Sunday Malling From Hell
Going to the mall must be pleasurable for most. I have to be in two different malls, six days a week, to look after our stores, so for me it is work. The mall is pretty much consistent, where weekdays are okay and weekends are festive chaos, the type that tenants like me enjoy.
Yesterday, however, changed my mall experience forever.
I was busy attending to a favorite customer when suddenly I heard a blast of something that sounded like gunfire, I wasn't sure. Moments after, bedlam ensued and there was this wave of people, screaming and running towards nowhere, just running away from the source of that horrible sound, wherever that came from.
People came into the store, seeking cover, just like the others who scampered into the other establishments beside us. We pulled down the shutters and waited in silence. Meanwhile, I felt responsible for all the people who were suddenly under my care, just for being inside the store at the time. We didn't really know what was happening outside, we just knew it was scary.
Then another volley of shots ensued. Then more screaming and running. This time I was positive that there were guns being fired because it sounded like automatic rifles. It was scary. Then it was silent. We waited a few more minutes before we thought it was safe enough to push the shutters back up so as to let the ones who came in earlier out again. Then, as if synchronized, people started coming out of their places of hiding in trickles, then in droves. The previously dead silent and empty mall alley was again busy with people going about their business like nothing really happened. Things were back to normal.
The mall fosters a safe and familiar environment for people, comfortable enough for them to readily loosen their grip on the purse. In the mall you feel a semblance of normalcy, that life goes on despite. Despite.
Apparently life didn't go on for the two men who died last night. I guess even up to now, the mall security guards, some of whom I know, will never let on to what really happened there. They are trained to do that, even regardless of what's out in the news. And all the more I can never confirm with the mild-mannered, hard-working mall manager if the shooting actually started inside the mall, it sure sounded like it did. After all, the mall, more than anything, must be kept a pleasurable place for most. And it must be kept that way at all cost.
Filed Under: Randomly
Yesterday, however, changed my mall experience forever.
I was busy attending to a favorite customer when suddenly I heard a blast of something that sounded like gunfire, I wasn't sure. Moments after, bedlam ensued and there was this wave of people, screaming and running towards nowhere, just running away from the source of that horrible sound, wherever that came from.
People came into the store, seeking cover, just like the others who scampered into the other establishments beside us. We pulled down the shutters and waited in silence. Meanwhile, I felt responsible for all the people who were suddenly under my care, just for being inside the store at the time. We didn't really know what was happening outside, we just knew it was scary.
Then another volley of shots ensued. Then more screaming and running. This time I was positive that there were guns being fired because it sounded like automatic rifles. It was scary. Then it was silent. We waited a few more minutes before we thought it was safe enough to push the shutters back up so as to let the ones who came in earlier out again. Then, as if synchronized, people started coming out of their places of hiding in trickles, then in droves. The previously dead silent and empty mall alley was again busy with people going about their business like nothing really happened. Things were back to normal.
The mall fosters a safe and familiar environment for people, comfortable enough for them to readily loosen their grip on the purse. In the mall you feel a semblance of normalcy, that life goes on despite. Despite.
Apparently life didn't go on for the two men who died last night. I guess even up to now, the mall security guards, some of whom I know, will never let on to what really happened there. They are trained to do that, even regardless of what's out in the news. And all the more I can never confirm with the mild-mannered, hard-working mall manager if the shooting actually started inside the mall, it sure sounded like it did. After all, the mall, more than anything, must be kept a pleasurable place for most. And it must be kept that way at all cost.
Filed Under: Randomly
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