Working for a large construction company, Paula's job was to locate and scout large sites for their potential in being redeveloped for shopping malls. In many Midwestern cities, she had seen many old areas, perhaps some fondly remembered by the locals, removed like the old cancers she saw them as; remnants of a former culture that had no current relevance to the modern world she was helping create. What benefit do these relics have that didn't outweigh what a large, sterile mall would bring?
On the current site she was scouting, she found an old-fashioned amusement park, the kind she vaguely remembered visiting during her childhood one that was torn down in the late 1960s to make way for an early shopping mall in her neighborhood. And it had all the same rides, games, food and amusements she recalled. Just seeing it made Paula feel like a girl again. She would visit it before recommending that the site be acquired for a most expansive indoor mall her employer was planning.
Paula paid her admission, then took in several rides, including a turn-of-the-century merry-go-round and two roller coasters. She spent nearly an hour in the arcade with its strange devices that still required only a penny to play or use. She dined on hot dogs, popcorn and real cotton candy, the kind freshly spun, not made in factories for a long shelf life. And then she discovered the fun house.
Inside the fun house, Paula maneuvered through various mazes, over floors that rocked and tilted, stairs that turned into slides, through a revolving tunnel, and past fake but still scary monsters. She then came upon the hall of mirrors. Paula giggled as the twisted mirrors remade her image. In one, she looked elongated like a string bean; in another her upper torso separated from her lower. In the final mirror, her image appeared scrunched into a midget. "I look like a little girl," Paula giggled.
Heading for the fun house exit, she saw the air machine designed to blow up women's skirts. Grinning broadly, Paula ran across the floor-mounted blower quickly but still felt a full blast. Surprisingly, her skirt did not fly up. Looking down, she saw not a skirt, but what looked like the bottom of a child's shortall in the same color fabric as her skirt.
"Wouldn't that surprise my boyfriend," Paula giggled. But suddenly overtaken by doubts, she added, "What boyfriend?" Thinking hard, she struck up a conversation in her head. "You know. The guy who works at your job What job? You scout sites for malls What's a mall?"
Paula noticed her surroundings becoming less joyous and more ominous. Happily painted backdrops developed dark shadows and took on a sinister appearance. Paula began to feel afraid. Trembling, she sought cover in a lighted area that contained a penny weight scale. Looking into the mirror on the scale's body, she saw the same short girl-like figure as in the final fun house mirror.
"This can't be!" Paula said. "I'm not" She racked her brain, but the concluding thought wouldn't come. "I'm not" she began anew. Her head was beginning to hurt. She was startled to look up and see a man wearing a straw hat. His far-away face encrusted with penumbras spoke, "What do you want, little girl?" Paula let out a piercing scream as she ran away through a landscape that became increasingly unfamiliar.
Feeling totally lost, Paula stopped, "I'm not" she
repeated. "I I Me Me Me want me mommy!" Paula blurted
out. "Mommy! Mommmmmmy!!" And she began to cry, a pitiful
little girl, standing in the middle of a big, scary, old-fashioned
amusement park that had a strong sense of survival."