by Jae Vogel
“I had to work a lunch,” Lilly said to her friend. “What are you doing over here? We talked last night and I thought you were meeting your dad for dinner.”
They entered the main section of the mall and looked down the corridor, which was flooded with light. In the center of it was a long planter with decorative vegetation growing up toward the weak sunlight, which filtered down from the skylights. They looked up to the second level and could see the shoppers going from one store to another. Some of the stores were from national chains, but, as Dion mentioned earlier, many of them had no equivalent outside the mall.
Arthur’s Music was situated directly in front of them. It was a chain of stores found in malls all over the country. For a small price, you could find the latest popular vinyl on display and the harder to find material in the back. Lilly enjoyed the store because it always placed the records she wanted directly in front. She remembered years ago when she went in and saw the psychedelic light display in the corner. For a moment, she thought it was one of those headshops that lined the street next to Scipio University. She was told you could find all sorts of things there that couldn’t be found anywhere else.
“You still haven’t told me why you’re still here,” Emily said to her.
Lilly had the strangest feeling Emily was jealous of Dion. She couldn’t understand why; she was dating a guy from the science club who had plans to attend Case-Western in the fall. The guy was supposed to be some kind of genius who would go far in life.
“Dion needs help finding something,” she told her. Lilly looked at him with her dark eyes and wondered how much he wanted her to say.
“We need a map,” he told her. “We need to find the store which sells the special maps to the mall.”
“You mean the bookstore?” Emily said to them. “Honestly, I don’t know why you need to buy a map. Doesn’t the directory tell you everything you might need to know?”
“There is a lot in the mall not on the directory,” he told her. “To find the special stores, you need a special map. I need to find the store which sells the special map.”
“What is so special about the map that you need it to find your way around the mall?” Emily demanded. “I never have any trouble finding my way around. Why don’t you just ask me where you need to go?”
“Dion thinks his parents might be somewhere in the mall,” Lilly said to her. She turned and smiled at Dion, hoping she hadn’t made a mistake of some kind.”
“What? I thought your parents were dead? Isn’t that why you live with your aunt and uncle?”
“I have reasons to believe they are held inside the mall,” Dion explained. “I really don’t want to go into my reasons, but I need to find some people who are inside the mall to get help.”
Emily turned and gave Lilly a questioning look.
Lilly knew what was going through her head. She thought he was nuts and his insanity had spread to her. The school had more than its fair share of bent minds. Some said it was because of its proximity to the airbase where tests were conducted in the dead of night. Others thought it might be something in the drinking water. And there was one group that believed it to be caused by an old Indian curse. Right now, Emily felt Dion and Lilly had taken leave of their sanity.
“Could you do one of those tricks you showed me?” Lilly asked him. “Maybe show her something that will convince her she needs to help us?”
“I wish it was that easy,” Dion sighed. “And for your information, it isn’t a trick. I can only do what my destiny allows.”
“At least show her something,” Lilly said. “I’d hate her to think I’ve gone nuts without a good reason.”
“I’m inside the mall and this changes everything,” Dion explained.
“You’re saying it doesn’t work inside the mall?” Lilly asked with a strange look on her face. Was this one of those conditional things con men and bunko artists used to trick people out of their money? It wouldn’t be the first time a boy tried to trick her to give something up.
“I’m saying if…. I do something like that in the mall it will alert the wrong people in the mall that I’m here.”
“What are you talking about?” Lilly said. “We’ve already had a run-in with Officer Karanzen and his minions. Whom else do we have to worry about? I don’t think the sheriff ever comes in this place unless he gets a call about shoplifting.”
“Officer Karanzen?” Emily said with surprise. “That explains why I saw him walking down the concourse. He looked angry. He had those thugs of his with him. All of them in fact. Is something going on I should know about?”
Dion looked at Emily, and then turned to Lilly. “Okay, I’ll show her a little bit of what I can do. Not so much to set off alarms, but enough so she’ll understand. I can do some small things, but we have to keep moving when I’m done. Even a little bit of change can alert the wrong people if they are close to us.”
He walked to the large planter in front of them. The two girls followed behind. Next to the large garden planter ran a bench where people could sit down and relax. It was a new concept the mall introduced to the busy shoppers who were out for a day to spend their money or run up credit cards. He seated himself down by the planter and looked at the soil in front of him until he found what he needed to locate. The girls seated themselves next to him.
Dion looked into the dark earth transported from a local greenhouse into the interior of the mall and concentrated. He closed his eyes and leaned back on the bench with his hands on the ends of his knees. Most people who walked past him assumed he was resting or, maybe in some kind of meditation. But Dion was using all the power he’d inherited from his family to harness the power of the earth element. He sat there and breathed slowly but with intensity.
Emily, who wore a blue top over a pair of white painter’s pants, turned to Lilly. “Is he okay? Should we go find a nurse or something?”
“He’s fine. Give him some time, he’s in the middle of doing something and it doesn’t always come easy to him.”
Both Lilly and Emily heard a sound inside the huge planter and turned to see the source. Inside the planter, where there was a little bare spot in the dirt, a plant was growing. It hadn’t been there before, but now it was. It began as a little sprout, pushing its way up through the soil and then reaching the surface of the dirt and showed some green. This took place as they watched it happen. It reminded Lilly of a time-lapse film of a growing seed she had watched in a biology class on a 16mm projector. But this was not a trick of photography; the plant grew before their eyes.
Now the green stalk reached the lower leaves of the plants around it and began to rise above the twigs and branches around it. It was a healthy shade of green and sprouted two leaves, which unfolded and lifted upwards them as if they were two arms reaching out to heaven. Several more leaves and stems emerged from the soil. They were inches in height in a matter of minutes. The plant reached a height of six inches and sprouted small buds all over it. When the buds were at the level of the other plants in the soil, they unfolded to bloom into bright flowers of yellow and blue.
“I don’t believe I’ve just seen that happen,” Emily said to her friend. “How does he do that? What’s the secret? Some kind of new plant food?”
“No plant food,” Dion said as she relaxed and opened his eyes. “I will it to happen. It only works if the destiny of those plants was to grow and bloom. I’ve speeded the process up, nothing more. The problem is, those plants will wilt faster as well. There is a price to be paid for all this elemental energy to be expended.”
Emily reached over to the new flowers in the planter. “Is it okay to touch them?” she asked. “Will it cause a problem if I come into contact with one?”
“No, they can’t cause you any problems. I wouldn’t pick one and take it home, though. Even if one of Officer Karanzen’s men didn’t stop you, the flower would be wilted by the time you got it back. As I said, the process was accelerated. What blooms quickly, fades just as quick.”
The two girls examined the flowers and commented on how beautiful they’d looked while growing, while Dion rested on the bench.
He didn’t like to do these small demonstrations. Not only did it have the potential to alert any elemental being in the mall that an elemental worker was around, but also it took a lot out of him. Until the full source of the power was transferred to him by the Grandmaster of the Earth Element, he would be exhausted to show these small examples. He knew it was important to get Emily on their side, but he didn’t want to do any further demonstrations to get people’s attention.
“We are close to the bookstore where I can buy the map,” he told them. “I think I see it over there, next to the bathrooms.” Dion pointed to the other side of the concourse.
The girls looked to see a new bookstore in the space occupied by a blank wall just a few days ago. The mall management had a good way of concealing any place which was not rented. They had a portable wall, which could be spread across the front of the empty storefront. It concealed its true nature, and no one would ever notice. When the mall was initially opened, there were quite a few of them. They prevented the mall from looking underutilized. Now most of the spaces were rented and there was no need to conceal empty space.
The bookstore was called “The Ramses News Agency” and had an Egyptian theme to it. This didn’t surprise Lilly, as the King Tut exhibit was still fresh in many people’s minds. She’d stood in line with her parents for hours to see it when the show passed through Cincinnati. It was the talk of the summer that year and the exhibit left many cultural artifacts in its wake. There were hit records and nightclubs with faux Egyptian themes that remained popular for years. She decided this news agency, or bookstore, was trying to ride what was left of the fame.
“This is the place,” Dion said. “It will have what I need.” They both followed him into the store.
“Wow,” Emily said to Dion. “You really made a plant grow. That’s incredible… can you make a plant sing?”
“No,” he told her as he walked through the entrance. “It’s a very bad thing to make a plant sing.”
The door to the store was slid back, which allowed everyone the chance to walk inside it. As they walked through the entrance, Lilly looked up and noticed the images of two Egyptian goddesses who joined hands over the transom and looked down at the customers as they walked under them. She thought they might be supposed to represent Isis, but wasn’t sure.
The news agency was filled with books and magazines, just as they had expected. Lilly thought the name for it was a little odd, as most places which sold books and magazines, were called “book stores” and not “news agencies”. Still it was a minor point and one she didn’t trouble herself over.
In the front of the store was the magazine rack. It stretched down one entire side of the store. Lilly walked up to it and noticed the rack displayed publications in all languages. She was impressed as it carried the latest fashion magazines from Paris and local ones too. She looked up and didn’t see the usual “This is not a library!” sign. Nor did she see any security mirrors, which usually covered the store and allowed the clerks to see if anyone was shoplifting.
The air smelled of exotic spices and herbs. She found it a pleasant scent, even if it did remind her of a head shop. She looked down the length of the store and noticed several older men at the end of one rack trying to conceal the magazines they were perusing at the top row of the display. She snickered, as the subject matter was obvious. Funny how you would know just from a walk into the store what they read.
Dion was in the middle of the store in search for what he needed to find. Lilly couldn’t locate the map section, but was sure it was there somewhere. This was a news agency, so where else would you find one? Even Emily was perplexed where you would look. Didn’t they sell maps?
“Can I help you?” a voice said to Lilly from the side.
She turned to face an older man who appeared to be from the Middle East. He was tall, thin and had a very birdlike appearance to him. This had to be the owner, or manager, she decided and noticed he held a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other. He would know what they needed to find and where it was located.
“We’re trying to find your map section," she said to him. “My friend doesn’t trust the directory to find what he needs in the mall and he claims you can help him.
“Permit me to introduce myself,” he said to her as the man placed his pen into a pocket on his jacket. “I am Mr. Jehuti. I opened this store myself last week and I will be glad to help you find what you need.”
“Yourself?” a voice said behind him and a very regal woman stepped out from behind the counter. “Don’t I get some credit?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. This is my lovely wife, Maya,” he introduced her. “She keeps me in line and restores the divine harmony we need to keep this place running.”
Lilly noted the woman had long coarse hair tied back by a headband. For some reason she had a feather in the headband. She wore a long dress that brushed along the floor. The woman radiated energy and all three of them could feel her presence.
“We need to find the special map of the mall,” Dion said to them. “Not one of the regular ones. I need the map which shows me all the places not indicated on the regular ones.”
Mr. Jehuti looked at him for a few moments and closed his eyes. His wife came up behind him and touched his shoulder. He opened his eyes and smiled at the three young people in front of him.
“You have come to the right place,” he told them. “You want the map produced by Come Forth By Day Cartographic. It just so happens I have one behind the counter. Dear, would you please go get it for our honored guests?”
The woman walked back behind the counter, her skirts swirling as she went. She returned with a scroll that was tied with a ribbon. She handed it to her husband.
“It has all the hidden places marked,” the storeowner told Dion. “You will find what you need on this map. I caution you to be very careful with it, as these are hard to obtain. You don’t want the wrong sort of people or things to find this. The map company would be very disappointed if they discovered it fell into the wrong hands.”
“How much do I owe you for this?” Dion asked as he took the map from Mr. Jehuti.
“Nothing. It was sent to me because I knew you would come by and need it sooner or later.”
“I don’t know how to thank you.”
“No need. Knowing we have helped and allowed you to continue on your search is all the gratitude we need. I record things around here and your visit will make for such an entry.”
The woman turned to Dion. “You should be very careful about what you do inside the mall. There are many who do not want to see you succeed on your journey.”
“I’m aware of that,” Dion told them, “but I must continue. My parents’ lives are at stake and I am the only one who can rescue them.”
“Do you have knowledge of what you are up against?” she asked.
“A little.”
“Good. Know that there are many agencies in this mall you do not see, but once they understand you are here, they will do what they can to prevent you from succeeding. I want to see harmony established again, it is why I am here with my husband. I can’t do much from the inside, but you know who to come and see if you need advice.”
“Thank you,” Dion said. “Glad to know I have some help if I need it. Not so glad to know there are so many against me, but it was something I suspected.”
“Wait,” Mr. Jehuti said to Dion as they started to leave, “how much knowledge do you have of the elementals that reside in this mall?”
Dion and the girls turned back around to face him. “I know there are some here and about,” he said. “We were introduced to the ones who work for Officer Karanzen. I didn’t realize they have such a back story.”
“Those are not elementals,” Mrs. Jehuti told them. “They are something else which he controls, but we are not sure what. I think th
ey were humans at one time and now he has control of them.”
“Are you telling us the security guards are some kind of zombies?” Emily asked, one foot crossed over the other, half-confused, half-scared.
“How free is it to talk in front of them?” Mr. Jehuti said to Dion. “I understand why you are here, but they don’t seem to share your abilities.”
“It’s okay. I’ve shown each of them what I can do and they are satisfied of it.”
“I think we need to take this conversation somewhere else,” his wife spoke. “Would any of you mind if we moved to another location to talk about it?”
“I have no objection,” Dion said. He turned to the girls. “What about the two of you?”
“It’s all fine with me,” Lilly told them.
“I suppose,” was Emily’s response. “But who will watch the store for you?”
“We won’t be gone that long,” Mrs. Jehuti replied. “Relative to the subjective time, that is.”
Then the entire store vanished.
Chapter 4
Emily opened her eyes again to see a sun in the sky overhead. She looked at it just long enough to focus on it. It seemed to her there was something next to the sun in the sky, but she could not see it very well with the glare from the light.
Emily shielded her eyes with her hand and looked again. There was something behind it, pushing it along. It didn’t move very fast, but the thing that pushed the ball of sunlight was exerting itself. What was it?
A beetle.
A beetle?
Emily shaded her eyes and looked again. It was a giant beetle, which moved the sun in the sky. The light hurt her eyes and she looked around her.
Dion and Lilly were with her in a vast desert. She looked down and found herself shoeless and standing on the hot sand. She no longer wore the painter’s pants and blue top. Now she had on a wrap-around dress, which lacked a back. Dion and Lilly were dressed in a similar fashion. Dion had a scarf over his head. It was secured with a band around it in the form of golden snake.
