Elizabeth finished stocking the last carton of smokes and rolling papers, leaving just an hour left to her shift. The hydro-clock needed water, so she went over to the sink near the coffee counter and filled a small paper cup half way to the top.
Bill walked in the store carrying a large yellow envelope. "I brought something to show you, Elizabeth," he said and put it on the counter. "You'll find this interesting, I bet."
Elizabeth came around the counter and tapped the manilla envelope with her fingertips. "I bet I will, what is it? Pictures?"
"Yep, how'd you guess?" Bill said and headed for the snack isle.
After filling the clock, Elizabeth wiped her hands with a sterile-cloth and then opened the manilla folder. The beach scene was black and white, with kids at the shore and some boats in the distance. The photograph looked very, very old and was laminated to protect it.
"Is this you?" Elizabeth inquired about a small boy pointing up to the sky.
"Yep, that's me. I was eight years old. My mother handmade me those bathing trunks and shirt. Can you see what I'm pointing at?"
Elizabeth looked closer at the picture.
"A seagull?" she asked.
"Look closer. Think of the billboards in the sky."
Elizabeth wondered how she'd not seen it. There, in the sky, above the boats, a plane and some lettering.
"Oh my, what does that say? Slyboy?"
Bill came back carrying two SkyBar candybars. He put them down on the counter and smiled. "Skybar," he said.
"Skybar candy bars?"
"Yes, please, two of them, I want you to taste a piece of history."
"I've never tried them, and I've tried most of the things in this store," Elizabeth said and rung in the order. Bill handed her one and unwrapped the other one. He snapped off the first square and popped it into his mouth. Elizabeth opened her's and put a piece in her mouth. "Mmm, this is good," Elizabeth said with a chocolately smile.
"When I was eight years old, SkyBar had an airplane do some skywriting to advertise their candy bar. The Necco company's creative way to get the word out about the newest candy bar worked... we ate them all summer, and we'd all go to the beach to see the words in the sky. It reminded me of this whole billboard in the sky thing going on, and the controversy surrounding it. When I saw the photograph the other day, I just remembered so much about the excitement about the candybar. The excitement of seeing the letters in the sky. Boy, we thought they were the cat's meow to do that. We'd watch as the lettering spread and warped, disappearing into the air, drifting on the wind."
"Like the billboard in the sky going on and then off," Elizabeth said as she popped a second square of chocolate into her mouth.
"Yep," Bill said.
"It's pretty amazing to me how far the skywriting has come," Bill said, and folded the chocolate bar wrapping over the three remaining squares and put it in his pocket.
"Yeh, it amazes me, too," Elizabeth said, and looked out the large window in the front of the store. "Hey, it's just about to go on, too," Elizabeth said, as she glanced at the hydro-clock.
They both walked outside into the chilly night air and stood at the side of the building together. GOATSEED.COM beamed from far away in the galaxy.
"Is it me, or does that just look so much brighter or bolder font than the Microsoft one?" Elizabeth asked Bill, her warm breath showing in the freezing temperatures in cloudy balls of moisture.
"I think it's just the cold night air making it clearer, or maybe they did make the font thicker, I'm just not sure. Maybe it's because it's an unfamiliar word to us that makes it seem to stand out more up there in the sky," Bill offered up as reason.
"It's amazing," Elizabeth sighed.
"It sure is," said Bill. "From SkyBar in the daylight to Goatseed dot com in the night sky. How far we have come."
"I think the night sky is so appropriate for goatseed dot com," Elizabeth said, and they both laughed softly.
Elizabeth thought privately about the goatseed.com website image they had all viewed the month before, as the taste of chocolate in her mouth made her thirsty for a coffee.
Posted by nft at May 24, 2004 11:07 PM