2024-03-24 ---------- a young woman in a sheer white fairy dress stood barefoot with her toes just over the circle of tape on the polished wooden floor of the meditation center. she held a scratched up old violin at the ready, and began to play a single continuous note, the bow slowly tracing the infinity symbol, never stopping. the sound filled the entire room, intoxicating in its monotony, pulling us all along with it. the single note redefines reality and pervades space and mind. a man began to sing rhythm and blues in harmony with the note. a while later someone started to clap rhythmically. a bell entered the mix. some people were dancing. the circle filled and grew as more and more people entered, attracted by the music. i closed my eyes and began turning in place, since i did not have a musical element to contribute. i could feel the heat and noise of the bodies packed into the small storefront on shattuck street, as it alternated with the cold open door and the gray clouds outside. spinning, alternating. someone threw a sari over me as i spun with my hands placed in an awkward position supporting my chin. the musty cloth was making it hot and sweaty. "please remove that nasty hippie crap. thanks." the cloth fell off on its own and i continued to spin self-consciously. i reached my arm out like how the dervishes spin, but it felt like i was doing a nazi salute. the swastika, the purity spiral, they're all the same root symbolism. spinning out of control. something had changed and the music was chaotic now. the same elements were there, but it didn't make sense. i opened my eyes and looked around, no longer spinning, but the room kept spinning. julie was bending over at the doorway, pulling on her vibram toe shoes and holding a skateboard. "hey, wait." i ran over and picked up the violin case for her as she hobbled around the doorframe. julie couldn't walk very well due to hip dysplasia, so she rode this skateboard everywhere. "'i was supporting you all along, even though you didn't know it.' is that about right?" i panted as i trotted down the wet sidewalk beside her. "mmm-hmm." she smiled and turned to look back at me. "do you mind? i have to go to target to get some things." "no of course not. i should too." we rolled down the disabled ramp into the parking garage where the secondary entrance to the store was. there was a strange little hallway with vinyl floor tiles and spooky fluorescent lights connecting the parking area with the store proper, and a cash register guarding the exit, staffed by a single robot. i bought something so it didn't look like i was just hanging around, and paid at the robot cash register. these new humanoid robots were pretty much everywhere now. i guess it was cheaper than upgrading the old cash register systems, or maybe some people liked it better than the self checkout machines. as i was unfolding my dirty crumpled bills on the counter, a handsome male robot with wavy black hair and stubble walked up and went behind the counter. shift change? no, these two knew each other. the female cashier looked up at her robot companion with an awed expression, and they just looked at each other in bliss for at least a minute, seemingly unaware of my presence. "well, i'll just leave this here then." i slid my bills over to the register. the female robot reached back and picked up the filthy bills, put them in the register, and counted out my change without so much as changing her expression or breaking eye contact with the other robot. she handed the change and the receipt to me with one hand, as the other hand around the male robot's torso. okay. weird? "bow chicka wow wowww..." julie called out as she rolled down the hall with a small bag of groceries to where i was waiting in the parking garage. "yeah i guess robots do that? i mean, they're supposed to be human right?" i looked at julie, confused. she waggled her eyebrows at me. "hey. hop on, slowpoke." and she gestured at the skateboard with her bag of groceries. it was surprisingly intimate balancing together on the skateboard with her. you definitely have to share the same intentions in order to go the same way, otherwise you will both lose your balance and fall. and it's hard to juggle a violin and two bags of groceries while avoiding obstacles. full concentration. but hey, it sure beats walking alone. ... i rolled down the ramp and through the parking area, expertly curving between two new doorframe posts that had been set up by an absent construction crew. julie's skateboard made a horrendous shrieking sound as the weight released from one bearing and transferred to the other. i will have to tell her about it before the bearing really fails. i kick-flipped the board up under my arm and jogged to a stop before ducking through the weird little door at the end of the weird little hallway with fluorescent lights and vinyl tiles. the same two robots were still there at the cash register, staring into each others' eyes. what were they doing? it was just odd. a skinny blond man was in line behind me carrying a single water bottle as i unfolded my pile of shopping list post it notes stuck to dollar bills. i looked at my own haul: bananas, a large bar of chocolate. nothing but the essentials. the blond guy impatiently threw a dollar on the cash register and stomped past me in a huff. the female cashier robot deftly reached behind her and put the dollar in the cash register. it was curious. "hey, uh. i mean, it's none of my business really. i mean," the robots didn't flinch or even seem to notice me. "like, can i talk to a manager or someone?" as soon as i said this there was a loud clack sound and a printed wood grain door in the weird little hallway came open slightly. an embarrassed looking woman wearing a tight black and white patterned dress and high heels opened the door and walked out. she was blushing full-faced and wouldn't make eye contact with me, but she walked across the hall, over to a desk that i hadn't noticed, opened a red binder, got out a fresh crisp one hundred dollar bill from the desk, walked back to me while carrying the binder, and thrust the bill at me. "if there's anything we can do to fix this situation for you, please let me know. your experience matters to us here at target and we regret if you have been caused any discomfort." she held the bill out at me while seeming to have a strong interest in the vinyl floor tiles. her face was a shade darker now. "no, look i'm not trying to complain or anything, it's just that..." as i said this she put the bill into a pocket on the sleek little dress. sleek dresses have pockets now; that's progress i guess. was the manager creating some sort of unusual situation just so that she could pocket the customer hush money? "it's just that, well, what do you think they're doing? i mean they're robots. it's very strange."