Stuck at the Galleria

Act 1: The Fall (part 5)

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The Customer Service Desk

"So, here it is," Nora said as we gazed upon the button. It was a bright blue color, and it was unmarked save for a little glass box covering it on top. "Would you like to do the honors, sir?"

"I'd love to," I answered. She lifted the box, and I slammed the button down. Suddenly, the lights above us began to burn brightly, and the store signs started to glow with their vendors' names.

"Whoa."

"Eh, once you see it every night you get used to it," she replied as the gates to the stores started opening themselves.

"Wait, let me get this straight. The entire mall gets opened up with just that one button?" I asked.

"That's basically the gist of it."

"It seems like it'd be impossible though, to get an entire mall ready to open that simply."

Nora smiled a bit. "It's more convenient than opening the stores with keys, and it makes the plot make a bit more sense," she said, walking out of the desk.

"Eh, can't argue with that--wait, plot?"

"Just forget I said that."

I started to follow her out, but as I turned around I saw a guy running down the aisle of stores leading to the desk, waving his hands to get our attention.

"Nora! Other guy! You two!" he yelled.

Nora got in front of the desk and replied, "What, Grassy?"

Grassy stopped in front of the two of us and panted. "Max says he saw the duck," he said with a wheeze.

Nora rolled her eyes like this wasn't anything new, but I was confused.

"Waitaminnit, a duck lives here?"

"No, Bucky Duck, that mascot dude from the pizza arcade thingy with those creepy animals," Grassy said. "Max has been trying to hunt down the guy who wears the costume for years now."

"Pardon me for asking, but, uh, why?"

"I have a history of incidents with that duck," said another voice from behind Grassy. The three of us turned to find the rest of the group there, with Max at its forefront. "At my sixth birthday party, he stole half of my prize tickets, and you know how much tickets I had?"

Grassy, Nora and I looked at him for a second, then asked together, "How much?"

"Five thousand tickets. And that sucker took 2500 of those! And that's just the beginning of this corrupt duck's onslaught. He must be terminated."

Nora folded her arms and sighed. "What does that mean you want to do now, Maxwell?"

"I never thought I would do it, but I'm going to the arcade."

The other girls in the group and the twins gasped. Nora blinked once or twice, then burst into a fit of laughter.

"Oh gawd, I can't even! This is too much!" she said.

Max groaned. "Seriously, Nora? You know he's been making me suffer for years now. I think it's high time he learned his lesson."

"Okay, Max." she replied, giggling one last time. "Just try not to make your act too cheesy."

Once she said that, I felt a weird urge to give up something, but I didn't know what.

Not then, anyway. But I figured out eventually.