My father and sister had me in the back seat of the car. My sister always wanted to be my mother, and I imagine she saw this as her chance. The road branched to an off ramp which led up over the green strata of deciduous trees which had caged us. I knew this was a wrong turn, and I told my father this, but he was headstrong. Realizing he was wrong, the car parked in a rocky-high parking lot on the edge of a ridge overlooking the highway and the ramp-exit. Looking to the the side opposite the highway one could see a bay, the land curving and forming a calm u, with black jetties like the jaw-bone of the mouth and tow-boats bobbing like loose teeth at the inlet.

Back on the highway, the grade increased and we reached the apex of the island; a vantage from which we could observe both sides of the island. The windward portion side had evidently been carved by wind and water to a much greater extent. We drove down on a road, which as far as I could tell, was attached to a cliff-wall. The mall was nestled at the bottom there beyond the range of discernibility. On the road we encountered a scenic rest area, where a Japanese man and his little girl were in the middle of the road, taking pictures of a sprawling canyon road spread before us like a great frozen flame.

At the mall we looked at fossilized crabs, walking chickens made of blocky plastic, boxes of talking dolls, and an antiquated television/stereo set from the early 1980's. At the mall movie theatre they showed previews of an upcoming Lucas detective fiction/noir movie; all dressed up in satin red and blue, clouded light-globes and cocktails party and punctuating 1920's gunshots. We walked on. The mall was expansive.