Today we are going to the mall. What is a mall? Well, it is a huge building containing a marketplace. One can find practically anything here. Clothing, footwear, jewelry, art, scented candles, sports equipment, electronics, lotions, toys, candy, furniture, cooking utensils, reading material, stationery, gifts, music... the list goes on and on!
In addition to all of those things, there is also food. Malls sometimes contain restaurants, but they also usually have a food court. A food court is a courtyard surrounded by vendors, who sell different types of food from around the world: Chinese, Mexican, Greek, Indian, Italian and of course a lot of traditional American food like hot dogs, deli sandwiches, and fried chicken. My favorite is the gourmet coffee and pastry stand. The food court is usually very pleasant, with tall plants and glass ceilings to let in the light.
Malls also contain amusements, such as video games, miniature trains for children to ride, places to have your photo taken, and places to create your own stuffed animal.
What stores look most appealing to you? Where would you like to go first? What would you like to eat?
The mall is all yours!
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I like to go to the candle store and smell all the new scents. Next I browse in the bookstore. Then I like to get a cappuchino and sit in the food court, reading what I bought.
In my former life on the surface, I used to work in a mall. Hate to sound like a downer, but I despised working there.
I was a lab technician at a one-hour photo place, and obnoxious kids would watch me printing people's photos, hoping to see something pornographic.
Actually, printing the pictures wasn't so bad, except on my really bad days. Depression is not a good thing to have when you're seeing happy wedding and graduation photos, day after day. But what was really awful were my coworkers - what a bunch of low-lifes. Glad those days are long behind me.
That's not utterly true, Devi. You didn't always hate the mall. Remember this passage from the novel?
Three teenaged girls, bubbling with gossip, flitted through the side entrance and headed for the bowels of the mall, where closed boutiques would soon tempt them with strapless prom gowns and accessories galore. Two elderly cohorts, dressed in sweatsuits and sneakers, came speed-walking past J. C. Penney’s perfume displays, oblivious to all but their morning exercise routine. A middle-aged woman screamed angrily from the wrong side of a mesh gate, crying out for someone in the kitchenware store to open up already. Never mind that it was still nine-thirty on a Monday, and the mall stores didn’t officially welcome their customers before ten.
Devi, familiar with the early crowd, watched from a nearby bench as she sipped her coffee. Once upon a time, they’d amused her – the air-headed adolescents, the fitness-minded retirees, even the unfulfilled crab apples, swooping upon Lakeside Shopping Center, often before the employees had even arrived in the back rooms of their respective emporiums. But the pathetic mall subculture, common to every suburb, no longer fascinated her. She couldn’t remember when the mystique had dissolved, but it certainly had, like Charlie’s piss in the rain. Perhaps it was the morning that she stopped kidding herself and realized that, at forty-one, she was just another hapless mall employee and had no reason to feel superior.
So, you didn't think of malls as such a bad place at one time - at least before you worked there.
You got me, Author. You got me.
I'm just glad I'm far below the earth now. I'll leave the malls to you.
I'm not a big shopper, especially at Christmas time, when the malls are brimming with stressed-out people. But I love the variety you find in a mall.
Like Ginger, I'm a fan of candle shops and bookstores. I like bath-and-body places, too - mostly for the smells. And I love it when a mall has one of those new-fangled emporiums, like Brookstone or Sharper Image. I enjoy looking - or playing with - all the stuff I can't afford, like massage chairs. Mmm.
And, of course, most malls have movie theaters, and I so love a movie. When Dan and I lived in L.A., we'd often go this one mall on a weekend night - have some sushi for dinner and Ben & Jerry's for dessert, hang out in Borders for a while, and then head upstairs to the awesome AMC. Ah, heaven!
Indigo and I don't encounter malls too often. But sometimes, we wander inside, especially when we're traveling through particularly hot or cold places and need to cool down or warm up. I'm ashamed to say that we snuck into a movie once, a long time ago, and I felt so guilty, we never did it again. I don't even remember now what the movie was...
But we'll go to the mall with y'all. I love bookstores - and the smells in the food court are pretty nice, too.
I'm with my author. I like the free massage chairs.
But I'm more into farmers markets than the mall... especially the ones in California, with simultaneous arts fairs. Someone's almost always got an incense booth, and I'm a nut for incense.
I'm always up for some new clothes. And some shoes. And jewelry.
Ricky, you have your credit card with you, right?
Why do you make me buy you things? Just conjure what you want.
Who paid of your credit balance, Ricky? Hm? And who gave you the Lexus?
Now, come on. I want some new boots.
A mall outing? Great idea! Which one of these stores would sell leather pants? The last pair I bought went missing.
They're not missing, Bo. One of those girls from last night took them as a souvenir. I saw her sneaking out the hotel room with them.
Why didn't you stop her, fairy? Oh, never mind. I'll just buy some more. There's a lot of women at this mall. It looks like a good time.
Well, I'm going to the food court for some ice cream. Who wants to join me? I'll buy!
Ooh, I'll go, Nevin. I can't pass up ice cream... especially if it's free.
Bring your friend, Meg. Everyone likes ice cream!
Most malls have leather pants somewhere, Bo. Usually in those punk-style stores. I love those stores... I'm fascinated by all the leather and studs. Just don't think I'd look too good in them.
Which reassures your mother somehow. :-)
Thanks, Nevin. I'd love to join the ice cream run. Never got much of that on the reservation.
Now I'm in Durham there is a mall to go to. No mall in the wilds, you know.
I go to central area. Well, the upper level over looking the people hurrying, wandering and just standing about like me. I don't need things. I don't go to buy things. But I find it one of the most peaceful places here. I watch for the lone shoppers and wonder if they are as alone as I feel.
That's kind of sad, Flower. But I know what you mean.
I used to enjoy sitting in the mall, watching the various people stroll by. There was something peaceful about it... and I often wondered about the lone shoppers. Were they lonely and just in need of stimuli, or were they trying to find something special... FOR someone special?
I never thought to ask. Seemed like an invasion of privacy, even in such a public place.
I'm such a writer in the mall. The people I see I remember, and write up later. But the words that stand out go straight into my notebook.
My favourite spots are the bridge over the foodcourt and the coffee shops. I love to stand among the energy of Christmas shoppers that get more desperate as the day goes on.
At the Reading Festival the Samaritan's Organisation had a tent amongst the food outlets. They were instantly accessible to anyone who felt the pressure of loneliness or those who had fallen out with the groups they had travelled with. Perhaps a presence in the Mall, coffee and a listening ear, would also be pre-emtive. Malls must be very depressing when your lonely.
On the contrary, when I first moved to the East coast and felt very alone, I went to the mall all the time!
It was nice to be part of something, without having to actually speak to anyone if you didn't want to. There were so many stores to browse in, so many things to look at.
I'm afraid the temptation to overspend was a problem, though. I had a real job and a full-time paycheck for the first time in my life.
But I loved the mall. Especially at Christmas. There is just something so universal about Christmas, that binds everyone together.
Also, my grandfather was a mall pro. He would sit and wait for my grandmother while she shopped. He called himself "a people watcher."
His favorite saying was, "People are funnier than anybody."
Haha! What a funny saying... Grandfolks are funnier than anybody!
It's about time. I don't think Aidan owns anything without a tear or a stain on it.
Well I don't like shopping. Everybody stares at us and the whole thing just makes me feel weird. And malls are overwhelming.
Besides, I fit into your stuff just fine, Kae. :)
Since I'm relatively new to CIC, I have no idea what you two look like. What makes you so weird-looking, Aidan and Kaelin, that mall folks would stare at you?
P.S. Nevin, if you're still around, thanks for the ice cream yesterday!
Hey, Meg, since we're still here, why don't we go get our pictures taken in that little booth over there?
Okay! What a great idea.
I'll race you to it! Last one there's a rotten tomato!
Aidan, I guarantee... nobody would stare at you in New Jersey.
Nutmeg,
It's mostly because they're twins. But they're distinctive looking, too, long white hair, tanned skin, and tall. Attractive enough - rather exotic to humans, I think. But it's really Aidan who draws the attention. People can feel him prowling around in their minds, though they have trouble figuring just what it is about him that makes them feel so funny.
I like the mall all right. Pretty girls there.
I'd like to go somewhere I could just blend. So far I've never found it. New Jersey sounds nice.
Marc, it sounds like the twins could blend in with a Nordic population. Your description reminds me of Eric Northman the vampire on True Blood. Mmm, dreamy.
Um, what the heck are you doing watching HBO, Sis?
Oh, poop. I didn't realize you were lurking... don't tell Mom, 'kay?
I'm surprised Bo hasn't camped out in front of Victoria's Secret yet.
Victoria doesn't really *have* any secrets, does she?
We're as tall as Eric. But we're a lot more dark-skinned than him. Whenever we're in Northern Europe people still look at us. Muscle wise, we're a little leaner, too.
Oh, okay. Just trying to help you feel more at home... somewhere.
Either way, you sound dreamy to me.
Sis!
What can I say? I'm a teenager. And a girl, no less.
Aw, Sam, you should see the pictures that me and Indy took. Too funny!
Hey, Ginger, I have to admit, I'm a little surprised that Bo's MIA, too. I'd think Victoria's secrets (or lack there of) would entice him, too.
Samantha,
Heh, you've got Aidan all red-cheeked now.
Not so dreamy, though. Adorable is the word I'm --
KNOCK IT OFF!
Samantha, ignore Marc. He's a pain.
Hahahahaha! Aidan is dragging Marc down the beach for a head-soaking.
You suppose we should go help Marc?
Hell no.
What say we go to the mall instead.
Oh, goody. Aidan's coming to the mall. Maybe I can make him blush in person...
Now, Sam. That's not very nice.
I am not blushing! That's just something Marc said.
Who's all wet. But yeah, I'm happy to hang with you at the mall any time, Samantha. Maybe if I hang out with normal people, others won't stare so much...
That's how it works at my school, Aidan. If a cool kid hangs out with a nerd, the others don't think of the nerd as, well, such a big nerd anymore. So, maybe it'll be that way for demons, too.
I'm just so excited that I know a demon. Wait, you are a demon, right?
I feel like I should object or something, but oddly, this doesn't bother me. I guess when your mom lives in an underworld, things don't faze you as much.
I'm a demon. A nice one, I guess. It helps that I thought I was human until a couple of years ago.
Don't worry, Olivia. We'll accompany them so nothing untoward happens.
Sometimes you sound so...old, Jase. It's weird. But yeah, Olivia, they don't let me "wander off" as they like to call it.
Besides, maybe Samantha can take me to a cool store or something. I'm not much for shopping, like I said, so I have no idea where to start.
I for one would like if Aidan had his own decent clothes so he'd stay out of mine.
Oh, I'd love to help, Aidan. I actually have pretty good taste, as teenagers go... and maybe we can find you some duds that will make you seem less conspicuous, since that seems to be your goal. :-)
Incidentally, I'm happy that you're a nice demon... I've always wanted to make friends with a nice one. Buffy and Angel are surely to blame for my fascination...
Somehow, Jason, that makes me feel a little better, so thanks.
Besides, I like to see my girl broadening her horizons a bit...
I'm nice but stay away from Kaelin.
Will do, Aidan.
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