Essay/Term paper: Creative writing: the quest

Essay, term paper, research paper:  World Literature

Creative Writing: The Quest


Feeling quite tired and hungry, my friend and I entered the food court
of the Everett Mall. Looking around, I decided that I was going to get some
Chinese food. I turned to my friend and told him, he said that he would too.
We then made our way over to the Chinese food counter. Upon arriving, I
realized a possible problem; we only had Canadian money. I walked up to the
woman at the counter, and asked her if they accepted Canadian money there.
"No, sorry, we only accept American money," she responded.
I asked if there was anyplace in the mall that I could exchange my money,
more specifically, a bank. She thought for a moment or two, then said,
"Uhhh, there's an ATM by the door over there."
Feeling a little frustrated, I explained to her that an ATM would not
suffice. I needed a bank, with a teller, so I could exchange my money. She
looked down and thought about this for a few moments, then ever so slowly, she
brought her head up with a dumb look on her face and said,
"The telephones are around the corner over there."
Dumbfounded by the stupidity of this woman, my friend and turned around
and walked away, laughing. When we were out of earshot, in a mocking tone, I
said to my friend,
"Hi, I'm an American, I'm a dumb-ass!"
With that defeat behind us, we continued on our quest for some American
money. Eventually, by wandering aimlessly about the mall, we managed to find an
information desk. I walked up to the woman behind the desk, and said,
"Hi, would I possibly be able to exchange my Canadian money for some
American money?"
With a really confused look on her face she responded with, "What do you
mean?"
I reached into my pocket, and pulled out my twenty dollar bill. Waving
it in her face, I repeated the question. It took a few seconds, but she finally
seemed to figure out what I was saying.
"No, but you can exchange your money at the service desk upstairs in
Thrifty's."
Finally, we were making some progress, only one problem, we'd never been
here before. We had no idea where to find Thrifty's.
"Where would that be," I asked her.
"Thrifty's? Oh, that's right next to Payless Drugs," was her response.
"Oh, gee thanks, that's allot of help," I said sarcastically as I walked
away. So, my friend and I spent the next ten minutes wandering the mall in
search for Thrifty's or a map of the mall. We finally spotted a sign at the far
end of the hallway that read 'Thrifty's'. When we saw this, we started to make
our way towards it. When we got to the entrance of the store, we saw what we
believe to be the only mall map in the building. We made our way to the
escalator and went upstairs. From the top of the escalator we could see a large
sign that read 'service' hanging above a desk. We walked to the desk, and once
again I posed my now tedious question.
"Oh, sorry, you have to go to the service desk to do that," was her
response. My friend and I, in unison, looked up at the large 'Service' sign.
"Isn't this the service desk?" I asked. With a very derogatory tone,
she answered with a simple, no. I said to her,
"So if this isn't the service desk, do you think that you could possibly
tell me where I might be able to find it?" She seemed to be a little taken
aback by this comment and it took her a little while to recover. After this
pause, she said,
"Well, the service desk is located in the Hallmark card section."
Getting a little frustrated, in a very touchy tone, I said, "Oh, Do you
think you could possibly tell me where I could find this?"
"Well, basically, if you were to walk straight through that wall over
there, you'd be right there," she said dumbly. Taken aback by the stupidity of
yet another American, my friend and I turned and walked away. Before we got out
of earshot, my friend loudly said to obviously not just me,
"I guess those Americans have super powers or something, because the
last time I checked, us Canadians couldn't walk through walls. What about you?"
"I don't know," I said, "I guess they must." we spent a few more
minutes walking around trying to find this Hallmark section. We finally found it,
and walked up to the service counter. Once again, I asked the same old question
that I'd been asking for what seemed like hours now. And surprisingly enough,
the response was,
"Uh, ya, let me just check the exchange rate first." A little surprised,
I figured that she must be a Canadian, especially when she recognized my twenty
dollar bill. When I finally got my American money, a pultry fourteen dollars
for my twenty Canadian, I heard my friend say,
"Whoah, you guys need new money, maybe with a little color in it." We
then turned and left. We were now on a new quest, this time for some lunch.