"I'm tired of watching these movies with you," I grumbled at Jerry. "If I watch one more government-trying-to-capture-and-study-another-innocent-person flick, I'm never leaving the house again."
"True Lies is not a government conspiracy flick," Jerry said.
"I know that, but it has government agents doing spy stuff again and that always reminds me of government conspiracy flicks," I said.
We opened the double doors to the mall parking lot and began strolling toward my car. We hadn't had many evenings alone like this to just sit back and watch a good movie at the local mall theater in quite some time; in fact, not since school had started almost a month ago.
"What time is it?" I asked, knowing I had school in the morning.
"A little after one," he replied and I gasped. 5 hours from now, I 'd have to be out of bed. "Have you noticed the number of cars out here?" Jerry added.
I looked around, not sure what he meant. "No," I replied, with a shrug.
"I mean, how few there are?" he said, stopping. "There's like all of 12 cars out here."
"I see that," I said, looking around with a frown. Something else was odd, too...
"And they all look the same," we said almost simultaneously.
A car door opened, then another, then another and soon, all the doors on these cars were opening and men in suits were getting out.
"I'm for going back in and seeing another movie, how 'bout you?" Jerry asked eagerly.
"I can do that," I agreed hurriedly, as we both began to make haste for the mall doors behind us.
A guard was locking the door just as we ran up. Jerry nearly yanked the door off its hinges as we ran past the man. "My sister left her purse in the theater," he told the guy as we rushed past him.
The guy never heard him, since a bright light came crashing through the door into him. The sound of his scream was enough to make both Jerry and I stop to look back.
"Was that a...?" Jerry began.
"Powerball?" I finished. "Yes, it was."
"This makes this a magic thing, not a government thing?" Jerry asked.
"Uh-huh," I agreed.
"I'm not sure if that makes it better or not," he said, as we rushed on.
We jumped the barrier ropes and ran into the main part of the mall. "Upstairs!" I gasped. "We can lose them in the shops up there."
We dashed up the escalator and down toward Dillard's, just as another group of men came our way from that very direction. We cursed and turned back the way we came, only to have the other men coming up the escalator right for us. We ran around the upper level, trying to decide on an escape route while both groups of men closed from either side.
"Okay," Jerry said, glancing behind us at the balcony overlooking the lower level, "this is gonna sound stupid..."
"Oh, no..." I pleaded.
"...but there's a fountain below us by the theater..."
"I know that, Jerry."
"And if we hit that..."
"Please don't say we're gonna jump..."
"...then we can keep going toward your car." He began clambering over the edge of the railing and I watched him in horror.
"Please don't say we're gonna jump..." I begged.
"But we have to go together..."
"Please don't say we're gonna jump..."
"...right now or they're gonna catch us." He grabbed my arm and leaned backward so that I began sliding over the edge.
"No, Jerry, don't...!" I begged, grabbing the rail with my toes.
"Jump!" he yelled and, with a wail, I let go.
There is a moment of peace before a sudden impact, a moment in which one can gather one's thoughts, look at one's closest friend and realize what a colossal error they've just made with the last few seconds of their lives. Jerry and I had this sort of introspective moment...right before hitting the floor a good ten feet away from the fountain a full mall story below...