Lina froze. Amy froze. The man froze.
Five seconds later, the man relaxed. "Oh, that's right. Those are the new kind of wands that have to be activated at the register, like a gift card."
Amy exhaled. Lina tossed the wand back into the bin.
The man continued. "Okay, so come back in 60 days to see if the portal has regenerated. Actually, if you can't find the store, call the number on this card." He rummaged around below the desk briefly, and came out with a business card that he handed to Amy.
Amy looked at the card quickly. "That's too many digits -- and a couple of them aren't even numbers. Or letters. Or anything on a phone."
The man glanced at another copy of the card. "Well, do the best you can. All right, off you go."
"Wait a minute!" demanded Amy. "Everything's changed! I don't know anything about how to live in this world!"
The man scratched his chin, then said, "Lina, you and Amy are close friends, right? Do you think you can help her out for the next couple of months? Pretend she has some weird kind of amnesia, and answer all of her questions, even if they seem strange."
Lina gave a mock salute, neatly avoiding scratching herself in the eye with one of her long, manicured fingernails. "Aye-aye, sir."
The man returned her salute with a grin, and Lina practically pushed Amy toward the store exit. "Come on, we've still got some more shopping to do."
Amy muttered, "I don't have a good feeling about this."
Lina said in a low voice, "I don't care if he's old -- if he'd asked, I would totally have done him."
"Wait, what?" asked Amy. Lina only smiled.
* * *
Superficially, the mall was exactly the same. However, Amy couldn't help but notice a few differences. All the females present looked very much like her and Lina; that is, as if they had just stepped out of a porn movie. And the goods on display in the clothing stores and shoe stores were nothing but porn movie costumes. As far as Amy could tell, there were no women's shoes for sale without heels. All of Lady Foot Locker's footwear looked like bizarre hybrids of sneakers and strippers' platform heels.
The men Amy saw -- noticeably fewer than there "should" have been -- at least looked more like normal men and less like porn stars. However, they seemed to have all been latched onto by women; all the couples (and the handful of triples Amy saw) were walking arm-in-arm, or with the woman's arm clutched around the man's waist. That didn't stop most of the men who passed from giving Lina and Amy long looks, which Lina seemed to enjoy.
The benches along the mall corridors had cushions set on the floor in front of them, which confused Amy until they passed a woman kneeling on one of those cushions, shopping bags surrounding her, giving a blow job to a man sitting on the bench. Several women were standing a few feet away, looks of jealousy and arousal on their faces.
Finally, Amy piped up to ask a question. "Okay, all the women I've seen are wearing one, and we just passed that kiosk where someone's custom-making them -- what's the deal with the chokers and the other necklaces with our names on them?"
Lina was taken aback. "Uh, I don't know. I mean, they're a traditional puberty present for girls, and then you just kind of always wear one." She thought for a second. "I guess it helps with guys -- we don't have to take the time to tell them our names."
Amy's head swum. So was there no such thing as a long-term relationship in this world? She reached to put her hand against a store window to steady herself.
The store was called American BodMod, and through the window, what looked to be a high-school-aged girl was having an abstract design inked onto her lower back by a female tattoo artist. Amy felt faint as she saw a "Get 6 Piercings for the Price of 5!" poster on a stand-up display next to the entrance.
Just then, Lina said something.