Back to the mall

His time with the Latina had given John the desire for something else hot wet and South-American, namely coffee. He headed toward the ‘bucks. As he walked there, however he began to get depressed. He was only a senior in high-school and even he was beginning to find the number of chain stores in the mall excessive. Some of his fondest childhood memories were of places which had been squeezed out by places like The Gap, McChucks, and Starbucks. He began to yearn for the time before the Golden Arches ever came to his town.

He should have remembered that Gina was a mind-reader as suddenly all the chain-stores were replaced by equivalent independent stores. The Borders became ‘Local Books’ a musty, cozy looking bookshop, McChucks and Burger King became ‘O’Grady’s Real Meat Burgers’ and ‘The Burgher’, even the ‘bucks had become a nice little café. There was, however, still The Gap (although it was smaller).

“What gives?” asked John.

“Sorry, John, it is an unalterable rule of the universe that every mall must have a Gap. I’m almost omnipotent, but there are some things even I cannot change.”

John shrugged, at least it didn’t seem to be that popular.

Now, however, he was thinking that he might like to explore the ‘new’ mall. Maybe he could wait for that coffee.