(continued)
The steadily mounting combination of terror and sickness, which had begun shortly after my typically peaceful moerning coffee had been interrupted by the day’s awful news, began to escalate. This time all the paranoia was real. the mall was indeed closing.I toured both floors and found that, wih the lone exception of a nail salon, every metal screen had been pulled down. Most shops were empty, though some employees stood behind their cages staring out like prisoners, faces as blank as the front page of the daily news on the day after the end of the world. A helpful mall employee escorted me to the security office. As we walked through the empty, echoing expanse, my concern peaked. Terrorism that leads to the mass closing of our public spaces is mighty effective terrorism….
(To be continued)
