A Trip to the Mall

Here's a recent observation-based story about my trip to the mall. It was cold and rainy that day so the story has a bit of a dark and gloomy tone. Hope you like it. Feel free to leave comments and/or critics. (Things you liked or didn't like. Things that work or didn't work for the story.) I am always looking for ways to better my writing.

Rain. Cold. Wind blowing south. I race to my old, Chevy Equinox, from the front door. The stray cats scatter in fear at the sound of my footsteps. Bolting faster than lighting. My teeth chattering as I fight the key into the ignition. Pulling out of my community, my breaks shriek in agony, still stiff from the cold. Hands tightly grab onto the steering wheel as I head into the fog. It’s quiet. Small dark figures appear in the distance. Vultures. A whole flock. Crowding around a large brown body of a deer. A doe to be exact. Or whatever is left of its corpse. They push and shove each other, trying to get the most out of this unexpected feast. Stuff their bellies full, uncertain when their next feast will be. Two vultures are squaring it out in the middle of the right lane. My lane. They don’t seem to notice me approaching. Maybe they don’t care. Too concentrated in their battle. Both with their wings spread out to the max. Poking their feathery chests as far as they can. Intimidation. I slow down a bit as I get closer. When they finally see me approach, they hop back to the side of the road. Without even trying I had won. A fallen road sign on the shoulder of the road. The one with the man riding a horse. Using this road for the past ten years I’ve never seen a person riding a horse on the road, makes me wonder why we even have such signs, to begin with. A dead opossum in the middle of the road. No scavengers have made a meal out of this corpse yet. Its tiny, little body still in tack, laying in a pool of dried up blood. Its dirty little face turned my way. But its eyes see nothing, empty, lifeless. Further up the road at the intersection, I can’t believe my eyes. A horse! With its rider! For the first time in ten years driving up and down this road, I have seen my first horse and rider duo. The mall. I finally arrived at my destination. Now for the fun part, parking. Or should I say, finding where to park? Despite it being a rainy Sunday afternoon, the place looked busy. Slowly weaving through isles and isles of tightly parked cars, evading pedestrians that pop out of nowhere. Small cars, big SUVs, both new and old, parked side by side like sardines in a can. Trucks too big with their noses poking out. Tiny smart cars playing tricks. Making it seem like you finally found an empty spot. And the jerks who take up two spaces instead of one. I found a spot next to a jerk. A shiny, new, grey Lexus to be exact. Parked right in the middle of two parking spots. On the other side of me was a small, old, green Toyota Corolla. Its right rearview mirror dangling, holding on to dear life by a few thin wires. The smell of grilled meat filled my nostrils before I even stepped foot into the building. It was the Ale House.