The Mall (Novelette)

Chapter 1

Mopping up vomit wasn’t Todd’s favorite thing to do, but as much as he did it, you would think it was. As with anything, if you are good at something you usually end up doing it a lot more. Night after night, he committed himself to keeping Frost creek mall looking as good as possible. He went above and beyond when it came to his janitor duties. Often coming in early and staying late without asking for overtime. The biggest problem was nobody cared. Todd was invisible when he did good things, but was chastised very publicly when things didn’t go right. It wasn’t his fault that lady slipped and tumbled down the escalator, he had the ‘wet floor’ sign up. And that Black Friday incident of a few years ago. He was in training and didn’t know how to secure the top of a sixty foot tall Christmas tree. Fortunately no body was hurt when it came crashing down, but Todd was the one picked to clean up that mess. He smelled like pine for two weeks after that. The funny thing was, things like that seemed to always happen around Todd. Never anything outright or malicious. And nobody could prove any wrongdoing, things  just seemed to happen. Mostly, Todd kept to himself. He enjoyed doing his job and hanging out with his friends. He was a likeable guy. A lot of people told him he looked like Tom Hanks in the movie ‘Big’. But I think it was more his youthful innocence than his actual looks. Being in his late twenties, youthful innocence was hard to maintain. Todd and his friends managed to do it though. To call Todd’s group of friends ‘Eclectic’ would be a tremendous understatement. They were one nutty group. In fact, Todd wasn’t really sure when most of them had even become his friends. Todd shrugged it off.
‘It must’ve been after the accident.‘ He thought. They had hung out together for years, ever since high school. Going to movies was getting a little boring though. Playing video games got real old real quick, with the twins being champion gamers. And exactly one football game with Zoey was more than enough for most of the group. Somewhere along the line, someone suggested going to the mall after hours. Todd definitely wasn‘t crazy about the idea, but they held a vote and Todd lost nine to one.
“Looks like you lose, Toddzilla.“ Zoey said, giving him a noogie. “I guess you play by our rules or go play by yourself.“
Todd clenched his teeth, and looked like he was about to tell Zoey something, but something held him back.
‘One of these days.’ Todd thought. ‘You’ll get what you deserve.’
So, Todd gave in, like always and told the others to show up around midnight. They were to park in the underground garage and he would meet them at the service elevator. This gave him three hours to get all his work done. He rushed around emptying trash cans, cleaning toilets, he even dust mopped at a full sprint. When midnight rolled around, he was exhausted. He brought an office chair with him to the elevator, so he could sit down while he waited for everyone to show up.
They started arriving one by one. Chip pulled up in his Jeep, with a ‘Navy’ license plate on the front. He parked and walked over to Todd. He was 6’ 2”, muscular, with dark hair that was in a crew cut. He walked with confidence but not arrogance.
“Am I the first to arrive?” Chip said.
“Looks like it.” Todd said, giving Chip a ‘bro hug’.
Chip checked his watch.
“You said to be here at zero hundred, right?”
“Actually, I said midnight.”
Chip laughed.
“That’s why I like you man, you’re a cutup.”
Todd laughed along, trying to figure out what he had said that was so funny.
A red Corvette screeched around the corner and sped toward the elevator, blinding Todd as he and Chip dove out of the way. The car turned at the last second, doing a 180, and slid to a stop beside Chip’s Jeep.
“Are you insane?” Chip yelled. “You almost killed us!”
The man slowly, deliberately got out of the Corvette. He was Chip’s size and build, only with blond wavy hair, wearing sunglasses, and oozing with self importance.
“Oh, sorry there Chips ahoy, didn’t see you.” He said.
“Maybe if you took your sunglasses off, you could see Zoey!” Chip said.
The remark hit the exact target Chip was aiming for, Zoey’s pride. Anger erupted like an explosion.
“I told you, call me ‘Z’!” He said, rushing toward Chip, fists raised. Chip ducked his wild swing, grabbed him by the collar and planted him into his own car.
“Ahem.” Came a shrill sound from inside the car. Chip and Z both looked at each other.
“I’m waiting!” Came an impatient voice. Zoey seemed to deflate a little. He pulled away from Chip, went to the other side of the car, and opened the door. Amanda stepped out. She was 5’9”, drop dead gorgeous, with more curves than a roller coaster. Satisfied that all eyes were on her, she pulled out her compact and checked her makeup.
“Hello boys.” She said, as if just noticing them. Todd and Chip rolled their eyes.
“Hello Amanda.” They sing songed in unison. She went back to primping as the twins pulled up on their identical motor scooters. The tires seemed to re-inflate as Bob and Tom dismounted. Each was 5’10” and weighed two hundred and fifty pounds (Not one ounce of it was muscle). They called each other ‘Mario’ and ‘Luigi’ (though they each claimed to be Mario). They even tried to grow thick mustaches (failing miserably).
“How’s it going, guys?” Todd asked.
“Powered up, dude!” They said. The rest of the group arrived at the same time. Nancy-The Goth girl, Sam-The nice guy, Jessie-The valedictorian, and last came Evan-The scary dude. Everyone else was on the freight elevator when Evan drove his motorcycle in. People dove out of the way as Evan screeched to a stop.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Zoey screamed.
“Not very fun when someone tries to run you over, is it Zoey?” Chip said with a smug smile. Zoey started toward Chip, but Evan revved his bike and lurched into his path.
“Move the bike!” Zoey growled.
Evan revved up the bike, making it impossible to hear, then held his hand behind his ear, feigning deafness. No one else muttered a word of complaint. Evan’s temper was famous, and no one felt like seeing it tonight.
Todd brought the elevator up to the main floor. As soon as the doors opened, Evan roared off. Todd looked at the rest, standing there, choking on exhaust fumes.
“Welcome to the Frost creek mall.” He told them.
They slowly emerged from the oversized elevator, into a darkened corridor.
“It seems eerie without all the lights on.” Jessie said.
“And no people.” Sam said.
“No people is a good thing.” Nancy said, adjusting her spiked bracelet.
“It’s so quiet.” Chip said, just before Evan’s motorcycle roared in the distance. “For the most part.” He said, rolling his eyes.
“So, who’s up for a game of hide and seek?” Todd said, smiling.
“What are you, twelve?” Zoey said.
“How about we play ‘Serial killer’.” Nancy said, with a gleam in her eye.
“How do you play that?” Chip asked.
“Ten slips of paper, on one of them, you write ‘killer’. Everyone takes a slip and hides. Once everybody is hidden, we take our slip of paper out and see if we are the killer. Whoever has that slip hunts us down until we are all dead.” Nancy finished with a stabbing motion.
The others looked around, feeling slightly uncomfortable.
“That’s a little macabre, isn’t it?” Jessie said.
“That’s the whole point.” Nancy said. “Add a little excitement.”
“I’m in!” Evan said, though no one remembered hearing him drive up.
“Where’s your bike?” The twins asked.
Evan whipped around and glared at them.
“Don’t worry about it, it’s safe.”
“Okay.” Sam said, trying to reduce the tension. “Let’s play then.”
“What are the ground rules?” Jessie asked Todd.
“Umm…“ Todd said, thinking it over. “No going into stores, no going outside, no doing anything I would have to clean up or repair.”
“Fair enough.” Chip said. “Let’s go.”
Todd secretly found himself hoping to get the ‘Killer’ tag, just so he could kill Zoey.
They all grabbed their slip of paper and ran off in separate directions. All except for Evan, he just stood there for a moment, looking around at the huge empty building. He unfolded his slip of paper, smiled, then started walking in the direction he’d seen one of the others go. They had all been to this mall before, and each had their favorite stores, but tonight was different. Perhaps it was the lowered lights, casting odd shadows, perhaps the stillness of the place made it seem almost alive. Whatever it was, they all felt it…this was a different place at night.


http://www.amazon.com/The-Mall-ebook/dp/B00EWO7T8Q/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378416212&sr=1-4

They said what?

Kids...you just never know what they're going to say. Here are some of the head shakers that my kids have come up with over the years.


“Mommy, is chicken made out of chicken?”

“Daddy, what does onion powder taste like?”

“Mommy, does chicken come from cows?”

“I’m not really hungry, I just want food.”

I asked my wife to pick up a few things at the store.
Hearing this, my preschooler says, 
”Mommy, will you bring me some diarrhea?”

Walking across a parking lot, my tired preschooler looks up at me and says, 
“Daddy, my feet have a headache.”

In a restaurant, waiting for our food to come, I was reading the place mat which posed the question, 
“If you were alone on an island, and you could only bring one thing with you, what would it be?”  My middle schooler’s  response was, 
“A boat.”

Walking through the parking lot to the grocery store, my eight year old tripped and fell on the asphalt.  I picked her up, and checked her out, concerned that she might have hit her head.  Not finding any marks on her, I asked her, 
“What did you hit?”
With tears streaming down her face, she said, 
“I hit the ground.”

My ten year old had done something wrong, and I had sat her down to explain to her what she had done, and why it was wrong.  In the middle of explaining, I noticed that her attention had drifted away from me.  I stopped and asked, 
“What did I just say?”  
Her immediate answer was, 
“What did I just say?”


“Dad, are they selling the bank?”
“I don’t think so, why?”
“The sign on the bank says, ‘loan sale’.”