BOOM?

Every Sunday morning I meet a friend to walk at a local mall. We choose this mall because it's oval shaped, and we can just walk and walk while talking and not realize that the miles are passing. We have been doing this now for more than 5 years. Occasionally we run into something unusual. Usually, the odd thing is a storm, a lost child, or some people who dress so oddly we can't miss it.

Today was a little different. We walked 7 miles, then stopped to rest and eat. We use the last laps to do any shopping we have in mind. While in a store, I decided to run to the ladies room while my friend browsed some new photo albums. She takes pictures literally by the thousand per trip, and needs some new storage. I left the store, turned left, and ran into yellow "caution" tape.

OK, that's not normal or usual. I asked someone why the tape was up between me and the restroom, and was told that no one knew. I saw a security guard patrolling the blocked off area. I went back to my friend and said part of the mall is blocked off, it's a Sunday, the mall was open for shopping for less than an hour, and it didn't look good to me.

We made our purchases and found another bathroom. We calmly discussed options as to the reason for the cordon. I opted for bomb scare. She opted for someone accosted in a bathroom or dressing room. She figured blood, I figured explosives. At no time did we seriously consider leaving the mall, since we did not see any 'real' cops. We assumed they must be where they were needed, but if the whole mall wasn't evacuated, we weren't concerned.

We calmly discussed what could be so dangerous that they would block off part of a mall, but not dangerous enough to evacuate. No announcement was made, and security guards were not answering questions. It started to bother me that we were so blase about it. Shouldn't we feel some fear? Is this so common now that we take it all in stride?

Eventually a store employee came towards us (why us, I don't know, the mall was pretty full) and told us we should leave, that there was a suspicious package found. She said she thought it was nothing and that the cordon would soon be removed, but she was heading out. She had more white showing in her eyes than seemed necessary to me.

We finally decided that if we couldn't walk the whole mall, we were going to leave. We had almost 9 miles done by then, so we took our toys and went home.