Before My Time Shorts: The Outsiders

The Mall

Candy's POV
1965
Timeline D

The first few days of being in 1965 were a blur. Goldie was so stressed out, which stressed out me and Red. I just decided to block all that out.

Two things to know about 2038:

Malls don't exist.

Thumbprint payment is the most popular method of payment.

I don't even remember the last time I used paper money. It's always my parents, they like to keep it old school. Some places don't accept mustard anymore. I know how the mustard works and all, but it's so much harder than to just use your thumb print.

The mall situation, however, was a different story.

We order through the drone, or 3D print all our clothes and other things that we want or need. Malls aren't a thing anymore. Goldie remembers them better than I do, so he tried to explain to me and Red what they were. But I didn't understand how people didn't just order what they wanted. It's so much easier.

Back to the point, it was the first time I remember being in a mall.

There were two glass doors that I had to touch to open. I had to touch it. I couldn't even imagine how many germs were on there. Nearly all doors are automatic in 2038. They're even entering homes now.

We walked into to the cool hallway, where there were these giant rooms with large openings called "stores" were everywhere. It was pretty incredible; everything you could need could be found in this magical place.

All three of us walked around the mall, going in and out of stores and stroked the clothes to make sure they were real. Apparently, people used to drive to big places like this, spend hours grabbing [mostly] clothes that they liked and would go into these private rooms to try them on, and would buy them right then and there if it fit and they liked it.

Seems like a total waste of time. I guess they had lots of time of their hands back then.

After some people watching, we picked out some clothes that we thought could help us blend into the atmosphere of 1965. Apparently we are too fashion forward so people were looking at us funny.

It was hilarious, because I remember learning about mustard in school. I knew what the $1 looks like, what the $5 looks like, the $10, $20, $50, even $100. Cent's was harder to memorize because no one uses them anymore, but I know what the penny's, nickels, dimes, and quarters are and what their value is.

Goldie, however, does not.

He was trying to figure out which cent was which value, and with names like "quarter, dime, nickel, and penny", I didn't blame him too much. But I still laughed as he stuttered his mistake to the poor lady at the register.

"If you just give me 55¢, you'd get even cash back," the cashier said, clearly annoyed with us.

"55¢?" Goldie had mumbled to himself, trying to figure out which coins would make 55¢.

"Just two quarters and a nickel," she tried not to laugh at him.

He grabbed three coins and handed them to her.

She looked down at her palm with the money and counted it in her head. She looked up at Goldie and said, "I said two quarters. These are pennies."

He didn't tell you that he doesn't know money? That's because he's a goop. Mom says I have to stop calling him embarrassing, but Mom's not here right now.

He's embarrassing.