The Buchanans were getting ready to set out for the day. The weather outside was absolutely beautiful and the rain had finally stopped falling from the sky. "So does anyone have any suggestions on where we should go today?" Richard asked as he started to gather the needed items for them to leave the house for the day. His keys and wallet were the main things that he needed, but also grabbed his cell phone just in case somebody from the office needed something.
His son, Jason, was finishing up his breakfast of pancakes and juice. After stuffing the final remnants of the breakfast in his mouth he turned to his father and with a mouth full of food he said. "You know what, we could always go hiking today." He continued to chew his food as he looked around the table to his siblings.
"Or you can finish up your chewing before you answer." Sarah answered back as she continued to text her friends about her busy social scene. Being a sophomore in college, she was always trying to do her best to balance a decent social life with her academic studies. Majoring in education, Sarah was hoping to, at least one day, teaching history and social studies to middle-schoolers.
"Yeah Jason." Julia agreed as she tried to shield her own plate from any flying projectiles coming from Jason's mouth. "I'm trying to eat too."
Jason swallowed the contents of his mouth and looked at his sisters. "Sorry, I was just trying to give a suggestion on where we can go."
Sarah sighed as she locked her phone and replied to her father's earlier question. "Well Dad, we could go to that shopping center on highway 64. Richard tried to remember what she was talking about. A couple weeks earlier when they were going to one of Julia's basketball games, the family saw a shopping center that seemed to be really busy.
"Yeah, honey." Emily agreed as she put her arm around her husband and embracing him. "It's only a half an hour away and it will be a great drive." She motioned to the cloudless sky.
"I think you're right." Richard agreed as he looked around the table to his family. "Well what do you guys think?" Jason really had his mind set on hiking and really didn't want to do any shopping, but Julia seemed interested. "Well, finish up, go change, and we can go." The girls talked excitedly as they brought their plates to the sink and made their way to the door. Richard put his hand on his son's shoulder. "We can go hiking next weekend. I mean, it's supposed to be nice next weekend too. Hmm?"
"I guess..." Jason replied back to him as he got up to clear his plate from the table too. "But can stop somewhere for lunch today?"
"When are you not thinking about food?" He answered back as he tussled his son's hair. Jason, groaning is displeasure, haphazardly fixed his hair.
Half an hour later, everybody was ready to go and they started to pile into the SUV. Richard wore his usual khaki pants, a light blue polo, and on his feet he wore his usual grey trainers. Emily was next in the SUV with her light yellow sundress with black flats. Sarah decided to take it easy and wore her purple university tank top, pink short shorts, with pink flip flops on her feet. Jason sat in the back seat with his favorite black Call of Duty T-shirt, blue jeans, and black trainers. Julia climbed in last, but decided to follow Sarah's example and wore a simple white blouse, jean shorts, with light brown converse sneakers. Richard turned on the vehicle and turned to look at everyone in the back. "Did everyone grab their allowances so that you all won't bother us for any money?" Richard asked as he looked in the rear view mirror to see everyone nodding their heads. He then turned his attention over to his, who was busy looking at something on her phone. "Do you know what time they open?"
His wife turned her hazel eyes to her husband and replied back to him. "I was just checking that." She chuckled as she looked back over at her phone. "Hmm... That's odd. I can't find anything on the internet about it."
"That certainly is odd." He agreed. "I hope they didn't close down. So let's go by and check it out." Everyone let him know of their agreence. "Well there we go." He chuckled as he put the SUV into reverse and backed out of the driveway. Richard turned the radio station to the 'oldies' station to help relive his childhood in Cincinnati.
"Dad, can you change it into something more upbeat?" Sarah wondered as she started to look for her earbuds.
"Sweety, why don't you just put in your ear buds and listen to the music you want to." Emily asked as she giggled at the way her husband acted when he heard his favorite songs.
"This is going to be the longest 20 minutes of my life." Sarah complained as she finally found her earbuds and put them into her ears to listen to some 'good' music.
The trip was over in a matter of no time and the kids were eager to get out of the SUV. Emily got out too and stretched to her full extent. "That wasn't too bad was it?" She asked her kids who were getting out of the car.
Jason got out and looked around. "It looks like it closed down." He stated as he noticed the lack of cars in the parking lot. "Are you sure they're still open?"
Richard walked up to the main store and cups his hands over his eyes to peer inside the window. "It looks closed, but..." He walked closer to the door and gave it a yank and found it quite easy to open. "But the door is open." As he opened the door wider a distinct chime rang out to announce the presence of visitors entering the dusty shelves of merchandise.
"Welcome!" A gravely voice called out to them as they filed in one by one through the door.
The family looked in the direction of the gravely voice and waved their hands at the old man who seemed to be having an intensive conversation with a mouse sitting on the desk. "Err... Hello." Emily replied as she tried not to pay too much attention to the conversation the two of them were having.
The old man looked up from his conversation and pointed around the store. "You're free to roam the store, just don't read anything out loud or it could be life changing." The old man cackled and the mouse that was sitting on the counter seemed to be letting out rhythmic squeaks to.
'If I didn't know better, I would say that mouse is laughing too.' Emily thought to herself, thinking it odd with such behavior. "Now kids." She said out loud as she looked over to see all three of them going off in different directions. "Don't go too far and if you make a mess, I will make you clean it up."
"Ok." All three answered back to her, since they knew that she indeed meant it.
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