Utterly and Completely Lost

Utterly and Completely Lost

Weekends are a gift to those who work non-stop during the week. Shopping at the neighborhood mall is the cherry on top of the cake. I am 32 years old, married, and a mother of two. The mall is like my second home, where I can spend a few hours casually strolling from store to store at my own pace, with no deadlines to meet and eat lunch whenever I want. My husband and children always decide to stay at home since they think of endless activities they’d rather do than go shopping. This is fine with me, as it gives me much-needed time to myself. I am familiar with the location of all the stores in this mall and have even become good friends with some of the clerks.

One Saturday morning, I decided to stay home from the mall and continue reading the mystery novel I had started a few days ago. When reading certain books, I become so engrossed in the storyline that I find myself immersed in the story, placing myself right alongside the characters. In the mystery I am currently reading, there are two detectives, along with myself, of course, spying on my next-door neighbor, who was a suspect in a recent neighborhood murder. The night air was getting chilly due to the brisk breezes blowing. Then, the detectives, houses, and neighborhoods began to fade away.

The next thing I remember is browsing the Christmas-decorated store windows on the second floor of the mall. Everywhere I looked were colorful strands of Christmas decorations and lights, and the most beautiful sight located in the center of the mall: a golden, glittering star placed carefully on the tip of a multi-colored, lighted Christmas tree that almost reached the ceiling.

My first stop while shopping was the cosmetics store where there was counter after counter of cosmetics for every type of skin imageable. A middle-aged lady was having a makeover for a special evening that night. Her makeup looked very heavy, especially her eyes, which were hardly visible through all the mascara and eyeliner. I thought that I didn’t need any cosmetics now, so I went back out into the mall to figure out where I would walk next.

Next to the escalator was a pretzel shack, something I didn’t remember seeing before. The pretzels were gigantic, with some smothered in a rich, creamy layer of chocolate and others coated with creamy peanut butter. The pretzels were huge, large enough to share with two to three people. There was a lengthy line of hungry customers in front of the shack waiting to order one of these salty delights. How awful if, at the end of the long wait, they found out the pretzels had been sold out.

Standing in the center of the mall near the Christmas tree, I looked around and noticed a passageway between two stores, which were unfamiliar to me. The larger store was playing hard rock music that filled the entire second level. The other store played no music, but people in there were listening and dancing wildly to the rock music. People up and down the mall were even dancing to the loud music.

I walked between the two stores down the dark corridor. An extremely tall clown appeared out of nowhere, eating one of the humongous chocolate pretzels while laughing and dancing to the music.

Slowly walking down the hallway, I didn’t see any stores. There were vendors on both sides of the walkway, as far down as I could see, selling everything imaginable. People would go to the tables, take what they wanted, drop it in their shopping bags, and walk away without paying. That was the acceptable way to shop at these vendor stands.

The hallway was getting darker and darker. There was no sound ahead, just complete quietness, so I decided to turn around and backtrack to the mall. When I turned around, the layout looked entirely different. It felt as though I was smothered by the noise of the vendors, customers, and loud music. The hallway appeared longer now than when I first entered and with no end in sight. Walking faster, I thought to myself, “If only I could find the center of the mall, everything would be okay. Where did it go?” People were racing everywhere, acting as if they had no idea where they were going.

Finally, I saw the bright light emitting from the mall and was so relieved. Finally, I arrived, looked around, and, to my utmost surprise, didn’t recognize any of the stores. The pretzel shack was replaced by a helium balloon shop, “Up We Go,” where colorful balloons floated up and down the mall, and children ran after them, trying to catch one. Thinking I had had enough of this bizarre mall, I wanted to leave; however, I couldn’t find the exit to the parking lot, no matter which direction I went. It took a few seconds to realize I was wholly and utterly lost. Nerves were starting to set in, along with a growing sense of panic. No one knew where the parking lot was. No one cared where the parking lot was.

The more I walked up and down the mall, the more unusual and crazier it became, and I grew increasingly restless. I looked over the rail down to the first level and saw a large swimming pool in the center of the mall filled with children and adults excitedly splashing each other. They were fully dressed, and the adults were carrying their shopping bags that somehow were not getting wet. “What is going on?” I nervously thought to myself.

I stood still for a few minutes, and suddenly, I heard a loud bang like a door slamming shut. At first, I couldn’t find the source of the sound, but then I felt my eyes open, and I realized I was on the couch in the family room with the mystery book I was reading lying beside me. After fully waking up, I realized the events I experienced in the mall were only a dream. “Phew! Thank goodness, I’m back home,” I thought as I rubbed my eyes, reliving how frightening it was to feel so lost among so many people, with no one caring about you since everyone was too busy attending to their own needs.

“Hopefully, by next weekend,” I thought, “I will have forgotten this crazy dream and look forward to spending a normal, whatever normal is, few hours at the neighborhood mall.