4: 4
4.
The blood drained out of Donald's face.
Then he pulled out a walkie-talkie and started toward the mall doors.
I thought he was calling for an ambulance.
Figured we were all just people working for a paycheck.
If my mother got out of this safely today, I could let go of the criminal side of it. All I'd want was an apology.
But a second later, every door in the mall locked.
Everyone inside, man or woman, old or young, staff or customer, was sealed in with us.
Panic spread in an instant. Donald, unhurried, lifted a bullhorn and addressed them all.
"Sorry to interrupt everyone's pleasant shopping trip."
"Someone came into our mall to steal, and it's cost us two hundred thousand dollars. She won't take responsibility for it, and now she's trying to run."
"To keep her from getting away with it, no one will be allowed in or out until she pays for the damage. Thank you all for your cooperation and understanding."
I could barely believe my ears.
To keep me from leaving, Donald had locked down an entire mall of people?
The others, trapped against their will, blew up too.
Demanding to know what gave them the right.
"I just came in for a coffee, and I've got to get back to work. If my boss finds out and fires me, are you going to give me my job back?"
"Exactly! I have to drop my son at school. If he's late, is that on you?"
"I only came in for the morning shift and now you've got me stuck here. What, you planning to pay me for the afternoon too?"
The whole crowd was talking at once, but Donald and Gayle just played dumb.
Gayle especially. She wasted no time pinning every bit of it on me.
"It's all because she won't pay and wants to skip the bill. The second she pays, I promise we'll open the doors and let all of you go!"
"I didn't!" I denied it at once.
"You're the ones who jacked up the price. You extorted me first! And you laid hands on my mother."
"She's bleeding badly enough to go into shock. If she doesn't get to a hospital, she's going to die!"
Gayle just kept yelling that I'd failed to steal from them and now I was trying to fake an injury for money.
The standoff dragged, and then someone in the crowd shouted.
"It's not even that much. Just pay it!"
"Right! A mall this size, you think they're going to scam you?"
I wanted to tell them this was worse than a scam.
This was deliberate framing. This was treating a life like it was worth nothing!
But nobody listened to me. They just kept pushing me to hand over the money.
Some of them crowded in and started going through my pockets and my mother's.
When I saw her shoved to the ground, several feet trampling over her, I gave in.
"Fine, I'll pay. It's a hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine, right?"
I pulled out my bank card and was about to pay when Gayle traded a look with Donald.
Then Gayle stepped up and stopped me.
"Hold on, it's not a hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine anymore. It's a million!"
In under ten minutes the number had jumped more than fivefold. My hand paused over the card, and it slipped out.
"You're gouging me?"
Donald corrected me.
"It's not gouging, it's fair compensation."
"You and your mother have been dragging this out for so long, and think how much business you've cost us. A little compensation is only reasonable, isn't it?"
Gayle crossed her arms and chimed in.
"Right, Miss Pruitt, dressed up like you are, don't tell me you'd stiff us over a little money like this?"
Wait.
She called me Miss Pruitt?
I'd never set foot in this mall before, and there was no way I knew her. How did she know my last name?
I glanced at my mother, unconscious on the floor, and my hand drew back from the payment.
"I'm not paying this. You want to hold people, hold them. As long as you like. I don't have a problem with that."
