CHAPTER FORTY ONE
11:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time
Soap Bubble Laundromat and Dry Cleaners
Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania
“Next, a possible terror threat in New York City,” the middle-aged blonde newscaster on the large wall-mounted television said, holding papers in her hands and staring seriously into the screen.
“Breaking news in sixty seconds. Stay tuned.”
In the Laundromat, the young woman—her name was Brittany—sat on the fake leather sofa and waited for the news to come back on. The truck from the dry cleaning place had already come, picked up this morning’s drop-offs, and left this afternoon’s pick-ups. Brittany had swept and mopped the entire place for the second time today—customers were tracking muddy snow in on their boots—and cleaned the lint screens on all the machines that we
