"Bailey-TheMall" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bailey Dale)

"I didn't see anyone," Katie said.

Donna shifted on her feet impatiently. "Come on, Dad."

Katie squeezed his hand again and Ellis looked down into her clear eyes.
"Listen," she said. "It is late and we do have to get on the road. But since
it's obviously going to take a while for you to find that attendant, why don't
we look around?" She glanced at her watch. "It's one-forty now. Let's say we
meet back here at three. Okay?"

Always the peacemaker, Ellis thought. But what the hell, they were on vacation.
And it was going to take a while to find the attendant, he supposed. "Fine," he
said.

"Great!" Jason said.

Katie apportioned money to the kids and they disappeared down an escalator,
moving toward the amusement park.

Ellis turned to his wife. Katie grinned up at him. "Always have to have your
way, don't you?" he said, smiling. "I suppose you want to check out the mall,
too?"

"You bet."

"Okay, then. I'll see you at three." Katie pecked him on the cheek and then
stepped on the escalator to the lower levels. In moments, the vast mall had
swallowed her.

"Well," Ellis said. Turning around, he peered out into the night. The car sat
alone at the fuel pumps. Ellis couldn't see anywhere to pay for the gas out
there. Nothing for it but to look in the mall.

Ellis turned to his right and moved along the railing that lined the walkway.
Carnival sounds-- calliope music and the seductive cry of barkers, their pitches
unintelligible in the distance -- rose to his ears. He caught a faint whiff of
cotton candy. As he walked, trailing one hand along the smooth railing, he
studied the stores on his right. They were typical of those he had seen in
countless malls -- an assortment of shoe stores and clothing stores,
interspersed with occasional specialty shops.

Ellis had been walking for a while and was on the verge of trying his luck in
the other direction when something caught his eye. He wasn't really sure what,
but it was simultaneously familiar and strange, like the face of a high school
acquaintance when encountered years and years later.

He paused, searching, glanced out at the walkway opposite, a thin line that
blended into the mosaic of stores and signs behind it. Below, and far to his
left, the Ferris wheel turned and turned. The scream of a thrill-seeker rose out
of the pit, and he caught another saccharine hint of cotton candy in the still