A Day At The Mall

A Trip To The Mall

A Short Story

By Kathy Hayes

The mall was quiet for a Saturday.  Maureen had several errands in the mall and she wanted to get them out of the way early.  Maureen arrived at the mall at ten AM determined to be out by noon.  She planned to pick up a sandwich for lunch and eat it on the way home.  Maureen’s children and their families were coming to dinner at her house at six PM.  There were a couple of birthdays they needed to celebrate, and plans needed to be made for the upcoming holidays.  

Maureen completed her shopping in a gift shop favored by teenagers when a loud noise sounded in the distance. Construction, she thought.  She was just entering a jeans store when an announcement came over the intercom.  She froze when she heard the announcement. There was an active shooter in the mall.  They instructed everyone to move inside of a store, any store, and shelter in place. As stores were being locked down, managers rushed to the front of the stores and motioned for shoppers to get inside.  Looking up and down the corridor and not seeing anyone else, they gave the signal for the metal bars to come down, and after that, a solid sheet of reinforced metal came crashing down.

Maureen looked around, trying to take in her surroundings.  There were only a few shoppers in this store, seven customers and four employees. Employees arranged chairs in the back of the store. A large red cooler with water bottlers inside appeared at the back of the store.  The manager of the jeans store was talking to the customers, telling them to make themselves comfortable and let them know they had plenty of water.

Maureen sat down in the nearest chair and was glad to sit down while she composed herself.  There was terror in the eyes of most of the customers, many trying to call their families to let them know what was happening, but there was no cell signal.  Maureen put her phone away and tried to relax.  She hoped this was a mistake and that soon they would learn it was just construction work or something of that nature.

As Maureen removed a paperback from her purse, she looked up at an employee handing out water.  Her breath caught in her throat and she stared into the eyes of the young man for a full minute as he handed her water.

“Richard?” Maureen said in a voice just above a whisper.

The young man, aged twenty-five, she estimated, said, “Yes, do we know each other?”

Maureen pulled herself together and said, “No, I am sorry. You just look so much like someone I knew a long time ago.”

The young man pulled a chair over and sat down next to Maureen.

“My father’s name was Richard, and I have been told I am the spitting image of him.  Richard McCoy was his name.”

Maureen felt nausea beginning in the pit of her stomach.  “Was?  Past tense?”

“Yes, my father passed away five years ago.  Cancer.”

“From the war, the Vietnam War? Chemicals sprayed over the jungles?”

“Mam, did you know my dad?”

“For a time, yes, I knew him.”

Richard looked at Maureen, taking in her looks for a few minutes. “Mam, are you Maureen?”

Maureen stared at the young man. “Yes, Maureen Riley.  How did you know?”

“My father told me about you when I was eighteen.  He was unwell, even then, and he wanted to tell me about his one true love.  My mother and father had a rocky marriage that was always on the verge of ruin. When I was sixteen, they separated.  It was not a surprise to anyone. They stayed friends, but never lived together again.”

“What did he tell you about me?  I hope you do not think I split up your parents.”

“No, I know that his relationship with you was when me and my brothers were very young. Mother did not know about it, but my father never forgot you or what you meant to him.”

“I was so young and in an abusive marriage and knew I had made a mistake as soon as we were married.  I worked with Richard at the furniture store.  He was much older than I, but so kind and easy to talk to, he listened to me. You look so like him, especially around the eyes.”

“Maureen, why did you two not end up together?  I know he loved you very much, even considered you his soulmate.  I suspect you loved him, too.  Why didn’t it work out for you two?”

“What did Richard tell you?”

Now they could hear gunshots very near to their location.  The manager of the store told everyone to get into the back room.  We all hurried to the stockroom and the large, heavy steel door slammed shut and locked.  More chairs were unfolded and placed around the small space.  The manager of the store calmed the customers and told them it was just a precaution.  He said the steel door in the store’s front was secure and this was just protocol.

Maureen sat in her chair, her eyes searching for Richard.  He came from behind a curtained area, spoke to the manager for a moment and once again, grabbed a chair and joined her.

“Where were we?”

“I asked you what Richard told you.”

“My father and I were very close.  I was the firstborn and the most like him.  As you know, my father was married two times before he married my mother.  Both of his previous marriages were during the Vietnam War and he was overseas a lot.  Marriage during wartime is difficult and both the marriages failed before they even began.  My dad served two tours of duty and eight years.  When he came out, he joined the reserves and served until he was sixty-five.”

Maureen reached for Richard’s hand. “I know your father was a tortured soul who never recovered from the horrors he saw.”

“Yes, that is true.  He had night terrors his entire life.  He never brought the horrors he saw into our home, never talked about the war, but we knew.  My mother was not as sympathetic as you might think.  She does not believe in psychological problems.  Her theory is just pull yourself up by the bootstraps and get on with it.  Maybe that is why they stayed together for so long.  She did not help him and I don’t think he wanted help. That and us kids.”

“Richard, if this is too painful, I understand.  You do not have to go into this.”

“No, I am good.  It is nice to talk with the lady who stole my dad’s heart.”

“Anyway, when I was eighteen, I went to visit him.  He was living in Randolph because it was close to the VA hospital.  He had been being treated off and on for years, but by this time, the cancer had progressed and we knew it was a matter of keeping him comfortable. Miraculously, he lived another seven years.  Mom begged him to move back in, but he refused.  It was a forty-five minute trip from Pine Mountain, but mom made the trip three of four times a week.  During my visit at eighteen, I was telling him about a girl I had met and how I thought she might be the one.  He listened to everything I said, leaned back in his chair and looked at me for a long time.”

He said, “Do you want me to tell you about my forever woman and how it didn’t work out?”

“Mom is not your forever woman?”

“Your mother is a good woman, and we have been through a lot together and she has put up with a lot.  I was not a good husband to any of my wives.  But there is one woman I could have been a good husband too, but it was not to be.  There were too many obstacles.  Maureen was a damsel in distress, and I felt the one good thing I ever did was rescue her from an impossible situation.  She was a good deal younger than me and was beautiful, a small girl with hazel eyes and auburn hair.”

“Dad, does mom know about this?”

“If she does, she has said nothing about it.  It was a love story of epic proportions, and I loved this girl very much.  I met her at the furniture store.  She was working as bookkeeper assistant to Ruthie.  You remember Ruthie.  I noticed her the first day she worked, but of course, she was off limits and way too young for me.  And, she was married to an abuser, and I was married to your mom and had three boys.  She had light in her eyes and was intelligent.  She was just beginning her life and had everything to look forward to.  I had lived half my life and was not available.  I did not want to have a third failed marriage.”

Maureen looked at Richard.  He looked so much like his father. It was eerie.  Same eyes and the same build.  Not a tall man with a stocky build, like his father.  Broad shoulder and muscular arms with a strong trunk stopping above a small waist and butt.  Like his father, he looked good in jeans.  The memory of Richard and how much he meant to her came flooding back, blushing her face.  Of all the men she had loved, Richard was the one she had always loved the most.  She had pined for him over the years, knowing the choices they made were the correct ones.

Maureen said, “When you were maybe eleven or twelve, I saw you and your brothers with your father at a department store.  He sent you guys off to the toy department and we had a brief conversation in the rug aisle.  That was the last time I ever saw him.”

“I remember that day,” said Richard.  “I remember asking my dad who the pretty lady was.  He said it was someone very special that he had known many years ago.  He wouldn’t say anything about it.  But now I realize the pretty lady was you.”

Richard continued his story.

“I fell in love with the young girl, Maureen, and she loved me.  We began a very tumultuous affair, an affair that lasted off and on for three years.  Maureen did not work at the furniture store very long, but even after she left, we continued our relationship.  At first, she was the damsel that I had to save.  Her husband strangled her one time.  She wore a scarf to hide the bruises, and she never wore scarves.  We were having lunch, and I asked her about the scarf.  She said it was the fashion, but I didn’t believe her.  I asked her to take the scarf off.  She wouldn’t. I said I want to see under the scarf, and I want to see now. She removed the scarf, and I saw the terrible bruising on her neck.  She told me what happened.  I won’t go into those details, but I left the restaurant and picked up Jimmy.  Jimmy was one of my dad’s reserve buddies.  We hunted down her husband.  He was at work in a grocery store.  I asked him to come outside.  He came out the back door of the grocery and Jimmy and I beat the crap out of him.  It was brutal and I am not proud.  I told him if he ever laid a hand on Maureen again, we would be back.  Maureen moved out soon after.  We continued our relationship, like I said, off and on.  She asked nothing of me, but I wished I could abandon everything and run off with her.  But I had already done that too many times and I had you three boys to think about.  On a reserve weekend, I got permission to miss.  We went to Asheville and spent the weekend in a cabin.  We both knew this was the last time.  She had met someone, and she wanted to explore the possibility of a relationship with him.  I understood, but it hurt like hell.  It was time for my girl to move on and get a life for herself.  We clung to each other that weekend, whispering I love you over and over.  I didn’t want the time with her to end, but I had to set her free.  It would have been selfish for me to hold her.  She is the only woman I ever told about Vietnam and the atrocities that happened there, the images that haunt me.  The anger I experienced from being involved was overwhelming.  She listened, and she talked me through some dark times.  If you look at it, she saved my marriage.  Once I had shared my experiences, I felt I could live my life with some normalcy.  If you love this woman, Richard, make sure she does it for you.  Maureen did it for me from the first moment I saw her and that never changed.  I would feel the same if I saw her today.”

“Just before he passed, I asked my dad if he wanted me to bring you to him, since he was so sick.  He told me you had settled, had a bunch of kids and had been married many years by then.  My dad did not want to risk messing up your life and said his memories were enough to carry him to the end.  Maureen, when dad was so sick on the last day of his life, he whispered your name.  Mom was out of the room.”

“Such a difficult time for all of you,” Maureen said.

“Maureen, my love,” were his last words, Maureen.

Maureen had tears in her eyes as she remembered the Richard that she loved so much.  The tortured soul who had endured so much and given up so much in that awful war.  Her Richard who had tried to protect her, her Richard who encouraged her and told her she could be anything she wanted to be.

“Richard, did your father know I am an author?”

“Yes, he did, and he was so proud of that.  He told me he always knew you could put pen to paper.  I hope one day you will write his story.”

“Did your love at age eighteen work out?”

“No, of course not.  I took my dad’s advice, and I only found my true love last year.  We are planning a spring wedding.  Maureen, she does it for me.  The first time I saw her, I knew.  She is my soulmate, and I am glad I waited until she came along.  She is a nurse, and I will be the manager of this store in six months.  Will is retiring, and I have been training under him to take over.”

“You have a wonderful future ahead of you and I wish you all the best.  I know your mother must be very proud of you.  I am so glad your father stuck with all of you.  He did not want to fail again.  He wanted to face his responsibilities head on and become a better person, father and husband.  I know they separated, but at least both of them were there for you.”

Maureen looked again at Richard’s clone and said, “I hope you do not hate me for what happened.”

“Hate you?  I am so grateful that my father had you to talk to.  I think your love saved him.  He never forgot you and neither will I.”

An announcement came over the speaker.  All was clear.  The stores could open their fronts, but nobody was to leave.  They just needed to make sure all was okay.  All the doors opened at the shops and people were being released from this store or that by the FBI.  That day, two young shooters had injured six people.  Apart from the two young perpetrators, there were no other fatalities.  They committed suicide by cop.  It was a sad affair and caused Maureen to run behind schedule, but she didn’t mind.  She was thankful that she had this moment with this very special young man.  

Love can happen any time, any place.  Sometimes appropriate, sometimes not.  Sometimes lasting, many times not.  We all remember our loves and sometimes we wish for a different outcome.  But Maureen knew there would never have been a life with Richard.  Despite her enduring love for him, their relationship could not last. She knew she was lucky. Lucky to have known many loves, many kinds of love in her life.  Maureen felt lighter knowing what happened to Richard and knowing that she meant as much to him as he did to her.

“Maureen, I would like to stay in touch with you.  I think you knew my dad better than anyone, and I don’t want to lose this connection.”

“It will be an honor to count you as a friend, Richard.”

They exchanged contact information and Maureen left the mall, calling Dan, her husband, as she made her way to her car.

“Yes, darling, I am fine. Yes, I was always safe.  The celebration tonight will be skimpy. The errands did not get done and now it is too late. Heading home. I will see you there.  And Dan, I love you.”