Chapter 2:

Arrival and an Introduction

(April 3rd, 2017: 12:45pm.)

The Aer Lingus 747-8 was on its final approach to its final destination of Bangor International Airport and was due to land there within the next 15 minutes. While approaching and going over Newfoundland and Eastern Canada, they'd ran into an unexpected headwind which pushed back their arrival time by nearly twenty minutes. The pilots in the cockpit had been able to make up some of the lost time but not all, although many of the passengers had been too busy enjoying their flight to worry about a delay now. Since leaving Dublin, the flight had been very smooth and very little turbulence had been encountered while on the way over.

Jack was one of those enjoying the flight, particularly the First-Class service provided. About two hours after taking-off from Dublin, he was served a good lunch; starting with cream of asparagus soup, followed by the main course of roast beef with all the trimmings, including roast potatoes, with a Coca Cola to wash it all down. To finish it all off, he enjoyed an ice cream sundae, which was delicious, followed by a hot cup of traditional Irish tea. While he had enjoyed lunch, he took a glance out the window; there was nothing below them but the wide and very open expanse of the North Atlantic Ocean. There weren't even any ships to be seen at all there.

At one point, while approaching the Canadian coastline a little later on, he looked outside and below him and saw many white dots and patches floating all over the surface of the ocean far below the aircraft. Jack knew at once that these were icebergs and drifting pack ice that was floating on the Labrador Current down southwards towards the open waters of the North Atlantic. Some patches of the drifting ice were thicker than others, and in more open areas of blue water, single, solitary white icebergs stood out as clear as could be seen against the blue background.

Now satisfied after such a good lunch, he had settled back into his seat and carried on with his laptop for another two hours or so before he turned his laptop off and put it back into his bag; now he had been settling down with some of his books for well over an hour and half since then, not even bothering to use the inflight entertainment system, although he did listen to some of his music on his iPhone, such as themes from war movies. Now though, his smartphone, now fully powered up, was back its pocket on his crossbody chest bay, which he was still wearing round his torso, with his multi-pocket waist jacket being worn over that to keep it hidden.

The book he was reading at the moment was "Escaping the Trap: The US Army X Corps in Northeast Korea, 1950", a highly detailed account about the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir in late 1950 in the first few months of the Korean War. It was such a fascinating story, about how the marines of the United States Marine Corps, in some of the worst winter conditions imaginable, managed to resist the might of the Chinese military in very difficult mountainous terrain, and retreat in an orderly manner while inflicting cripplingly heavy casualties upon their enemy all the while. He was at the chapter where large numbers of the ill-equipped Chinese Communist Forces made their first attack on the positions of the much better prepared U.S. First Marine Division at Hagaru-ri in the freezing sub-zero winter weather conditions of late November 1950 when an announcement came over the public address (P.A.) system from the cockpit.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking; we will shortly be landing at Bangor International Airport. So please return to your seats and fasten your seat belts. I hope you had a pleasant flight." and then the P.A. system went silent. A few seconds later, it was followed by a distinct "Ping" as all the seatbelt lights came back on.

"We're almost there already?" Jack said quietly, as he looked at his watch; it was 12:55pm. He was astonished at how quickly time had flown by since they'd taken off from Dublin. After putting his book back into his laptop bag and making sure it and his small trolley case were secured in the overhead locker and making sure he had his camera and its carrier bag by him, Jack took his seat and fastened his seat belt ready for landing.

Approaching from the southeast, the jumbo jet lined up with the runway after being given permission to land and made its final approach. Jack looked outside his window, camera in hand, and watched as they descended; they passed over the city of Bangor, with a river running right through the middle of the city, buildings and roads, as well as the vehicles moving along them, came into clearer and clearer view. Then Jack could make out other details, such as parks with people in them, as well as a golf course right below them and the freeway before the airport, just as he expected to see. Then his view was suddenly replaced with the sight of airport buildings, including a few that appeared to be operated by the U.S. military, as they finally landed with a light bump and shudder. As they slowed down, Jack could hear everyone within the first-class cabin clap and cheer a little; all of them were very pleased to have gotten to their destination safely.

They had safely landed at Bangor International Airport, only about 10 minutes or so behind schedule, but to Jack that little detail didn't matter; he was just glad they'd managed to arrive at their destination safely.

Soon the plane taxied off the runway and moved over to the jet-bridge along the apron in front of the terminal building, where everyone disembarked. After gathering up his things, and making sure he left nothing behind, Jack stepped off the plane and up the jet bridge to the baggage reclaim area. After getting a luggage trolley within the baggage reclaim area and placing his small trolley case on it, he made his way over to Baggage Carousel 3, which was for luggage from the flight that had just arrived from Dublin. He didn't have too long to wait for his two large trolley cases to come out on the carousel; they came out after he waited for about five minutes or so. He was able to identify them at once, as he had placed yellow masking tape on them to form a square with an X in the middle.

After checking the bag tags, and then the contents to be fully sure they were his, which they were, he loaded the two larger trolley cases onto the luggage trolley, placing the smallest on top, while having his laptop bag at his left side with the strap round his right shoulder and his camera case on his right side with the strap round his left shoulder. Then he headed to passport control and the main arrivals area, passing the crowds of people who were all waiting for their bags to come out from the back on the different carousels. He was glad to be getting away from the crowds.

After quickly going through passport control without any trouble, he stepped out among other arriving passengers into the main arrivals area and kept a sharp look out for the teacher from the school he would be attending who would take him to Chamberlain. But he initially couldn't see anyone who looked like they were here to pick him up.

"I really hope that someone's here to pick me up. I really don't wanna be stuck here at this airport tonight." Jack thought to himself as he looked round. He walked forward a little further; he could see businessmen from the flight being greeted by other businessmen in smart suits, people going over to the exchange office to exchange their money, or even going over to the car-rental desk to rent a car for the time they would be in Maine. There were even some Americans who had been on the flight who were returning home to the United States, and they were being greeted by relatives and friends in the arrivals area after they stepped out from baggage reclaim.

Then Jack saw a red-haired woman standing not too far away from him and holding up a piece of crisp white cardboard with "Jack Sullivan" written on it with black marker pen. Heading over towards her, Jack could see that the woman, who was in her mid to late twenties and had her red-brown hair done up in a ponytail, was wearing a dark blue jacket, white sneakers and light grey shorts that went down to a point that ended just above her knees.

As he approached her, she lowered the sign and asked, "Hello there...are you Jack Sullivan?

"Yes ma'am, that's me;" Jack said, with a firm nod of his head. "Are you the teacher who's picking me up here and taking me into Chamberlain today?" he asked, with just a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

"Yes, I am. I'm Rita Desjardin, the gym teacher at the school that you'll be attending." Rita said, extending her hand out while giving Jack a smile.

"It's very nice to meet you. Have you been waiting here for very long?" Jack asked, as he extended his own hand forward and shook Rita's hand, while admiring the firm grip of it, as he also smiled back at her.

"Not as long as I expected to actually…only about half an hour, which was just long enough for me to go and grab a cup of coffee and one of my favourite muffins over at the coffee shop while I waited for you to arrive. I also watched your flight come in on Flight Tracker 24 on my phone." Rita said with a pleasant tone, as she smiled.

She didn't mention that the real reason for her grabbing a coffee and muffin was to help her calm down from the somewhat tumultuous detention session she had undertaken with the senior girls in Ewen High known as the "Ultras" after the incident that had happened in the ladies locker room the previous Friday morning, in particular the argument she'd had with a certain girl, who was the group's leader, during the course of the detention period. And the coffee and muffin seemed to have done the trick, as she was now feeling much better than she had been during the detention session, where she had run the girls ragged, bar the group's leader who had defiantly skipped near the end of it.

"Well, that's nice to hear. But I'm just sorry that we were a little bit late getting in today." Jack said, as they made their way out from the arrivals area over to where Rita had parked her car.

"Oh, that's not a problem at all, Jack. After all, these things can happen sometimes." Rita said.

"Yeah, but I didn't take nearly as long at baggage reclaim as I originally expected to." Jack said, as they stepped outside.

"Oh, I know what you mean by that." Rita said, knowing from her childhood how long it sometimes took to reclaim baggage after arriving at an airport.

"You know I was expecting someone…else to pick me up when I got here." Jack said.

"And right you are. Someone else, another teacher from Ewen High School, was originally asked to come out here and pick you up today, but they had to defer it on Friday afternoon. A last-minute change of plans really; they needed to have an emergency appointment with the dentist in Chamberlain, and this very time this afternoon was the only opportunity that was available for the dentist to squeeze them in at such short notice. So, I was asked to come out here and pick you up instead." Rita said, as they stepped into the car park, or parking lot as it was known over in the U.S.A.

"Many thanks for that, Ms Desjardin." Jack said, while smiling at Rita. They then pulled up to Rita's vehicle, which was actually a large minivan with plenty of space on board, including two seats that folded away in the back. Jack was a little bit surprised to see that Ms Desjardin had a minivan like this, but then again with her being the school's gym teacher, having a vehicle like this to move people and sports equipment back and forth from the school to sports events would probably be seen as quite a useful necessity to the job she had to do.

"Right, shall we get these bags into the boot?" asked Jack, as they went round to the back of the vehicle.

"Boot?" Rita asked, a little surprised.

"Oh, um...sorry, a boot is what we call a car trunk back home." Jack said.

"Oh, of course, I see. Well, let's get your bags loaded up." Rita said, as she opened the trunk door, and they loaded Jack's bags aboard.

"You certainly brought quite a bit of stuff with you, Jack." Rita said, as she loaded the first bag in.

"Well Ms Desjardin...it's better to have the stuff with you and not need it than to need it and not have it with you. Better to be safe than sorry, I like to say." Jack said, as he unloaded the second big bag from the luggage trolley and loaded it aboard Rita's vehicle.

"Oh, of course." Rita said.

"Anyway, there's some empty space still in the two larger cases for me to bring back the stuff that I'll inevitably buy when I'm over here." Jack said, as he loaded his smaller case into the back and closed the door behind.

(A few minutes later)

Soon, with the luggage cart securely stowed away at one of the cart rows and Jack and Rita having climbed aboard Rita's vehicle, with Jack sitting up front beside Rita, they left the airport and were on their way back to Chamberlain. They soon reached the junction, turned left and, after joining up with the freeway, were heading north on Interstate-95. For Jack, it felt a little bit strange to be sitting in the front of the vehicle in a position where there would usually be a steering wheel in front of him. Now he was sitting as a passenger on the right-hand side of a vehicle, quite the opposite of the position where he could usually sit as a passenger in the front of a vehicle back home. But he knew he would get used to it with time.

"So, is Chamberlain very far from here?" Jack asked as they turned off the junction onto the freeway and began to head north with the other traffic.

"No, it's not too far at all; it's only about 10 to 12 miles due north up the road from the airport. It's quite a nice town that's grown quite a lot in the last 20 years or so. More and more businesses from all over the United States have been set up there, attracting quite a lot of people in who are willing to invest in making the businesses there grow. And that means the town has increased in size quite a bit over the last few years. It also has its own university with substantial accommodation areas for the students going to it and the biggest shopping mall that can be found anywhere in the entire country." Rita said.

"Really? How big is it?" Jack asked as his eyebrows lifted in curiosity.

"You'll see when we get into Chamberlain. After all, the apartment building where you'll be staying in for the next two months is right across the street from the mall in question. Have you ever been over to the United States before, Jack?"

"No, this is actually my very first time visiting this particular country. Though, to be honest, I always expected than when I inevitably would make my first trip over here, I would first go to some of the very big cities along the East Coast, such as New York City, Boston or even down to Washington D.C. And I certainly never expected that when I first came to the United States that it would be to go on a foreign exchange programme, and I would need to attend a school over here." Jack said.

"Well, regardless of which place you first go to...the first time is always the best." Rita said, somewhat surprised at Jack saying this was his first trip to the States.

"Indeed, and the United States is a country I've always had a great deal of respect and admiration for. It's nice to come here for the first time after having visited quite a few other countries around Europe over the last few years." Jack said, as Rita smiled.

"So, you're quite a well-travelled person?" she said.

"I am. Oh, that reminds me…I'd better call home and let them know I've arrived safely." Jack said, as he took out his fully charged smartphone and dialled his mother's number, noting the time on his phone as 1:15pm; in Ireland it was 6:15pm, just a little after dinner time, and wondered if his parents and sisters would be eating right now.

"Hello, Jack…is that you?"

"Yes mother, it's me; I just want to let you know that I've arrived in Maine safely and I'm on my way into Chamberlain right now with one of the teachers from the school I'll be going to."

"That's fantastic! Did you have a nice flight over there?"

"Yes, I did. It was an uneventful one I'm pleased to say, but we ran into a headwind while we were passing over Newfoundland, so we were a little bit late getting in. And that's why I'm a bit late calling you."

"That's okay, I suppose that was to be expected, but can you put your phone on speaker so I can talk to the teacher please?"

"Okay, but you'll have to keep it as brief as you can; she's driving us in." and Jack put his phone on speaker.

"Hello, madam…can you hear me at all?"

"Yes, I can, loud and clear; I'm Rita Desjardin and I'm the gym teacher, or gym coach, at the school that your son will be attending for the next two months."

"Even though I'm not there, it's really nice to meet you. Listen...as you're driving, I'll keep this short; could you please do me a favour and keep a close eye out for my son while he's over there? He's almost 19 years old, and thus he's technically a grown up, but it's inevitable that I'll be worried about him, so could you please make sure that he stays out of trouble. And if he does get into trouble, please contact me at once and straighten him out."

"Don't worry ma'am, I'll keep an eye out for your son while he's here. And if he does something wrong, I'll be sure to straighten him out." Rita said with a smile, admiring the concern a woman had for her child, who legally was now a grown up.

"Thanks. Okay Jack, your sisters and father aren't at home right now; they've gone out to get a takeout for dinner tonight. But they've asked me to say hi to you when you call. We all miss you already."

"I know mother, I miss you all too. I'll talk to you with a Skype call the next time when you're all together. And tell dad and the girls I said hi."

"Okay son, I'll leave you to it. Bye for now."

"Bye mother, talk to you later." and Jack hung up. He glanced over at Rita, who briefly looked at him before turning back to watch the road ahead.

"So, your family miss you already?" she teased, while also giving a teasing smile.

"Yeah, and I haven't been gone even half a day yet. What's the world coming to?" Jack sighed as Rita chuckled.

"So, what do your parents do for a living?"

"My dad works for a major Irish pharmaceutical company within the top management positions and my mother runs a very successful bakery company that was originally started more than 50 years ago by my grandmother, who was my mother's mother, and she's really built up to a great extent over the last few years. There are now 20 good-sized shops in business in Ireland, of which four are based within the city of Dublin, with another two due to open in the near future and with a few more in the planning as well. Her bakery business specialises with giving customers very high-quality baked goods and confections, as well as other things like ice cream, custard and doughnuts, so the business doesn't supply any loaves of bread or bread rolls like a traditional bakery would."

"Now that sounds very nice; and your sisters?" Rita asked, sounding impressed.

"My three younger sisters, who are triplets, are in their second year of secondary school, or high school as it's known over here. In fact, it's the very same secondary school that I go to. Last Friday, we celebrated their fifteenth birthday with a big party…" and Jack spent a minute or two describing how the party had gone.

"Wow, it sounds like you had a good time there." Rita said, still impressed.

"Yeah, we did." Jack said.

After another two miles, they turned off the freeway and headed to Chamberlain. At one point they stopped two miles outside the edge of town due to some roadworks taking place along the road. Jack looked off to his right and saw that they come to a stop right in front of a large double gate painted black with a high red-brick wall on both sides of it with trees behind the wall.

On the other side of the gate was a long straight and wide driveway leading up to a very wide ten-story building with a red tile roof, though the ninth and tenth storeys were positioned in the middle of the building and appeared to be observation levels, given the fact they didn't stretch all the way to both sides of the building.

The walls were in red-brown brick and in front of the main entrance in the centre of the motor court was a white marble fountain. It looked like an over-sized Hollywood mansion, except with the look of a Central European chateau or palace, of which Jack and his family had been to and seen quite a few of over the years. Indeed, quite a bit of that building's architecture reminded Jack of the Belvedere and Schönbrunn Palaces in Vienna, Austria's capital, which he and his family went to the year before, as well as Prague Castle in Prague, the Czech Republic's capital city.

"What's that place, Ms Desjardin?" Jack said, indicating to the building in question.

"That place, and all the land that it sits on, was at one point owned by a very rich couple, one of the richest couples ever, and it has very good amenities, including a large rooftop patio, three inside bowling alleys, balconies at each bedroom, a large movie theatre with leather seats that can recline, enormous kitchens, four swimming pools including two outside, three tennis courts, comfortable lounges, an enormous underground garage, as well as a number of other underground spaces as well. and a large wine cellar. There's also a very large lake in the middle of the grounds too, and the grounds total about 20,000 acres of land available. But the couple who owned that placed moved away some years ago, and that mansion and all that land has been on the market ever since." Rita said. Then, once the roadworks crew had given them the all-clear, they carried on down the road.

After a few more short minutes, they came over the top of a low hill and, as they descended it, Jack got his first view of the town of Chamberlain as they drove through the streets of an American suburbia.

This town was everything he imagined a typical American town would be, having seen enough American movies and television shows over the years back home; smart red brick houses, some of which had the American Flag flying from poles fitted within the front outside walls, lining both sides of the street with typical American-made cars, such as Chevrolet's, Buick's, Cadillacs, Fords and pickup trucks, as well as a few Harley-Davidson motorcycles - some of which were fitted with sidecars, sitting in the driveways or in private garages alongside the houses. The trees, full of bright green leaves, lined the sidewalks and the flowerbeds in some of the front yards were in bloom with brightly coloured flowers. There were even a few cherry blossoms in sight too, each one in full bloom with white or pink flowers on their branches.

People were milling about or walking along the sidewalks, or cycling along the road, as younger kids were playing games with friends in the front gardens, some of which were lined with whitewashed picket fences, and most of which looked as though they had been freshly repainted quite recently. They stopped for a moment at a crossroads, and a police car went past heading along on a routine patrol; Jack watched it go by. Even the police cars were exactly like how they were depicted in the movies.

At one point, as they passed by one of the supermarkets with its parking lot out front, Jack looked to his left and noticed a wide and open green area across the street and sitting in the middle of the grassy area was a war memorial to the citizens of Chamberlain who gave their lives in the Second World War and all following wars since the end of 1945. It consisted of a sort of raised ramp made out of red bricks, upon which sat a U.S. M4A3E8 Sherman medium tank with a long barrelled 76mm gun, with thicker red brick walls stretching off to the sides. The tank's army green paint had been polished to a very high shine and it seemed to be fully complete, with no missing parts. Secured around the brickwork of the walls stretching off both sides of the tank ramp were brass plaques with all the names of the Chamberlain citizens who had died in the service of their country during and since the end of World War II, by the ranks and in alphabetical order.

"Are you impressed with all this, Jack?" Rita asked, as she glanced over at Jack, who looked round with awe at each new sight he saw.

"Oh, very much so. This is sure a nice little town, I'll give you that. But where's the apartment building that I'll be staying at?" Jack asked, as he looked round in awe at everything.

"It's not too far away from here, but it's still a bit of a long walk away from Ewen High School, by at least 20 minutes or so, so I'll give you a lift in each morning. It's no trouble at all, as I always pass through that part of town on my way into school each morning." Rita said.

"Thanks Ms Desjardin, I appreciate that." Jack said.

They soon arrived at the apartment building in a newer part of Chamberlain. It towered over the parking lot before it and looked impressive and modern. To Jack, it could almost pass for a luxury high class holiday apartment complex building somewhere in Continental Europe. Rita turned her car off the road and parked in the parking lot. After unloading Jack's bags from the trunk, they made their way inside to the reception area, where Jack checked in and was given the card keys for his apartment. Thankfully, it was a relatively easy procedure, especially as Jack had brought along with him the necessary paperwork with him, as proof that he had the apartment reserved for him. Stepping into one of the elevators, they headed right up to the sixth floor, which was also the building's top floor, and went down the corridor to the reserved apartment.

Unlocking the door with one of the card keys, Jack entered and saw it was quite a substantial apartment; there were three bedrooms, one of which was the master bedroom with an en-suite bathroom and large walk-in closet. The other two bedrooms each had a large walk-in closet, for hanging up coats and storage, and access to a shared balcony, a separate bathroom just outside the two doors, a room by the main entrance with a washing machine and tumble drier, a large and combined kitchen and dining area with a dining table and six chairs as well as an island within the kitchen with a sink in it, two dishwashers under it and four chairs lined on one side.

The living area had a large red leather L-shaped corner sofa with space for five people to sit at, and two armchairs, which were also covered with red leather, and both of which could fold out to form beds if needed, along with a coffee table and a wide-screen TV. A sliding door close by the dining table lead out onto the large balcony, on which sat a white plastic table and three white plastic chairs, which were stacked.

After they put Jack's bags into the master bedroom at the end of the bed, Jack went out into the kitchen and paused as he looked round.

"Now this is my kind of place." Jack said, as he looked round in awe at his new quarters. Sliding open the door to the balcony, he went out, looked to his left and saw an enormous building across the road. The building seemed to stretch on and on wherever he looked to the left or right and it seemed to tower over the surrounding carpark, which was filled with many cars of all different colours, sizes and types.

Jack's jaw dropped in awe and astonishment when he saw it, and he let out a low whistle.

"Is that the shopping mall you were telling me about earlier, Ms Desjardin?" he asked, as Rita stepped out onto the balcony.

"It is, Jack. And it's the largest shopping mall in the whole of the United States, and the second largest shopping mall anywhere in the world, with about 7 and a half million square feet of space spread over five well laid-out floors, with a little over 1,200 different stores altogether, and that's just for starters. And there's plenty of really good restaurants in there as well - well over 100 and some of which occupy more than one level. Quite a few restaurants do serve European cuisine, including British, French, Italian, Spanish and German cuisine, and there's some restaurants in there that also serve Irish food as well if you want to have Irish food. There's also quite a few fast-food joints in a number of food courts and many other good eateries and not to mention quite a few really good gift shops too, as well as many other different attractions as well, including three five-star hotels." Rita said.

"Sounds good to me, but are there any good bookshops there?" Jack asked.

"Yes, there's about twenty or so very good bookshops there, some of which are the biggest I've ever seen with literally hundreds of thousands of books to choose from." Rita said, as she smiled at the awe-struck young man beside her.

"Good, I like reading. Maybe I'll be able to find some books in there that I've never been able to find back in Ireland." said Jack.

"Yes, it's a very popular place in this town. But all the same Jack, don't spend all your time over there; you've still got your education to keep an eye on too while you're over here you know." Rita said, as she went back inside the kitchen; after a moment, Jack followed.

"Yes, ma'am, I know. And how could I forget?" Jack said.

"You'll need to get some food for here, but that's not too much of a problem as there's a very good and well-stocked food store across the street that's open 24/7. They usually have just about anything you could need to get in there." Rita said.

"Excellent, as soon as I've done some unpacking, I'll get some supplies." Jack said, as he looked at his watch; 1:50pm.

"Okay then, Jack…I'll be off now. I'll pick you up outside the main entrance at about half seven tomorrow morning." Rita said, as she turned for the door.

"I understand, Ms Desjardin. I'll see you outside the main entrance first thing in the morning."

"Right-o; good night, Jack. Oh and…welcome to Chamberlain." Rita said with a smile, as she closed the door behind her.

After spending about half an hour unpacking his three trolley cases and putting his clothes into the chest of drawers in his room, as well as hanging them up in his large closet and placing his empty cases into the closet, Jack decided to leave the apartment and explore round the shopping mall and get food from the local store. After making sure he had his wallet, phone, room cardkeys all securely in his shoulder chest bag and his waist jacket over that for added security, as well as his laptop bag at his side, but leaving his laptop behind safely in the apartment, he left the apartment and went downstairs.

Soon he was walking on the ground floor of the mall; he was utterly astonished by just how enormous the place was when he was standing inside it. It was massive compared to any shopping centre back in Ireland; indeed, it was certainly much bigger than any shopping centre anywhere in Europe. Looking up his saw the glass roof overhead formed into an arch which stretched the length of the wing. It very much reminded him of St Stephen's Green Shopping Center back in Dublin. After stopping for a quick bite to eat at one of the food courts, a burger, French fries, and a vanilla milkshake, he went looking for one of the book shops. He found one on the second floor and was astounded by how large it was; it certainly made all the bookshops he'd been to in Ireland look pathetically small by comparison.

Finding the military history section, he searched for books he'd always wanted but didn't have; he quickly found two, Ridgeway Duels for Korea and The United States Air Force in the Korean War. After paying for them, he explored the mall some more and got a few more pictures of the place on his camera.

During his explorations, which he limited to another hour and a half or so, he discovered the mall had four bowling alleys and eight cinemas, each of which had a dozen screens and some of which were IMAX, half a dozen steakhouses - of which three occupied more than one level, as well as many other attractions that would never be found in any Irish shopping centre, such as an amusement park right in the middle of the whole building with plenty of different rides and attractions - well over 40 of them, a large aquarium, a golf course, a dozen arcades with a good variety of games, a karaoke centre, an ice skating rink, a large fitness centre with two gyms, a spa and massage area and three swimming pools, an area that specialised in catering for birthday parties and a well-equipped conference centre.

In a large open area in one part of the mall on the third floor, there was a very large circular pool with a marble fountain, carved into the shape of a fish, sitting right in the middle of it with small fountains lining the edge of the pool and pointing into the fountain. Around it there were quite a few wooden benches, on which sat people resting their feet from all the walking they did during their afternoon in the mall.

By 3:50pm, Jack left the mall and made his way back to his apartment. After dropping off his purchases there, he went across the street to the food store and bought the food he would need for the next few days, as well as something for that evening's dinner. After returning to his apartment again with the food he needed and putting everything away, he set about getting dinner ready, a pork chop, fried in a pan with a honey garlic sauce, with mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. Once it was all cooked and ready, Jack pulled a can of 7Up out of the refrigerator and settled down at the coffee table to eat dinner while watching the TV.

As he ate, he flicked through the different channels to see if anything good was on. He finally found a movie channel on which was being shown the 1987 film Empire of the Sun. He hadn't seen this film in a while, so settled down to watch as he ate through his dinner.

By 7:30pm, with the movie finished and dinner consumed, Jack cleaned and put the dishes into the dishwasher. He went into the master bedroom and set about getting ready for school the next day; he brought a backpack with him as well as a few blank notebooks for the subjects he would be studying and a pencil case with some pens, pencils and sharpeners, a ruler as well as a calculator. Then he put into his bag his new book The United States Air Force in the Korean War, just so he had something to read just in case he had a free period the next day. Getting his backpack ready with the things he needed for the following day took only a few minutes and then he went back into the kitchen.

For the rest of the evening, he simply relaxed in the living area watching movies and YouTube videos, as well as checking the e-mails, on his laptop while enjoying a cup of tea and one of the chocolate chip cookies he bought at the mall earlier on. But then, despite Jack enjoying the evening, it was soon 10:45pm and he decided to have an early night. After putting the box of cookies away and the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, as well checking to see if the main door was locked, Jack turned off the lights in the kitchen and went into his bedroom. After putting on his laptop down on the corner desk, he went into the bathroom.

After using the toilet, washing his hands, and brushing his teeth, he had a hot refreshing shower. Once finished, he wrapped himself up in soft white towels and dried off in his bedroom. Looking out the window as he dried off, he saw everything was now quiet as most of the traffic on the streets was now gone since most of the residents were now at home now that night had fully fallen across the land. Closing the curtains, Jack continued drying off.

Once dressed in his pyjamas and the towels hung up to dry, Jack settled back in his bed, switched on the bedside lights and for about 20 minutes read one of the books he'd bought with him from home.

Everything was peaceful and quiet, but every now and then, he would hear sirens in the distance, more than likely from police cars on their way to an emergency somewhere in town, as well as the sounds of a train horn sounding in the distance as a freight train went by on its way south to Boston or north to Canada. But then again, sounds like that was what Jack had expected to hear in an American town, having seen a lot of American movies and TV over the years.

Eventually, he decided to turn in as he was finding it difficult to keep his eyes open. Placing a bookmark in his book, and the alarm on his iPhone set to go off at 6:30pm, he settled down under the covers and turned off the bedside light before he fell into a deep welcome sleep.

Note: I've made Chamberlain much larger than it was described in the original novel, as well as in the three adaptations, which means that if Carrie SHOULD go on a rampage on the night of Senior Prom...then there's a lot more businesses and infrastructure at stake.