Adomania

Chapter 1: Adomania

        Throughout all my life, I have tried my very hardest to avoid trouble. I don't turn a corner without looking around it three times. I always let bullies walk in front of me if I see them coming. I have never even considered walking down a dark alleyway. For the most part, it's worked. Nothing bad has happened to me because of my caution.

But the thing with the vending machine?

Nobody could have ever seen that coming.

It started on Saturday, even though the incident didn't even happen until Monday. Saturday was the day we ran out of milk. Usually the burbling trickle of the remaining bubbles doesn't strike fear into my heart, but from now on I think it might.

I set down the empty carton and stared gloomily at my cereal. To my disappointment, nobody sat down next to me and said, "Why are you so glum?" I looked around, saw nobody, and sighed loudly. Still, nobody came. As a last resort, I called out, "Mom, we're out of milk."

There was a pause, then my mom called back, "Then go buy some more."

I groaned, trying to sound pitiful and at the same time . . . not. "I don't wanna, though," I whined. I really didn't feel like it. Unfortunately, the response that came back was "Too bad! Just go get it!"

I sighed as loud as I could, but stood up, threw away the empty carton, and began making my way to the store. I was already thinking about the quarter-mile hike with dismay in my soul. That would be a whole forty minutes of my time, down the drain. However, arguing with my mom was completely pointless, so I kinda had to go.

One of the reasons I hate walking to the store is that there are all these alleyways. After about ten minutes, there is this giant block of abandoned buildings, because apparently real estate owners would rather give me nightmares than sell or knock down the stupid things. The alleyways are always filled with broken beer bottles, hoodlums, and cigarette smoke. Needless to say, I have never gone in one of the alleys.

Today was no different. I walked as fast as I could past each gap between the buildings, glancing down each alley to make sure nobody decided it would be fun to attack the skinny kid with weird hair and clothes that were just a wee bit too small. In one alleyway, however, there was something new: a pristine vending machine. A glowing one, no less.

Now, it's not every day one encounters a heavenly vending machine on his way to buy milk. I stopped at the mouth of the alley and rubbed my eyes to make sure my lack of milk hadn't caused hallucinations or something. The vending machine remained where it was smack dab in the middle of the alley. I took one step . . . but then stopped.

I would get cornered if someone caught me in here. There were also a lot of bad things that glowed. Like irradiated substances, for instance. Or anglerfish lures. The machine was weird, too; it only looked "real" out of the corner of my eye. When I looked at it straight, it looked kind of . . . I don't know how to describe it besides it just looked wrong. When I looked at it, my eyes sort of slid over it like it was covered in eyeball grease or something and I forgot what it looked like the second I blinked. If I tried to concentrate on it, my brain felt full of fluff and I had to shake my head. It seemed as if it was not of this world and shouldn't exist.

I backed out of the alley and tried to form a mental picture of where it was so I could come back and check if I had time. Time and a radiation suit. Then I left to go buy milk.

I didn't notice this at the time, seeing as how I was preoccupied with carrying a bunch of milk, but when I passed the two buildings with the vending machine between again, it wasn't there.