"I can't believe this! They're trying to kill this town!"

Sam groaned and stopped recording the video she was taking on her phone. She'd been working on a reel for her Tiktok series about life in a small town. As an aspiring director,  Sam figured what better way to hone her craft than to document the mundanity of her existence in Plainfield. But her dad's outburst had ruined the whole thing. 

Sam looked up and watched her dad slam the door of their general store then storm up to the front register. He smacked something down onto the counter. It looked like a lawn sign. Sam’s mom, who’d been ducked down behind the register sorting through some boxes, jumped in surprise.

"You messed up my video dad!" Sam said.

“This is far more important than some Tick Tack video,” her dad rebutted.

"It's Tiktok," Sam muttered, knowing it was useless trying to correct him. 

"Well, what is it dear? What's got you all worked up?" Sam's mom asked.

"This!" Sam's dad yelled, slapping his hands down on the sign. 

"And this is?" Sam's mom eyed the sign on the counter and then her husband as she awaited his explanation.

"It's a mall, Linda. They're building a mall right here in Plainfield!"

"A mall?"

A mall? Sam smiled thoughtfully.

She had lived in Plainfield her whole life. Plainfield, the most boring town in the whole United States. It was all right there in the name, as if a field wasn’t boring enough, they decided to add plain to the front of it.

Plainfield was suffocatingly small. Sam’s parents ran Lowe’s General Store and they lived above it on the second floor. There was one school which Sam had attended since she was in kindergarten. Beyond that was the downtown strip, a collection of aged brick buildings that housed the bank, the post office, two restaurants and a handful of shops. At the heart of the strip was the local church and town hall. There were no traffic lights in town. Traffic, Sam often joked, might be a little too exciting for Plainfield. The only real thrill in town was the large expanse of woods behind the school but after twelve long years, even that had lost its luster.

There  was  no  crime  in  Plainfield.  No  one locked their doors and everyone knew everyone else's business. So little happened in town Sam was surprised it even existed on a map. Her parents called Plainfield the "last great American town", a comment she rolled her eyes at every time. 

Plainfield felt like a trap, like a heavy anchor wrapped around her legs. She knew what would happen if she didn't leave after high school graduation. It was her worst fear: she would become her parents, a permanent fixture of Plainfield. Though Sam admired her parents and their devotion to the town and its ways, she craved more. 

Her parents didn't even use cellphones! They didn't find them necessary. It fit the Plainfield way of simple living. According to Sam's dad, the landline was more reliable and everything they needed was right there in town. Sam had begged her parents for a cellphone and though it had felt like some sort of betrayal, eventually they gave in. Until Sam graduated, it was her only link to the world beyond the confines of Plainfield.

Movies helped fill the void for Sam. That was her escape, her comfort. She couldn’t wait to leave for New York or some other big city and attend film school. She desperately wanted to be in a place with a vibrant culture, a place that appreciated art, a place where new things were always happening. Sam couldn’t remember the last new thing to come to Plainfield. It was like the town was against anything hip or modern. 

But a mall? Now that was exciting. Finally, something new! Something to add a little spice to vanilla Plainfield. 

"This is going to destroy us," Sam's dad seethed. 

"Whoa, whoa, slow down a second," Sam's mom urged. "Where did this sign come from?"

Sam sauntered over to the counter, curious as to what the sign said exactly. 

“It was on our property. Someone placed it out front by the parking lot entrance. It’s like they are threatening me,” Sam’s dad said.

Sam looked at the sign on the counter. It read: COMING SOON! THE PLAINFIELD MALL. HUNDREDS OF SHOPS, DINING AND ENTERTAINMENT. Below the large text, at the bottom of the sign was the slogan: Live to shop, shop to live. 

That’s a bit of a weird slogan, Sam thought. Shop to live? What was that supposed to mean?

“James,” Sam’s mom said. “No one is threatening you. Just take a deep breath before you jump to conclusions. We don't have all the information."

"Information!?" Sam's dad huffed. "Linda, it's all right there on the sign. Someone placed this on our property. How could it not be a threat?"

"James..."

"No Linda, this isn't right! I'm marching down to town hall this instant to give them a piece of my mind. They think they can just put up a mall that no one asked for? What happened to a sense of community, huh? What about the small businesses that are the lifeblood of this place? I won't stand for it!"

As quickly as he had burst in, Sam's dad fled back out with a fiery fury. Sam's mom sighed and looked over at her daughter. 

"Will dad be okay?"

"Eventually," her mom replied, then added, "I hope."

"So is it true? They're building a mall right here in Plainfield?"

"From the looks of it," Sam's mom said, her eyes scanning over the sign. "It's just so strange."

"What's strange?"

“Well,” her mom hesitated as though she was about to tell Sam something she shouldn’t. "None of this was mentioned at the last town meeting. I mean, a project like this is a big deal and I know lots of people would have opinions on it. But the selectmen said nothing. Not one peep. And now...it's just...happening?"

Sam’s parents always went to the monthly town meetings. Most of the townspeople did. It was how things were decided and how Plainfield was able to remain the way it was. That’s what the townspeople wanted. To preserve the small-town charm, to keep things local. Sam remembered years ago when Dollar General wanted to open a store in Plainfield and the idea was torn apart at the town meeting. So why all of a sudden was a mall going in without town approval?

what lurks in the plainfield mall? order book #1 to find out…if you dare!!!