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“I know we’ve taken a few wrong turns, but I know that just around the corner is the coolest arcade you will ever see!” Della exclaimed.
“I still don’t know what an arcade is.” Penny sighed.
“You’re gonna love it! Come on!”
She grabbed Penny’s hand and dragged her right around the corner to find…them right back where they started. A few of the sales associates looked at the two women curiously. They soon dispersed at that endearing resting glare of Penny’s.
Della stared at the store and back the way they had came in disbelief. How could they be back here? She had been to this mall hundreds of times! The arcade was right next to the Micey’s clothing store.
“Er, this way!” Della said.
Della grabbed Penny’s hand once more and dragged her out of Micey’s and back into the main shopping area. The mall was bustling with shoppers shoving here and there. The overwhelming sights and sounds made the walls seem even closer to them. Just as the walls were almost close enough to consume Della, Penny spoke.
“Please don’t tell me we’re lost.” Penny grumbled.
Della waved away the notion with a too-loud laugh, “Whaaat? Me, lost? Never!”
“Then why have we gone past that store with the defective helmets in it twice now?”
A wave of embarrassment washed over Della. She had hoped Penny hadn’t noticed the Waddle store. Luck didn’t seem to be on her side today. She stopped in her tracks.
“First of all, that’s not a helmet. Those are headphones for listening to music with. The only protection you’ll get from them is protection from unwanted conversations,” Della said. “Second, we are not lost.”
Penny let out an annoyed huff. Worry momentarily crawled under Della’s skin. Penny was obviously not having a good time. What if they really were lost in the mall? Determination and Della’s usual optimism quickly replaced this initial worry. She was Della Duck for Pete’s sakes! She had fought monsters since she was in elementary school! No shopping mall was a match for her.
If she could just distract Penny long enough, she could find the arcade and be able to go back to Penny to bring her there. Della turned her attention to her friend. She was looking closely at a rooster bobbing his head in time to whatever song he was sampling on the Waddle headphones. He glanced upwards towards the window. He turned pale, ripped the headphones off, and scuttled away at the menacing leer of the Moon warrior.
“You seem really interested in that Waddle store.” Della said quickly. “Why don’t you go in and listen to some music?”
Della pushed Penny into the store and sat her down on one of the sleek barstools. She put the headphones over Penny’s head and pressed play on the music. “Stand Out” could faintly be heard coming through the headphones. Penny flinched at first, but soon relaxed.
Penny was now as still as a statue listening to Powerline. Could she hear anything outside the music? To test, Della snapped her fingers close to Penny’s head. Penny didn’t respond. Now was Della’s chance.
Della snuck out of the store and back into the bustling mall. If she could just retrace her steps, surely she could find the arcade!
Her feet made a steady clank and slap on the polished floor. She hummed the “Stand Out” quietly, keeping her head on a swivel for Micey’s. Once she had gotten back to there, she turned to face the mall.
“Okay, Della–you got this. You’ve been to this mall hundreds of times. Retrace your steps.” She said aloud.
She walked slowly out of Micey’s. The arcade was on the left, just past Bath and Body Borks. Instead of the loud dings and electric symphonies of an arcade, Della was met with heavy metal?
“That can’t be right.” Della muttered.
She walked into the store beside the strongly scented Bath and Body Borks. Heavy metal music pounded her eardrums and she was thrown into dim lighting. She covered her ears and moved between the overstuffed aisles of black clothing. Finally, she found herself at the checkout counter. The employee was decked out in oversized spikes and dark clothing. She had to squint to discern him from the rest of the store.
“CAN YOU POINT ME TOWARDS WILLY’S ARCADE?” She yelled.
“WHAT?” The employee yelled.
“CAN YOU POINT ME TOWARDS WILLY’S ARCADE?” She repeated.
“WILLY’S ARCADE? NEVER HEARD OF IT!”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF IT?!” Della cried. “IT USED TO BE RIGHT HERE!”
“THIS STORE’S BEEN HERE SINCE I WAS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, DUDE! I THINK IT WENT OUT!”
“WENT OUT?!” She cried incredulously. “I-IT WAS RIGHT HERE!”
“WHAT?”
Frustration built heavily within her chest. She traded the overcrowded goth store for the less-crowded mall. How could Willy’s be gone? That place was always overcrowded! Even the owner said that place would last the next decade.
Decade. The word felt like a threat. It was how long she had been trapped by the dusty prison of the Moon. Sure, some good came out of being stuck there for a decade, but everything that had happened still weighed heavy. She had been gone for so long and so much had changed…
The mall seemed to spin around her. She tugged at her scarf that was all too much like a boa constrictor around her throat. The voices around her amplified and the walls closed in. The mall was an ocean, and she was the ship being beaten by the waves. She mumbled incoherent words to herself in an effort to make sense of all this confusion.
“Della?” A voice that sounded underwater broke through the waves.
Penny voice brought Della back to the surface. Della turned to her friend, but couldn’t seem to get any words out. Penny’s eyes shifted to an emotion Della couldn’t quite read. She put her hand to the small of Della’s back and gently pressed her forward. Della numbly let her take the lead.
It took a moment for Della to register that they were outside the mall. Penny gently pressed her into a bench and left. Della nervously ran one hand over the other. She recalled some mindful exercises from her Junior Woodchuck handbook and began to repeat those.
By the time she had mostly calmed down, Penny had returned. In her hands was two cups of dippable Auntie Ant’s pretzels. Penny placed the cup of pretzel sticks and the accompanying cheese sauce in her hands.
Della couldn’t make eye contact for a moment, but did manage to utter a thank you. Penny grunted in response. For a moment, the two just sat on the bench overlooking the parking lot. A few cars hummed by, but it was otherwise quiet. A soft autumn breeze barely lifted the uneven chop of Della’s head feathers. She absently ate the pretzel, happy to have something to do with her mouth instead of talking.
The weight of the arcade closing was still heavy on her shoulders. She had hoped that going to the arcade would help Penny see some of the good things of Earth and to better adjust. It seemed Penny wasn’t the only one still trying to adjust.
“Sorry!” Della finally burst out. “I don’t know what happened back there!”
“Della–”
“I tried to find it, I really did!” She plowed on. “But some goth kid said it was closed. Closed! Can you believe it?”
“Della–”
“But there’s no way they’d close the arcade! But they did!”
“Della!”
Penny grabbed Della’s hands. The strong hands on her own made Della blush beneath her feathers.
“It’s okay,” Penny said slowly.
Della ran her free hand through her head feathers, “It’s just so frustrating! Everything’s so different now!”
Penny stayed silent. She awkwardly looked down to the cheese-covered pretzel stick in her hands. Della’s stomach sunk further. She was ruining everything again.
“All I wanted to do was show you one of my favorite Earth things, but…it’s gone.”
“Are…there no more arcades on Earth?” Penny asked tentatively.
“No, no. There’s plenty more. I think so, anyways.” Della laughed coldly. “It’s just…I guess sometimes I forget how much this place has changed since I’ve been gone.”
“I think I know how you feel.” Penny murmured.
Della looked over at her in surprise, “You do?”
“We were fighting some Moon Mites at the other end of the Moon. We were gone for so many cycles, I lost count. When we came back, everything seemed to have changed.”
“What did you do?” Della asked.
“I just tried to learn the new way, just as a warrior must adapt to new circumstances on the battlefield.” Penny paused a moment. “I’m not saying this will be easy for you, I certainly know I’m still getting used to your Earth things, but new things are always easier to tackle with your friends, right?”
Della’s heart fluttered. It had taken Penny awhile to even call her her roomie, but now here she was calling her friend! Della’s jaw dropped.
“Friends?”
“Of course!” Penny looked away, unable to hide the blush that was spreading. “Is that not what we are?”
A wide smile painted itself on Della’s face. She wrapped her arms around Penny’s waist. Penny awkwardly patted her back.
“Oh, Penny!” Della cried.
“Yeah, yeah,” Penny seemed to try and wave her own blush away, “Don’t make a big deal about it.”
That didn’t keep Della’s smile from widening to the point of aching. She jumped up to stand on the bench. The day was still young! One little hiccup couldn’t stop Della Duck!
“Come on bestie! The world awaits!”