Judgment Day -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
"Count me in for fifteen thousand," he said without hesitation. We
talked it over. Plans for going down to the Bowery and handing it out
didn't seem so good. The streets were still impossible, and I didn't
want to leave Jane for long. We finally decided to give it to the
nearest church. They'd see it got into the proper hands.
The church on 65th and Madison was closest, so we went right there and
formed on the end of the line. It stretched halfway down the block, but
it was moving fast.
"I had no idea it was like this," Ollie said. He shook his head.
Perspiration was dripping from him. He was working harder handing out
money than he had ever worked to make it in his life.
"What kind of church is this?" he asked me.
"I don't know." I tapped the man in front of me. "What kind of church
is this, mac?"
The man turned around. He was almost as big as Ollie but older, tireder
looking. "How should I know?" he said. "I'm from Brooklyn."
We reached the inside of the church and a man took our money. He didn't
have time to thank us; there were too many behind, clamoring for
their chance. The man just threw the bills on a table. Another man, a
Reverend of some kind, was walking back and forth, picking up handfuls
of it and carrying it off, then coming back for more. We followed him,
just out of curiosity. I didn't have any doubt they'd dispose of it in
the right way, but a fellow likes to know where his charity is going.
Besides, Jane would probably ask me.
At the side entrance of the church there was a line of poorly clad,
red-faced men. Their clothes were in tatters, but their faces were
shining. The Reverend was handing each man a handful of bills, then
rushing back for more.
"Be simpler if they formed the line inside," I said to Ollie as we
headed back for our stores. "Just have the guys with money lined up in
front of the guys without. Faster."
"Listen," Ollie said. "You always have a middle man. Can't avoid it."
He coughed three or four times. I could see that the strain was getting
him. A man Ollie's size shouldn't run around handing out money that way.
On my way back to the store someone handed me five thousand dollars.
He just grinned, shoved it in my hands and hurried on. I did a double
take. It was one of the bums who had just got it.
Back in the store there was more money piled up on the counter. My wife
was still in the same chair, reading a magazine.
"It's been piling up since you left," she said.
I threw my five thousand on the pile.
"You should have heard the radio," she said. "Congress passed about two
dozen laws in the last hour. They've given everybody every right you
could think of, and a few I never dreamed existed."
"It's the age of the common man," I told her.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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