Another Dimension

As I step out of the car into the streets of Spokane I can hear the faint sound of theremins churning out sci-fi UFO music from the golden age of B movies. Doesn't matter what time of day or night it is here. The theremins are always with me. I realize I no longer exist in the world and I am now trapped in some alternate reality. In this odd dimension I can drive down a large street mile after mile and feel like I haven't moved an inch. I pass a Safeway on my right. Then there's dozens of car dealerships and burned out malls in my rear view mirror. I pass another Safeway on the same side of the street. More car dealerships. Car dealerships, and I spot a single Chinese restaurant surrounded by brand new automobiles for sale on the dealership lot. I pass another Safeway on the same side of the street. Good thing I was counting otherwise I'd think I had been driving in circles.

Continuing towards the downtown area I run through a two or three block section of derelict buildings where the hookers attempt to entice motorists to pull over and cut a deal. It's like running the miniskirt and spiked heels gauntlet. Now I've been in most if not all of the major cities on the west coast, and I've seen prostitutes in all of them. What's shocking is these women here in Spokane are so brazen, so totally in your face that I can't believe it. They think nothing of smiling and waving at you, then for extra measure pull their skirts up all the way to their hips so you can see their naughty bits. There isn't a cop anywhere to be found. On a sunny weekday afternoon heading to Thaddeus T. Thudpucker's for some fried chicken I can usually get an eyefull from this stretch of town on the way to eat and on my way back home. Sometimes the whores make me laugh with their antics to try and get me to pull over. Occassionally I'm tempted to stop and pick one up because they're so young and cute. Other times as I look out my window at them I feel depressed.

Planned Parenthood clinics are a popular target for bombings here. When the police respond to the emergency the same group that carried out the bombing is already on the opposite side of the city and they rob a bank. They use the bombings as bait for the cops apparently, and then go after their real target. The Police haven't wised up and keep falling for the same old trick. Sounds to me like it's either a White Supremacist group or a Militia behind the rash of tandem bombings and bank robberies. As there's so many of both groups up here with a substantial amount of overlap in membership it's difficult to say who's really the culprit. I've asked a bunch of people back home if they've heard about any of this in the news and none of them have. Makes me think maybe the media is trying to help cover it up. Maybe.

The downtown part of Spokane has a few high rise skyscrapers and at a distance looks as modern as the financial district in San Francisco or some other city. However when you stand on the streets in the shadow of these buildings it's painfully evident nothing is happening. No one is around, litter blows in the wind and leaves pile up in the gutters. Few if any cars are around. Most of the windows in the first two stories of the buildings have been boarded up. I see glass enclosed walkways between a couple of the buildings and wonder how anyone could use one since everything here appears dead and locked up. Walking around it's as if everyone has vanished in some end of the world event that I must have slept through. I feel horribly alone in this city.