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

air. Cotton candy and something else, something pleasant and long-forgotten.

Ellis glanced at his watch and saw that he had been walking for half an hour. A
wave of uneasiness began to build within him. Surely the gas attendant would be
located closer to the door. That thought served as the catalyst for another,
even more enigmatically disturbing. Surely, the gas station attendant would be
located outside the damn door, else what was to keep people from filling up and
driving away without paying? People did it all the time, he knew, having worked
at a gas station one semester when he was in school. And that thought led to yet
a third, like a tiny chain reaction of explosions in his brain: how could a
facility this large afford to operate twenty-four hours when almost no one was
using it?

The wave of anxiety crested and crashed over him. He turned abruptly to walk
back in the direction of the revolving doors and that something familiar caught
his eye again. What was it?

Ellis surveyed the nearby shops. He stood before the window of a used bookstore;
a single word in gilt letters had been pasted high against the inner surface of
the glass: STARS! A number of books and magazines were stacked below, astronomy
texts and journals mostly, which struck him as a curious choice for a window
display. That thought barely registered, however, before it was gone, displaced
by a well of nostalgia. Ellis crouched, his elbows on his knees, and stared in
disbelief through the glass.

He didn't know how long he had been there when the voice spoke: "Can I help you,
sir?"

Ellis looked up into the slim pleasant face of a young woman, barely more than a
teenager. She was dressed neatly in dark jeans and a lacy white blouse. Staring
at her, Ellis could not help but think of Donna in her ragged shorts and black
T-shirt. She was every bit as pretty as this young lady. If only she dressed
better

"Sir?"

"I'm sorry," Ellis said. "It's just that . . ."

"What ?"

Ellis stood up. "That book," he said, indicating a thin book with a faded
dustjacket, half-hidden beneath a stack of Sky & Telescopes. "Can I see that
book?"

"Certainly."

Ellis followed the girl inside and watched as she fished the book from beneath
the stack of magazines. "There you go," she said. She placed it in his hands and
moved away to stand behind the counter.