The Silken Spider

I finished my milkshake breakfast, and jumped into the car. I was heading out to a place that JP had found out about. I had on my tourist clothing, which was my uniform whenever I went out to these kinds of places. I got in there, and quietly smiled a greeting. There were a few racks of LPs. No titles of any real interest, but I grabbed a few and took them to the counter. I engaged in a polite exchange with the guy behind the counter. I casually asked if he had any singles. He said there were some ’small ones’ out the back. I went back there. It was hot and dusty, and there wasn‘t much light. There were a few boxes tucked away amongst a pile of junk. I had a look through, but there was nothing of interest, a few vaguely interesting titles, perhaps, but I was wary nowadays, I could smell bad country and polka records a mile off. As I was getting ready to leave the room, I saw a flash of white behind the boxes. I looked over but there wasn’t anything there. It gave me the creeps, for some reason. I took a quick look down there and I saw a small cardboard box, with no more than ten records in it. It seemed to be filled with local looking items. I dipped in and the first thing I pulled out was an Accent label. My heart stopped. I thought for a moment of the Human Expression, but this was something else, on a blue label, a band with a curious name: The Silk Winged Alliance. Just then I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a large white spider resting on the side of the box. I jumped back quickly. Spiders give me a cold chill. I sat for a moment on the floor, the other side of the room, still clutching the disc. I picked myself up and took the record back into the store. ‘Just this one,’ I told the guy at the counter, still in a daze. He smiled at me and said ‘for that old thing? Give me fifty cents.’ I pulled out some change and put it in his hand. ‘Some pretty wild critters you’ve got out the back,’ I told him. ‘Critters?’ He said looking puzzled, ‘I’ve never seen any critters back there.’

I sat outside in my car, thinking. I couldn’t go back to that box, in case I ran into that spider, but there could be more treasure in there. I resolved to call JP, and get him to go. With that, I picked up my phone, and drove back to the milkshake store for lunch.

The Silked Winged Alliance - Flashback
- Hometown