The Time of My Life Chapter 6 -- Malls Within Memories
#9 of The Time of My Life Story Series Season 1 (Original)
Chapter 6
Authors Intro: This story starts off of the time when Radin and Daez plan to go to the Six Flags Mall. A once thriving mall now left to rot in the sun.
Fact#1: There are no independent stores left in the mall, there are only two anchor tenants left and those are: >Cinemark Tinseltown 9 >Dillard's Outlet
Authors Note#1: This story is the setting when Radin and Daez are driving towards the dead mall.
"So what is the mall like now?" Daez asked me. Daez has not been there in over 10 years. Last time he went, he was with friends and it at least had 60-70 stores in it. "I recently went a month ago and was shocked about what happened to it." I said pulling into an industrial park. "Most of the businesses are small shops or abandoned shops that are just rotting away. It was brought down by the Parks Mall and Traders Village.
Fact#2: There is a HUGE industrial park around the mall that is really creepy and most of it is abandoned. It is also right across from a GM car assembly plant and a national train system. These all lead to the decline of the mall. However, the Forum 303 mall did nothing to the mall. It was brought down by the same businesses the Six Flags Mall is competing against right now. Note: Forum 303 Mall is gone as of 2007, a HUGE Kaplan College occupies it's place.
I pulled up to the mall and gazed at the 1970's architecture of the Dillard's Outlet. It was huge, but very dirty. We got out of the truck, slowly walking into the Dillard's Outlet. There was a lot of people in there, apparently looking around at the different sales. We walked throught the Dillard's until we found the main entrance into the mall. We walked in and looked at the depressing look of the dead mall. There was nothing here!?. We walked to the left of the 1980's addition and walked down. All of the shops were abandoned, some with the old signs still hanging there. There was also damage on the ceiling and some of it was growing mold. We walked down to the other side of the hall and saw what looked like a failed renovation. There was debris everywhere, and we walked further into the 1980's addition. Suprisingly, the mall was VERY clean. I could see the tan paint they painted over in the 80's. It was changed to a sterile white, which the owner though would make it more "modern", but it actually made it look more dated. We walked up to a store called, "Eargazum, Your Music Source". There was a lot of left-over posters and such. When I looked at the wall, there was left over CD's sitting on the wall with the cd's still in them!
Fact#3: The CD's sitting on a rack on the wall is true. I went on 11/12/11 and just saw them there. The CD's were still in them! The music store closed in 2008, so those CD's have been sitting in there for three years.
We looked at some other stores and found nothing as well. We then went to the end of the long hallway and saw the old Foley's entrance. We looked inside and saw trash and debris. The old counters were still sitting there, but they looked all look old and gross. I looked up and saw that the old Foley's sign was still hanging there! Last time I shopped in there was over ten years ago. The store has been sittng vacant ever since!!! We then walked over to the old JCPenney's wing and saw the Cinemark Tinseltown Theater. We walked up and saw the price, it was only $3.25!!! I then told Daez to wait and ran through the mall, outside, and to my car. I then started it up and drove over to the theater entrance. I drove over to the parking lot and parked my car running through the entrance to Daez waiting for me.
Fact#4: The theater is called the Cinemark Tinseltown 9, attached to the Six Flags Mall. The prices are $3.25 Matinee (Before Six P.M.), $5.25 (After Six P.M.), $6.25 3D Matinee (Before Six P.M.), and $9.25 Matinee (After Six P.M.)
We decided to see "Paranormal Activity 3". We got our tickets and walked inside. It was a nice theater, it had the 70's retro look and it even had an arcade. I told Daez this used to be a big food court, but they turned it into this theater. We walked up to the concession and got a combo #3. (Combo #3 has two drinks and 1 large popcorn) We paid for our snacks and went to our designated theater.
Three Hours Later... Location: Cinemark Tinseltown 9 Time: 6:30pm
We walked out of the movie, a little shocked from what we saw, but nothing too bad. We decided to go to the arcade. There were'nt that many games there but we found something to satisfy us.
30 Minutes Later...
We were done playing games and were waiting for the Air Hockey table to clear up. After 15 minutes the people left and we started playing Air Hockey. We were both really good, but Daez was trying to eye my weak spot. We both kept scoring one after the other.
2 Hours Later... Time: 9:15pm
We were tired of playing games, so we walked out of the arcade and we both went to the bathroom. After I walked out, I spotted a white dragon sitting on a bench. He looked familiar so I walked up to him. He got up and hugged me as I gasped. I then realized that it was Jake, an old high school friend of mine that moved in 10th grade. We greeted each other and I said, "How have you been? I thought you were still in Dallas?" He grinned and said, "I don't live there because my parents were too pissy about having a Bi-sexual son, so they kicked me out." I asked him if he had a place to stay, and he said, "not really. I just find a place to sleep inside the mall somewhere to where I can't get caught." I then said, "wow... It would be awesome if I slept inside the mall for one night." Jake said, "it gets a little creepy in the middle of the night, especially when you have to go to the bathroom or want to walk around in the middle of the night." Apparently I was dreaming because I did not notice Daez standing behind me the whole time. He asked, " who is this?" I said, "remember Jake from high school?" Daez said yes and instantly hugged Jake, having not seen him in a long time. I asked Jake, "do you want to stay over at our house?" Jake said, "I don't know, your room wasnt really that big and we can't fit three beds in there." I grinned at his concern and he stared at me. I then told him, me and Daez can share a bed, that wya you have your own bed." Jake said, "are you two dating?" I said yeah and he congratulated us. I then called my mom and asked her if a friend could stay with us for a while. She was skeptical but said yes after I said, he didnt have any other place to live. I then told Jake he could stay over and we walked out of the theater and to my truck. Luckily I brought the other truck I had with more seats in it so we could have more people with us. I started the truck and drove back home.
END OF CHAPTER 6