This is not about Juliet

Shopping

I walked out of grandmama's office and up a set of stairs at the end of the long hallway. All of the floors are covered in a maroon carpet. The stairs are red marble with white veins, and the metal railings are a brass color. The stairs twist, and I reach the top of them. Walking through the hallway on the third floor, I silently counted the doors to my left. One, two, three, four, five. The sixth door to my left. I halted and knocked on the door.

Rosalind opened her door, looking tired. Her hair was messy, and she was still in her nightclothes. Her eyes were half closed until she blinked at me a couple of times. She properly opened her eyes and started speaking, her voice was hoarse, "Bad morning, what do you want?" She wasn't usually this rude, but Rosalind wasn't really a morning person. The thing was she did like shopping, and that was what we were meant to do right now. "We're going shopping, get dressed, I'm going to eat breakfast."

Rosalind closed the door, and I left. She came downstairs, showing she was fully dressed and had done her hair. I was eating eggs for breakfast and had made some for her. She took the plate and started eating. She didn't say anything. Some people needed coffee in the morning, Rosalind needed food.

I was waiting in the hallway, holding onto my light pink handbag. Rosalind came downstairs. The scarlet dress she was wearing fitted her perfectly. Her hair was in curls which reminded me of old Hollywood movie stars and she was wearing a red satin head scarf and a pair of elegant black sunglasses, her nails were done perfectly, almond shaped and scarlet and she was wearing ballerina flats the same color as everything else about her. She had a red cardigan, laying over her arm, just in case. She carried a tote bag, which appeared to be full, presumably with other tote bags.

"Remind me again. Why do we have to go this early?" She asked. "To avoid the crowds." She sighed deeply and took her car keys from the little dish in the hallway. We exited the house from the side. There was a big hallway, which was really only used for visitors, as the doors were quite heavy, and a smaller one, to the side, usually used. That hallway had oak floors and was painted a beautiful maroon. There was no furniture except for a little halfround table against the wall, on which stood the dish. A clay dish painted with circles in different shades of red and pink. We got into her car, a shining scarlet car. It was elegant and sleek. She started driving us to the mall.

When we arrived at the mall, it was still early. We would be almost alone if we were lucky. The bright red sign out front read,  Bloomvale mall. I knew this place like the back of my hand. My uncle Giuseppe had had the both successful and batshit crazy idea to build a pool complex on the first floor of the mall. The main reason it was successful was that it had special pools and caretakers for children. The idea is simple: Is your child complaining because their feet hurt, and they're not getting absolutely everything their precious little heart desires? Dump them at the pool for a few hours. It didn't even cost that much. And after, there's plenty of really big and secure lockers, so unless you buy a grand piano and decide it will fit in your car, you can go swimming too and keep your products safe. I had no idea how or why it worked, but it did.

Of course, at the very same time, one of the Montagues also opened a swimming pool complex. Very unexpected, note the sarcasm. It was unclear to everyone else who was really first, but to us, the Capulet family, it was clear. My uncle was. I might not like him very much, but he is family.

We entered the mall through the big automatic doors and stepped foot into the Capulet Pool Complex. Paying little attention to the little red tiles and decorations everywhere, we got into the elevator. I pressed the gold button that said eight, and a button above it, which had no number, had its lid spring out. It opened to reveal a keyhole. "Do we have to say hello to him?" I knew how Rosalind felt about our uncle, honestly I felt the same, but grandmama was definitely going to ask us all about our shopping trip during dinner, and if our Uncle realized we went to what was basically his mall at this point, without stopping by to say hello, he would get all annoying again. So, with a sigh, I took my key out of my bag and entered it in the keyhole, taking the elevator to my uncle's office. "What other choice do we have."

The elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened to reveal a most beautiful space. It was a large glass dome filled with plants. The glass was made up of squares, which formed a checkered pattern, red and white. Casting beautiful red light on the white floor. On either side of the dome was a tower, the eight floor of which contained my Uncle's office on one side and another room on the other. I realized I didn't actually know what went on in there. We walked across the domed space until we reached my uncle's door. In the late August heat, the dome was almost unbearable even though it was barely fifty meters long. But we would soon be in my Uncle's office, which had amazing air-conditioning. I remembered last year, around Christmas time when it was snowing, and my cousins and I slept under this very same dome.

It was late at night and I couldn't sleep. Leo was snoring softly, and Rosalind was also fast asleep, next to me. I looked up at the dome. The snow, covering the city in a pale blanket, fell on and slid off of the dome, for the most part. Looking up at the sky, seeing the stark contrast of the ink black night sky and the white slowly falling snow and pale light of the full moon, gave me a feeling of peace, that I hadn't experienced in quite a while. A true peace, that for a moment quitened every negative thought, every worry, every doubt. A lightness, as if I was seven years old again. On the swing in the backyard. If I ever felt as if there was another storm brewing in my mind, I thought of that night and tried to calm my breathing down.

My flashback, unfortunately, didn't last very long, as Rosalind took a deep breath and knocked on the wooden door to my uncle's office.