Chapter 3

The street lights began to glow and flicker, as an energetic Phil was standing in front of the "so-called dangerous" Pickford mall alongside an annoyed Keely, with her hands over her ears.

"Phil!" Keely yelled out of frustration, "Could you please be quiet! You've been singing the "Cops" theme song over and over for ten minutes!"

"I can't help it, Keel," Phil replied. "Duty calls and I'm suddenly feeling an urge for justice. An urge to rid this great mall of wrong-doers. I'm ready to lay down the law and enforce it."

"Well, I can't say I feel the same way," Keely responded, as she looked at their uniforms. "I mean, look at us. We're working the night-shift, armed with only a couple of walkie-talkies and some flashlights...which happen to need some more batteries. Plus, our uniforms aren't even authentic. You're wearing a shirt with a ripped name-tag that says, Bill, across the front of it."

"Yeah, I bet Bill would be proud. Come on Keely, let's get inside and fight some crime!"

Phil and Keely passed through the main entrance to the inside of an empty, desolate mall.

"Hey, look at all this chaos. There are just tons of evil-doers lurking around in the shadows," Keely said, sarcastically.

"I know, Keely. Just make sure you stay alert and on your feet. Who knows what could happen at any moment?"

"Phil, you've gotta be kidding me. It's so quiet in here that I can hear my whisper echo across the entire mall. Look at that, even the crickets are asleep!"

"Maybe you're right. We just have to find a little something to do in the meantime to help the time pass by. Come to think of it, there's nobody else here. We have the whole mall to ourselves."

"That's true," Keely agreed, as she looked around the vast building. "Maybe this job won't be so bad after all."

The two of them proceeded to roam across the mall, enjoying and goofing around at every department they had in sight. In fact, they were having so much fun, they managed to forget all about their job and looking over the mall.

"Hey, let's head over to the food court," Phil said, as he pointed in the direction. "We might be able to whip up a couple of smoothies from the smoothie machine. You simply have not lived until you've had a double, strawberry-banana-chocolate, razzle-dazzle, tropical islander twist smoothie..."

"Are you sure, Phil?" Keely asked. "I mean, I don't know if we're authorized to do that."

"Keely, listen. We're mall security. We have to put our lives on the line to maintain the order of this very mall. I think we deserve to treat ourselves to a couple of smoothies. We can do whatever we want."

Phil and Keely went to the food court and treated themselves to a couple of smoothies, just as Phil insisted.

"I'm really enjoying this job," Keely said, after gulping down her smoothie. "I can't believe how easy it is. We haven't ran into any problems or complications, yet. We can just sit around, goof off, talk, laugh..."

"Speaking of laughing, I have this hilarious joke you just gotta hear," Phil said, trying to remember the joke. "Okay, okay, here it is. A police officer, a judge, and a criminal walk into a bar. They all sat down and told each other about their day. The judge said, "Phew, I must've had a dozen criminals enter my courtroom today." Then, the police officer said, "Phew, I must've chased at least a dozen criminals today." Finally, the criminal says..."

"Phew, I must've tried to open at least a dozen cash registers today," an unknown voice mumbled, from across the mall.

"Aww, Keely...why didn't you tell me you heard this one before?"

"Wait, Phil," Keely whispered, looking around her. "That wasn't me..."

Phil looked around for a minute also, wondering what was going on. "Hmm, either someone else is in this mall with us or we are in serious need of a psychologist..."