FICTION

CASS GOES SHOPPING

Cynthia 30-11-2 FPE

The rays of the morning sun rebounded into the avenues far below the concrete spires of New York City, piercing whispy layers of steam that hung a few inches above the pavement, heating sidewalks still wet from pre-dawn thundershowers. The seven o'clock weatherman had predicted temperatures in the high nineties for later in the day; and at eight-thirty, when Casper Winthrop Bellingham II drove away from his Westchester home, the humidity was becoming unbearable. Shopping or for that matter, Cass reasoned as he drove amid herds of commuters' autos, merely being in the city on one of those typically hellish summer days was idiotic; but there were a few things that he really wanted to buy- sweet essentials, he called them, for extra special occasions.

The heat struck like a mallet when he opened the door of the sleek Mark III Continental and stepped from air-conditioned luxury into the noise of the parking garage. The attractive attendant smiled an automatic greeting as she handed Cass a receipt:

"How long will you be?"

"Not very...!" His very proper business attire was already beginning to cling, and he envied the uniformed girl's bare legs and the skimpy mini-outfit with its short sleeves and low vee-neck.

She gave him a quizzical look: "Two hours. . . ?”

"Uh-huh!"

Cass walked to the street and turned right following the same route he traveled with regularity on one Friday of every month since he had

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