Answer

Half the stores in the mall were empty. Lone workers stood behind the counters, using their personal devices. The other stalls sat empty, abandoned, closed. Voices echoed from the food court on the bottom floor. Down a hallway, a forgotten payphone, never decommissioned, began to ring.

No. 157

Exit

A group of partygoers approached us on the sidewalk, laughter and chatter filling the air. The casual warmth and guileless ease of drunkenness emanated from them. We skirted their path and circled around the grassy lawn with fallen palm fronds. Around the corner, moonlight illuminated a row of hedges high in the air. At its base, one of their friends stood, legs apart, relieving himself at the base of the fence line. He shivered, then pulled up his pants, dropped a can of beer, and raced down the sidewalk calling after them.

No. 148