The mall is beautiful between the hours of eight and eight. It’s summer and we’re lucky to have long light all day. Firstly, it enters the skylight, then the light reflects off the polished ground floor of the mall, then it bounces off a hundred mirrors from Bed, Bath & Beyond the kids have rigged to point the sun inside Kmart. In the centre of the store are endless coffee mugs, mugs everywhere you look, all filled with candles. We carry candles everywhere when it gets dark. Some nights me and Ötzi talk until well after midnight, even 2am or 3 sometimes. We talk about our high schools, our crushes, people we’ve had fights with, people we love. One mad midnight I teach him how to jump rope over in the Sport & Rec corner of the store; Ötzi comes up to me from behind, puts his chin on my neck
