A Collection

When I come in, it's very loud.  I hear a baby crying.  There's lots of chatter and noise that it's hard to pick out specific sounds.  I notice the Christmas decorations, and try to mentally calculate how long until Christmas.  I decide it's too early for decorations.

I begin walking around.  There are a lot of couples walking too, as I find myself consistently behind at least one.  They tend to walk slowly and have their arms around each other.  The first three that I see don't even have any shopping bags.  Even when I get close to them, it's still to hard to hear them say anything, if they even talk at all.

I pass a lingerie store and look into it.  There are three men standing right at the entrance.  They're equally spread across the front of the store.  It's very weird.  Two of them have their arms crossed. One is wearing baggy clothes and a hat. They don't seem like the kind of guys that would set foot in there.  They look awkward and misplaced.

I walk into a women's clothing store.  A sales associate immediately approaches me.  What she asks is normal, but her tone and pace of speech makes it very weird.  She asks me if she can help me find anything, but I tell her I'm just looking.  After a longer than usual pause (almost as if she needed extra processing time), she says ok.  She then decides to inform me of her name and tells me "We also have X and Z here today if you need any help.  I thank her and move to another part of the store.  In the back it seems like people are catching up with one another.  Guy One asks the other how work is going.  Guy Two tells him, "It's good until I have to leave."  Their conversation continues, but it's hard to hear it all.  The ladies jump in, "My dad always says. . . "  They talk about pecan trees and producing them.  They say something about all he makes is anything with pecans.  Just a moment later Guy Two and his wife and child begin backing up.  He tells Guy One's group, "We'll let you guys go"  Guy One tells them it was nice to see them.  I see Guy Two again in the store a few moments later.  They're checking out.  Guy Two is pushing a stroller.  The cashier is explaining some type of rewards system to his wife.  As soon as she's done, they start walking out.  They also have a shopping bag full of stuff from a children's clothing store.

I exit the store too and keep walking.  At one of the cell phone booths, I can tell that the employee is talking with a group of friends that lean against the counter.  The way they're all talking and laughing, I know it's not a business related visit.

In another store I see a girl in a Longhorns hoodie.  She browses through the clearance section.  She ends up gathering two or three items, but there isn't anything significant to observe, so I begin walking again.  When I exit the store I end up behind two girls.  They seem to be total opposites.  One is Girly Girl, assumable by her bedazzled hoodie and a perfect hair style.  She has very very short shorts on. It's surprising to me because it's cool outside.  The other girl, Tom Boy, is dressed just like her name.  she has on boyfriend style jeans, loose fitting, and her hair is plain.  I don't think she has any make up on.  They walk together for quite awhile.

There's a station in the middle of the walkway with several candy machines.  You have to put a quarter in to get the candy.  There's a lady with a little boy stopped here.  I was unable to see if the woman bought him any candy, but when he walks to the next machine, she says, "No, let's go to the candy store."

Close by, I also see a young boy, around the age of 11 that's opening a bottle of orange soda.  It starts to spew out and he closes the top and puts it into his mouth.  The bottle is at least 1/3 foam, and I wonder why he even opened it in the first place.  After he gets it shut I see him open it back up a little bit again and put the top in his mouth.  The distance between us closes as I keep walking.  He knows I'm watching him, and as I pass he gives me a grin.

In one area there are people sitting around on the benches and the side of planters.  I stop to sit down too.  One young adult girl is sitting with an older lady eating ice cream.  There are to other guys sitting on the bench next to them.  Neither group talks much.

One guy, Flame, is in a fire department shirt and sits down with his son next to me.  Shortly after they sit down the little boy gets up and starts walking really close to a lady with short blonde hair, Sub Mom.  At first it doesn't look like he knows her, but then they walk together into a store.  Flame gets out his phone.  I notice that a teenaged girl has sat down with him.  She has a shopping bag from a popular teen clothing store.  She must have sat down when the little boy went with Sub Mom- like a kid swap.  Flame stands up, turns around towards the plants, and puts in a big dip of tobacco.  Then he sets back down.

An old woman with grey hair and a cane is behind me.  After a few moments of sitting there, she gets up and moves to the other side, finding a new spot next to me.  She's silent, but I watch her as she messes with her hands.

As soon as the old lady with ice cream gets up from the bench, Flame and his daughter move from their seat over to the bench.  Immediately their old spot is taken by a group of three people.  The guy, SJ is telling Mom 5.0, "Oh yeah, she had a blast."  A couple more people walk up to join their group.  They look different than the other though.  They have much lighter skin and a different clothing style.  SJ picks up the little boy that it's in the group.  He cradles them in his arms.  He sweetly talks to him. At one point they talk about growing up and SJ says that he doesn't want to do that.  Then SJ starts playfully teasing him about having a mustache.

Soon Sub Mom and her son come out of the fancy store.  They make eye contact with Flame and the daughter but end up going into another nearby store.  Flame and daughter stay put.

It becomes less converted for a moment.  It seems like everyone is people watching as crowds walk past the seating area.

Then Mom 5.0 gets on the phone.  She's asking a question and explaining that they want to eat there, but the little girl doesn't want that the of food.  She wants to know if they can take her something to eat at the restaurant.  She reports back to the group after the call that they said it would be ok.  As I stand up, she's getting on another phone call.  The two kids are starting to try to climb up the pillar.  She tells them to stop before finishing her new phone conversation.

The last thing that I note is that there's a different employee at the cell phone booth than earlier.  Different employee and no more friends.