Chapter 74: Reminder to Fear Malls

Morgan's question stuck with me for the next two hours as we wandered the mall. Beatrice had handed out cash to everyone when we first arrived and told us to spend it as we pleased. Angelique had been given a twenty and begged to be shown where she might purchase a teddy bear.

I found a children's store and took Angelique inside as my friends scattered throughout the mall. Angelique wandered the entire store, gazing longingly at a couple of the dolls before heading over to an area filled with stuffed animals. She quickly found a white rabbit that she cuddled to her chest. I knelt down to ask her if she was done, and she picked up a small teddy bear and placed it in my hand. "For you!" she insisted.

I wanted to protest, but Angelique's stance made it clear she was prepared to argue with me. I nodded and glanced at the bear. It was small enough to fit into a pocket. Silently hoping that the single twenty Angelique had would be enough, I pointed to the front of the store. "You have to pay."

Angelique smiled and took the small bear from my hand. The four-year old girl ran to the front of the store. I had barely managed to stand back up when I heard an astonished voice. "Can you pay?"

I cursed thinking that Angelique was going to have trouble. There was a hiss of someone inhaling and then a sigh. "I guess you can. Let me ring this up," the voice said.

Electronic beeps began ringing out in the quiet store. I made my way to the front and found Angelique standing in front of the cash register. A middle-aged woman was holding the bear and examining the tag attached to it.

"They always hide the barcode," the woman muttered. "Oh, can I help you?"

Angelique came over and hugged my leg. "I'm getting them Daddy."

"Daddy?" the cashier said. "You can't be this girl's father."

"I'm watching her while her mother goes shopping for some more risqué items," I said carefully. "She didn't want her daughter exposed."

The woman nodded as she finally found the code she needed to scan. She hit a couple of keys on the cash register and looked down at Angelique. "That came to fifteen dollars and forty-six cents."

I reached into a pocket and pulled out fifty cents as Angelique held up the twenty. The cashier took the twenty just as I held out the two quarters. "Use these, so you just have to give her a five back."

The cashier nodded and proceeded to finish the transaction. Angelique was thrilled to get the change. She folded it up and slipped it into a pocket on her pants before accepting the bag containing the two animals.

We were turning to leave when I noticed Miki heading our way. The Japanese girl had changed tops and was wearing a small bikini top over a tartan skirt. She ran to the entrance of the store and launched her body towards me.

"Darling!" she shouted in a heavily accented voice.

I caught Miki as Angelique burst out laughing. "Auntie Miki!" the young girl cried out happily as she set the bag she was holding on the floor. As I spun Miki in my arms Angelique pulled out the white rabbit she had just purchased.

Angelique held the rabbit up so Miki could see it. "Look what I found! I'm going to call it George."

"A rabbit named George?" Miki said.

"Hey, we could write a song about it. After all the story of a boy named Sue was a big hit years ago," I said.

Miki laughed and then picked up Angelique. "Your mother will love it," she said.

Angelique nodded. "I might have called him Mark, but she wouldn't like that. In her eyes there is only one Mark."

Miki gazed at me fondly as she carried Miki back into the mall. "In my eyes too," she said fondly as I picked up the bag Angelique had dropped.

"Her mom?" the woman behind the cash register asked me.

"Miki is an exchange student. She's staying with my best friend's sister and came to the mall with all of us," I said as I dashed from the store.

I turned away from Miki and jogged down the walkway. There were large planter boxes that dotted the mall. I moved behind one and looked back at the store. The cashier was looking in the direction Miki had traveled, scanning the sparse crowd.

I continued heading the direction I had started. The crowd in the mall was now slowly growing. Ahead I noticed a game store.

As I walked to the entrance Erica ran over. "You're here!" she said happily.

"Where would I be?" I asked.

"Trying to peek on Ashley and Lenore as they try on nighties," Erica said firmly. "Of course Jason managed to sneak into the dressing room while Jana was trying on one outfit."

I winced. "I don't want to know, do I?"

Erica giggled. "Jana was happy about it."

"Like I said, I really don't want to know," I repeated as we entered the game store.

"Welcome to Galaxy of Games," a young man shouted as we entered. "Can I interest you in anything?"

"I'm looking for some good coop or Euro games. Worker placement games would be especially good," I said.

The man frowned. "Wouldn't you rather get into the latest card game? We have a new one, or you can pick up 'Magic: The Gathering.' It's a great game and easy to learn."

"I need something that allows up to six players and can be taught to a four year old. She already knows about worker placement games," I said.

The man frowned again. "At that age you don't want worker placement. We have a great tabletop combat game that is based on comic books. The figures are collectable, and its simple to teach."

"Just point me to the worker placement games," I said with a sigh.

"How about deck building? That is relatively simple," the man countered.

"Mark!" Erica shouted. "I found the Euro-game area. There are some neat ones."

The cashier glared at me as I headed into the store. "You'll hate those games," he called out.

Erica had already grabbed several boxes. "Oh, look at this one, it has a fantasy theme! This one is nice too; it looks like you are trying to explore an area. Mark why don't we play games more?"

"We are often busy," I reminded her. "Now let's choose no more than four."

"Four?" Erica asked. "That's a lot! Are you planning something?"

"Did you ever consider that we might take these along? We have some games at home, but if we prepare, we should be able to bring games anytime we are near a possible pickup," I reminded her.

"Which means we could have games with us!" Erica said clapping her hands. "Oh, I know some games to get."

Erica dashed about pulling games from the shelves. She was paying no attention to the count, and when she finished, I was holding five different worker placement games, two expansions for those games, four other Euro-games, and a collection of deck building games.

"Erica?" I asked carefully.

"What? You'll like all of those games," Erica told me. "And some can be played by Angelique."

"Deck building?" I asked.

"Did you look at the pictures? Those are from Japan and are cute. Miki will love that you thought to get them," Erica told me.

"I doubt she'll appreciate cards with artwork depicting scantily clad French maids. Many look far more slutty than sexy," I said dubiously.

"You can't know that," Erica said. "Besides, it will be easy to make sure that the cards are packed. The box is sized for it."

I nodded. "Very well. But you have to carry them today."

Erica just smiled. She claimed half of the games from my arms and carried them over to the register. The young man who had greeted us glared at me until he saw the number of games.

"What are you preparing for? A zombie apocalypse?" He asked.

"Now how could these games be useful in one of those? We'd be running for our lives," I replied.

"Mark, I'm hungry," Erica said.

The cashier was ringing up the order. I pulled out my phone and dialed Beatrice. The phone only managed to ring once before I heard Becky's voice.

"We can meet just outside the steakhouse near the center of the mall," Becky said. "Morgan was just starting to call everyone."

"I didn't even get to say why I was calling," I said.

"I know, but I decided to answer the most likely question," Becky said. "I want to get back to trying on the bikinis Beatrice and I found."

"Do I want to know?" I asked. "More importantly do I want to know what Lenore and Ashley found."

"Nope," Becky said cheerfully. "They found ones that will be fine on the slides, and then they found some that have less fabric than your average washcloth."

"Why?" I asked.

Becky giggled. "Because the outfits look awesome on their bodies. They figure it will get all the blood flowing to your lower brain, and you'll never abandon them."

"Would I?" I asked. "They make me happy."

"That will be six hundred forty-two dollars and eighty cents," the cashier said interrupting my phone conversation.

"Ack, must pay a bill," I said. "We'll meet you shortly."

"We?" Becky asked.

"Erica is with me," I said.

I hung up the phone and pulled out my wallet. I was able to carefully extract seven one hundred dollar bills and pass them to the cashier. His eyes widened as he accepted the bills and began checking their authenticity.