The Mysterious Men

This is the second prompt I posted a response to.  On reading the prompt, I immediately went to the Men in Black.

On your way into work this morning, you look at the car on your left. Inside are two men dressed in dark suits, wearing sunglasses. They simultaneously look at you and meet your gaze. The one in the passenger seat rolls down his window and says something. Write what he says, and what happens next.

As Leon drove past the Hy-Vee on his way to work, he was dreading the coming confrontation with LaDonna. Their banter from the previous afternoon took an abrupt turn and left a saccharine taste in his mouth still present the next morning. As he slowed to a stop at a yellow light, he wrung the steering wheel. Looking to his left, he saw a dark blue Suburban creep to a stop in the left turn lane. The two individuals seated in the front were dressed in black suits. Their dark sunglasses seemed out of place on such an overcast day. He did his best to glance around casually looking for some indication that he was being punked. He knew he failed. When he glanced back at them, they both turned their heads in unison towards him.

Leon immediately averted his eyes forward. As he watched the empty intersection, he heard the distinct sound of a powered window lowering. He carefully turned his head and met the ponderous stare of the passenger.

“Be about your business, citizen,” stated the man flatly.

The window rolled up while the passenger’s gaze bore holes into Leon’s soul. With a sick empty feeling in his stomach, he watched the dark SUV make the turn left towards the west side of town. It took some time for Leon to realize that he had the green light. It turned yellow before he was halfway through the intersection. He finished the journey to work driving five miles under the speed limit.

Once he was inside the shop and at his service bench, Leon shivered the tension from body and did his best to breathe slowly. He was still taking slow deep breaths and staring blanking forward when LaDonna showed up.

“What’s up, lover?” asked LaDonna.

Leon looked up and queried, “What?”

“You okay? You still not freaked out about my confession yesterday?” LaDonna gave him one of her patented smirks.

“Weirdest thing. Ever,” was all he could say.

“What’s weird? That I want to go to dinner with you?” LaDonna looked befuddled.

“No. No. The men in black.”

“Okay. You lost me.”

“The two guys in the Suburban. At the stoplight. There were two guys in black suits and sunglasses at the stoplight. They could could have been Jay and Kay if one of them had been Will Smith,” explained Leon.

“Your telling me you saw a couple men in black. Dude, you need to get out more. I can help with that,” replied LaDonna.

“‘Be about your business, citizen.’ I mean who talks like that?” asked Leon.

“They talked to you and that is all they said?” asked LaDonna.

Leon’s only response was a vague ‘I could strangle you’ gesture with his hands.

LaDonna was about to give one of her patented rebuttals when the walls shook with a deaden boom.

Leon stood, pointed to LaDonna and said, “I told you.”

They both rushed outside and saw a pillar of black smoke rising down Hamilton street in the direction the Suburban went. LaDonna gave Leon a look that he had never seen before and that scared him more than anything. He knew today was going to be a day where little would get done and past conversations have no meaning.

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