Asleep And Places Like It

I was a witness to one of these raids. It took place on a Sunday afternoon; I was tipped off and sat waiting in my car. The operation began very suddenly, abruptly, out in the parking lot of the mall. An eighteen wheeler entered the lot, but instead of slowing down as it approaches the core building, it accelerated and skidded sideways, slamming to a stop in front of the main entrance to the mall. But before it had come to a complete stop, just as it was beginning to slow down, doors pop open on the trailer, the two sides and in back, and steel ramps came sliding out to grate, rasp, and rattle like slithery silver tongues with steely bell-like tones. And down the ramps come about twelve powerful wheelchairs, very fast. The chairs are equipped with a kind of an air brush on a crane, and a sheet metal template of the handicap parking symbol. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. It seemed like everything was happening at high speed, like in a speeded-up film projector. Later I figured that they'd e