STREETWALKING WITH JACQUELINE

LICHTENBERG

An Alternate Alternate Universe Sime Comedy

© 1978 by Pat Gribben


This story was first published in Companion in Zeor #1, senior editor Karen Litman. This online version was scanned and OCRd from the typewritten original and then reformatted for the web. Scanned by Ronnie Bob Whitaker, converted to HTML by Mike Giroux

 

The Sime~Gen universe was created by Jacqueline Lichtenberg. This story or its setting may not be reused without her explicit permission. This story copyright © 1977, 1997 by Jacqueline Lichtenberg. All rights reserved.


T'was the night before Monday, and all through the con,

Our food was delayed, we were hungry and wan.

At the Statler-Hilton, prices were so far out of sight,

That we went out, into the cold, dark night.

 

We walked, and we walked, and we walked some more.

"Is that restaurant open? I can't be sure."

"No, it's closed, just like all the rest. Maybe

We should have walked east, instead of west."

 

On Jacqueline, on Anne, on Sharron and Karen,

Walk on Pat, let's see if anything is open!

Five blocks, ten blocks, fifteen and more,

Looking, looking for an unlocked restaurant door.

 

Then we spied what looked like a restaurant, and Anne

Went to check it out and get the lay of the land.

"I just met ten of New York's finest," she said. "It's

Not a restaurant, it's a police station, instead!"

 

Hungrier and hungrier, we trudged on through the slush.

If someone had offered, we'd have eaten mush!

"Let's take a cab back and eat at the hotel,"

Was a suggestion that met with a bit of approval.

 

It met with approval, but only from us.

The cab driver looked leery as we stood in the slush.

"I can only take four, I'm sorry," he yelled.

And off into the night went the cab we had hailed.

 

Then what to our wondering eyes did appear,

But an open Chinese restaurant, whose door was near.

We dashed in, ordered, and sat down to eat,

Resting our poor, throbbing, half frozen feet.

 

"Where are we?" we asked of a passing stranger.

"Half a block from the Statler-Hilton," was the answer.

We had walked twenty blocks, an hour or more--

To get dinner, only half a block from our door!

 

PAT GRIBBEN © 1978


From Companion in Zeor #1

 

 

Last modified on 13 June 97 at 19:30