightly crazier, maybe. should i say something to her, what would i say, ‘two-thousand years of this’ is funny.’ the woman continued following me and yelling. turned in her direction and avoided eye contact as i smiled exagerratedly and ‘twinkle-waved’ my fingers in a way that, considering the rage i had somehow triggered in her, could’ve been interpreted as ‘a tauntingly mischevious sign of the devil.’ turned right into a post office parking lot, which is a short-cut to waldbaum’s. thought ‘this is where it would make sense for someone to stop following me, right? is she going to waldbaum’s too? does she know about the short-cut? no one would see her beat me up, no one is ever in the post office parking lot.’ pictured her beating me to the ground by a mail truck, then taking my wallet. i’d have to let the comforter air-dry. felt a little afraid. decided to keep my face forward until i got to waldbaum’s. her yelling was fast but coherent. it sounded like she had been waiting to say these things for a long time. heard ‘i know where you’re from, you’re from [something] township, you and your [something], you just think [something], that’s all you do,’ then after a few seconds, ‘asshole.’ that was the last thing. ‘asshole.’ it was quiet but i didn’t want to turn around. two men passed. didn’t think they made it in time for the ‘asshole’ but i still looked at them as if they saw, like, gave them a ‘visual shrug’ (combination of ‘beats me’ + ‘get a load of this’). crossed the waldbaum’s parking lot, anticipating the woman’s face eerily silent and close behind me. didn’t turn until i was close to the entrance. she was gone.