The Mall

The Mall

The sky is hazy, and the air is heavy with humidity. I sigh as my friend, Emmy, pushes my wheelchair inside the mall. Air conditioning, what a blessed relief!

I am armed with my shopping list. There are a few items I need to pick up here and there, but I’m on a mission here, I’m out of tea. Although I need my morning coffee, I soon switch over to tea, and I’m out.

The Tea Shop is upstairs, so this means taking the elevator, but first we have to stop at Laura Secord’s for an ice cream! Emmy hands me a delicious looking Laura’s Chocolate cone, but before I get it anywhere near my mouth, the cone snaps in half and lands smack in the middle of my blouse!

Emmy hands the cone back to the sales girl while I frantically try to mop up the spots of chocolate with a wad of napkins. I cannot believe my eyes when the girl flops my ice cream into a sundae container and sticks a mini plastic spoon in it.

I tried my best to eat the ice cream with the teensy, weensy spoon, but I’m not happy I had paid for an ice cream cone and ended up with a blob of ice cream in a paper cup.

After the ice cream, we make the rounds of the stores on the first level of the mall picking up the articles on my list.  It is incredible how rude some people in the mall can be standing in small groups chatting and gossiping while completely blocking the aisles.

Finally, we make it to the elevator, and after a small wait it creaks to a stop and the doors open. With a bit of maneuvering my friend manages to get me inside and pushes the 2nd floor button. The elevator starts upward, then stops with a jerk. After a moment that seemed more like an hour it jerked again and arrived at the next level, the doors didn’t open.  Good heavens, what next, I wondered. Emmy pressed the open door button a few times and the doors finally opened.

As we’re having a strange sort of shopping trip, we decide to go straight to The Tea Shop forgoing any other stores.

Things are looking up now, and I put bags of peppermint, mulberry and green tea in my basket. Then I notice there are new flavors for fall and Christmas.  There are teas with delightful names, some with apple and cinnamon, cranberry and spices and other tempting flavors. Emmy was over at the other end of the shop contemplating tea cups. I threw an infuser and a couple of packages of honey sticks into the basket.

After leaving the Tea Shop we decide to take a different elevator and without too much trouble we arrive at the main doors of the mall.  Mission accomplished!