Tuesday morning: John Worley was ready to take his fiancee out to do whatever that day … but, whatever was already occurring at the Commager Mall when he and Selene Slocum-Lofton rolled into the parking lot.
“Sorry, sir, can't grant access even to the parking lot right now,” a private security officer said. “A misunderstanding has resulted in a –.”
“MASSIVE SECURITY DANGER – there's an armed gunman running through here, and nobody is doing anything about it!” a man ran by, screaming.
The officer looked at the running man with disgust and chagrin and shook his head before returning his attention to Mr. Worley.
“It's a big misunderstanding, getting worse,” he said. “The Commager Theatre is premiering a play about the tragedy at Saunders Field and General Lofton's heroism, and there are some prop guns of the Civil War era that are being used. One of the men moving one of those was talking to another about the range of the 19th-century guns as compared to what is standard today, and people started to panic.”
“What a time we are living in,” Mr. Worley said. “Thank you, officer, and I wish you and your colleagues the best on getting this sorted out.”
Mrs. Slocum-Lofton sat quietly until they were back on the road, and then said, “Thank God it wasn't the real thing, but, in the times we are living in, it just as easily could have been.”
“That's the sad part,” Mr. Worley said. “I don't know why people feel the need to re-enact that war when it seems like we're bushwhacking the run-up to the second one every single day. What I want to see is people enacting and re-enacting peace. That's what we need.”