Conspicuous Consumption
From Pulp Literature Issue 46, find an excerpt of the winning story from our 2024 Raven Short Story Contest, ‘The Mall We Deserve’ by Shanley Kearney.
The Mall We Deserve
by Shanley Kearney
There was a mall in Springfield that would take you back to the eighties. Blue and orange lights lined the walls of coin-fed arcade games. The indoor fountain was year-round and its water circulated upwards and sideways while shoppers sat and stared, losing time. A food court made up the entire west wing of the second floor and sold fried pickles, pizza by the slice, blue raspberry smoothies that turned tongues bright purple, Coca-Cola fizzling in thick Styrofoam, gyros made by the Costas family, and subs, of course. The hallways were wide and crowded with red-and-blue patterned carpet and grey tiles. Escalators to the second level were popular to slide down on. At the entrances were hot pink signs: Stay Long.
The people of Springfield referred to it only as “Our Mall.”
Our Mall had every store both needed and wanted. But there was always space for more down the line. Victoria’s Secret, Hot Topic, GameStop, T-Mobile, Coach, Bath & Body Works, Foot Locker, Ulta, Nike, Teavana, Macy’s, Zales, RadioShack, Bergner’s. There were lines in these stores at the holidays, on weekends, and even on school nights in Springfield.
There was a time before Our Mall—when it was Eastland Mall. It was a lifeless waystation of a place—pass through, grab what you need, continue on. Then people started to linger and then they started to stay. At some point, Eastland Mall was sold to a different management company. Not many remember it.
“Jamie, I’m going to Our Mall. Would you want to meet me there?” Amy Arnolds asked over the phone, clutching the perfect yellow landline she bought at RadioShack the other day. Which day, she probably couldn’t recall.
“Oh, yes! I need a few things,” Jamie Marks said, thumbing through her purse.
They went, along with their strollers and baby bottles. Their older kids ran ahead, making their way to the arcade and food court. Benjamin, Ally, Emily, and Daniel saw everyone from their school through the windows of stores. Lily Adderson, known among many as the teacher’s pet and time-waster because she raised her hand and gave answers that started with Thank you and That reminds me, jumped into a cloud of perfume, sniffing the air before she even pressed the nozzle. Jackson Moore tossed into the air a baseball that he’d picked off a shelf. The ball soared high, higher than he thought it would, almost grazing the lights attached to the ceiling. “Sorry,” he yelled as an employee came running over. Mrs Roberts, the seventh-grade English teacher, stopped to talk to a pair of parents pointing proudly at her star student. She left quickly, spotting the parents of her least favourite student, whom she just gifted a failing grade to.
“What do you need first, Jamie?” Amy asked. Her head was on a swivel, noticing everyone she knew.
“I need to head to Macy’s for some kitchen towels,” Jamie said.
“Oh, perfect. Maybe let’s stop to talk to Margaret first. I just saw her in Kohl’s.”
“Yes! It’s so funny,” Jamie laughed to herself, “I see more people I know here than when I go to church.”
Find the full story in Pulp Literature Issue 46, Spring 2025
Shanley Kearney received her BA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern California and lives in San Francisco, CA. Her fiction has been published and awarded in Phoebe Journal, Flash 500, and 3rd Wednesday. She has worked for four high-profile tech startups and co-founded her own in 2023, serving as its CEO. She can be found on her YouTube channel @shanleyjanekearney and on Twitter @shanleykearney. She is currently looking for a literary agent to represent her debut novel.
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