A Notable Absence

    I read a book a long time ago, "Feral" by Bertin Roueche, (not Stephen King). A young couple was checking out a house in the country, and became aware of strange happenings. A particular incident occurred when a local birdwatching group could find no birds to watch. To make a longish story mercifully short, it turned out an infestation of feral cats had wiped out all the birds, and worse happenings were yet to come.

  What reminded me of this tale was my recent trip to the Clifton Country Mall, as it was formerly called. It was only my second visit there in about 2 years, so I may have been a little more observant than on my former and frequent visits. Entry to most stores, it seems, was mask free for the vaccinated. So people were back shopping in greater numbers. I drove into the parking lot close to Boscov's, which seemed to be the focal point of most of the shoppers. As usual, not that I needed such, the handicapped accessible spots were filled, or almost so. Such is the age group of Boscov's clientele.  People were walking in and out of the store much like in the old pre-Covid days. Inside was fairly busy, though it was true that only some of the sales registers were staffed. I browsed through the plentifully stocked racks, idly musing what would happen to what must be  tons of unsold merchandise. I rode the escalator to the upper level, walked full circle the length of the area, and even checked out the Auditorium. Everything was pretty much as I recalled. I took the elevator down, which had several other riders in it. I circled the downstairs area again before I left, exiting with several other customer, most with purchases in their shopping bags. 

   As I walked to my car in the parking lot, my mind spun out the memory of the book I'd read so long ago, where all the birds had disappeared. For some reason, it suddenly dawned on me that I had not seen any men. Actually, not even one man. Not in the parking lot of people bustling (kind of ) into and out of the store, not anywhere on either of the store's levels, not in the hallway,  and certainly not behind the cash registers or the service desks. 

   I gather a takeaway from Feral's absence of birds might be to spay and neuter your pets. I'm not sure what might account for the absence of men.