I could tell something had changed even before I opened the door to Pulse. There were fewer posters on the windows and fewer lights as well. The sign on the door had shorter business hours. Instead of opening at nine, they now opened at eleven. They were closing at six most days. I remember when they stayed open to eight. Nine most weekends, if not longer when a gaming session was going on.
Just inside the door, the new comics display was barely halfway full. The aisles of boxes of back issues were down to just a few. The shelves with new toys and memorabilia were gone, less than half. For a second, I thought it was a temporary thing, as the table for the signing had been placed right in the middle of the store, but then I saw the "Closed. Off-limits" signs posted on the doors to the game rooms in the back. What had happened to Pulse?
"Sir. May I help you? If you're here for the signing, you are a little early. We aren't officially fully open yet."
A young woman with a ring through her lower lip and a purple streak through her hair had popped up from behind the counter to ask me that question.
"He's the author, Carrie. Let me handle him."
Todd Foster, the old manager from when I started coming to Pulse, came out from the office door behind the counter. I thought he had left years ago for a job at Downtown Comics.
"Sorry, Todd," Carrie replied.
"You can get back to prepping for the event. I'll handle Chris." Todd was ever the charmer.
"So, Todd. What are you doing back at Pulse. I though you had moved onto Downtown. What brings you back here?"
"Not only are you still a stickler for being on time, you always want to get to the point." Todd comes over to shake my hand and give a partial hug. I try to avoid rubbing off the sweat too noticeably.
"Well, are you trying to avoid the question?"
"Chris, Pulse was bought out by Downtown last fall. In fact, we'll be shutting Pulse down once the last of the pre-orders come in the next month or two."
"No. Tim would never sell Pulse. And if Downtown owns Pulse, why aren't I doing my signing there?"
"About the signing, Davy and Harry have the new guy on Superman coming over to the main store tomorrow. His contract states that sites can't have any events within three days before or after his visit. To get you in, they decided to hold your event here."
Tad had arranged most of the venues without much input from me. He usually had me going to comic book and gaming stores, as opposed to mainstream book store, for the most part, for my tour. Because of my low level notoriety, I didn't have to have such a rider in my contract. Sure, I had a little runaround having these two signings in Lexington, but they were just far enough apart that no conflict had arisen. It looked like David Cummings and his partner and husband Harold Jackson found their own way to get around a contract too.
"That explains my signing, but how did Downtown buy out Pulse? I was pretty sure Mike would never sell."
"Well, Downtown had moved into a newer, bigger building and needed extra inventory to help fill up the space. They offered Mike a lot of change for some of his back issues. To be honest, I heard that Mike had lost his spark for the biz. He was ready to try something new. So, instead of getting some back stock, Mike sold them everything. Except the building. Mike still owns it, and Davy didn't want to have a second location. The deal was completed in February, and everyone is just waiting for the last few legalities to clear and then Pulse will be gone."
"Wow. I can't believe Pulse is closing."
"Don't think about that now. Let's get you set up. I doubt we'll have a huge crowd on a Thursday, but you never know."
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