After having to cross the country by land without any kind of entertainment or beauty maintenance products, having to watch Susie sing in front of thousands of spectators, not to mention all those tuning in on TV, and only spending one day in the shopping capital of the world, New York City, Angelica had to get back at "unfair" life. She took her mother's credit card when she was not looking and prepared to sneak out of the hotel later that night. Once the moms came into the suite the Rugrats were staying in to say goodnight, she knew that it was time to go shopping.
It was a little bit after eight when Angelica prepared to sneak out, but before she could leave, Susie confronted her and asked, "Where are you going Angelica?"
"Shopping, duh," Angelica responded as she zipped up the purple jacket that was part of her outfit.
"All by yourself, and it's Thanksgiving night."
"So?"
"So? Well, you're too young to go wandering around New York City by yourself this late, not to mention all the stores are closed."
"There's bound to be one open, and besides I deserve it."
"You deserve it?"
"Yeah, having to cross this entire country and I don't even get to go shopping."
"Angelica, you can't be serious, what if something bad happens to you?"
"Nothing will happen to me. But just in case, cover for me if the adults wonder where I am."
"If I'm going to cover for you, then you need to be back before ten. That should be enough time for you to go shopping."
"Ugh, fine, I'll be back before ten," Angelica promised hesitantly.
Angelica managed to sneak out of her hotel room, and headed down to the lobby. Once she exited the luxurious Plaza Hotel, she walked to right until she reached the edge of the side walk. She crossed West 58th Street, turned left, and headed down the sidewalk until she reached the revolving door to Bergdorf Goodman. Angelica reached out for the door but it appeared it was locked as it barely moved. She spent around ten seconds trying to open the door before she got frustrated and gave up on trying to open the door. She threw her hands up in the air as she walked down the street towards the intersection with 5th Avenue.
At the intersection, Angelica turned to the right, walking down 5th Avenue. To the right of her, the outside of the Bergdorf Goodman building stood, mocking her in Angelica's mind. As she reached the end of the block, she turned her attention to the other side of the street and saw a store that appeared to still be open. On the other side of 5th Avenue she spotted Louis Vuitton and decided to go shop there. She crossed the street and headed left to the door, but just like before the door was locked. Being the second time she had been fooled into believing a store was open, Angelica growled as she let go of the bars to open the door.
She walked back to the intersection of East 57th Street and 5th Avenue when she spotted the iconic Tiffany & Company. She was a bit skeptical as the last two stores were closed, but since this was going to be her last night in New York, she decided that it couldn't hurt to check. She crossed the street and headed left towards the entrance, another revolving door, only to find that the door was locked as well.
Angelica couldn't hold it in anymore, she struck the door with her fists, and screamed, "Why, why isn't any store open?!"
A woman walking down the street who overheard Angelica's scream pulled her from the door, and said, "Hey girl, calm down. It's Thanksgiving, all the stores are closed. What'd you expect?"
As the woman walked to the end of the block and turned to the left, Angelica realized that Susie was right, all the stores were closed for Thanksgiving. She went back to the door and punched and kicked it while she led out a loud scream. Eventually, she got tired of screaming and decided that she might as well cut her losses and return to the hotel. She reached the end of the block, but instead of crossing the street to the right of her, she was compelled to go left, the same direction the woman walked. For a quick second, Angelica saw the woman walk into the building next to Tiffany's and decided to follow her. She walked past the beige building until she reached the next building, a black and gold tower.
Angelica headed towards the revolving door and found that unlike the other doors it was open. She was so excited that she had finally found a place that was open that she didn't even check to see what the name of the store was. Little did she know, she did not enter a store but the skyscraper known as Thump Tower.
The first thing Angelica noticed when she entered Thump Tower was just how orange the lobby was. The walls were outrageously covered in a metallic-gold paint, giving everything inside, including the light, an orange hint. Angelica looked up towards the roof and back down to the ground as she walked to the other side of the building. Before she knew it, Angelica had reached a point of Thump Tower that lead to another part not open to the public. Even though she would be considered a trespasser if she continued, she felt as if she had a right to enter as she had been deprived of shopping in New York.
Angelica found a door in the corner, opened it, and made her way down the hallway the door lead to. The hallway was much plainer looking than the lobby, and she felt as if she was being watched by security, but she didn't care. When she reached the end of the hallway, she opened the door carefully to make sure she didn't bring too much attention to herself. It was at this point that Angelica had entered the part of the building reserved for the tenants of the luxury apartments. Angelica knew she had an opportunity to explore more of the building and she took advantage of that opportunity. She made her way to an elevator next to where an attendant's desk laid empty, entered it, and hit the key labeled "65."
She rode the elevator for a few minutes until she reached the third to last floor of the building. Once she reached the top floor, she exited the elevator and began to wander the hallways in an attempt to find a window to get a high-up view of New York City. Angelica wandered the hallways, opened a door that lead to a flight of stairs, climbed the flight of stairs that lead to the next floor, and wandered around this new floor for a few minutes until she reached another door. Something drove her to go inside and she would not regret it. As soon as she opened the door recessed lights turned on, illuminating a prized collection of valuables. Angelica looked at all of the paintings that adorned the walls, the jewels and other valuables on columns, but what most caught her attention was something encased in a showcase at the end of the room.
Angelica approached the showcase to find a luxurious black Ottoman in front of the brown podium base of the showcase. She sat on the Ottoman as she was tired of walking and wanted to examine the contents of the showcase. Behind the showcase was a red flag with a white circle in the center and what appeared to be a black twisted symbol to Angelica in the middle of the white circle. Inside the showcase sat an old human skull nested on a velvet pillow. Angelica examined the skull, wondering why it was displayed so prominently, even after she read the plaque on the podium that read "Skull of Adolf Hitler."
"Never heard of him, I don't see what's so special," Angelica commented after reading the plaque.
She turned her attention back to the skull for a while, that was until someone else entered the room. As she observed the skull in the case, a man's voice called out to Angelica.
The man's voice asked, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
Angelica turned around to see a man she recognized from TV. The man was in his late 50's, he had Blond hair he combed over, wore a suit, and walked towards her. She knew she could get herself out of trouble if she just pleased the man, and that was what she did.
"Is this your stuff? It's really neat," Angelica said as she pointed to everything in the room.
"Yes, everything in here is mine," the man said as he began to approach Angelica much more slowly.
"Great, I don't know what half of the stuff in here is, but it's all pretty cool."
"Glad to hear you enjoyed my collection."
"The name's Angelica, Angelica Pickles," she said as she extended her hand out to the man.
"Ronald, Ronald Thump," the man said as he shook Angelica's hand.
"So you're the guy whose name is on everything he owns."
"Yes Angelica, that's me," Thump said as he chuckled a bit since he knew that Angelica didn't know the little-known secret that not every building with his name on it belonged to him.
Seeing that she had gotten Thump to loosen up, she asked, "Hey, I don't want to bother you, but I haven't eaten for a while, do you have some food?"
Even though she expected to get kicked out of the building, Thump came closer and said, "Why yes, we still have some Turkey and other food from Thanksgiving dinner. Care to join me for a quick chat?"
"Why yes, thanks," Angelica replied, accepting the invitation.
The two walked out of the room and down the hallway as Thump took Angelica to his personal penthouse suite covered in gold paint. However, it also featured marble, giving the suite a much nicer look compared to the monochrome lobby. Both of them proceeded to the dining table where Thump called on servers to bring out small plates of Turkey, Ham, Corn, Mashed Potatoes, and other Thanksgiving foods.
Both ate from their plates as Thump asked, "So Angelica, why are you up here?"
Angelica paused for a moment and decided to tell Thump her truth, she said "Well, my friend, Susie, was invited to sing in the Gracy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and after having to cross the entire country I only get to spend one full day in New York City. That's why I decided to sneak out of my hotel room and go shopping. Unfortunately, all of the stores were closed, but I saw that your great building was open and decided to check it out."
"Great story," Thump said with the look he made while thinking that made him look constipated.
As soon as Angelica finished the food on her plate, Thump leaned in and asked, "Angelica, may I ask, would you support an invasion of Iraq?"
Angelica pushed the chair back to lean back, and incoherently answered, "You know what, why not. I mean we already have lots of rocks everywhere, I don't see why we need another rock, but if we want more, then let's take them. Also, there seems to be something special about this rock, like, he's a doctor. I keep hearing on the news that this rock is a Doctor, Dr. W."
Thump looked at Angelica, and asked, "Dr. W?"
"Yeah, Dr. W. I'm always hearing about this rock and W, MD on the news. I don't know how a rock became a doctor, but no wonder the President wants to get this rock, it must be really smart," Angelica responded.
After talking for a little less than an hour and a half, and realizing that he was getting nowhere with Angelica, Thump put some Tic Tacs in his mouth, got closer, put his small right hand on her thigh and said, "You know Angelica, when you're a star, women let you do it, you can do anything. Grab 'em by the..."
Right before Thump's small hand got to Angelica's pelvic area, she got out of the dining chair, and proclaimed, "Oh look at the time, I'd better get back to the hotel. If I'm ever in New York, I'll make sure to call you. Thanks for the dinner by the way."
In the moment before Angelica exited the luxurious apartment, she heard Thump having a conversation with someone, most likely the servers coming to pick up the plates, cups, and silverware, in which he said, "I'm going to be dating her in 10 years. Can you believe it?"
Angelica took the elevator down to the residence's lobby, made her way back to the secret hallway she used to get into this part of the building, got to the part of the building opened to the public and exited the overly gold-painted lobby. She maneuvered through the city blocks until she got back to the Plaza Hotel. Once inside the hotel, she took the elevator to the floor where their commentary luxury suites were. Even though she was trying to be secretive, Susie saw her entering the room. It was a little bit before ten and everyone was about to go to sleep as they were going to embark on their journey back home to Yucaipa in the morning.
"What, no shopping bags! I guess you didn't get to go shopping after all," Susie said, taunting Angelica.
"No, I had a better night. I got to have dinner with Ronald Thump," Angelica replied.
"What? No way, you're lying, Angie," Susie said, not believing that her friend had dinner with the biggest media attention hog in the world.
"If that's what you need to believe, then why not," Angelica said as she got into her bed and went to sleep.