Thank You For Shopping At...

Thank You For Shopping At...1

by Matthew Maldonado2

She tugged on his arm--once, twice, thrice, a dozen times.3

"C'mon, let's go," she said, whining in a patently fake way only she was capable of. "C'mon, c'mon." She was trying not to laugh, he could see it in her eyes, her face was flexing with restrained smiles. "C'mon c'mon c'mon c'monc'mon'cmonc'mooooon--"4

"Fine, fine, fine, freaking fine." He let her tug a few more times, scowling to keep from laughing out loud, then reluctantly allowed himself to be moved. He let her pull him like an eager puppy pulling its owner, passing through aisle after aisle of semi-useless manufactured goods. She was leading the way because she knew where to go; he didn't. If he'd been the one with the destination he would have had her on his shoulders, her arms wrapped around his head and her chin pressing into the top of his skull. Clearly that was not the case right now. 5

Either way, though, she would've been giggling just as much. She was always giggling. He loved that about her. No matter what, no matter when, she was always capable of a good giggle. Even if she was crying her eyes out, it only took a little push to send her tumbling into a world of laughter. 6

She giggled now, dragging her brother from row to row, pulling him to a destination only she knew. She was decidedly impish, ready to joke and laugh and roll and jump at the slightest provocation. She was just a little mouse-haired ball of happy energy. 7

Her brother, on the other hand, was very, very sleepy. His eyes were caught in a state of half-lidded serenity, and every now and then his vision would blur and he'd have to halt his sister's progress and wait for it to come back into focus. As he did this, the little girl would look up at him with eyes full of care, giggles, and temporarily repressed eagerness. She wanted him to be okay, but she wanted to go, wanted to get where she was going and now. She had money, and when little girls like her had money, they liked to spend it right away. 8

When the boy could see properly, he gave his sister a calming smile, and she continued to lead him further and further into the store. As she did, the boy devoted the few moments of bleary alertness he had to examining the establishment. The floors and ceiling were a glaring sterile white, made even worse by the endless rows of fluorescent lights, which cast aside all shadows and let nothing go unseen. The ceiling was a horribly industrial-looking web of girders and beams, also white. Huge air conditioners hung on these beams at regular intervals. They, too, were white.9

What isn't white in here? he asked himself. 10

He didn't get an answer, because seconds after he thought about it his eyelids drooped, and they had to stop again. He could feel his eyeballs rolling in his head as he fought off the coming sleep--he didn't want to do it here, not in front of his sister, not in the middle of this store full of onlookers, not standing up. He'd had it happen once when he was standing up, and he'd woken up with bruises all along his arm and leg, and there'd been blood caked in his hair. 11

Not here, he willed, not now.12

It passed, and he could open his eyes again. He looked down at his sister, and was surprised to see an enormous amount of concern in her eyes. It almost overwhelmed her giggles, and that startled him. 13

"I'm alright now," he told her. "Let's keep going."14

She nodded, saying nothing, and resumed her duty. They passed through aisles of hair products, past a wall of diapers, past the pharmacy, through the smelly pet supply section, and--15

She laughed, and dragged him into an aisle that was wall-to-wall pink. Barbies of all shapes, sizes, ages, professions and lifestyles (excepting one, of course; they hadn't quite gotten to Alternative Lifestyle Life Partner Barbie yet) lined the shelves, towering almost all the way up to the ceiling. The brother looked at them from behind his dazed eyes, taking in the glazed, drugged-up happy smiles of the dolls, their faces perfectly shaped and their waists utterly out of proportion. He looked at them, and grinned the grin of the desperately narcoleptic--just the barest display of teeth and a minimum of actual expression. He didn't know why he thought it was all so funny, but it was. It was hilarious. All so very hilarious. 16

His sister finally let go of his hand and dashed away. She came back with a box almost as big as she was. She poked her head around the edge, a big grin on her face, and her brother burst out laughing. She looked at him with those impish eyes, her face stretched by her smile, and laughed with him. 17

"You want me to carry that for you?" he said. "I've got a couple free hands."18

She turned the box so it was horizontal and held it between her hands and her chin. "No thanks," she said cutely, blinking at him. "I can hold it!"19

He shrugged. "If you're sure."20

"I am!" She grinned again. "Let's go find Mommy."21

"Okay." He got behind her, so he could rest his hands on her shoulders--it was the closest he could get to holding her hand, at the moment--and pushed gently. "Let's go."22

That's when all the lights went out, and they were lost in the darkness.23

~~~24

He held onto her for dear life, simultaneously fighting off the swelling somnolence that had roared to life in the sudden darkness. He took deep breaths through his mouth, flipping his sister's hair up with every exhale (he couldn't see it, but he could feel it tickle his lips and cheeks). 25

"What's going on?" his sister whispered, all the giggles gone. "What happened?"26

He took another big breath. "The power went out, that's all. That's all that happened. It'll come back on in a little bit, alright?" He rubbed her shoulders, trying to comfort her even though he was scared shitless. He hadn't heard anyone cry out when the power had gone --not a single cry or scream or baby's wail. 27

A light went on. Just one light, right over their heads. A single fluorescent bulb among hundreds.28

He shivered, but he kept his tone steady as he spoke. "See?" he whispered in his sister's ear. "Light!"29

She turned her head to give him a doubtful look. "Just one. What about the rest?" She glanced at the pervading darkness that surrounded them--endless shadow that ended just at the edge of the bulb's radiance. It seemed, to the brother, that if either of them were to shift just in the slightest, they'd plummet into some endless trench, never to be seen again. 30

"Don't move," he told her. "Do. Not. Move. Understand?"31

She nodded, her lower lip caught beneath her upper teeth. "I gotcha."32

The light flickered. They inhaled sharply--then inhaled sharply again when the whole aisle lit up, the lights blinking into life one after another. 33

"See?" he repeated, grinning weakly. "Lights!"34

She smiled at him, clearly somewhat reassured. 35

But only somewhat.36

Something crashed behind them, and they jumped, nearly knocking into the shelves--37

--which were completely empty now. 38

The boy spun around, staring at the shelves, trying as best he could to explain to himself--let alone to the little girl he was clutching--how all the nice pink Barbies with their happy little smiles had just disappeared. Now you see it, now you don't, there is nothing up my sleeve and nothing on these shelves. Don't worry, folks, I'll be here all week. 39

The little girl came up with an explanation herself: "The dark stole all the Barbies!" she moaned, frowning over the expanse of her massive future purchase. "Bad dark! Bad!"40

Big brother didn’t even know where to begin in arguing with her theory.41

Turning once more, he saw what had crashed. Like everything else, it wasn't very comforting: one of the intercom speakers had fallen from the ceiling. Yellow and orange wires trailed up from its base to the ceiling like thin neon intestines. 42

"What," he muttered, "the hell?" He followed the wires up with his eyes, and was disappointed to see them end in the shadows just above the blazing lights. The fluorescents themselves had stuck around, but the ceiling had run away with the spoon. 43

The speaker crackled into life. Static popped and squealed, then a bright, cheery female voice said:44

"Thank you for shopping at--!" Static rose up, garbling the words. "--where the customer is always right! This week only, winter coats are half off! Marlboro Cigarettes are two packs for a dollar with a coupon! And all women's lingerie is twenty percent off! Don't forget, Valued customers, that today is the last day to be entered into our Million Dollar Sweepstakes when you use your Valu-Card! Thank you for shopping at--" Static. "--have a nice day--and keep shopping!"45

There was a thump and a click, like someone putting the receiver down, and the speaker was silent.46

Brother and sister stared. Then the sister dropped her once-and-future purchase and clung to her brother.47

"I want out of here," she moaned. "I want out."48

He held her, beginning to tremble, and said, "So do I, kid. So do I."49

~~~50

Operation Get The Hell Out Of Here began.51

The boy told his sister to stay right there, don't move a muscle, wait here by the box, I'll be right back. She didn't want him to go, nothing he could say would change that, but he made it clear to her that she had to do as she was told. It was for her own good. 52

So she stayed right there, and he walked over to the edge of the light, where the darkness began.53

Standing there, he once again felt like he was on the cusp of a precipice. If he leaned maybe just a little further out, he'd drop into that black trench and never be seen again. 54

He shuffled back a little (now he felt just the slightest bit safer), wrinkled his brow with thought, then unwrinkled it with decision. He dug into his heavy down coat and drew out a bag of peanut M&M's. He ripped it open and rolled a few candies into his hand.55

He glanced up at the black before him, then down at the candy, popped one in his mouth and tossed another into the dark. 56

He waited for the sound of it hitting the floor--a sound that never came. This world of bright lights and empty shelves remained silent. 57

He threw another one, just for the hell of it.58

Nothing.59

Frowning, he squatted close to the floor, grasped an M&M between the tips of his pointer finger and thumb, aimed carefully, and sent the candy skittering across the linoleum toward the darkness' edge.60

He watched as it stopped just before the light ended and the black began, pausing as if it was determining which direction it should go next--61

--and rolled right off the edge and down into the impenetrable darkness.62

He gaped. Then, still gaping, he rolled a second candy. It, too, dropped off. A third came to the same fate. The fourth went without complaint. 63

The fifth was crushed between the boy's teeth as he turned away from the edge, his eyes now slightly sunken with despair.64

We're stuck on an island of light in a sea of darkness, he thought to himself.65

We're stuck.66

Operation Get The Hell Out Of Here ended.67

~~~68

The sister was worried. Her brother wasn't looking too good--not that he'd looked very good lately anyway. This narcolepsy stuff made him look a lot older than he really was. And he wasn't as much fun as he used to be--not as funny, not as quick and eager to run with an idea, a joke, a friend. It was beating him up left and right, and he wasn't conscious enough to fight back anymore.69

They'd been stuck--stuck, not trapped, as he'd been quick to point out--for a couple hours now. They'd shared the remaining M&M's when they'd gotten hungry, and had resorted to telling tall tales to one another and doing their damnedest to laugh to pass the time. They stayed put in the hopes that someone would come (how someone would come was not discussed), or until the rest of the lights came back on. Their mother (bless her heart) had always told them that, if they were lost, they should stay where they were and wait for help. So, lacking any other option, they stuck to her advice and didn't budge--didn't even try.70

The girl, though, was getting very antsy. It didn't seem right, just sitting around and doing nothing. She wanted to move, to go and get out. This place didn't feel right at all. It felt dead. Stagnant.71

She shifted in her brother's arms. She'd snuggled up here after they'd run out of jokes and energy. Her brother had pulled some of the shelves out and created a little niche just his size. He'd padded the unrelenting painted steel with their jackets and laid himself down to sleep with his long sleeves unrolled and his arms around his sister's torso, holding onto the only comforting thing he had left. She'd lain with her back to him, resting her head on his chest, and closed her eyes. 72

But it was her brother that had fallen asleep. She'd stayed awake, her eyes passing over what little surroundings there were: empty gray shelves, linoleum trying to pose as white marble, the glaring lights that only stretched from one end of the aisle to the other; and the fallen speaker, which laid on the ground at a diagonal tilt, its vibrant wires providing the only real color to the environment. 73

Her gaze fell to the long, pink box on the floor, and corrected herself. The wires and the box are bright. She tilted her head and smiled a little, the giggles peeking out from behind the worry in her eyes. Such a pretty box... She took in the wonderful scene presented on the box's front, and her smile grew. So pretty...74

An idea struck her. Her head whipped around to look at her brother--he was still asleep, good, good, very good. 75

She looked back at the box and grinned.76

At the far end of the aisle, one of the long fluorescent bulbs flickered.77

~~~78

The brother's body jerked, his legs kicking against the linoleum and his head bouncing on the thin sheet metal of the shelving. His eyes opened slowly, the lids peeling away from each other, drawing tiny gummy strings between. He blinked, scrunching his eyes, breaking the strings and wincing. He stretched and yawned. 79

When he looked up, he laughed. He had to. It was almost too good.80

His sister returned his look, giggles written all over her, and smiled.81

"You just had to, didn't you?" he said, grinning. "You just had to."82

"Whaaaaaat?" she drawled innocently. "I was bored!" She looked down at the doll house she'd unpacked and assembled. "Besides, it's so pretty!"83

He looked at it, and had to agree. The dollhouse wasn't your everyday Mattel mockery. It split in half so one could play inside, but, despite its gaudy packaging, it was full of pleasant colors and homey textures. There weren't any dolls; they were clearly sold separately. A lot of nice-looking furniture had been provided, though, and his sister had devoted her attention to the proper placement and arrangement of every single article. It all looked perfect. Absolutely perfect.84

"Wow," he muttered. His sister giggled at him, and he grinned sheepishly. "You did a good job."85

"Thank you!" she said, and giggled again. 86

He got up, stretched again, and was about to bend down and take a closer look in the dollhouse when he noticed it.87

He turned, frowning, and looked up and down the aisle. Something was wrong.88

He looked at the shelves, and knew instantly. They were cut off--where the shelves should have continued, they just stopped. It was as though someone had come in and sliced the end off with an X-acto knife. 89

"Hey..." he muttered. "Have...have the lights been going out?"90

His sister looked up, a chair in one hand and a sofa in the other. Her face screwed up in a cute scowl when she registered his words. "Yeah. I've been counting them."91

"And...how many?" he said, his mouth thick with saliva.92

"Seven so far."93

He counted the ones that were still lit. There were nine left.94

His mouth was very dry all of a sudden.95

We're stuck on a shrinking island of light in a sea of darkness, he thought woozily. Stuck in a freaking department store aisle full of absolutely nothing. I should've stayed home--96

--but if I'd done that, my mom and my sister would be the ones stuck here. 97

Or would they? Maybe it's all my fault that we're here. Maybe I'm entirely to blame.98

Or maybe this would've happened either way. Maybe it was inevitable. 99

Maybe maybe maybe. Enough with the theories. Less musing, more acting. Get to it, boy.100

But there was nothing to do. There was no way he could keep the lights from going out. That, he knew, was inevitable. 101

What happens then? What happens when all the light is gone? Will we follow all those M&M's into the abyss?102

He found he didn't want to think about that. 103

So he didn't. 104

~~~105

Three more lights flickered out over the next thirty minutes. The brother figured they had maybe an hour left to live. He didn't tell his sister this, but he figured she knew. She was a smart girl. A good girl. 106

He found, as he helped her decorate her dollhouse, that he loved her more than anything else. And that made thinking about their abbreviated future even more painful. He avoided thinking about it by burying himself in having fun with her, doing his best to compensate for all the times he'd been unable or (God forgive him) unwilling to spend time with her. It wasn't much, but it would have to do. 107

After all, time was short.108

He was carefully nudging a tiny doll bed into place when he realized he could see his breath. He let out a couple more smoky puffs before accepting it. It was definitely getting colder in the shrinking aisle. He figured it would get colder as more lights went out--irrational, if you really thought about it, but then again, what was rational right now? Rationality had gone out the window. The world had decided it didn't need to make sense anymore, and the only rule was that there were no rules. 109

He looked at his sister, and realized that she was trembling. He rubbed her arms and shoulders with his hands, and she smiled shakily at him, her jaw trembling, making her teeth chatter. He made her put on her coat, and donned his own. 110

They zipped up, and played with the dollhouse in silence. 111

~~~112

Two more lights died, and the dollhouse was abandoned for the sanctity of the shelf-niche. They'd already seen the speaker drop into the darkness, the wires straining mightily before finally giving in and snapping, letting the speaker slip into the void, and they'd seen the box disappear even before that. So when the dollhouse tipped and capsized and fell away, spilling miniature furniture onto the linoleum, they took it with not a trace of surprise. His sister wasn't happy to see it go, but she accepted her brother's explanation that it was no longer safe to play. She was aware of what was going to happen. She knew they didn't have much time left. Her brother didn't have to tell her the obvious.113

She looked first at the remaining four lights, then at her brother. She took his hand in hers, squeezed, and smiled at him.114

"We're going to get to see Mom again, you know," she said. "We're going to see her, and we're going to hug her, and we're never going to buy stuff here ever again."115

He looked down at her and smiled weakly. "I don't know about that."116

"I do," she said, looking up at him with her eyes full of hope.117

He didn't reply. A couple minutes later, another light went out. The boy sat down longways in the niche, and his sister laid on top of him, her head on his chest again. 118

This time, she fell asleep.119

~~~120

Her brother looked up to see the last three lights flickering all at once, and immediately recognized it as an injustice.121

It's not fair, he thought, his vision blurring so the lights were just long bars of fuzzy light. It's just not fair. 122

Then the lights stopped flickering, and continued to cast their gaudy rays. He let out a sigh; the end was going to be dragged out for as long as possible, it appeared. 123

Well, that'll just give me all the time I need for proper good-byes. He bent his head forward and planted a kiss in his sister's hair. I love you, little sister o' mine. I'm sorry this had to happen, but I hope you'll love me forever regardless. Sometimes shit happens to cute little girls, too, even when it's their crotchety older brothers that deserve to get their ass handed to them. He wrapped his arms tight around her, and she rolled over and rested her cheek against his chest, her hand laying on the flat of his stomach. He could feel the tears she was crying in her sleep soaking his shirt, and began to cry himself.124

His eyelids drooped, then rose again. It was coming on quick this time. He could feel it picking away at his mind, just scratching and poking and digging its way into his head. Soon he'd be out, and the two of them could pass on in their sleep. At least he had that comfort. 125

His eyes rolled and closed just seconds before the lights blinked and died. 126