Five Places In Sierra City

Laurence awoke to an awful racket of Nuthatch’s chattering outside his bedroom window. It was not quite seven o’clock and Mrs. Rayes would not rise for some three or four hours. After finishing his second cup of coffee, Laurence headed off in the direction of town. Though it was called Sierra City, the place Laurence now trod, was indeed a town and not a city, a city, to his knowledge, possessing a more sophisticated weather forecasting system than a suspended rock hanging above a sign that read:

Weather Station! If rock is wet, expect to be rained upon.
If rock is hot, apply sunscreen generously.
If rock is moving, seek shelter.
If rock is no longer hanging, please call John Steinem.

Of the five establishments in Sierra City that were open for business, one was a convenience store, one was a store that sold gold-mining supplies and firearms, and one was a library that lacked an attendant, though its open door hosted a rather severe note warning patrons that book thieves would be perpetually burned in the innermost circle of hell accompanied by Rush Limbaugh and someone called Leonard Steward. The last two businesses in Sierra City were bars. Seeing that both bars were closed, Laurence paid visit to the convenience store, a small silver bell announcing his arrival to the two persons who occupied the shop. He had …show more content…
He had never heard of most of the board games housed on its shelves. Laurence pulled a particularly aged box from the faded cardboard stack, the game was called: The Exciting Game of Career Girls, and Laurence thought this was a game his mother would have a hard time cheating at. He placed the board game on an adjacent table and began to read the instructions on the box. Many of the words were obscured by time, chipped away or else bleeding into one