3

Thinking back to that encounter with Chip and H., Sam felt a little nervous, because they were tough competition.

It's not as though I'm extremely nervous, he thought. I'm just a little nervous.

He stood on the corner, his face alternately being bathed red and clear. Odd, he thought, that the neon sign would be lit so early in the afternoon. What do I do for a few hours? I could go down the quayside early and just walk around. Last time he had done that, he had walked along the pier as all the fishermen and their families fished in the bay. The official word from Sloan City government was, "Don't." Not clean enough, they said. But when social services fell short, especially in a bad economy, many families did it anyway as a source of food.

Sam looked up at a V-formation of white geese.

"Hello, Pretty," said a voice. Sam looked. He realized he was standing adjacent to an old man. Chip the lawyer had neat white hair, but this old man was at least twenty years older than Chip. The old man wore a gray Members Only jacket. He had a heavy white moustache and beard, and his long hair was stringy and dirty. Sam realized the man was not addressing him, but the V-formation of white geese.

"Geese," said the old man. "Shetland geese."

"Shetland Geese?" Sam said, dropping gamely into conversation with strangers. "I never heard of any geese called Shetland geese."

"That one at the tip of the V? That's Pretty." the old man said. "I say hello to her every winter."

"Oh," said Sam. He felt sorry for the old man. "I'm Sam," he extended his hand to shake.

"Just call me Down-the-Well," said the old man.

"Down-the-Well? Really?" The old man nodded, grinning in a way that struck Sam as a little bats. "When I joined the Serpentines I became Down-the-Well."

"Nice to meet you, Down-the-Well," Sam said.

"Did you say your name was 'Sam?'"

Sam nodded.

"That's great!" Down-the-Well said. "You're just the person I've been looking for, or am supposed to keep looking for. Do you like Sam Raimi?"

Sam blinked, surprised by the sudden shift.

"Umm ... I saw one of the Evil Dead movies on tape and I thought it was funny. I haven't seen Spider-Man or ..."

"He's a nice guy," Down-the-Well said. "I like him very much. Anyway, can you tell him I said hello, when you see him?"

Before Sam could answer, the old man gestured with his pointer finger and Sam vanished!