My Wife and the Mall Incident part 2

Day 550

2.75"


We proceeded around the potted plant and made our way to the handrail where he began to crouch walk along the white painted support base with its towering pylons that went up to the handrails proper.

Mimicking his moves as he had instructed I too crouched and tried to keep up. Shortly along the way he took out a whitish colored bandanna and proceeded to wrap his dark bushy hair within..

Once done he blended perfectly along the white supporting base strip.. I might have marveled as his ability to chameleon had I not noticed the arm sized French Fry that the back of his shirt had been concealing that went down the length of his spine and was tucked into the rear of his pants.

The ridiculousness of it would make a normal sized person laugh, and giggle I did before I realized the sad state of his diet being here... No he was not feasting on roast beef or improvised peanut butter and jelly sandwiches like my daughter liked to make me... He was getting by with dropped food crumbs that had first sat on the floors before he could retrieve it... Just like a rodent would have to do.. Biding his time until the coast was clear in order to do that.

Such was the level he’d been reduced to living here... My earlier naive assumptions that living here would be a simple affair were dashed with this pathetic sight... Yet it was so common he didn’t even think twice about exposing the fact that this was his food for the night or week judging by the size of it.

Pondering this we abruptly stopped when he raised his fist up in the air making the all stop signal that you’d see construction and bucket operators make back in the big world.

He was almost completely crouched when he went down giving me the signal that I sluggishly tried to mimic.

It was with good reason too as two teenage girls passed by looking down at their cell phones and texting as they walked. One giggling, the other one serious with her phone texting.

My guide motioned me to get closer to him and then he spoke over his shoulder to me.

“Want to know how I’ve survived here this long?” He didn’t wait for my answer.
He simply pointed at the two Giantesses as they passed on oblivious to our presence.

“Thank God for cell phones... Most people are so addicted to them now that they don’t look up , down , or around at all.. Just into their phones. Missing all of the life around them... Sad.. But true.. I used to be like that before one became as big as a couch to me.”

He laughed at his own joke then shushed me even though I hadn’t said a word.. We were moving again in the usual crouched walk that we’d used before...

Leaving the guarded safety of the handrail that surrounded the food court we begin to head left so I was naturally inclined to feel that it was a westerly direction.

Far above a kind of fruit/ice-cream store called Paleteland or something like that, I couldn’t tell due to the angle in which the sign was in relation to us, with letters that seemed to be as high as clouds in the sky. Then there was no mistaking the soft pretzel smell of Auntieannes as we neared it keeping very close to the cove base strips that joined walls to floors..

Occasionally we’d stop and rest. Where I’d get a little more wisdom on how to survive in a world of Giants from my guide.

“The security guards here are on to us and they look for us constantly.. They even give them rewards for finding us so they have incentives, those fucks... Also.. We ain’t alone in here.. There’s others here more organized.. But I’m a freelancer you dig? I don’t need a gang to get through my life.”

I was about to speak to him but he got up and started moving again. So I silently followed..

Anytime there was the slightest bit of cover, say like from a door jam to the entrance of a shop we used it in order to rest.. Sometimes we would have to sprint from one place to another. It was tiring for sure.  Being cooped up in a house had made me soft and somewhat out of shape as this journey was quickly beginning to expose.

My host talked about how he collected water from the condensation that built up under the drainage pipes from the bathrooms and other little things that made my skin cringe. But this man was a survivor and willing to do everything necessary to make it on his own.. I began to admire his skills at evasion yet fear his day to day perils..

When I had made my escape attempt I had so many more things to hide behind like bushes, trees, shrubs, even tall grass or fences and it still haven’t saved me... This man has sparsely few things to hide behind with the whitish tiles making everything more obvious... We tended to just freeze in place when a Giant passed by.

And true to form, most were far too busy looking at and texting to their cell phones to notice anything else than their own personal worlds. Granting us easy concealment once again.

It was when we passed the sweat smells of the Cinnabon shop that the hallway opened up to reveal a massive SEARS sign directly ahead that I knew we were getting closer to the escalator that would take us down to the first level below. And perhaps out of this death trap beyond.

There was a lot more cover in there with all of the clothing racks and jewelry counters to hide beneath.. Things seemed to be going much better for us now.

My host even stopped again in order for us to eat some lunch. Sharing a handfull size of French Fry as he chomped on a piece of his own. I was famished and very appreciative of it... I avoided the marble sized grains of salt which would have only made me thirsty in which case neither of us had any water and I had the feeling that getting to it would be to go back to his personal layer a long way back into the interior of the mall. A cold fry tastes like greasy cardboard but it was a hell of a lot better than nothing. This was a feast for him.

Resting after we ate we chatted some more in which he made some revelations.. I told him what I did in my former life and he told me that he was a computer repairman before he got small enough to literally live within one. More importantly he told me that his name was Nate Dog.. I gathered that his real name was Nathan but I’d use Nate Dog if that’s what kept me in his present generous graces..

He was estranged from his wife and family at the time when the sickness happened so just took off into the wilderness rather than be taken to a holding facility where a unwanted family member might or might not claim him. He had heard the horror stories of adults winding up in what amounted to orphanages lorded over by Giant strangers...

Nate Dog laughed at how orphanages were meant for kids, not fully matured adults.. Yet that was the very fate that was approaching him as it had done many others... To lose all of your adult liberties and possessions only to be told by some nondescript middle-aged lady when you could eat, what you could eat, and when it was time to go to bed. “Fuck that!” He exclaimed with a large amount of contempt.

In an attempt to console him I explained my failed attempt to escape my family and assured him that he probably made the right choice... And that I didn’t even last a day out in the open which he took no small amount of pleasure learning about having figured me soft in those regards compared to his own survival prowess.

We eventually picked ourselves up and continued along the wall as usual doing the crouch, freeze, and hurry along routine until we slipped right inside the Sears store.

Nate Dog became much more relaxed now that we were far less vulnerable.. He even began to sing a little song to himself as he swayed back and forth to the melody of it, obviously remembering one of his favorites now that he had no radio to hear it when he wanted to.

There were cloths racks that were supported by flat metal plates at the bottom for support which were further elevated by four moving wheels so that employees could easily move them to and fro that we used to hide under. At one such cloths rack I made the mistake of looking out and up after hearing the loud screeching sounds of cloths being pulled back and forth by an interested patron.

A young girl of perhaps twelve was holding a carrying case with a teenage boy in it in one hand and moving the clothing that had interested her with the other. The moment I looked up my eyes went wide to notice that his were trained right on me. He at once began to point and look up at his guardian.

“Rebecca, Rebecca, There’s a Little down there underneath the cloths rack.. Rebecca look!”

A flustered Giantess immediately pulled his plastic case from her waist up to her face in a look of derision.. “Paul, I told you that I wasn’t in the mood for any of your pranks or jokes today.. Mom will be back to pick, us up in less than an hour and I’ve got to get a new blouse for school.. Don’t try me if you know what’s good for you pipsqueak.”

He was at once quickly lowered back down to her waist level as the scooting of blouses around the rack continued once again. Bent on finding the perfect color it would appear.

But the young sixteen odd year old teen wasn’t listening as well as perhaps he should have. After picking himself up off of the plastic floor due to the fall that he had taken in the rapid acceleration his body had just endured he gesticulated again downward and began beating on the glass trying to get her attention.. His screams for her to look down continued.
Then suddenly with a huff he was rapidly pulled up to her face once more.

“Ok little Pauly... I warned you.” And at this he, his carrying case, and all were quickly lowered into her sarong purse hanging on her opposite shoulder, with the zipper immediately pulled to seal him into a dark tomb less than a second after his landing at the bottom.

“And once we get home it’s the time out box for you again!” With a frustrated huff she blew some errant hair strands out of her face and continued rapidly scooting the blouses too and fro once more.

In less than a minute she’d exhausted the varieties at the clothing rack and moved to another. The floor under her flats actually groaned from her oppressive weight. Her dark stockings filling our field of view with her black and grey plaid dress rounding out our sky until the tremors created by such a massive all powerful being carried her to a location in seconds that would have taken us several minutes to reach. Her brother imprisoned and most likely forgotten until her ride had arrived.. And then to receive more punishment meted out by a Giantess who could care less about his beggings and pleadings to the contrary.

I already knew from experience that big people backed each other up and pretty much always took sides overruling the little people like me so his day was only going to get worse from here.

My own daughter had disciplined me on occasion too to as I look back and remember. Taking away my food or the television remote before I was finished.. Picking me up roughly when we had argued and setting me back in my dollhouse only to have it locked up so that I couldn’t leave, robbing me of my freedom until she saw fit... The parallels of mine and that teenager’s life not escaping me.

I can remember Laura holding me in one hand while she berated me and pointed her finger at my face with the other... With Jessica backing her up before I’d be locked into a toybox until I had given them the proper assurances that I’d behave in a way that suited them better... Those were very humiliating experiences to have to recall.

The darkness is the worst with there being nothing to do or things to stimulate your mind.. Sleep would always quickly overtake you in those circumstances.

Then there were the times I’d simply be pinned under a dirty stinky foot until I either said that I was sorry or saw things their way.. The manners in which they could take revenge on a once authoritarian adult knew no ends sadly.. I had to learn to walk on eggshells once I had fallen to a foot in height all the way down to the present which helped to make my life so unbearable.

One time as I tried to berate her for dripping maple syrup on my head she popped the top half of my body into her mouth and buzzed her lips making a tickling sensation all along my chest, arms, and back. I kicked wildly as her and Jessica laughed at my predicament... But try as I might her lips firmly held me in place while they continued their assault.. Being in a slimy hot dark mouth that tickles you simultaneously was a terrifying experience... After that I was simply held under the sink tap as painful ice cold water washed the icky saliva away. With things like that occurring at the slightest infraction I tended to try and avoid her and Jessica after that but they would hunt me out for play time regardless. Having to hide from your own daughter and daughter in law is pretty humiliating I’m here to tell you.


It was a lucky break for us that a young sister would not listen to her brother but that was universal behavior as we all know.. The poor teen’s input could easily be shut down now by a much younger sibling who probably was only taking him along because her mother insisted on it.. Her cruelty being his cross to bear as he sat in the gloomy darkened recesses of her purse, never knowing when a movement of hers was going to send him sliding into a cold and unyielding wall again. What a wretched existence that boy was to endure for the rest of his life I pondered. With me being in the same boat. At least now I had some freedom from that however more bleak that appeared to be the more I looked at the dangers around me.

I was deep in my depressing thoughts when I felt a nudge on my shoulder.
“Hey John... I don’t know about you but I can think of some better places to spend the rest of my life than under this cloths rack... Or in that girl’s purse, so let’s get a move on you dig?”

So move on we did dodging and sometimes running from rack to sales counter to avoid the Giants who would come into view seemingly from nowhere their massive legs carrying them such vast distances compared to our own.  Feet as large as automobiles that could have squashed us flat with one unoticed or careless step.
 
After about a half an hour of doing this we saw the escalators looming up in the distance.
This is when things really took an interesting turn.