Elvis Lives

Chapter 12 - Mall Show pt 1

The building seemed to stretch a mile on each side from the entrance that had "Vancouver Mall" written on the top of it. I looked around, trying to find where the building rounded in another direction. My gaze moved around as we stood on the bit of sidewalk outside the entrance until it landed on Hannah. Now that was a sight to behold. She had changed into a sky-blue dress with inch-thick straps, revealing her shoulders, and she did her long, shiny hair curly, and the noon sun made it illuminate. She giggled.

"You should see yourself right now," she said as a few people walked by eyeing us. "You've been to a mall before, right?"

I snapped out of it. "I have, but this is the largest one that I've ever seen. It's like a mini-town in a building."

"That's basically what malls are." She nodded her head to the building. "Let's head on in. I can't wait for you to see everything in there."

We walked on closer to the entrance and I eyed the place labeled Outback Steakhouse. I pointed a thumb to it. "That place any good? I love me a good steak now and then."

"It's amazing, but expensive. In the twenty-seven years that I've been going to this mall, I've only been to that place maybe three times. And it was put there half that time ago."

"I see. So, do you have an idea of where we're going to have this little mall show?"

She smiled, amused. She knew I was excited about this. We had left my guitar in the car until it was time to do the show. We planned on it being at five o'clock, a time when kids would be traipsing around the mall after school on a Friday evening, and when a lot of people would be off of work. It just before dinner time, so people could see the show, then go and eat somewhere, maybe in the food court Hannah told me about.

"We'll find an empty area, but I think I know a good place - outside the entrances to Old Navy and JC Penny. They're clothing stores right near each other."

I nodded, taking her word for it. "Not the food court? Wouldn't that be like a mini amphitheater with all the people there?"

We came up to the doors as she had a thinking face on. "We can check it out."

I opened one of the glass doors for her and we went on in. We were met with tile flooring and stores on each side of us. "This doesn't look too different than what I've seen."

"All malls are different, yet they are all the same. I guess it applies to sixty years ago."

This was my third day in the year 2021, so I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I was over sixty years ahead of home.

We walked on and came into the main part of the mall. People walked about, and I looked around at all the stores in this area, none of which I have heard of before. We walked passed those stores - Nordstrom's, American Eagle, Forever 21, a place called Jamba Juice...

"Let's head into Forever 21 and see if we can find you an outfit for this little concert you're putting on later," Hannah said, and I nodded. It was probably a clothing store.

We passed a stand that had things shaped like phones, but they weren't phones. Were they covers? I eyed a glittery pink one with interest. "I need to get a car that has that same paint job," I muttered to myself.

"Elvis?"

I snapped out of my ogling. "Huh? Oh, sorry, I was just lookin' at these here. Your phone doesn't have one of these things, does it?"

She stood next to me and looked at the colorful and some outlandish cases. "Maybe I should get one, huh, since my phone is basically made out of glass? You know, I've always wanted to get a phone case with your face on it, but they don't have any that fit my phone. They make all sorts of different types of phones, so some cases wouldn't fit them since they belong on certain phones. Does that makes sense?"