Shopping Mall Dream

 

I wanted a big pillow and my wife told me about this really good deal at a big department store at the mall. She was even able to give me specific directions to the particular spot in the store, something about where the big chute dropped stuff from the upper floors. So I knew what I wanted, and I knew where it was, all I had to do was get there.
    When I got to the mall entrance I noticed a small door off to the side. It was about half the height of a normal door. I wondered what it was for. It was ajar, so I pulled it open and looked in and saw a wide, painted wood floor, like you might see in the shipping department of an old business. The floor was empty, but just past it I could see people doing something.
    I went in the entrance and I see an opening to another area I hadn't noticed before, so I take a look. It's a largish room, maybe 40 feet square and there are a bunch of people working on shoes. One of them looks at up and tells me that this is the shoe factory. Okay then.
   I go on my way and I expect to be passing through a hobby shop, because that's how I remember the mall being laid out, but no, it's some kind of restaurant. Apparently they specialize in big hamburger steaks, like one pound. There are platters of them here and there, some with ketchup, some without. The place is dark, kind of reminds me of Limehouse's backwoods barbeque joint on the TV series Justified. As I am leaving I notice that they also specialize in fruit pies.
    I wander vaguely through the mall for a bit trying to find the pillow, but no luck. I eventually find myself going through another restaurant on my way out the door. My memory is fading on this one, but it had some kind of folksy, country theme to it.
    I have left the building and I encounter a woman wearing a wireless headset who asks me what I thought of the restaurant and I told her I hadn't eaten there, whereupon she starts telling me about how great it is and how I ought to try it, but I am not interested and keep walking.