He dressed with awkward fingers and left the room, his eyes darting
suspiciously along the corridor as he drew the door closed behind him.
He walked quickly down the carpeted stairs and through the front doors
of the hotel. Several times he glanced over his shoulder as he hurried
toward Sixth Street.
After four blocks he was sure that he had not been followed. He entered
a restaurant. He ordered, reading from the menu.
He did not enjoy the meal.
* * * * *
After eating he took a cab to the office of R. O. "Bob" Lucas, Realtor.
The Advanceship had determined that Lucas was the agent for an empty
warehouse on Flower Street.
Parr exposed a bulky wallet for Lucas' benefit and began to rustle
bills with blunt, stubby fingers. Within minutes he had signed a
six-month lease.
After making an appointment for three o'clock Tuesday at the warehouse,
Parr left Lucas' office and caught a cab to a typewriter shop. He
purchased a Smith-Corona portable, a ream of corrasable paper, a disk
eraser, and five hundred business envelopes. At the bookstore next
door, he bought a United States Atlas.
After that he took a cab to the post office, had the driver wait while
he rented six postal boxes under the name A. Parr and bought twenty
sheets of air mail stamps.
In the cab once more, he concentrated on the city map that had been
impressed electronically on his brain. "Drive out Sixth Street," he
ordered, being very careful of his enunciation.
A half dozen blocks out Sixth, Parr located a hotel on the right side
of the street. It was a reasonably safe distance from the Biltmore. He
ordered the driver to stop.
The building sat atop a hill, the street before it twining briskly
toward the center of town. Parr studied the building for a moment,
memorizing details of architecture for reference.
Then settled with his purchases in a front room on the 3rd floor,
Parr opened the Atlas to the Western United States and marked out the
territory assigned to him with the heavy ink lines of his pen.
Having done that, he listed all the names of the included towns.
Then he sat down at the portable, inserted a sheet of paper and wrote:
"To the Chamber of Commerce, Azusa, California. Gentlemen: Please send
me the current city directory." He looked at the postal numbers. "My
mailing address is ..." He typed in the first number on the list. "...
Los Angeles, California. Inclosed is five dollars to defray the costs.
Thanking you in advance, A. Parr."
* * * * *
He studied the letter. It was a competent job of typing. He flexed his
fingers, found them slightly stiff from the unaccustomed work.
He ran his eyes down the list of towns, inserted another sheet of
paper.
"To the Chamber of Commerce...."
He stopped typing.
He sat before the typewriter imagining the number of directories,
imagining the staggering total of individual names.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account